Skretta's Scintillating Salutations

This morning Tech Director Noel Erskine and Network Administrator Jim McConnell hosted an ad hoc committee to engage in strategic planning and professional development preparation for further technology integration.  Here were some of the topics, areas of interest, and needs identified: Topics: Clickers Prezi Blogging with Google sites Google forms Google sites Advanced Google forms with self-grading quizzes Review game web sites. Sessions on web resources for specific curricular strands or grade levels Paperless classroom workflow and setup. Smartpen (Livescribe) Technology needs: More computer availability More Clickers One comment I would offer is in follow-up to Rick's comments about the need for more computers, which I think was widely re-affirmed. Dr. Brandt and Shari seemed ecstatic to learn that a cart of netbooks will be rolling their way soon. This summer we had the opportunity as members of the admin team to meet with Scott McLeod and discuss tech...

We have made some bold moves with Technology recently in the Norris School district and I would anticipate a few more are coming.  I commend Noel Erskine, Tech Director, and Jim McConnell, Network Administrator, in this process.  What we are demonstrating in this process is a phenomenon one Norris Board member has described as being "on the bleeding edge."  The point is that in times of fiscal constraints and when resources are slim, it is important to take an innovative approach and figure out where resources can be conserved to maintain an innovative edge while providing comparable utility and functionality with technology - and other resources, too.  Managing costs does not mean minimizing results.  We have thought differently and innovated to provide a more prosperous tech environment for students and staff while actually saving resources. We took an underutilized space in our district and converted it to a student lab.  The underutilized space? The N...