Thursday, October 27, 2011

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In this issue:
• Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Best Practices Guide
• Destination Innovation
• Provincial Approach to Student Information (PASI) Usage Agreement Implementation
• Microsoft Home Use Program
• Speak Up 2011
• Information Security Management Systems Training Course
• CDX Automotive Courses Available to All Alberta Students
• One-to-One Mobile Media Tablet Project
• Media Awareness Network Online Unit
• Professional Learning Opportunities

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Best Practices Guide

School Technology Sector has updated the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Best Practices Guide to reflect technological updates in wireless networks.  The Guide was originally developed in 2007 to provide IT staff in schools and school authorities with technical advice on implementing wireless networks. 

Copies of the Guide are available on the Alberta Education website.

For more information, please contact Dave Hauschildt at Dave.Hauschildt@gov.ab.ca or by phone at 780-415-0824 (Dial 310-0000 first for toll‑free access in Alberta).

Destination Innovation

The Destination Innovation 2012 Conference will advance educational innovation, exploring imaginative practices for learning with technology. The conference will provide a premier professional development opportunity for innovators on the leading edge of technology in learning and teaching, including educators, IT staff, administrators, researchers and pre-service teachers. The conference will be held at The Banff Centre on August 19 to 22, 2012.

Destination Innovation is sponsored by the 2Learn.ca Education Society, Alberta Education, the Alberta Teachers’ Association, Alberta Technology Leaders in Education and the Educational Technology Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association.   For more information on Destination Innovation, please visit the website and follow Destination Innovation on Twitter at @Dest_2012.

>> For information on keynote speaker announcements, registration and the call for presenters, please click here.

Provincial Approach to Student Information (PASI) Usage Agreement Implementation

The Provincial Approach to Student Information (PASI) Usage Agreement was developed to clarify the responsibilities of both Alberta Education and school authorities and to ensure that each school authority has appropriate security, privacy measures and processes in place to protect student information contained in PASI.   All schools must comply with its security provisions by August 31, 2013 or the date on which the school authority implements PASI functionality through its student information system, whichever comes first.   The Usage Agreement needs to be signed and returned to Alberta Education by December 31, 2011. 

All school authorities should have recently received a copy of the Special Edition Bulletin- PASI Usage Agreement that provides answers to a series of questions relating to the Usage Agreement.  Also, a number of Usage Agreement support documents are on the Extranet School Operations Site. (Navigation: look under “Business and Training Material – Privacy Documents – PASI Usage Agreement”).   Alberta Education is offering courses for school authority personnel on managing information security.

For further information please contact Sam Radke, PASI and Student Records Director, at Sam.Radke@gov.ab.ca or by phone at 780‑427‑6930 (Dial 310-0000 first for toll‑free access in Alberta).

Microsoft Home Use Program

As part of the Provincial Microsoft License, teachers and other school authority personnel are able to access:

• Microsoft’s Home Use Program for Office, including Office Professional Plus 2010 and Office 2011 for Mac;
• Free e-learning courses through Microsoft E-Learning; and
• Learning Essentials for Educators materials, including templates and plans. 

To access the Microsoft Home Use Program employees are asked to visit the website at www.microsoftHUP.com.  They will be asked to validate that they are eligible under the Home Use Program by verifying their e-mail domain and entering the program code which has been sent to all Jurisdiction Technology Contacts.    A Frequently Asked Questions document on the Home Use Agreement is available online.

For further information please contact Edna Dach, School Technology Sector at Edna.Dach@gov.ab.ca or by phone at 780-644-4586 (Dial 310-0000 first for toll‑free access in Alberta).

>> For more information about these programs, click here.

Speak Up 2011

Speak Up 2011 is an online research project facilitated by Project Tomorrow that collects information on education, technology, 21st Century skills and schools of the future.  Schools can use the no-cost survey to gather information from students, parents, educators and community members.    

Using a login, participating schools will be able to access their data online, free of charge.  Data will be available to schools in February 2012. 

More details on this year’s survey are available on the Speak Up website.  To obtain login information, contact your school authority’s Jurisdiction Technology Contact.

