NEON is an e-newsletter provided by SEIR*TEC, Regional Technology in Education Consortium at SouthEast Initiatives, through the Instructional Resource Center (ITRC) at the University of Central Florida.

This West Coast Edition of NEON is made available to you through a collaboration of SEIR*TEC and WestEd RTEC. It is accessible to you by email and web page, and is published electronically once a month.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. Iste And Wested's Southwest Leadership Academy
2. Imperial Valley Online Technology Conference-Call For Presenters
3. New Site Highlights Ed-Tech
4. Google News

AWARDS & CONTESTS
5. NEA Grants
6. A Grant Supporting Mobile Technology
7. Prepare and Unite!

CLASSROOM RESOURCES
8. Bringing Engineering to the Classroom
9. Finding Good Internet Resources
10. Make History Come Alive!
11. Celebrating the Winter Holidays

PUBLICATIONS
12. Elementary Teachers' Use of Technology
13. Online Education Enters the Mainstream

CONFERENCES
14. Going to FETC? eSchool News Online Wants Your Help!
15. Upcoming Conferences

NETS RESOURCES
16. Assessments and Planning

RTEC RESOURCES
17. Getting Ready for Algebra

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ANNOUNCEMENTS
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1. ISTE AND WESTED'S SOUTHWEST LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

Early Pricing Ends December 17th--Don't Miss Out On Your Free Copy of 101
Best Websites for Principals!

Don't delay, register now.

Related URL: http://www.iste.org/swla


2. IMPERIAL VALLEY ONLINE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE-CALL FOR PRESENTERS

Last year the Imperial County Office of Education hosted a free, online technology conference. The event a huge success we are going to do it again.

Last year we had over 900 people from 40 states and 12 countries that attended our conference. Last year's conference demonstrated that technology can be used successfully to deliver content, save money and save time. We are now asking for your assistance as a presenter. If you would like to share your expertise with others please consider being a presenter at this year's conference. You can download the PDF application from the conference website.

Related URL: http://conference.learningtech.net
For more info email: conference@learningtech.net
Or call: 760.312.6403


3. NEW SITE HIGHLIGHTS ED-TECH

The State Educational Technology Directors' Association (SETDA) has created a new web site that highlights educational technology. The nine studies that are featured are federally funded to explore the impact of educational technology on student learning. (Source: eSchool News)

Related URLs: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryRSS.cfm?ArticleID=5391
http://www.setda.org/
http://www.setdatapp.org/
http://www.setdaconnects.org/

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4. GOOGLE NEWS

Help your students find higher quality search results using the new edition of Google. Google Scholar focuses on scholarly work to perform searches. Take a look at the frequently asked questions. (Source: Net-Gold)

Related URL: http://scholar.google.com/

Google also plans to announce an agreement with some of the nation's leading research libraries and Oxford University to begin converting their holdings into digital files that would be freely searchable over the Web.

Related URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/technology/14google.html?oref=login&th (Free registration is required to access this NY Times article.)


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AWARDS & CONTESTS
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5. NEA GRANTS

The NEA Foundation provides $2,000 and $5,000 grants to public school teachers, public school education support professionals, and faculty and staff in public higher education institutions for the purpose of engaging in high-quality professional development or implementing project-based learning and break-the-mold innovations that raise student achievement. These grants are funded in part by Staples Recycle for Education.

Related URL: http://www.nfie.org/programs/howtoapply.htm

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6. A GRANT SUPPORTING MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

The HP Technology for Teaching Grants Initiative is designed to support the innovative use of mobile technology in K-16 education, and to help identify K-12 public schools and two- and four-year colleges and universities that HP might support with future grants. Based on the outcomes of the projects funded through this initiative in 2005, HP will offer some grant recipients additional, higher-value grants in 2006. (Source: Grants Alert)

Related URL: http://grants.hp.com/us/programs/tech_teaching/index.html

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7. PREPARE AND UNITE!

In partnership with the World Future Society, the theme for CyberFair 2005 is "Prepare and Unite!" Students are encouraged to prepare for the future - by thinking about their own future plans, the conditions that will affect the future of their community, and issues of global importance. Projects that best illustrate "future thinking" will be invited to the World Future Society international conference in Chicago, July 2005.

