NEW YORK DISTANCE LEARNING
CONSORTIUM
Meeting Minutes for May 6 and 7, 1999
Vestal, New York
Holiday Inn - Suny
Partners in distance learning: John Furey, principal at C.O. Dickerson High School in Trumansburg, New York, reviewed with the group the PDL (Partners in Distance Learning) project. Mary June King, a high school social studies teacher, accompanied John to our meeting and shared with us some of her experiences using videoconferencing technology for distance learning. This is a project based entirely on videoconferencing technologies and is currently in its third year of operation. There are no course fees; partners only pay for the calls to the videoconferencing bridge. The goal of PDL is to create a wide-scale distance-learning network that spans several states. The partnership has in fact reached this goal: schools from New York’s Southern Tier, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Massachusetts participate in PDL. Of note, however, is that most schools limit their participation to courses hosted or received from schools within about an hour’s radius. (Line speeds within the network range from 56K to 384K.
The organization has an annual conference each spring. One of our NYSDLC agenda items for next year will be a discussion regarding the possibility of linking up with this annual conference. If anyone would like any more information on PDL, please call John at 607-387-7551, ext. 434, or e-mail him at jfurey@tpurg.k12.ny.us. The PDL website address is www.partnersdl.org.
Further discussion followed regarding the use of videoconferencing for distance learning and regarding various videoconferencing and bridging resources available. As a result of our discussion on the need to know the whereabouts of available bridges, Holly Sharpe volunteered to canvas our consortium and other resources in the state and to compile a list of available bridges. This list will include the location of the bridge, the contact name and phone number, and any associated fee structures. Holly may be using our list serv as one of the resources to gather this information. After this is done, Steve will post the list on our nysdlc.org web site. Holly will have her survey available for review at our first meeting in the fall.
Discussion on higher education access to distance learning: There was some discussion regarding how various distance learning sites were using SUNY and other colleges as part of the distance learning system. Additionally, there was some discussion regarding tuition and partnership fee structures. To get a better sense of college course costs, models, and agreements made with colleges for distance learning, Penny Lester volunteered to canvas our list serv and do a survey for presentation at our next meeting in the fall.
Rodger Oesterle presented some cost strategies that his region uses for distance learning. His report included how ONC BOCES charges for courses and how districts can realize revenues from this cost strategy. Rodger indicated he had instructional technology advisory committees that help the districts plan for distance learning as a region. If anyone else would care to present their cost strategies for our first meeting in the fall, they should contact Steve Smith.
There was discussion regarding a supposed teacher-center videoconferencing network that is up and running in the state. If anyone is aware of any teacher center where videoconferencing is available, contact Holly so she can include those sites in her report.
Rodger and Steve briefly discussed the Bell Atlantic diffusion fund. The diffusion fund was designed to work with various consortiums in the state to build infrastructure for telecommunications. Steve and Rodger indicated that the response from Bell Atlantic to the application in the regions that they represent did not meet their needs. At this point in time, they are still waiting to hear Bell Atlantic’s response to their application needs.
There was some discussion about various problems regions are having with telephone companies supporting their distance learning networks, whether it be fiber or ISDN.
On day two of our meeting, we summarized our roundtable discussion that Andy had compiled.
Points of interest:
Mike Solofosky asked if anyone was interested in the boating safety course that is running in the Capital Region BOCES distance learning program.
John Bierfeldt indicated that there may be a possibility of reducing the program cost of the MasterVisions performing-arts project that schools in his region are participating in by opening up performing-arts access to all state distance learning sites.
Rodger indicated that Dr. Zahoori will be in his region on July 21-23. If any would like to attend, contact Rodger.
Joe Price indicated that Dr. Zahoori will also be in his region on August 4-6. If any would like to attend, contact Joe.
Minutes: Andy Verdon distributed the minutes of our last meeting for everyone’s review. There was an approval by Andy and a second by Dale Gardner to approve the minutes of the prior meeting. The review of meeting minutes and their approval will now become a part of our agenda for each meeting. The minutes for each meeting from this point forward will be distributed electronically to all members via the list serv, as well as be posted on our nysdlc.org web site in a format that should be easy to download and print.
Fall meeting: As noted earlier, Holly will be developing a survey and summary of available bridges to be reviewed at the first meeting in the fall.
Penny Lester will be gathering a survey of college course costs, models, and agreements that will be available for review.
John Bierfeldt will look into the possibility of arranging a one-hour presentation by Mastervisions at our first meeting in the fall. The presentation will take place during the afternoon of the first day of our meeting.
For our fall meeting, we will discuss further the possibility of having some sort of annual conference that would involve teachers and provide awareness on distance learning.
Rodger will work on drafting a consortium document addressed to Bell Atlantic concerning needs and concerns, the current costs for fiber, etc.
We did not have time to review the current status of our web site, but we will at the first meeting in the fall. All are asked to periodically visit our web site and let Steve know if any areas need to be modified or clarified.
Meeting for next year: We established our meeting dates for the next year: September 30 - October 1 for our fall meeting, January 13-14 for our winter meeting, and May 4-5 for our spring meeting. Bonnie Garner suggested we may want to consider having the May meeting in the Rochester area since they will have the BUBL site up and running at that time. We will discuss this further at the fall or winter meeting.
Amy led a discussion on the growing use and availability of electronic field trip resources. She distributed a guide that she had created for this, along with one that Holly brought from the RAITN project.
Teacher database: Andy reviewed with the group the current status of the teacher database system. He asked that anyone who has any comments regarding the format or design of the database should submit them to him via e-mail as soon as possible. He wants to have the database ready for the opening of the next school year. He will be contacting Steve when the database is ready to be linked up with our web site. Also, on our nysdlc.org web site, the one link titled "courses offered" is being changed to "courses offered/teachers."
Technical subcommittee: Steve indicated that the group had not met since our winter meeting. Steve had a bulletin from Dick Marvin from Monroe 2 BOCES on some possible situations where RF modulation can be impacted by the lighting in your room.
Mike and others discussed the problems they are currently having with ParkerVision cameraman repairs. It appears that some around the state are starting to phase out these units and replace them with units similar to the Canon units today. Mike also stated that it is very expensive to replace even small components of the ParkerVision systems. Mike also reminded all that we should be using our consortium list serv more to get help and give answers to each other.
Mailing list: Mike distributed for updating the current mailing list of the consortium. Once it is updated, it will be added to our database on the web site and a copy will be sent to Tom Moats so he can update the consortium list serv.
We also had some discussion regarding how long people’s names should be left on the list when they don’t attend meetings. Although there were some comments made to drop their names if they don’t attend any meetings in a year, it was also commented that even though they don’t attend, they can still receive the minutes to keep updated. We need to discuss this further at our first meeting in the fall.
Please find attached an attendance report for days one and two.
These minutes are intended to give an overview of what transpired at our meeting. If anything has been omitted, please let Steve know as soon as possible so that he can revise them for our next meeting, especially items that others need to be aware of.