Twitter Mania at NECC

Welcome from NECC2009 ! As I glance around the lobby, look inside the Starbucks, in the conference rooms, and outside the front glass – Twitter mania is alive and well. Some people are sharing news about the weather. Other folks are responding to session leaders. Another conference participant is making sure she follows the guru she just heard. Data is flying everywhere, and yet many folks in education are still asking the question – Why in the world would I twitter?

Each day leading up to my sessions on Wednesday July 1, 2009 at 9:30a.m. and 10:30a.m. I’m going to build “twittership” among several different groups who will provide input, feedback, links, videos, and comments to the very question of why educators need to twitter as this new social media phenomenon serves as a key lever for formative learning on an array of topics relative to educators, students, and parents in the educational community of twitter space. Look for my blog updates at the NECC ning site here: http://www.neccning.org/

In an attempt to ready everyone for the twitter sessions on Wednesday, David Edwards https://twitter.com/davencvps67 , the Chief Marketing and Professional Learning Officer of the North Carolina Virtual Public School http://www.ncvps.org/ has agreed to tweet the sessions live from https://twitter.com/ncvps .

All you will need to do if you are in session and/or outside the session on Wednesday is follow www.twitter.com/ncpvs or follow the hashtag #ncvps on Twitter. So from www.twitter.com or from any Twitter app, simply search for #ncvps. Add #ncvps to the end of your tweets to be included in the conversation. You can also search #ncvps while the conversation is going on to follow instant updates to five twitter questions that will be asked of all participants.

Also, if you are conference participant, you’ll be able to access the roundtable discussion notes on Wednesday on the conference wiki here:
http://oli2009.wikispaces.com/ ; however, we will also prepare a summary here http://www.thevlc.org/ in case you are out of town and could not attend this particular roundtable discussion.

The session on Wednesday will begin with a five minute intro of my moderators’ bio http://www.ncvps.org/directory/bios/index.html as well as a few remarks about my own journey with twitter and what value I try to provide for my followers: https://twitter.com/bsetser.

Next, I will introduce the roundtable members and Dave Edwards will tweet their info and the one key learning they hope to gain from the session. I will then facilitate the discussion with five key questions that I will share live on Wednesday. As we all examine the provocative disruption of www.twitter.com in the educational setting, we will also go outside the ballroom to participants around the nation and around the world for their input on the key question of why in the world would I twitter in education?

Smart Management for the Computer Lab

What is worse than a classroom in a school with little or no classroom procedure and management in place? Yep you guessed it —a computer lab in a school without procedures and good classroom management to facilitate learning in the lab.

Being that I am not too far removed from the classroom, I know how important good management strategies are, especially in a computer lab setting. Early in my teaching tenure I hated taking my students to the computer lab.

There are so many computers, and just me. How am I ever going to keep them on task when there are so many other things that they might rather be doing?

Read more here . . . .

E-collaboration Podcast with Justin Crompton and Garriot Rose

In this second podcast session from the Academy at Central in Guilford, Principal Garriot Rose speaks with Justin Crompton on the importance of e-collaboration and e-communication between e-leaders especially for schools which are structured in small learning communities.

1:1 Access: A Faith Based Mobile E-Center

[This blog post was first published to the HIT NCV Facebook site on 6.27.09]

This week I will be moderating a Twitter roundtable at the National Education and Computing Conference here http://oli2009.wikispaces.com/ on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 9:00a.m. As part of my role as the roundtable leader I will be discussing promising practices in new social media regarding twitter. Moreover, I will engage participants to discuss twitter's importance on 1:1 devices as a tool for marketing, information sharing, collaboration, and formative data analysis. One of the examples of "tweetstructure" that we are developing in North Carolina deals with our work at Compassionate Tabernacle of Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC.

Read more here . . . .

DLA E-lert for June 26, 2009

Friday Last Day to Drop and NCVPS Admin Drops

Friday, June 26, is that last day to drop students without academic penalty. Here is a link on how to drop if you do not know how to do that: Click here.

Teachers will also submit their Day 10 Administrative Drops for student who have not logged in. This admin drop, though, is only for students who have not logged in to their courses. You will find this list in your dropbox file in the registration system by Wednesday, July 1. Please check the list for any errors! We can stop the admin drop, but ONLY for students who have logged in and have been working BEFORE Day 10. Contact me immediately with any mistakes.

