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August 24, 2006 10:42 PM

Mapleton Training

I traveled to Mapleton School District with Drew Hinds, ODE, to provide professional development around the REAL website. I actually did more training on FURL and helping a staff who just received their new laptops and projectors, to set them up and utilize the new equipment. Usually we would not provide this service without a fee, but it helped to meet one of the REAL deliverables on training.

As a side note, it was a great eye opener for me to be in a small district and see the road blocks and issues surrounding the teacher. Just turning on a computer and what to do about all the pop ups became a huge roadblock. When I taught Furl, we had twenty different issues with installing the browser plugin. Wow, a free tool like Furl took hours of staff development for non tech users. I hardly think about these concerns anymore and am aware I need to think about them.

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August 18, 2006 10:34 PM

REALly?

This week started out as one of my least favorite experiences ever. Training contractors in on entering rigorous and relevant, high quality lessons into the REAL website. Let's have four contractors work four hours entering in lesson plans only to have the system time out and erase all their work. Yep, that was just one of the special events that I had to put up with working from ODE (because we are not allowed to enter in data offsite, security). I was not the only frustrated person, but this contract has been very difficult, not only the learning curve, but the red tape.

Overall, I think the lessons will be pretty good.

Sadly, this was not a great week. I was informed at an Intel meeting that they will not give us the rest of the funding for the Intel grant. A great part is OETCs lack of success in filling and offering Intel Workshops. We have had some, more in Montana, but we have not met our goal. In addition, Intel is no longer using RTAs for training's of the future. So I will be letting Thomas go and this project will be coming to an end.

I am thankful not all weeks are like htis one.

Recently found on jena's weblog. | in REAL | Comments (0)

August 4, 2006 10:19 PM

Really REAL

Much of this week was spent on REAL.

  • Getting ready for presenting at Mapleton School District about REAL with Drew Hinds of ODE. This will meet a deliverable for the REAL ODE contract.

  • Met with Carla for Oregon Cadre leadership team planning.

  • Met with contractor who is working on high school deliverables for REAL.

  • Visited NWRESD to see if it will be a usable space for the cadre.

Recently found on jena's weblog. | in REAL | Comments (0)