Information Security Management Systems Training Course

As part of the School Technology Services Program, Alberta Education is offering the two-day ISO/IEC 27001 Foundation course to help educational IT leaders and IT staff understand the industry standard in information security and learn the best practices for managing information security. The course will also assist school authorities in meeting the security measures required for the Provincial Approach to Student Information (PASI) Usage Agreement. 

The course is free for school authority personnel, and is being offered in both Edmonton (December 5-6, 2011) and Calgary (December 7-8, 2011).  To register for the course, please visit the calendar website.  Please note that there are limited spaces available. 

If you have any questions please contact Qin Chang, Senior Network Analyst with School Technology Sector, at Qin.Chang@gov.ab.ca or by phone at 780-427-1382 (Dial 310-0000 first for toll‑free access in Alberta).

CDX Automotive Courses Available to All Alberta Students

CDX Automotive online courses are now available to all Alberta students and teachers through a two-year license agreement. Teacher Guides for the online courses are available on LearnAlberta.ca (keyword search: CDX). To register for CDX online course material, please contact Mark Murray, CDX learning consultant, at mark.murray@cdxglobal.com or by phone at 780-984-6371.

One-to-One Mobile Media Tablet Project

Edmonton Public School District’s Inclusive Learning Services Outreach, in partnership with Alberta Education, is conducting a one-to-one mobile media tablet project in four rural schools in Northern Alberta, and at the Alberta School for the Deaf in Edmonton. This one-year project will explore the use of tablets in the inclusive classroom.

The goals of this project are to improve student learning outcomes for students in heterogeneous classrooms, including students with low and high incidence disabilities; build teacher capacity to use educational and assistive technologies to differentiate instruction and realize learning objectives for all students; and identify promising practices for the implementation of iPads as a one-to-one device in inclusive classrooms.

For more information, contact Belina Pasula, Project Lead at belina.pasula@epsb.ca  or Pam Rannelli at pam.rannelli@gov.ab.ca or at 403-662-3636 (Dial 310-0000 first for toll‑free access in Alberta).

Media Awareness Network Online Unit

Privacy Pirates: An Interactive Unit on Online Privacy (Ages 7-9)

According to recent research, the average age at which children begin to use the Internet dropped from age ten in 2002 to age four in 2009. Recognizing this shift in technology use, Media Awareness Network released a new resource, Privacy Pirates: An Interactive Unit on Online Privacy (Ages 7-9), that introduces young children to the concept of online privacy and teaches them to distinguish between information that is appropriate to give out and information better kept private.

Access to this interactive unit is available online.

Professional Learning Opportunities

2Learn.ca Professional Learning Opportunities

2Learn.ca provides a wide variety of learning opportunities for teachers, including professional development sessions, asynchronous presentations, webinars, videoconference professional development events and workshops. 

The 2011/2012 Professional Learning Opportunities brochure is available online.  Upcoming scheduled events are advertised through the 2Learn.ca newsletters, listserv, Twitter feed as well as through 2Learn2Gether.ca. 

Information on all of 2Learn.ca’s communications can be found on the communication webpage.

New E-Learning Website for School Staff supporting students with FASD and other disabilities

Mount Royal University, with support from Alberta Education, has developed the Positive Behaviour Supports website, www.pbsc.info.  This website is designed to enhance the capacity of school staff to promote positive behaviours and manage challenging behaviours to support students’ learning and school success.

The site also contains links to two related websites developed for use by families and aides, and includes video and interactivities to help choose the strategies that will work best with students, particularly those impacted by Fetal Alcohol Disorder Spectrum.

For more information, contact Colleen McClure at 780-422-6523 (Dial 310-0000 first for toll‑free access in Alberta) or at colleen.mcclure@gov.ab.ca.

Educational Technology Risk Assessment Webinars

The Calgary Board of Education and Alberta Technology Leaders in Education (ATLE) are hosting two webinars on Technology Risk Assessment.  These webinars will advance the conversation at the Educational Technology Risk Assessment Framework session during the ATLE 2011 Conference.

November 3, 2011, 4:30 to 5:30 PM

Webinar with Guest Presenter Kevin Mitnick, Hacker

November 10, 2011, 4:30 to 5:30 PM

Webinar on Educational Technology Risk Assessment

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School Technology Sector
Alberta Education
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