If you have a student who has been working in his or her course, but still wants to drop, Friday is the last day to do that. Teachers will not including working students on the Day 10 Administrative Drop.

After Friday, all students still enrolled will receive a grade at the end of the summer session. We will only process medical/504 drops after Friday, June 26.

Registration System Outage and Upgrade

The Registration System will be unavailable from July 2nd at 5pm through July 13th at 5pm. The system will be closed for maintenance and a software upgrade. During this time no adds, drops, or data access will be available.

Please stay tuned for announcements concerning training on the new system.

[For more details, visit the DLA Spa in Blackboard.]

Peer Tutoring Academy Podcast

Listen to Justin Crompton and Jacqueline Mingo from Guilford County discuss how their students from separate schools collaborate on a peer teaching project of core concepts in computer applications. Guilford Couny teachers are piloting assessment for learning strategies with NCVPS/LEO.

Kenan Fellows Preso

Kenan Fellows Preso

Pilot Wave Initiative

(click the image)

Blended e-Teacher Concept Paper

North Carolina’s Blended e-Teacher (BET): A Concept Paper for The RT3 Team prepared by Bryan Setser http://www.ncvps.org/
I. The Vision

A blended e-teacher (BET) combines the highest North Carolina face to face standards http://www.ncptsc.org/ and methods with the e-advantages provided by a variety of technologies and learning facilitator strategies to create optimum 21st Century e-cosystems for personalized student learning regardless of face to face or virtual location.

II. Overview of the concept

“In the next five years, the University of Central Florida will only have two types of professors, online and blended”. - Dr. John C. Hitt, President - http://www.ucf.edu/ (Spring 09)

If North Carolina utilizes RT3 planning and resources to roadmap the pathway to a Blended 21st Century e-teacher, President Hitt’s bold proclamation could become our state’s mantra as we look to build on the new standards for North Carolina teachers and infuse them with RT3 dollars to create a whole new paradigm of nationally recognized “blended” teachers and related training models. A glimpse at the pathway is provided below for discussion and debate among the RT3 groups. Benefits of this model include:

1. Highly qualified teachers that can come into any district in need over the web
2. Highly trained teachers who can advance the State Board’s Goals from an operational and classroom level
3. The ability to share teaching resources between and among districts and states
4. A highly skilled workforce training the next generation of highly skilled workers
5. Aligns with national and international promising practices and standards

III. Identifying the 21st Century Blended e-Teacher Pool

1. Face to Face new, emerging, and veteran teachers
2. North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) new, emerging, and veteran teachers
3. College education programs
4. Multi-state teachers with the North Carolina Virtual Public School or the Face to Face
5. Lateral Entry teachers in the face to face and/or NCVPS
6. V.I.F teachers in the face to face and/or NCVPS
7. Teach for America teachers in the face to face and/or NCVPS
8. University or Community College teachers serving face to face and/or NCVPS through dual enrollment and/or LEO – http://www.nclearnandearn.gov/

IV. Possible training requirements for the BET (samples)

1. North Carolina License and/or recognized reciprocal state license
2. Carolina Online Teacher Program http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/2802
3. E-learning for Educators http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/5304
4. Learning Management System Training: http://www.blackboard.com/ and/or http://www.moodle.com/ and/or related LMS
5. Virtual ecosystem training: http://nc1to1.ning.com/ ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0 ; and http://www.activeworlds.com/
6. Promising practices from the face to face and the web: http://web2thatworks.com/index.php?title=Main_Page and/or http://www.teachscape.com/
7. Just in time training – variety of resources from http://www.ncvps.org/ and/or http://www.learnnc.org/
8. e-learning communities– http://www.ncvps.org/ or http://educatingeducators21.ning.com/
9. BET shadow experience with a face to face and/or a virtual or blended teacher


