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The New York State Distance Learning Consortium

www.nysdlc.org

 

Meeting Minutes

For

May 9 and 10, 2002

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.

 

  1. Review and Approval of January 10 and 11, 2002 Meeting Minutes

 

The only change to the minutes was to Shelley’s name.  A motion was made by Steve Fenton to approve the minutes and second by Mike Bayba.  All were in favor.

 

  1. Roundtable Discussion-

 

 A.   Direction of Distance Learning-

 

·        Robert Manvell expresses concern in districts pulling out to use virtual schools.  Discussed aid issues and professional development as a possible solution in how to keep districts from pulling out of distance learning.

·        Tony Abbatiello brought up the question of how to convince the district superintendents to upgrade and the need to expand.

·        Chris Staats suggested putting telecommunications as an additional service separating it from distance learning.

·        Debbie Kiernan stated the superintendents in Herkimer are talking about pulling out of the program but nothing official yet.

·        Shelley Rossitto discussed pricing for her district.  Shelley is using Blackboard at this time. No pricing strategy decided at this time.

·        Steve Smith discussed how he does distance learning pricing.

·        Shelley Rossitto asked how one might change other departments within their BOCES to pay for Blackboard Software and support.  Model Schools vs. distance learning CoSer; is it effective to keep them separate?

B.  IP-   

 

·         Mike Bayba asked if anyone has had field trips over the IP.  Colleen McGreevy stated she had. Mike voiced the difficult experience he has had with it. He stated there are a lot of issues with this technology.

·        Example of IP Providers: Ohio sites, Baseball Hall of Fame, Albany Institute

·        It was stated that not many have had successful IP programs but the outlook is optimistic.

·         It was suggested we might want public broadcast station to present at one of our meetings?

·        Discussion of IP vs. regular videoconferencing.  This is still an issue.

·        It was suggested that we have a representation at the RIC Directors, DCI meetings, and that they have a representative at ours.

 

C. Listserv-

 

Thoughts covered-

 

a.            Carol stated if someone wants to get into her website, they must buy a password by contacting Laurie Farrell—have the state contract for ISDN. Carol stated she gets a lot of hits on her website.

b.          Bonnie Nizamis said they kept their stand-alone displays that are used in conferences.

c.           Do we want vendors to have access and be able to subscribe to the listserv? Tracy Clark stated she does not know how to technically keep them off.  It was decided to not do anything at this time unless it becomes a problem.

d.          The listserv will be shut down and started again July 1. Everyone will have to be re-subscribed to the listserv after this date, which will be done by Tracy Clark. Please send name, association, and email to Tracy for re-subscribing. Steve will remind us of this. Information will be taken off the website and put on the listserv.

 

            3.    Rod Serling Video Festival -

 

 Larry Kassan gave us a presentation on his Rod Serling Video Festival and talked about how all of us can bring this to our schools through ISDN.

 

4.     Career Days-

 

·        Daeman College—Physician Assistant, Nurse, Counselor

·        Bonnie Nizamis will compile a list of companies willing to do career day

·        SUNY


5.      Breakout Session-

 

We broke into concurrent sessions in the room, with specific areas of interest. What follows is a summarization of discussion.

 

A.     Current Programming-

 

·        Bonnie Nizamis will compile a list of companies that will do “Career Days in distance learning” if their free.

·        Regionsprint.org from Oswego City Schools is an invailable program.

·        SUNY Albany offers a three course autism certificate program via distance learning for tuition and fee.  Go to this location for more details. http://www.albany.edu/psy/autism/autism.htm

·        Information about giving locational teachers and certifing the person to our list by Brenda.

·        Jennifer DelVillano will share her java teacher’s letter about her class through the listserv.

·        Jeff Elliot’s region does coaching certification via distance learning and home class and home career class in their vocational ed center.  They will also offer, “Missing and Exploring Children’s Cleaning House, Child Abduction on the Internet” and the staff development program will offer it to the rest of us if we contact him.  A one-day special event with SUNY Albany and State Troopers is also available if you contact Jeff.

·        Deb Kiernan is willing to do a teacher assistant program over the network between 3:30 and 6:20 pm one day a week.  Contact Deb for more information.

