Wherever We Go....People Want to Know

Wherever we go people want to know.....Who we are? And so we tell them...

We are the GIGA Squad (aka Academic Innovation and Technology Integration).  We are your St. Paul Public Schools Game-Changing Innovations for Growth in Academics team.  We have been a team for a short while but have plenty of ideas brewing already.

Our role is to look on the horizon and see what's coming in the field of education.  Our job is to make sure St. Paul Public Schools has access to the richest learning opportunities available for its students.  One part of that vision involves technology integration.  Technology, when used well, has the capacity to transform learning.  We help administrators, teachers, and students do just that - transform student learning.

Meet the team:

Steve Hoffman, Assistant Director for Academic Innovation and Technology Integration

Katrina Mezera, Academic Innovation and Technology Integration Specialist

Chris Turnbull, Academic Innovation and Technology Integration Coach

Steve Asper, Academic Innovation and Technology Integration Specialist

Deb Kozak, Technology Integration Specialist, Department of Instructional Technology

What's out there?

As we continue to move toward a digital learning environment, we, in Academic Innovation and Technology Integration, want you all to start seeing some of the available resources and tools. So, we are inviting you to:

Digital Asset Review I
Monday, April 2
 8:30 - Noon. 

This is a small snapshot of a range of integrated learning technologies that can impact learning immediately.

Who:  Principals, Assistant Principals, Program Managers & District Coaches (representatives from each are certainly suitable)

Where:  The Center for Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Development, 345 Plato Blvd.

When:  Monday, April 2, 2012 from 8:30 - 12 (see attachment below for a more detailed schedule of presenters)

Why: We are moving toward this environment as a district--aligning our learning with effective digital assets to improve student achievement!

Please use the link to RSVP. This will help us gauge how many people to expect.

And, yes! there is a door prize or two!!

Rock the Doc

Google Apps for Education, branded SPPS Apps within St. Paul Public Schools offers a great deal of potential for student learning.  Once students start using Google Apps they don't stop; students are the original early adopters of this flexible technology.  Here's the basic idea:

Google Apps for Education (= SPPS Apps) is an online suite of tools, available for staff and student use, that includes:

• online collaborative documents
• presentations
• drawings
• spreadsheets
• forms (surveys)
• sites

To become an expert on this particular technological skill, Google offers online training and individual certification for Google Apps for Education (= SPPS Apps).  The certification course consists of six online training modules that can be taken at no cost and serves as a comprehensive look at the capabilities of Google Apps for Education.   To become individually certified in Google Apps for Education you need to complete six 90 minute qualification exams based on the training modules.  The cost of each qualification exam is $15.  Click here for more information.  If you are interested and have further questions, email katrina.mezera@spps.org

Have you "Rocked the Doc" today?

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's YouTube!

 

Video, and in particular short video clips, can be valuable learning resources.  Benefits of video include:

• Multi-modal learning - seeing and hearing
• The potential to rewatch the video until understood
• The ability to engage learners and 
• A potential to succinctly explain complex ideas

The largest collection of video on the Internet is on YouTube.  Of course not all that video is educationally appropriate, and another part isn't educationally relevant.  Because we as a school district are bound by ethical and legal responsibility to protect students we can not give open, unfiltered access to YouTube.  IT has been working to find a solution that would allow teachers and students access to the good educational stuff and leave out the junk we know is there.

 VuSafe is a solution that we are currently testing.  It starts by allowing access to a select group of staff that can then issue account invitations.  Once a teacher has an account, he/she can sign in to YouTube through their account to view videos.  They would also have the ability to make a playlist of videos to share with their students to give video access to learners.

This solution is the best of both words - it provides access to YouTube while eliminating the risk to our students.  

This product is new in the district and being tested on a small scale to make sure it works like it needs to.  As we learn more and expand availability, we'll keep you posted! 

Subscribe to the Blog

What is an RSS feed reader?

In St. Paul Public Schools your most accessible RSS reader is right in your email software - Lotus Notes.

To add this blog to Feeds in Lotus Notes:

1.  The default setting is to have the feed reader in the right panel.  If you don't see it on the right, you can get it back by going to the View Menu > Right Sidebar Panels > Feeds.  See graphic below.

2.  In the Feeds window, click on the Subscribe to feed button.. 
3.  In the pop-up window, copy and paste the following link: gigasquad.blogspot.com
4.  Select RSS (not Atom) feed.

This blog will now appear in the Feeds section on the right sidebar; when we update posts you will be able to access them there.  

We'll keep you posted!