Registration is now open! Projects due March 21, 2005.

Related URL: http://www.globalschoolhouse.org/cf


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CLASSROOM RESOURCES
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8. BRINGING ENGINEERING TO THE CLASSROOM

The American Society for Engineering Education has created the Engineering K-12 Center, a web site that provides access to resources to help teachers bring mathematics and science alive for students. Educators can sign up for their monthly newsletter or examine profiles of engineers. Take a look at the lesson plans and web sites for ideas to bring engineering lessons into the classroom. Students can explore the student section for resources and fun. (Source: The Teacher List)

Related URL: http://www.engineeringk12.org/

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9. FINDING GOOD INTERNET RESOURCES

Web Cities is published monthly, except July and August, and recommends sites that have the potential to be integrated into instructional units; and/or provide basic research and supplementary curriculum information. One of the main objectives of Web Cities is to save educators, especially library media specialists and teachers, hours of searching for authoritative, current, and basic information on the Internet.

Related URL:
http://www.socialresearch.nu/webcites/index.html

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10. MAKE HISTORY COME ALIVE!

This web site was designed and developed to support the teaching of American History in K-12 schools and colleges and is supported by the Department of History and the College of Education at the University of Houston. The materials on this web site include over 400 annotated documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection on deposit at the Pierpont Morgan Library, supplemented by primary sources on slavery, Mexican American and Native American history, and U.S. political, social, and legal history; multimedia exhibitions; and reference resources that include a searchable database of 1,500 annotated links, an audio archive including speeches and book talks by historians, and a visual archive with hundreds of historical maps and images. Users may pose questions to professional historians via the Ask the HyperHistorian feature.

Related URL: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/

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11. CELEBRATING THE WINTER HOLIDAYS

This site provides an annotated list of links to information and resources on the winter holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice). It is maintained by the Waterboro Public Library.

Related URL: http://www.waterborolibrary.org/christm.htm


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PUBLICATIONS
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12. ELEMENTARY TEACHERS' USE OF TECHNOLOGY

This study not only explores teacher characteristics of those who use technology, but also the school and district environments in which they work.

Related URLs: http://www.ascd.org/publications/researchbrief/volume2/v2n24.html
http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n48/

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13. ONLINE EDUCATION ENTERS THE MAINSTREAM

Published by the Sloan Corporation, Entering the Mainstream: The Quality and Extent of Online Learning reports on the results from a survey of 1100 institutions of higher education. Findings indicate learning online is growing at a faster and faster rate and that quality is as good or better than face-to-face classes. The complete report is available as a free download in PDF format (27 pages, 695K).

Related URL: http://www.sloan-c.org/resources/survey04.asp


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CONFERENCES
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14. GOING TO FETC? ESCHOOL NEWS ONLINE WANTS YOUR HELP!

eSchool News Online is looking for Florida Educational Technology Conference attendees to report on the concurrent sessions they attend at the gathering in Orlando (January 26-28, 2005). Up to 50 volunteers will receive free Neo by AlphaSmart computer companions to use as they make reports on the conference and to take home after the event.

Related URL: http://www.eschoolnews.com/cic/bottom.cfm?id=17

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15. UPCOMING CONFERENCES

College Teaching and Learning Conference 2005
January 3-7, 2005
Orlando, FL
Related URL: http://www.ciberinstitute.org/tlcmain.htm

TAM 2005
Technology and Media Division of Council for Exceptional Children
January 19-22, 2005
Orlando, FL
Related URL: http://www.tamcec.org/

FETC
2005 Florida Educational Technology Conference
January 26-28, 2005
Orlando, FL
Related URL: http://www.fetc.org/fetc2005/

A Virtual Conference
The Imperial Valley Technology Conference
Entire month of February.
Related URL: http://conference.learningtech.net

Society for Applied Learning Technology
New Learning Technologies Orlando Conference
February 16-13, 2005
Orlando, FL
Related URL: http://www.salt.org/salt.asp?ss=l

California Computer Using Educators (CUE'S) Annual Conference - 2005
March 10-12, 2005
Palm Springs, California
Related URL: http://cue.org

WestEd RTEC & ISTE
Southwest Leadership Academy
Systemic School Improvement through Technology Integration
March 24-25, 2005 * Mesa, Arizona
Related URL: http://www.iste.org/swla

California E-Learning Summit
Clovis Unified School District • Clovis, CA
March 3-4, 2005 • Reagan Educational Center
Related URL: http://qp.clovisusd.k12.ca.us/elearnsummit

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NETS RESOURCES
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Each month, we take a look at one of the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS) at http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/t_stands.html and identify resources for helping teachers meet those standards.

