The New York State Distance Learning Consortium
Meeting Minutes
For
May 3 and 4, 2001
Binghamton, NY
The following is a summary of our most recent meeting. Please let Steve Smith know as soon as possible if there are has been anything omitted or reported in error.
DAY 1 (May 3)
NOTE: We began the meeting with a roundtable for everyone to introduce himself or herself.
1.
Review and Approval of January 11 & 12, 2001
Meeting Minutes
There were no changes to be made to these minutes. A motion was made by Michael Bayba and seconded by Andy Verdon to approve the minutes. All were in favor.
2. Roundtable Discussion-
· Bruce Longo suggested that we put resolutions to common technical problems on the list serve over the website. Send items to Steve Smith for posting.
· Steve Smith reminded everyone that on the current website there will be buttons out there; one called “View Tips” and one called “Add a Tip”.
· We discussed whether we wanted to have a consortium bid or not. Most BOCES have their own individual bids for their distance learning and other multimedia equipment. At the end of our discussion, the decision was that anyone having a bid could put a note on the list serve so if anyone wanted a copy of it they could ask for it and have one sent to them. Later on we may decide to have a consortium bid that is then put out on our website where we currently have a bid button with a bid available by BOCES location
· There was some discussion whether the NYDSLC list serve was working with attachments. It appears that sometimes it is and sometimes it is not. Everyone should try to send a note to the list serve with an attachment so that we can all see if it is working for each other.
· Tracy Clark indicated that Tom Moats is no longer responsible for the list serve and she will get information for us as to whom to contact with problems on the list serve. In the mean time she can be contacted if any problems persist.
· We discussed putting out on our web site a vendor list reflecting what vendor bid on what types of hardware; ex: the list may have vendors that bid on TV’s, VCR’s, or overhead projectors. Steve will have a new button put on the web site called “Vendors”. Currently we have an equipment manufacturers button that lists various manufacturers of equipment
· List serve Etiquette: As a reminder, you need to be careful what you say on the list serve as at this time anyone can join the list serve and some issues may cause embarrassment.
· Steve Smith will ask Dan Myers about the state of the art equipment that we should be considering today for our new distance learning rooms or updating the current distance learning rooms.
· JoAnne Schlachter indicated that they had just opened a bid for 6 new rooms that they are going to be constructing soon. Anyone can call her if they need information on vendors and bid items.
· Linda Whynman indicated that they have an equipment and cabinetry bid with Delaware AV. They also have a bid for cabinetry with Niemetz.
· To some up discussion on bids, it seems that several of us are doing bids at this time. If everyone could email their bid summary to Steve Smith, he will have that bid summary added to our web site for anyone to access if they care to.
· We had some discussion regarding a NY State map of our schools and addresses so we know which schools have fiber or ISDN or both. Christine indicated that she would be willing to do the map of western New York. Tony Abbatiello will handle the rest of the state, included in this will have who has bridges and who does not.
· There was discussion regarding installation fees for installing or deinstalling classrooms. Costs seem to range from $3000 to $10,000 depending on who is doing it.
· JoAnne Schlachter indicated that although her network is digital, they are trying to shift from the Jpeg to the Mpeg system.
· There was considerable discussion regarding migration from Jpeg to Mpeg technology.
· There was some discussion on standards and a need for the technical subcommittee to review the current technical standards that are on our web site and update those appropriately to meet our current and future needs. Steve Smith indicated that the technical subcommittee hopes to meet before the end of the school year.
· There was discussion again regarding standardization so it would be easier for all of our BOCES consortiums to connect to each other to share distance learning.
· Again there was discussion regarding as one of our goals to interconnect with other BOCES around the state. This continues to be a discussion item that comes up from meeting to meeting. It is believed that interconnection between the BOCES sites may take place where it is most appropriate or desirable. In the end, all BOCES may not feel it necessary to interact with each other to share resources.
· Robert Manvell suggested we may need a political action group to make in roads on interconnection and sharing or we may always have this discussion with no end result.
· Joe Price heard that the state is doing another technology plan. He is not sure who is in charge but we need to know who that person is and get in contact with him/her. He suggested that we might want to contact Ed Hancock or Jim Butterworth at the state level to see what the plan is.