V. Policy and accountability considerations

1. Change the CEU requirement to 20 and add 5 credits of BET training
2. Rework DPI’s online per hour requirements
3. Revise and align teacher evaluation tool for evidence of BET
4. Utilize SREB Checklist: http://learningonlineinfo.org/2007/01/23/sreb-checklist-for-evaluating-online-courses/
5. Integrate http://www.ncvps.org/ coaching and evaluation model into teacher evaluation document for face to face
6. Rework LEA acceptance of credit policies
7. Evaluate and mimic Georgia and Wisconsin e-Endorsement programs: http://msit.gsu.edu/4680.html
8. Integrate North Carolina State’s e-Certificate program: http://distance.ncsu.edu/programs/graduate-certificate-in-e-learning
9. Research other considerations regarding blended learning and teaching at:
http://www.inacol.org/resources/
http://www.sreb.org/programs/EdTech/edtechindex.asp
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/blendedlearning/index.htm

Director's Blog

[Below is today's blog posting from our executive director, Dr. Bryan Setser.]

21st Century Learners and Leaders:

As North Carolina organizes around the Race to the Top Funding, I wanted to post a two page concept paper on my blog this week instead of the normal e-learning narrative. As you read the concept paper, please give me some feedback on the approach. The concept paper is entitled: North Carolina's Blended e-Teacher and can be found here http://www.thevlc.org/ . As for news and notes this week to help you in your work, please read below:

1.) Dr. Setser taught a class this first summer session at N.C. State called E-leadership Theory and Practice. Class projects involved creating free online e-learning communities to showcase to school districts that such an effort can be done for free. These communities are wrapped in the promising practices from Rick Dufour on professional learning communities, and I think you'll find them useful. Click on the links below to browse, join, and contribute:

http://nc1to1.ning.com/ - 1:1 in your district or school?
http://educatingeducators21.ning.com/ - Web 2.0 in your district or school?
http://sites.google.com/site/risinghighschoolfreshman/ - freshman academies?
https://sites.google.com/a/tecfacnoob.com/ep4ep/ - principles for principals?

2.) Kenan Fellows Presentation http://www.ncsu.edu/kenanfellows/ on Twitter: Follow updates this Wednesday, June 24th, via NCVPS at www.twitter.com/ncvps from 10:30-12:00p.m. NCVPS will be working with the Kenan Fellows on emerging e-teaching and learning strategies on the web as well as utilizing those strategies inside of e-learning communities.

It you are tweeting from your own account during the event, add the hashtag #ncvkenan to the end of your tweet. A hashtag helps identify a threaded conversation in Twitter. A hashtag is one word that is preceded by the pound sign #. Hashtags are searchable in Twitter. Here's a sample tweet ending with a hashtag: We are looking at web 2.0 teaching and learning examples in a live Wimba classroom. #ncvkenan

3. NCVPS provides free Cultural Cafes over the summer to World Language students. See upcoming events below:

6/25/09LatinErin Guzman7 pm ESThttp://ncvpsclassroom.wimba.com/launcher.cgi?room=_ncvps_s__2941_1_205177


6/30/09 SpanishHosted by: Yanet Cast and Omaira Chacon (guest speaker from Venezuela)5 pm to 6 pmTopic: Venezuelahttp://ncvpsclassroom.wimba.com/launcher.cgi?room=_ncvps_s__2941_1_786059

Have a great week!

Bryan

DLAs: Getting Started

Welcome to the NCVPS Family! Please use the guide below.

1) Be sure your regional NCVPS virtual learning consultant (VLC) is aware that you are your school's or district's DLA.

2) You need access to the registration system and the DLA Spa. Contact your VLC if you do not have access. Each school can only have one username and password.

3) Learn how to use the registration system. Check out the Registration System Manual or watch the registration videos.

4) Get the latest DLA Checklist. This is updated each semester.

5) Get the latest Student Checklist (also updated each semester). Modify this document to include your own expectations for students.

6) See what textbooks and materials are needed. Here's the list for Fall 09. Your school will need to supply these.

7) Explore the DLA Spa in Blackboard! Blackboard is the platform in which our courses are taught. This is where your students will learn! There are many resources in the Spa for DLAs, including all of our guidelines, teacher contact information, credit recovery information, and training information.

Follow the NCVPS Staff on Twitter

Updated Directory!

