1990 was my first encounter with First Class. A dial-up BBS system that I couldn’t afford but knew was the way of the future. I wanted to connect teachers, administrators and students in our district to begin working collaboratively. It has taken 15 years and I think we are almost there. Out of the BoxETC Courseware Home Page Construction Kit

FINALLY, A First Class, A-1 LearningNetwork-Windham Central Solution The Virtual School Network has helped bring technology off the shelf and move it forward in the district.

Quick Overview of District April, 2004  The district: – 8 Elementary schools; 1 Middle/High school; 2 admin offices; Range from 25 to 425 students: Total = 1100 – Covers 365 sq. Miles – Most schools single grade or grade clusters – Teaching, support staff and admin approx 225

What Took us so long?  Access through High School hub  No central management  Tech-lethargy  Very limited Dollars for Technology – Small schools; small dollars

The Matches that Ignited Change 1.High School drops hub model 2.No Child Left Behind requirements 3.State Technology Grade Level Expectations 4.Desire to get more out of the districts investment in First Class SVTC First Class Project 5.Is that all there is?

Dennis-Yarmouth District Cape Cod, Mass. Yarmouth School District Yarmouth Maine

What Did We Want to do?  The system – To increase the use of technology in the schools – To keep costs ALAP (as low as possible) – To allow for individual school identity – To create district unity – To be cross platform – To grow with use and need – To provide new and useable web sites for all schools  Usage: – Meet the daily communication needs of staff – Easy to use – Low frustration – Easy to publish of school information – Non-techie management and content loading – Lots of people able to contribute directly (incl. School board) – Provide all teachers with easy web publishing for their classes

What have we accomplished?  Given professional accounts for all teachers and staff  Raised the level of awareness and participation by school personnel  Presented workshops, discussions, and trainings at all schools  Attracted school board attention and involvement with training  AND

Individual School User Desktops

Typical Desktop

District + School Webs

TEACHERPAGESTEACHERPAGES

Lets take a First Hand Look

What next  Add High School students into the system  Build up all school sites with CONTENT  Expand use of forms, form tracking and paper reduction  Reach out beyond classroom for collaborative work  Integrate local SIS actively into the system  Create on-line learning environments for PD and student use

Conclusion  Teacher logins and usage is UP  Messages are being posted and people are responding  Comments are coming in about web sites  We have a ways to go BUT we are moving forward  Special thanks to Bill, Tyson, Scott and all the great folks at LearningNetworks for helping to make this project an outstanding success.  Questions

Virtual School Network  Communicate using and instant messaging  Publish to the school’s website using custom FirstClass forms  Create collaborative work and learning spaces for staff, teachers and students  Provide social space for staff, teachers and students  Automatically upload information from your Student Management System to VSN Virtual School Networks (VSN) uses FirstClass and Microsoft SQL to create a robust, collaborative, online learning and working environment. From one desktop, VSN allows teachers, administrators, and students to:

 Improve personal productivity with an integrated calendar, to-do list, and contact manager, all uploadable to a Palm Pilot  VSN is easy for the end users--no advanced technical knowledge required. If you use and word processing, then you can use VSN. Documentation and customer support are included.  Learning Networks will also host the FirstClass servers and the VSN applications, freeing technology staff to concentrate more helping their school community use the tools for learning.

EasyManage Website We can design and build EasyManage websites for the district and schools, uniting them into an easy-to-navigate site. Our EasyManage technology, based on FirstClass, allows teachers and staff to easily update the site. 1) Specialize in building learning community websites Schools, and other learning communities, have different goals for their websites than commercial businesses. While the school site should be attractive, it's more important that it be easy to navigate and full of useful information. 2) Follow website usability guidelines We build websites to meet the following guidelines: Intuitive navigation Consistent look & feel Pages load quickly (for residents with dial-up Internet connections) Attractive and consistent with the character of the school ADA Compliant (for voice web browsers) 3) Build using EasyManage web page templates Your site will be a custom graphic design to meet your objectives and theme. But to make development less expensive, we have developed a number of page templates to help us build your site. The template approach reduces both design and build time because pictures, graphics, and text goes in pre-defined places. By using color, pictures, different navigation buttons, and unique Home pages, we give each site a custom feel at an affordable price. 4) Make pages easy to edit Building websites using FirstClass makes it possible to edit Web pages in the same way you edit a word processing document. We even organize pages like you organize your word processing documents, with recognizable names in logically arranged folders. Think of it as "My Documents" for your website. No special technical skill or web design software is needed.