· It was suggested that we be involved with the Center for Applied Technologies and Education specifically as it works to develop K-12 schools environments.
· There was still some discussion regarding the aid ability of electronic field trips. The feeling is as long as BOCES is being billed for electronic field trips and paying it for the districts, it becomes shared or in the CoSer, and then eligible for BOCES aid.
· Bonnie Nizamis was wondering what the status of NYeNet pilot was and we indicated that we would be discussing that on day 2.
· Mike Bayba indicated they are planning to do a certification program on this network for the coast guard and wanted to know if anyone was interested in participating in that program.
· Chris Staats indicated that he would talk to unions in his region regarding how they feel about distance learning and what the long term strategy is as it relates to the various unions and distance learning. We need to keep this topic of the unions and distance learning on our agenda in the future.
· John Barry indicated that he would call someone he knows at NYSUT and find out what it is they are telling their teachers about distance learning.
· Tony Abbatiello wanted to know if anyone is using anything besides Grass Valley for switching. It was indicated that OCM BOCES is installing a Todd scheduler that would be big enough to run the whole state if we wanted. We each could be subsets.
· Budgets: Steve Smith gave us a budget report indicating that there are still monies outstanding from our October and January meetings as well as our current May meeting. We have approximately $1,130 in outstanding billings that we are waiting to be reimbursed for. There was considerable discussion regarding the need for an invoice in order to pay for the conference. The group decided that the brochure, with attached agenda and cost of the conference, will indeed be the invoice itself and will be stated it is an Invoice and that No P.O.’s or claims will be accepted in the future. This should help to facilitate payment. Additionally, there was discussion regarding the possibility of paying for all three meetings at the beginning of the year so we have the money for the whole year. Steve also indicated that the cost was approximately $100 a year just to maintain the web page license. A motion was made by Dale Gardner and seconded by Joe Price to increase our meeting registration fee to $85.00 per meeting. All were in favor.
· An agenda item we want to have for our next meeting is copyright issues, including broadcast rights and different public performance rights.
· Chris Staats would like to facilitate a “Creative Distance Learning Teacher Strategies” seminar using the distance learning network after school. Holly volunteered to be the bridge provider.
· It was suggested we consider bringing teachers to our conferences on a regular basis so they have an understanding of what is going on with distance learning around the state.
· It was suggested that we revise the current tips button on our web site to be two different ones; one that is called “Teaching Tips” and one that is called “Technical Tips”. Steve Smith will get these revised in time for our next meeting.
DAY 2 (May 4)
1. Conference Discussion-
Review of various
conferences we plan to do this year-
* NYSCATES-
a. Tony Abbatiello contacted Bernie Tomasso regarding the locations for the conference in Albany this fall. They are the Omni Hotel and the Plaza. It is apparently a 10-minute walk between the two areas. The feeling is it may be very difficult to wire for this. Tony indicated he wasn’t sure where the booth would be located at this point and time. This year there will be a full day and half day sessions; that is pre-conference sessions and two conferences on Sunday, three conference sessions on Monday, and three on Tuesday, for a total of eight sessions. This years NYSCATE conference will be held on November 17-20. Dale Gardner, who is retiring this year, has indicated he will be willing to stay in and help us out for this conference this year and perhaps help with the equipment again if possible. He will be working with Mike Sylofski on the equipment end.
b. Shelly indicated that the RFP’s are not out yet for this conference. She will contact Amy Piori, the chairperson, and find out when the RFP’s will be let out.
c. It was determined we need to find out the technical capacity of the Albany area and Tony will let us know after talking with Berney, when a good time for us to go to Albany and check it out.
d. A subcommittee consisting of Tony Abbatiello, Mike Sylofski, Andy Verdon, Jennifer Lawless, Dale Gardner, and Steve Smith volunteered to work on the NYSCATE’s Conference. Mike Sylofski will be responsible for the equipment installation; Tony will be responsible for logistics and point of contact. Everyone else will pitch in and help make it happen. Shelley will make sure about RFP’s and program content and get that to us on the list serve as soon as possible.
e. Tony will get back to the subcommittee with some tentative dates for us to meet to plan.
f. Mike Sylofski will ask AV Corp. if they will provide us with equipment for two function rooms to interact with each other. Mike will also ask Verizon for ISDN connections for the network.