NCVPS http://twitter.com/ncvps
Deborah Pedersen http://twitter.com/deborahpedersen
James Bell http://twitter.com/JHBELL
Connie Joyner http://twitter.com/cfjoyner1959
Melissa Davis http://twitter.com/melissa1246
Karen Creech http://twitter.com/kcreech
Jeff Page http://twitter.com/jeffrey_page
Tammy Pearson http://twitter.com/tammyecu
Don Lourcey http://twitter.com/dlourcey
Dave Edwards http://twitter.com/davencvps67
Jennifer Nobles http://twitter.com/jennobles
Tracy Weeks http://twitter.com/tracyweeks
Ellen Minter http://twitter.com/ellenj1971
Michelle Lourcey http://twitter.com/michelle_at_ncv
Bryan Setser http://twitter.com/bsetser
Chanin Rivenbark http://twitter.com/chanin
Sue Scott http://twitter.com/suescottjune
Adam Renfro http://twitter.com/adam_at_ncv
Janice Silver http://twitter.com/igirl2282
John Brim http://twitter.com/JohnBrim
Nate Thanos http://twitter.com/nthanos
Alison James http://twitter.com/alisonjames

Networking, Productivity, and e-Learning 6.21.09

Forget PowerPoint. 13 Online Presentation Apps: http://ow.ly/f1fq

5 Tips on Managing Insane Amounts of Email: http://bit.ly/8rQES This is NOT the philosophy of Inbox Zero, but it's a start!

HOW TO: Share and Sync Files with Email and Facebook Friends - http://bit.ly/aY2j3

Capture examples in your e-learning design, but BEWARE!: http://ow.ly/dTsg

An innovation lesson from childhood: http://ow.ly/dx08 Why multi-tasking is the bane of innovation!

Stay focused with motivational wallpaper: http://ow.ly/cPEQ Kind of cool, really.

DLA E-Lert for June 19, 2009

No Day-4 Report

NCVPS will not issue a Day-4 report today. There have been many late adds and numerous labs that opened late. NCVPS does not want to administratively drop any students who are working or coming in late.

NCVPS will administratively drop any students who have not logged in by the end of Week 2. We will send that drop list to your dropbox file in the registration system. It will be a drop list, not a no-show report.

Until then, teachers will keep DLAs apprised by email of students who have not yet logged in. Please go ahead and drop students who you know are not going to participate this summer.

Here is a 1-pager on how to drop students in the registration system if you have not done it before: Dropping Students in the Registration System


Learn and Earn Online

We all know about the College Fund of NC (CFNC.org). We’ve all visited the website, http://www.cfnc.org/ , and shown students how to apply to college on the CFNC website, right? If you haven’t, take a look around. Not only is this a great site for students planning to attend a NC college or university but it has a great new tool to assist our LEO students.

The Student Transfer Navigator:

http://www.cfnc.org/planner/student_transfer_navigator/tn_landing.jsp

allows students to keep up college courses taken in high school and informs students as to which courses will transfer to which UNC campus. Soon the Student Transfer Navigator will provide guidance on how groups of courses might transfer to a degree program.

Right now students pursuing the Associate of Arts (AA), Associate of Science (AS), or student who will complete the 44-hour general education core should refer to the Comprehensive Articulation Agreement (CAA) or Independent Comprehensive Articulation Agreement (ICAA) for information on the transferability of courses as a block.

Don’t forget to use the checklist found under the LEO tab in the DLA Spa.


A DLA by any other name

There has been some debate about changing the official name of the DLA to something more contemporary. How do you as a DLAs feel about that?

Let your Regional VLC know your thoughts, ideas, or even a suggested new name.

Visit the DLA Spa in Blackboard for more details on all topics!

NCVPS Enrollment Continues to Rise

Through the roof might be accurate.

Here are the latest enrollment figures (historical, current, and projected):

2007-2008: 13,037

2008-2009: 23,514 (80% growth)

Summer Session 2009: 8,900+

2009-2010 (anticipated): 35,271 (50% estimated growth)

NCVPS Cultural Cafe

Join NCVPS for its debut of the new Culture Cafe on Thursday, June 18 at 7:00 p.m. The Culture Cafe is a new social and educational setting that brings together current, former and future NCVPS world language students in an online environment in order to immerse them in the culture of online world languages. Former students can stay connected to the language they have learned, current students will get to practice the language and future students can gain a sneak peak at our robust world language courses.

