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. Tips for Online Learners
2. A Free Online Class from SEIR*TEC
3. On-demand Professional Development
4. Free Online Classes
5. A Survey for Media Specialist
6. Group Rate Ends March 4th for Southwest Leadership Academy
7. Interactive webtour of Mission: Algebra

AWARDS & CONTESTS
8. Improving Literacy through School Libraries
9. Global Science Competition

CLASSROOM RESOURCES
10. Women Working, 1870 - 1930
11. TIME's 50 Coolest Websites
12. Educating for Freedom and Responsibility

PUBLICATIONS
13. Technology in Education
14. Reports on Internet Life

CONFERENCES
15. Revisiting FETC
16. Upcoming Conferences

NETS RESOURCES
17. Assessment and Evaluation

RTEC RESOURCES
18. Customizing Scoring Guides

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ANNOUNCEMENTS
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1. TIPS FOR ONLINE LEARNERS

The Instructional Technology Resource Center (ITRC) and SUNLINK Projects at UCF have developed a new, free resource for educators - Success in Online Professional Development: Tips for Learners. The document offers tips and resources for educators interested in participating in online professional development. It is available online or can be ordered through the ITRC eStore.

Related URLs: http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/sopd/
http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/publications/free.html

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2. A FREE ONLINE CLASS FROM SEIR*TEC

This five-week class runs from March 21 - April 23. It is designed to assist educators in using available resources from the Internet. Educators will understand the importance of using the Internet as a professional tool to promote teacher productivity and professional development. Course objectives include topics such as ethics, copyright and fair use, protecting your computers from viruses, student safety, evaluating web resources, and classroom management. Registration is now open.

Related URL: http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/classes/

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3. ON-DEMAND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The U.S. Department of Education, in collaboration with Florida's Panhandle Area Educational Consortium, provides access to Teacher-to-Teacher Summer Workshops. Research-based practices that have been instrumental in closing the achievement gap are presented. The workshops were taped and converted to the video-streaming format. These video courses will help teachers experience on-demand professional development to increase their knowledge and skills for improving student achievement. Free registration is required.

Related URL: http://www.paec.org/teacher2teacher/

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4. FREE ONLINE CLASSES

Help.com, part of the CNET website, offers classes to help you build websites, combat spam and spyware, learn more about digital photography, and troubleshoot Windows XP. These free online instructor-led classes require registration.

Related URL: http://courses.help.com/

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5. A SURVEY FOR MEDIA SPECIALISTS

The purpose of this survey is to explore the definitive technology role that the school library media specialist plays in the school and the influence and impact on student learning that occurs as a result. If you are not a building level school library media specialist, please share this survey with one. The results of this survey will help the International Society for Technology in Education's (ISTE) Special Interest Group for School Library Media Specialists (SIGMS) and School Library Journal better meet the needs of school library media specialists.

The survey will be available until March 10, 2005.

Related URL: http://www.soe.umt.edu/lmetechsurvey

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6. GROUP RATE ENDS MARCH 4TH FOR SOUTHWEST LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

WestEd RTEC & ISTE team-up to invite superintendents, administrators, and school technology teams to participate in this two-day conference. Register now and attend interactive workshops on themes of systemic school change, data-driven decision-making, and personal productivity using existing and emerging technologies, all while networking and learning from others in moderated birds-of-a-feather session...and much much more! The venue is the lovely Phoenix Marriott Mesa. To obtain rooms at our negotiated rate of $129 per room per night for one to four persons, please call 1.800.456.6372 and mention the Southwest Leadership Academy. Be sure to make your reservation by Friday, March 4, 2005, after which the group rate closes.

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

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7. INTERACTIVE WEBTOUR OF MISSION: ALGEBRA

Attention -- Leaders of professional development for mathematics are invited to a one-hour interactive webtour of, Mission: Algebra--classroom examples of technology use in the middle grades mathematics classroom. Participants will interact with the presenters through the live webconferencing environment provided by Elluminate. Sessions scheduled:
Session 5: March 2 (Wednesday), 1 - 2 pm ET
Session 6: March 8 (Tuesday), 3 - 4 pm ET
Session 7: March 21 (Monday), 12 - 1 pm ET

Related URL: http://neirtec.terc.edu/ma/webtour/register.cfm

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AWARDS & CONTESTS
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8. IMPROVING LITERACY THROUGH SCHOOL LIBRARIES

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is offering $19.7 million in federal grants for school libraries. Local education agencies (LEAs) in which at least 20 percent of the students are from families with incomes below the poverty line are eligible to apply.

The purpose of this program is to improve students' reading skills with up-to-date school library materials; well-equipped, technologically advanced school library media centers; and well-trained, professionally certified school library media specialists.

The deadline for submission is March 14, 2005.

Related URLs: http://www.ed.gov/programs/lsl/applicant.html
http://www.ed.gov/programs/lsl/eligibility.html

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9. GLOBAL SCIENCE COMPETITION

The Lucent Global Science Scholars Program is an academic competition sponsored by the Lucent Technologies Foundation for students who demonstrate excellence in the sciences and plan to pursue a career in information and communications technologies. In addition to a cash award, winners meet at the Bell Labs in New Jersey to spend one week working alongside Bell Lab scientists to solve real world problems. (Source: Tech Learning)

Related URL: http://www.iie.org/pgms/lucent/

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CLASSROOM RESOURCES
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10. WOMEN WORKING, 1870-1930

This site provides access to digitized historical, manuscript, and image resources selected from Harvard's library and museum collections. This collection explores women's roles in the U.S. economy between the Civil War and the Great Depression. The collection currently contains 2,396 books and pamphlets, 1,075 photographs, and 5,000 pages from manuscript collections.