* School Boards-
a. Mike Bayba volunteered to be the chairperson for the subcommittee working on this conference, which will be a booth only. Mike indicated that our RFP’s are closed already but we will be looking to see if they will make an exception to this. It appears that it probably will cost us a small fee this year to have booth at this conference. C. Rita Wissinger, John Barry, Christine Chelus, Bonnie Nizamis, and Roxanne Warren volunteered to head up the subcommittee to work on the school board conference, which is going to be held on October 18-21 in Rochester.
NOTE: b. Some ideas for handouts at both conferences would be perhaps pencils, bouncy balls, and other ideas that the subcommittee or anyone else on the consortium can think of that would be a promotional tool for distance learning consortium.
*
Video Conferencing
Conference—Spring 2002
The proposal was to hold two sites, one perhaps upstate in Rochester and one downstate. The idea is to have three presentations with perhaps Stan Sillverman, Bill Naab, and someone to show the basics on how this works. C. Rita Wissinger, Joanne Schlachter, and Roxanne Warren will be the subcommittee to work on this conference and anyone interested in being on this subcommittee can contact Rita or Joanne as soon as possible so a list serve can be set up for it.
2. Teacher List Serve-
Shelley Rossitto past out a document regarding the teacher list serve that has been established and how to subscribe to it. We are trying to keep this to teachers and perhaps aids and members of the distance learning consortium. Any one with questions on how to subscribe, or are having difficulty subscribing to this list serve, should contact Shelley.
3. Teacher Database Review-
Andy Verdon reviewed that he is still trying to get the teacher database updated and there are several BOCES who have not done so at this time. Andy will put a reminder on the list serve to give him updates to the teacher database for our website.
4. Diffusion Refund Project-
Steve Smith tried to fill in for Rodger Oesterle since he was not able to make it today. The Leather Stocking project is underway and hopefully some of the connections will be made available this summer and will allow interconnectivity between ONC BOCES and Broome-Tioga BOCES and then with the help of the South Central Consortium of the diffusion project allow SCT BOCES in Elmira to connect with Broome-Tioga BOCES in Binghamton. The hope is in the next year to have a linkage between SCT BOCES in Elmira through Broome-Tioga BOCES in Binghamton to ONC BOCES in Oneonta to Albany.
5. Technical Subcommittee Reports-
Steve Smith indicated they will work on a new directory of terms since the last one was done several years ago. Anyone having terms they would like added to this with definitions, should submit those to him electronically. Steve also indicated the technical subcommittee will try to meet in June to discuss this and other technical issues.
6. NYeNet Pilots-
Andy said that he has worked with Verizon and Bob Fraley. But it seems like Verizon at this point and time is not too active in this project with the NYeNet people at the state. It was suggested that we have the NyeNet, Verizon, and Frontier people come to our next meeting to discuss this project. Steve Smith will invite the NYeNet people and The-Yuan Wan from department of state, Shelley will invite people from Frontier, and Andy will invite Verizon.
7. Web-Based Distance Learning and Virtual Schools-
Jennifer Lawless discussed her recent participation at a conference in Washington, D.C. on web-based distance learning. Particularly how expensive and time consuming it can be to get something like this operational. It seems like web-based distance learning is being developed kind of a regionally, not something that is used in the entire Internet.
Andy felt that we should continue to pursue web-based distance learning, as it will continually effect how we support distance learning in our individual BOCES.
8. New Distance Learning Rooms-
We went around the table and indicated as to how many people were building distance learning rooms yet. It seemed like there were a considerable amount of rooms still being built around the state. Steve Smith indicated that one of the new rooms being built at the Binghamton City High School is a lecture hall. It is hopeful that it will be available and operational for our October meeting and perhaps we could take a field trip there.
- Meetings-
We established our meeting dates for the 2001-2002 school year as follows:
October 4 & 5, 2001
January 10 & 11, 2002
May 2 & 3, 2002
The October meeting will be held in Binghamton. Other meeting places will be established at the Binghamton meeting.
SPECIAL NOTE: Dale Gardner and Joe Price are retiring this year. They were each presented with a plaque commemorating their support and contribution to distance learning and instruction in NY State.
Any questions regarding these
minutes, please contact Steve Smith as soon as possible.