This week the Culture Cafe will feature our Latin language classes and culture. Please log into our Wimba Classroom at http://ncvpsclassroom.wimba.com/launcher.cgi?room=_ncvps_s__2941_1_205177 (no password is needed) and join this new social opportunity for students.

Viral Leadership

[Below is today's blog posting from our executive director, Dr. Bryan Setser.]

21st Century Learners and Leaders:

Viral leadership? My thoughts are here on Sunday evening as I just finished watching United States Education Secretary Arnie Duncan speak over the internet in Cary, NC. The event was streamed live here, and during the Q and A, I tweeted the event at my Twitter site here: http://twitter.com/bsetser .

Tomorrow these messages and resulting blog will also be featured on our virtual learning consulting page: http://www.thevlc.org/ ; our NCPVS fan page on Facebook here: and probably shared by others as first run information that educational leaders and learners will either use in their work or not.

But at some point folks, not using information to change the way the world learns and works is on the leader. Our kids are learning in a viral, on-demand world, and as Secretary Duncan announced tonight - $350 million more is on the way to help pay for 21st-Century Assessments. Will your district be ready? How will you know? How will you learn about new and different ways to assess learning? My suggestion is to stay ahead and on pace with the knowledge by considering a new “viral leadership” approach for your district.

In my blog this week, I take the recent 5 Habits of Successful Executives on Twitter in the article by Bruce Philp at mashable.com and apply the examples to the type of viral leadership superintendents and principals can use in school districts. Consider some new and viral ways of leading and learning to impact the lives of your students in your schools and/or districts.

5 Habits of Successful School Leaders on Twitter

1. You are the conscience of your school system or school.

For many community members, an ideal superintendent and/or principal is someone who uses their power to make sure teachers and educators do what they are supposed to in order to help children be successful. As a school leader on Twitter, that should be your platform with a twist. What many people also sense in an effective school executive on Twitter is not the echo of what we "have to do," but the principles by which they lead the school or district and their passion for the job. Skip the marketing; connect your school community to your core beliefs about teaching and learning. Sample superintendent tweet: So proud of our focus on technology. More kids have access to learning over the net now than at any time in our history.


2. Don’t sell the district or school, share it.

Twitter isn’t advertising, it’s a conversation. Great school leader tweeters don’t try to sell to their followers, they try to engage them in a personal way. They share things about their school or district’s culture, their leadership values, the great people around them. They help followers with problems. They make student success personal, and sometimes even funny. Each tweet should be a window into the life of the school or district behind the marketing, which will make the community support stronger as a result. Sample tweet: Finance officer Jim Timmons and I discussing the budget. Boy do I need some input from the Rotary Club leaders today :)


3. Be a real human being. Gates and Dagget first told you about this with relationships, now practice it in a viral way.

On Twitter, what you talk about is who you are. Every Twitter user’s update history paints a true portrait of their character and what matters to them. So, the best school leader tweeters are real people and sound like real people — always. They know the responsibility to keep their brand honest is a duty they owe their customers, but they also know that baseball practice, Saturday errands, and that great burger they had at their favorite local eatery last night are the things that make them human. In moderation, share some of those things, too. People will be able to relate to you on a personal level and as a result, they will like and trust you more. Sample tweet: My son thinks I’m old because I write him long text messages instead of in his code.


4. They write well.

Nobody will say so out loud, but believe me: Bad grammar and punctuation, or hasty abbreviations to get the character count down to 140, are just a little too humanizing. Great leaders are characteristically great communicators, and it’s no different on Twitter. Sure, informality is fine, charming even, but confident prose is one way people recognize leadership in this forum. Nobody wants to do business with a sixteen-year-old CEO, and the best school leader tweeters don’t write like one. Sample tweet: Back home from West High School choral concert. Loved the versatility of the ensembles and was moved by tonight’s soloist.


5. They commit.

The best school-leader tweeters are people who have decided to join the party. They tweet a few times a day, and do so at least a few days a week. They build a community and become familiar with their followers. They establish relationships, running jokes, and a personality that defines them. School leaders on Twitter that don’t tweet often can seem distant, or worse, when they do. We don’t feel like they’ve joined the party. We just feel like they walked into the room to make an announcement and then left. I won’t go so far as to say that you shouldn’t be a Twitter user if you’re not prepared to commit. But almost. Sample tweet: I’ve hired some great teachers this week. Tweet me tomorrow for some news on what makes them special.


