CFF Communities

If SDCOE could provide shared software capabilities across multiple districts, what should those services be?  How useful is the concept and what functions could best be filled by such an offering?

 What is your school/District using to support grading, homework assignments, parent communication, attendance, test scores, student progress toward standards.  What are the limitations of the current tools and what limitations would there be if using a tool hosted by SDCOE and provided across districts?  Are there solutions you can think of that would be helpful for SDCOE to provide as a shared service?

• Subscription databases could be useful to Districts.  Some districts have the service for both teachers and students.  Examples: Gale Student Resource Center for High School, ProQuest, online encyclopedias (Grolier online passport, World Book, SIRS researcher).  Promote as well as provide.
• SouthBay could utilize some of the basic classroom management (gradebook, portal). The more credible subscriptions described above would be valuable for use of good, viable resources (versus Wikipeidia).
• SchoolWires has blog section.  County could provide safe login blog space.  Teacher set questions/kids respond.
• Encinitas uses Gradeworks for online report cards; first year seems to work well.  Being modified to meet needs.  Has gradebook (pilot next year), report cards.  Attendance used by County.  IDMSweb for online grading; can go to gradebook but not currently used. Online bubble grading not always accurate -- found consistent inaccuracies in online grading.  Do both manual and online grading.  Expensive duplicate work.    Online testing versus Scantron would save money. Some issues with "collaborative" test taking.
• Powerschool, Infinite Campus, City schools purchasing system.  If county could provide and save district money would be good for cost savings.  Also want one that talks between districts well.
• Interoperability with thin client sometimes doesn't work well (Photoshop for instance doesn't work well through ClassLink).
• Student information systems - 58 offices in state (no other provides SIS - all have backed out with each District doing their own).
• Room for shift of small district IT to be more classroom and less technically oriented; IT Directors shift focus to curriculum/instruction versus technology and business services; IT often imposes restrictions that impede learning; need high availability not necessarily achievable at budget of smaller districts; Service level agreements need to lean to classroom requirements.  District could help in getting this message across to IT organizations.
• Provide free highspeed internet access to all credentialed staff as a benefit.
• e-textbooks without buying the book; Lemon Grove attempting to negotiate some deals; may deal with Williams settlement.  Online textbooks have multi-language audio support, animations, review/assessment opportunities -- even if same amount of money, e-text would be preferable.  Some prefer a book in the hand.  Need a business case for the text book manufacturers and need economy of scale argument between District, school and county office buying - need someone looking from top-down, broader view.

What are barriers to County provided services

• Districts would largely welcome
• If it fits district great, but may not fit
• Performance could be an issue - County to District links robust but school to District sometimes limited; could require school network upgrades
  
• Pricing -- pay for it at local level or site or district or county; need to work beneficial plan; could get economy of scale
• Control and turf can be a barrier

What specifically is used? 

• Microsoft Office
• United Streaming/Safari
• Inspiration/Kidspiration
• Geometer sketch pad
• Adobe product suite
• Learning Point/Blackboard
  
• Exam View
• Nettracker (provided practice problems for math texts for students, homework tutorial)
  
• Google apps (Freeware); Audacity
  
• Study free tools versus  pay for tools and compare; some advertising issues (can enroll as district and adfree)
  

 Laura, let me provide a bit more context for this discussion.

CFF has been invited by Steve Clemons, Assistant Superintendent and Chief Technology Officer, San Diego County Office of Education, to help SDCOE create an offering of services that would help local school districts. 

That is a pretty broad ask, but we believe that many districts could benefit from the expertise and increased levels of service from SDCOE.  For instance, simply offering security, reliability and back up services would help some districts! 

This thread addresses the functionality of software applications that help instruction in the classroom.  TIME2Innovate teachers can help us identify important applications that are recommended for use by other districts.  Go for it!

Cheers
Rick