Monday,the ISBE Finance and Audit Committee recommended the FY10 Budget with the addition of $2.5 Million for Online Resources! The original proposal did not include the funding. During the committee meeting board did direct the staff to include the funding into the budget. After lunch, the board was presented with an amended budget with the Online Resources line item. This was approved for presentation at the plenary session Tuesday where it passed and now will be presented to the General Assembly next month.

A very big thank you to Jane Sharka and Stephanie Stieglitz of ISLMA and Frances Roehm from Skokie Public Library (manager of the Illinois Clicks! web portal and a member of Lt Gov Quinn’s Broadband Taskforce) for their comments during public participation. Although we did not rehearse or plan what each of us was going to say, together we covered all our talking points very thoroughly.

This was quite a victory for us since this budget contains only a few modest increases over last year’s budget. Our work is only beginning in that it will be difficult to pass new programs due to the economic crisis in the state. Educating the General Assembly about the initiative will be a top priority. I will be approaching ILA and others to be partners in getting the word out to the legislators in regards to the value of funding online resources.

Lou Ann Jacobs
ISLMA Legislative Advocate

Registration deadline, January 16, 2009
EDC 920:  USING THE INTERNET FOR TEACHING, LEARNING, & PRACTICAL APPLICATION (3) grad credits.
Registration cost: $500.00*
(If you have never taken a course at URI before, the course cost is $535.00 which includes a onetime transcript fee charge of $35.00)

Students will learn how to find relevant information among the abundance of raw data found online, evaluate its worth and credibility, and effectively use it to solve an issue or problem. Students will also learn “Information Literacy Skills” (how to develop their own ‘research and evaluation’ skills) and transfer this knowledge to the students in their classrooms. This will occur by continuously integrating practical application, real research projects for their individual classrooms, and discipline specific lesson plans. Appropriate for grades K-12.  This is an online, asynchronous course with no classroom meetings. There is no designated time that you have to be on line.  Each week’s lesson is posted on line and participants have 7 days to complete and post their assignments. Students will interact completely through a blog, as well as learn what a blog is, how to use one, and how to access educational blogs from teachers around the world. All lessons will be completely downloadable and, therefore, reusable in your own classrooms.

Course Instructor: Dave Fontaine, NBCT
Registration Contact:  Christine P. Dolan at Christine@uri.edu
Class Meeting Dates:  January 19, 2009-May 1, 2009

EDC 921: USING BLOGS AND WIKIS TO FOSTER LITERACY (3) Graduate Credits  Registration cost:$500.00*
(If you have never taken a course at URI before, the course cost is $535.00 which includes a onetime transcript fee charge of $35.00.)

This course focuses on the pragmatism of using Web 2.0 (interactive tools) in education. Participants will learn how to use interactive, online tools to: foster literacy in and out of school; Differentiate Instruction; deepen learning and increase student achievement; create opportunities to bring these technologies to the larger school community; and identify assessment tools that measure the effectiveness of Interactive Web technologies in their personal practice as well as with their students. Appropriate for grades K-12. This is an online, asynchronous course with no classroom meetings. There is no designated time that you have to be on line.  Each week’s lesson is posted on line and participants have 7 days to complete and post their assignments. All lessons will be completely downloadable and, therefore, reusable in your own classrooms.

Course Instructor: Dave Fontaine, NBCT
Registration Contact:  Christine P. Dolan at Christine@uri.edu
Class Meeting Dates:  January 19, 2009-May 1, 2009

EDC 922: Online Texts in the 21st Century Classroom (3) Graduate Credits  Registration cost:$500.00*
(If you have never taken a course at URI before, the course cost is $535.00 which includes a onetime transcript fee charge of $35.00.)

In the 21st century, teachers and students are finding traditional textbooks less useful.  Most are out-of-date before they reach the classroom. Teachers only use a fraction of the material, and the costs have skyrocketed; even the smallest districts spend over $100,000/year on textbooks!  More and more teachers are beginning to access online resources like: interactive tutorials, videos, edu-games, and podcasts to supplement their instruction. In this economic climate, and with the proliferation of free, quality content on the Internet, is it possible to create your own digital textbooks? The answer is yes and the movement is already underway!  Some of the greatest minds are banding together to harness their Collective Intelligence. They are collaboratively writing textbooks and giving them away for free for the common-good through a non-profit organization called CK-12.  Learn about this movement, share your own knowledge, and let your district benefit from the generosity of others. Save and retain each week’s lesson in its entirety so that you may review it repeatedly and manipulate it for your own classroom use.  Learn about Creative Commons Licensing and how it allows you to keep, modify, and share each week’s lesson. Participants will explore and use collaborative, online tools like wikis to improve instruction, as well as create digital textbooks from Open Source material. They will also contribute, and gain access, to unlimited amounts of free digital textbooks that can be used in their classrooms, schools, and districts and create an Open Source chapter/subsection that will be shared with the world!  This is an online, asynchronous course with no classroom meetings. There is no designated time that you have to be online.  Each week’s lesson is posted online and participants have 7 days to complete and post their assignments. Students will interact completely through a blog.  This is a 3-credit, graduate level course offered through the University of Rhode Island.

Course Instructor: Dave Fontaine, NBCT
Registration Contact:  Christine P. Dolan at
Christine@uri.edu

Class Meeting Dates:  January 19, 2009-May 1, 2009

Registration deadline, January 16, 2009

As part of a LSTA safety grant my library received this year, I offered an Internet safety presentation to parent and community members last week. Originally the FBI was supposed to present, but canceled two weeks earlier. So, after a few late nights of planning and researching, I had my presentation ready. Thursday night came and went pretty easily. Why? Because only a few parents attended. Well, I’m being positive. Three. My principal was there, a board member, a reporter from the Paris Beacon News, and a student. I was rather disappointed, but completed my presentation in record time, and anxiously awaited the newspaper article. And I was impressed. Not only was my picture in the paper (in color, no less), but the reporter also wrote a scathing editorial. Wow. Let me tell you that this kind of positive press for our school doesn’t happen very often. So, overall, even though the attendance was pitiful, I was pleased with how things turned out. The public heard plenty from the local news reporter, and the feedback I’ve received from the articles has been wonderful!

Sarah Hill, Librarian

Paris High School, Paris, Illinois

ISLMA Board of Directors