In all, joining the education Twitter community as a leader makes your voice inseparable from your school or district’s reputation and its brand. What effective CEO and educational leader tweeters understand, though, is that this doesn’t mean you are that brand. People will follow you, initially at least, because they’re curious to understand who your company is in a deeper way than traditional media allow. But they’ll stay with you only if they like, respect, and trust what they discover. Which, as any leader will tell you, is what leadership is all about. To find executives and/or sample tweets on line go here: http://www.exectweets.com/ or http://www.wefollow.com/
Have a great week with the virtual advantage of NCVPS and Learn and Earn Online!

Bryan
Dr. Bryan Setser
Executive Director
North Carolina Virtual Public School
Learn and Earn Online

Online Learner Survey

NCVPS strives to provide quality instruction, and we believe all students are capable of learning through an online environment; however, just as in the face to face environment, there are specific skills necessary for students to be highly successful. It is essential for DLAs to examine student readiness and complete a pre-assessment on each student to determine their skill levels in reading comprehension, independence, work ethic. This will also help the DLA determine the level of support needed from the school.

DLA E-Lert for June 12, 2009

Get a Voki now!


Summer Classes Begin Monday, June 15

DLAs, besure that you give students their usernames and passwords! See the sidebar or DLA Spa for the Student Checklist.


Craven County Distance Learning Web Site

Tonya Gent, the DLA from Craven County, has created a great web site that links to the county web site.

It has great information about NCVPS, Learn and Earn Online, Florida Virtual, and OSU. Check it out:

http://iweb.craven.k12.nc.us/distancelearning

Credit Recovery through the North Carolina Virtual Public School

Get a Voki now!



Follow the links below to learn more about our credit recovery program. Distance Learning Advisors should check the DLA Spa for additional information.

1) Five Questions to Consider When Choosing a Credit Recovery Program

2) Summer 2009 Credit Recovery Information

3) Credit Recovery: FAQs

4) Credit Recovery Characteristics

5) Credit Recovery Walkthrough

Credit Recovery: 5 Questions to Consider

Below is an important item for DLAs as they think about Credit Recovery options for their students! You will find FIVE questions every school should ask as it chooses a credit recovery program for its students! The "Five Questions" document explains a little about the beliefs and practices of the NCVPS Credit Recovery program.

My Twitter Card

Nerds unite!

Join the new NCVPS Facebook Fan Page!

Join the new North Carolina Virtual Public School fan page in Facebook!

Dropping Students

Click here to see how to drop students in our registration system.

It is essential that you confirm your roster before the first day of class. Contact each student and make sure that they are prepared to participate! Go ahead and drop students who do not plan to participate.

Next Step: Look for the Day 2 and Day 4 reports. These reports will show students who have not logged in to their courses. Be prepared to drop those students.

5 Tiers of e-Communication and e-Collaboration for Innovative Education Solutions

[Below is today's blog posting from our executive director, Dr. Bryan Setser.]

How do you keep up with all of the emerging Web 2.0 tools out there? How do school leaders make decisions on which ones to use and which ones to abandon due to cost, usage, and/or http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html issues out in school districts? Check out the blog this week about how these decisions can be made across tiers of user groups in your school districts.

Tier 1: Your school district has a website, uses email, blogs, and does a great job with paper mailers and flyers home to the community. You advertise in the local paper, and you have conducted some virtual meetings using http://www.gotomeeting.com/ and http://www.elluminate.com/ . You may have even used http://www.skype.com/ for a few lesson plans and/or to video conference. You know you are using some of the tools, but you feel like you just don’t have time to learn all of them, and it is just easier to pick up a phone and/or go see someone in person. In short, you need a plan to communicate and collaborate that moves your organization into the 21st Century.


