Recent Event Highlights: All Wireless School, and 22 more...
Created by shareski on Jan 18, 2011
Last updated: 03/04/11 at 09:07 AM
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Computers in Prairie South are replaced every 4 years. At the end of that cycle, students are able to purchase these computers for $1. In December of 2010, the 2500th computer was given to one of our students.
Chaplin becomes the first all wireless school.
Most school divisions have an acceptable use policy that outlines all the things students are NOT supposed to do with computers. We revised ours to speak about responsibility, while emphasizing all the possibilities technology offers when used appropriately.
http://www.prairiesouth.ca/document-area/doc_download/1231-responsible-computer-use-students.html
Dean Shareski was nominated by Manitoba Association for Computing Educators for his willingness to bring new opportunities to teachers in his district through the use of technology. He has been a supporter of mobile technologies, including the use of cell phones for educational applications in the classroom. He has been credited with bridging the gap between educators and technology specialists, while keeping in mind the best interests of students. Shareski has helped the district navigate its way through a number of challenging technological decisions including allowing access to wireless networks, incorporating social networking tools and developing an Internet policy that recognizes teachers as the primary filter of content. A global leader in his field, Shareski was singled out for his strong vision of the future and for his ability to see the potential of students, teachers and schools.
Once again, awards like this are more representative of a collaborative culture and effort of a team as opposed to an individual.
http://www.iste.org/news/10-05-20/ISTE_Announces_2010_Outstanding_Teacher_and_Leader_Award_Recipients.aspx
We purchased a few iPads and had a few schools use them with small groups of students. Schools are using de-centralized budgets to purchase. We are looking at what unique learning opportunities they offer in terms of apps and ease of use. Currently we have about 50 used throughout the division. We continue to be open in seeking optimum learning opportunities for students.
http://docs3.google.com/document/d/1cUlfDCfPWU38nILMW4NpjdN7hJbat4yDcaPetiYUpgc/edit?hl=en#
Moose Jaw hosts the Saskatchewan Winter Games and Prairie South’s IT Manager, Barry Stewart, is the IT Director · 50% discount for Cisco networking technology is negotiated between Cisco, Sask Tel and Prairie South as part of the 2010 Winter Games… net savings of ~$250,000 for Prairie South schools
IT installed a video server and since its installation, there have been nearly 600 videos created by staff and students with over 100,000 views. These videos range from instructional videos by teachers to performance assessments by students to other student created projects.
http://video.prairiesouth.ca/
While many staff were using web based hosting solutions for their class sites and blogs, it was evident that an internal hosting option would be welcomed. WordPress Multi-User installation provided space for teachers and students to post content. Today we have over 100 teacher sites and over 150 student sites.
http://staff.prairiesouth.ca/sites/
Kathy Cassidy, a first grade teacher at Westmount Elementary School in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, has been named this year's winner of the Kay L. Bitter Vision Award for Excellence in Technology-Based PK–2 Education. The award is handed out by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®) to recognize PK–2 educators who demonstrate vision and creativity in a project or program that effectively integrates technology in the classroom.
This award reflects not only the work of Kathy but the support of Prairie South in enabling her success
http://www.neccsite.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=24984
As schools wondered about lower cost computing, so did we. We tested various models and placed several in school environments. Today we have many schools using netbooks as an alternative to laptops.
Beginning with a request from a local high school, more and more schools saw the need to offer an easy way for students and guests to access the wireless network without risking any security issues. The IT team began exploring the best work to deploy this. We currently have an enterprise system that offers open wireless to guests (personal devices) as well as a secured network for Prairie South devices. At times we have upwards of 500 outside devices access our network wirelessly.
As schools began to purchase and explore the use of IWBs they asked us to help them decide on their purchases. We did some research and ultimately determined that both had advantages and disadvantages. We shared our findings and allowed them to make the final decision. Another example of shared and collaborative decision making.
http://ideasandthoughts.org/2008/04/23/smartboards-vs-prometheanthe-research-starts-and-maybe-ends-here/
A middle years teacher wanted to explore how cellphones could be used as learning tools. This simple experiment resulted in national and international attention, a partnership with Sasktel where they provided blackberrys and data plans for students as well as opportunity for IT to provide support for data storage and management.
Beginning with a request from a school administrator, we began considering implementing the Macintosh platform into our Windows based environment. To date we have at least 8 schools using both platforms and nearly 300 systems in total. We also have 3 technicians certified to manage and maintain Apple products
All schools began using Joomla as their school website platform. Initial training was followed by ongoing support and workshops intended to provide schools with the capacity to maintain current information as well as use their site to tell the stories of learning in their buildings.
http://www.prairiesouth.ca/schools/our-schools.html
Although the Ministry of Education offered the use of BlackBoard for online and distance learning, the lack of support and control was frustrating for many teachers. We implemented Moodle as an alternative. Today, all of our distance classes are taught using moodle as well as many other face to face course.
http://www.prairiesouth.ca/programs-a-services/distance-edonline-learning.html
As a newly formed amalgamated school division, each of the 7 legacy divisions had varying policies regarding filtering. We were tasked to develop one policy. Working with teachers, administrators and IT personnel we developed a policy that acknowledges that teachers be the primary filter of content. We do use an open source product called Dans Guardian to filter pornography, gambling, hate sites, phishing and racism but generally have a pretty open filter. We've been constantly tweaking our system to remove false positives. We continue to have ongoing discussions with staff would want more strict policies around sites such as Facebook but maintain that teachers need to monitor this as opposed to software. We've had several districts refer to our policy as a model.
http://www.prairiesouth.ca/document-area/doc_download/2200-contentfilteringguidelines.html
We offered our first mobile laptop cart to Riverview Collegiate for 2 reasons: 1. to explore the instructional and pedagocial shifts 2. to understand better the support and maintenance for laptop carts We were able to learn much and since most schools with some type of mobile lab in either PC or Mac. Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superkimbo/3458409451/
As part of a grant, Prince Arthur School had the opportunity to explore the use of Personal Mobile devices for learning. While these devices are obsolete, the learning about the value of mobility and the various tools and productivity tools began a n interest in using mobile technologies which still remains important today.
First Polycom video-conferencing systems go live… no site more than 35 minutes from the nearest Polycom unit.
Moose Jaw hosted Hoopla in 2006 and a request to live stream the games was given to the IT department. Video streaming in 2006 was quick complicated but the IT team were able to develop a fairly seamless workflow allowing the majority of the games to be broadcast live over the internet. Video streaming continues to be available for schools as needed.
http://ideasandthoughts.org/2006/03/16/march-madness-in-moose-jaw/
Our initial school division website launched on the opening day of Prairie South. Jeff Boulton designed this site which allowed multiple users to create and upload content. Our site remains one that other school divisions look to as a model. We continual look to streamline access and provide ways for others to contribute content and provide feedback.
http://www.prairiesouth.ca
First IT meeting between soon-to-be amalgamating school divisions to discuss strategic and logical creation of a new IT infrastructure, standards, best practices, etc. of the new Prairie South Division: o Navision chosen as the financial/HR system o SIRS chosen as the Student Information System o LibraryWorld chosen as library system o 4 year equipment life-cycle o Naming conventions determined
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