·        Deb Kiernan recommends “10 Rio SAT” for SAT interview.

·        Ken Sutrz considering offering course or workshops over distance learning.

·        Global Education for ESL in the class that Carol Brown is doing at their Nassau BOCES.

 

B.     Technical-

 

·        Vendors with common or compatible systems; Verizon, Time Warner, Cable Vision, Frontier.

·        Discussion on MPG-2 over ATM using either a MAC500 or Tektronix

·        Discussion on the compatibility and ability for CODEC to have interconnectivity

·        Discussed vendor dependency

·        Discussed upgrade options available for hardware

·        Discuss over the summer meeting with Verizon on their strategic directions

·        It would be good to pull together an inventory of used  equipment that we can share with each other in times of need.



Day 2

 

       

6.          Videoconferencing Conference-

 

Handouts were distributed from the April 30 Videoconferencing Conference that Bonnie Nizamis, Chris Staats, and Carol Brown did together.  They went on three trips, did peer-to-peer, and did evaluations on every part.  Next time they need mute buttons, as there was too much noise while doing the peer-to-peer.  It was decided to do more conferences.  There will be a discussion at a later date looking for others who might want to help. The tentative schedule with team leader and locations is as follows:

1.      Fall 2002—Team Leader: Brenda Richey

Erie II (bridge), Genesee Valley, City of Buffalo

2.      Fall 2002—Team Leaders: Carol Brown and Shelley Rossitto

Nassau (bridge), Dutchess, Orange-Ulster, Questar

3.      Fall 2002—Team Leader: Brenda Richey

Eastern Suffolk (bridge), Schuyler-Chemung-Tioga, Genesee Valley

4.      Spring 2003—Team Leader: Colleen McGreevy

The locations and bridge will be determined at a later date.

 

7.    NYSSBA Conference:

 

At our last meeting it was stated that the next NYSSBA conference is at the Syracuse On Center, October 24-27, 2002.  However, this is not listed yet and probably won’t be until the June time frame.  Chris Staats says the day to submit proposals has already passed.  He is going to find out if we can do a presentation.  Tony Abbatiello will handle the technical side by talking to Verizon and Univision along with Steve Putnam and Steve Fenton.  Jennifer Del Villano, Steve Smith, Tony Abbatiello, and Brenda Richey volunteered to man the booth.  The conference date and place need to be confirmed.  Steve Smith will register the consortium.

 

8.     NYSCATE Conference-

 

 It is believed that this conference will be in Buffalo this fall.  The consortium has been registered. Mike Bayba and Holly Sharp will handle the technical side of the conference while Barb Buonanno will solicit the program.  Shelley Rossitto will work with Barb and make contacts on the RFI’s.  Jennifer Del Villano, Tony Abbatiello, and Steve Smith volunteered to work at the booth on the Monday of the Conference and Steve Putnam and Amy Stoos volunteered to work at the booth on that Tuesday.

 

9.     Arts-4 All-

 

Laura Seedfeldt handed out catalogs and information on accessing their programs.  They can work with us for funding as they have grant writers that will do the bulk of the work to help districts with funding.  They just need the contacts on our end to commit and there is no charge for this due to them being a for profit company they can’t apply for federal money.  The confirmation kits can be received two weeks prior to class and then there will be a charge.  Laura stated she can overnight us flyers if we need them.  They never do more than three intera-sites at a time.

 

 

 

10.  Budget Report-

 

Chris Staats suggested we might want to pay for all three meetings at the beginning of the year like a membership fee.  It was decided this would create a problem with some.

 

11.   Our Next Meeting-

 

1.                  Mike Bayba suggested we meet one day in the summer for whomever can make it.  Those who can’t make it might want to videoconference. This is scheduled for July 31 at Tony Abbatiello’s to plan for the videoconferencing, NYSSBA, and NYSCATE conferences.

 

   Next regular meeting dates:     October 10 and 11, 2002 

                                                      January 9 and 10, 2003

                                                      May 15 and 16, 2003

 

12.  Agenda-

 

Please submit agenda items to Steve by September 1, 2002 for the October 3rd  & 4th meeting.