Tier 2: Your school district uses all of the Tier 1 tools, but you also use http://docs.google.com/#all , http://www.facebook.com/ , and http://www.twitter.com/ . You are trying every new Web 2.0 tool out there to micro-blog, and your district is investing money in collaborative tools like http://www.webex.com/ and/or http://www.wimba.com/ . You even have purchased a learning management system like http://www.blackboard.com/ and/or may even be trying to use your own http://www.moodle.com/ sites across your district. You are all over the place, but you are trying to keep up with collaborative tools to communicate and connect with all of your stakeholders. In short, you need a strategy to accomplish your key meetings, conferences, and professional development opportunities while striking a balance between innovation and security with your technology director.


Tier 3: You have looked at all of the tools in both tiers, and you are starting to think about how to strategically use them. You have seen the recent branding sites on http://www.twitter.com/ of the North Carolina Virtual Public School - http://twitter.com/ncvps ; The North Carolina School Board’s Association - http://twitter.com/NCSBA ; The North Carolina Association of Educators - http://twitter.com/ncae ; and the North Carolina Association of School Administrators - http://twitter.com/_NCASA . You have also read the recent time magazine article on How Twitter will Change the World http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html , and you realize that you need a “tweet deck”- http://tweetdeck.com/beta/ , a file social application -http://filesocial.com/ , and a strategy built around key events, meetings, and projects.


In addition, you realize that you don’t just want to upload your twitter icon to your website, you want to integrate your twitter strategy with key board meetings, following experts in the field, promotions, and parent sign ups to provide instant access to school events and proceedings.


Your organization also realizes it needs internal messaging and file sharing. You have looked at Wimba’s collaborative suite http://www.wimba.com/solutions/k-12/collaboration_suite_for_k_12/ , and you realize that you can have instant messaging on their pronto tool http://www.wimba.com/solutions/k-12/wimba_pronto_for_k_12/ and have the ability to chat, talk, videoconference, and share applications desktop to desktop. Someone on your team is also recommending www.dimdim.com for a similar experience to http://www.wimba.com/ and you are weighing a cost, benefit analysis as we speak.


Can’t afford Wimba yet? Your district has a strategic team and you’ve also decided to pilot some applications in Google under http://www.google.com/talk/ where you can also use these feeds to make your strategy more robust and still keep costs down:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100173&hl=en. And you have formed a team to look out for products like this one http://wave.google.com/ to integrate the very best features of http://www.twitter.com/ and http://www.google.com/talk/ into your sites like http://www.blackboard.com/ and http://www.moodle.com/ where you can manage all of the communications and collaborative content as well as conduct formative learning assessments with students.


Meanwhile your district’s technology team is making tiered list of which ports and places to pilot innovation and how such efforts will be monitored and leveraged to impact student learning. A robust discussion is also beginning on the appropriate levels of http://www.youtube.com/ , http://www.teachertube.com/ , and http://www.schooltube.com/ for targeted, focused use across the district.

Tier 4: You are incorporating all strategies in the three tiers above, but you also want live classrooms that you can archive for anytime, anywhere professional development. http://www.wimba.com/solutions/k-12/wimba_pronto_for_k_12/ does this process through its live classroom component as does http://www.elluminate.com/ . and http://vyew.com/site/ , a free tool for live classroom use in a virtual world.


You then decide that these live classrooms need a place to reside, and you archive them inside of free e-learning communities like http://www.ning.com/ and/or http://www.gather.com/ . These are your first moves towards e-learning communities where learners and leaders can interact inside of an e-portal in order to use free open source tools and share closed source tools to certain groups of users: community, teachers, etc.

A tier four district is starting to build capacity for anytime, anywhere learning, and it is starting to create succession planning with learning objects, decisions, charts, and 2.0 feedback objects that allow for training, re-induction, and archiving of important processes and documents beyond a Web 1.0 level. Moreover, this organization is becoming a learning organization. It looks at security breaches, usage levels, and value-add applications for student learning to track progress and success of slowly, yet strategically opening the networks. In addition, the district is starting to look strategically at 1:1 devices across tiers of users to make your students more mobile and accessible to content.