16. ASSESSMENTS AND PLANNING

NETS for Teachers - Standard IV(B): "Teachers use technology to facilitate a variety of effective assessment and evaluation strategies. Teachers use technology resources to collect and analyze data, interpret results, and communicate findings to improve instructional practice and maximize student learning."

Related Resource Sites:

Creating a Framework to Make Data-Driven Instruction a Reality
http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/mar03/decker.shtml
This brief article offers an overview of the four components a North Carolina elementary school incorporated into their Curriculum Design Framework.

Getting Started with Assessment
http://www2.edc.org/asap/Default.htm
The folks at Education Development Center have sifted through many of the assessment resources to find some of the most useful for teachers and administrators. If you're new to assessment, you might want to start with the self-assessment to check your understanding of assessment issues and acquaint yourself some of the available resources.

The Toolbelt: A Collection of Data-Driven Decision-Making Tools for Educators
http://www.ncrel.org/toolbelt/
Although this web site is geared specifically to states in the Midwest, The Toolbelt has many useful resources for teachers in the southeast, too. Be sure to look at the tutorial to get acquainted with the basics of using data for instructional improvement.

Using Data to Guide School Improvement
http://www.ncrel.org/info/notes/fall04/index.html
This issue of the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory newsletter offers a four-step recipe for data-driven school improvement. The newsletter offers practical steps you can take to begin using data at your school and provides helpful checklists to use along the way.

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R*TEC RESOURCES
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The Regional Technology in Education Consortia (R*TEC) program at http://www.rtec.org/ supports the integration of technology into K-12 environments and other educational settings. In each issue of NEON, we will explore some of the free and/or inexpensive resources being provided to educators by this program.

17. GETTING READY FOR ALGEBRA

From the North East and the Islands Regional Technology in Education Consortium, Mission: Algebra is designed for those interested in helping students prepare for Algebra. The site highlights exemplary classroom practices as well as offers guidance to curriculum planners to develop syllabi, lesson plans, and staff development activities.

Related URL: http://neirtec.terc.edu/ma/home.cfm

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NEON (News for Educators Online Now! - the West Coast Edition) is designed to disseminate educational technology announcements and news. NEON provides a way for YOU to let others know what you are doing.

To submit an announcement of national interest, use the online form at http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/neon/archives/submitstory.html OR send email to ucfitrc@orion.itrc.ucf.edu. To submit an announcement of interest for West Coast educators, send an email to klarsen@wested.org. Each announcement should be sent separately and MUST include an email address or URL for people to go to for more complete information. We will use as space allows.

The IRTC staff reserves the right to determine which announcements will be used in NEON based on content, length, and timeliness. The ITRC staff also reserves the right to edit information provided.

The Instructional Technology Resource Center (ITRC) at UCF
University of Central Florida
Dr. Donna Baumbach, Director
Kathy Katz, NEON Editor
http://www.itrc.ucf.edu
ucfitrc@orion.itrc.ucf.edu
(407) 207-4962

SEIR*TEC
Elizabeth Byrom, Ed.D., Principal Investigator
http://www.seirtec.org

WestEd RTEC
Kurt Larsen, Principal Investigator/Director
http://www.westedrtec.org

DISCLAIMER: We do our best to verify the information in NEON, but we do not guarantee accuracy nor agree with every opinion expressed.

The Instructional Technology Resource Center (ITRC) at UCF is a partner in the SouthEast Initiatives Regional Technology in Education Consortium(SEIR*TEC). SEIR*TEC & WestEd RTEC are funded by the U.S.Department of Education under grant number R302A000011, CFDA 84.302A to support the integration of technology in education. The contents of this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Education, or any other agency of the United States government.
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