Related URL: http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/

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11. TIME'S 50 COOLEST WEBSITES

TIME Magazine has identified 50 nifty websites that they think everyone should check out. The selected websites fit into one of five categories (News & Information, Lifestyle & Culture, Communities, Tools & Essentials, Just for Fun).

Related URL: http://www.time.com/time/techtime/200406/

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12. EDUCATING FOR FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY

First Amendment Schools: Educating for Freedom and Responsibility, co-sponsored by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and the First Amendment Center, is a national initiative. The goals of the project include: encouraging and developing curriculum reforms that reinvigorate and deepen teaching about the First Amendment across the curriculum, and educating school leaders and teachers about the meaning and significance of First Amendment principles and ideals.

Take the First Amendment 101 Challenge and test your knowledge.

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


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PUBLICATIONS
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13. TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

The Forum Unified Education Technology Suite is designed specifically for educators by the National Cooperative Education Statistics (NCES). The document presents a practical, comprehensive, and tested approach to assessing, acquiring, instituting, managing, securing, and using technology in education settings. It will also help individuals who lack extensive experience with technology to develop a better understanding of the terminology, concepts, and fundamental issues influencing technology acquisition decisions. This online resource combines and updates four previously existing NCES/Forum publications: Safeguarding Your Technology (1998), Technology @ Your Fingertips, Version 2.0 (2001), Technology in Schools (2002), and Weaving a Secure Web around Education (2003).

Related URL: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/tech_suite/

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14. REPORTS ON INTERNET LIFE

The Pew Internet & American Life Project produces reports that explore the impact of the Internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life. The Project aims to be an authoritative source on the evolution of the Internet through collection of data and analysis of real-world developments as they affect the virtual world. The Project releases 15-20 pieces of research a year, varying in size, scope, and ambition.

Featured reports include:

The Future of the Internet
( http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/145/report_display.asp)
A wide-ranging survey of technology leaders, scholars, industry officials, and interested members of the public finds that most experts expect the internet to be more deeply integrated in our physical environments - with mixed results.

Search Engine Users
( http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/146/report_display.asp)
Internet users are very happy with their experiences searching the Internet, but many are naïve about how they search and the results they find.

The State of Blogging
( http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/144/report_display.asp)
By the end of 2004 blogs had established themselves as a key part of online culture: 7% of U.S. Internet users say they have created blogs and 27% say they are blog readers.

Related URL: http://www.pewinternet.org/reports.asp


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CONFERENCES
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15. REVISITING FETC

Couldn't make it to the Florida Educational Technology Conference this year? Or maybe you didn't get to all the sessions you hoped to attend? Well, you're in luck! Many of the session handouts are available at the FETC website.

You should also visit the eSchool News website. They brought together a group of more than 50 educators to report on the hundreds of concurrent sessions offered at the conference. In total, the eSN Conference Correspondents filed reports on more than 100 sessions.

Related URLs: http://www.fetc.org/fetc2005/
http://www.eschoolnews.com/cic/fetc/blog/index.php

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16. UPCOMING CONFERENCES

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

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

2005 Learning to Change Conference
March 17 - 20, 2005
Atlanta, GA
Related URL: http://www.aahe.org/National/2005.htm

Computer Services Management Symposium 2005
March 20-22, 2005
Charleston, SC
Related URL: http://www.acm.org/sigs/siguccs/

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

16th International Conference on College Teaching and Learning
March 29 - April 2, 2005
Jacksonville, FL
Related URL: http://www.teachlearn.org/final.html

NSSEA's 21st Annual Back-to-School Educational Product Tradeshow
March 31 - April 2, 2005
New Orleans, LA
Related URL: http://www.nssea.org/

ASCD 60th Annual Conference and Exhibit Show
April 2 - 4, 2005
New Orleans, LA
Related URL: http://tinyurl.com/5a6yv

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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.

17. ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION

NETS for Teachers - Standard IV(C: "Teachers use technology to facilitate a variety of effective assessment and evaluation strategies. Teachers apply multiple methods of evaluation to determine students' appropriate use of technology resources for learning, communication, and productivity."

Related Resource Sites:

Kathy Schrock's Assessment Resources
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.html
Kathy Schrock has an extensive collection of assessment resources for student web pages, subject-specific rubrics, and rubric builders. She also points you to a number of useful articles related to assessment.

NETS Online Technology Assessment
http://tinyurl.com/5xnre
The International Society for Technology and Education has partnered with Microsoft to create an online assessment measuring 8th graders' technology skills. Requires a Microsoft operating system.

Rubistar
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
Rubistar has pre-defined rubrics for a variety of student projects using technology. Teachers can edit the existing rubrics or create their own.

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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.

18. CUSTOMIZING SCORING GUIDES

The North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium (NCRTEC) has created a Student Product Scoring Guide that walks you through a series of multiple-choice questions to build a customized scoring guide. Be sure to look at their other planning and evaluation resources during your visit to their website.

Related URL: http://goal.ncrel.org/spsg/GetProd.asp

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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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