Tier 5: A tier five organization incorporates all of the previous tiers but now adds mobile applications for learning such as http://www.apple.com/mobileme/ , http://www.android.com/ http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/appstore/ , and http://www.projectknect.org/Project%20K-Nect/Home.html that they build through the k-12 iTunes portal here http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2008/07/itunes-k-12-launches-with-resources-for-students-parents.ars where teachers, students, and parents can access a host of resources. This district is also investing in wireless hot spots and paying close attention to the construction and re-construction of facilities to make learning more portable. Gaming http://www.flvs.net/areas/flvscourses/ConspiracyCode/Pages/default.aspx and virtual worlds http://www.poweru.net/demos/poweru-1st-demo.php are also becoming part of the bandwidth discussion at the strategic level as this district seeks to make learning more immersive and engaging. Sites like http://www.qwaq.com/ allows users to immerse themselves in the learning experience and still collaborate over all of the web browsers and related Web 2.0 tools inside of a virtual space. This particular district is also leveraging the 1:1 devices to make learning portable through the http://www.ncvps.org/ and http://www.nclearnandearn.gov/ classes that the state provides to all of North Carolina students.


Which tier are you?

Dr. Bryan Setser
Executive Director
North Carolina Virtual Public School

Networking, Productivity, and e-Learning 6.6.09

1) How to keep followers on Twitter

2) The fine art of balancing your Twitter conversations

3) 11 free websites to send and receive large files quickly

4) New SearchMe: visual search engine that works and looks like iTouch

5) How to recycle your blog posts

The Power of Virtual Worlds

DLA E-Lert for June 5, 2009

(These are the latest updates. See the DLA Spa for full details.)

Great Things from DLAs!

NCVPS would like to take a moment to recognize Debbie Kincaid, a Distance Learning Advisor from Burke County. She is doing an outstanding job of outreach and working with her online students. She recently held parent nights for parents of online students as well as prospective students. It was a huge success as she has principals and counselors involved and active in e-learning!

She also held a training for Burke County DLAs.

(See the DLA Spa for Debbie's agenda and notes!) Nice work Debbie! The Fast Facts included things such as steps for students to follow for enrollment in an online course, DLA contact with NCVPS instructors, using course statistics, gradebookreview, etc. The discussions included such items as how to use online learning in the middle schools, best practices of successful DLAs, monitoring students, increasing enrollment in online learning at the high school level, etc.

Her approach has been to meet with:
DLAs for middle schools
DLAs for high schools
Middle and high school principals and counselors


Learn and Earn Online

There is now a LEO tab in the DLA Spa! I am working to pull together relevant materials:

• Associate Degree checklists
• Contacts for Community Colleges
• Textbook funding guidelines

If you have never assisted a student in enrolling in a LEO course visit the LEO tab for assistance. This semester 5,400 LEO courses were taken. Let me know what other items are needed, Deborah Pedersen dpedersen@dpi.state.nc.us

NCVPS Video Links

How to Enroll Students in the NCVPS Registration System (DLA Training)

21-Century Options in e-Learning (DLA Training)

Student Orientation for the Start of a Semester (Student Orientation)

Student Orientation for the Midterm of a Semester (Student Orientation)

Student Orientation for the Close of a Semester (Student Orientation)

World Languages (Promotional)

The Power of Virtual Learning Communities (Promotional)

The Virtual Worlds Project (Promotional)

Dropping Students in the NCVPS Registration System

In the first 10 days of class, DLAs must drop students in the registration system. Here's how that process works:

1) Log in to the registration system.

2) Click on View All Enrollments on the Main Options menu:


3) Find the course in which the student is enrolled.

4) Click on the magnifying glass icon next to the course title:

5) Check the box next to the student’s name:



6) Select “Request Removal” under the “Select Action” menu and click the "Update" button.

7) If the student’s status was “Accepted Pending Enrollment,” the student will automatically be removed from the course.

8) If the student’s status was “Enrolled,” you will see Request Removal beside the student’s name.

NOTE: After the 10th day of class, DLAs will use a drop form. Contact your virtual learning consultant for the form.

Essential Docs, Presos, and Videos

Quick Registration

Registration Video

Credit Recovery

Quick Reference Guides (Policies & Procedures)

NCVPS Videos

DLA Checklist Summer 09

Your Virtual Learning Consultant

Student Checklist Summer 09

Helpdesk Information

Featured Sites

DLAs: Getting Started

NCVPS Registration System

Blackboard Login

Course Catalogues (Click on course for descripton)

NCVPS Homepage