Region5


 * Nov. 10, 2010 **
 * Region 5 Meeting at November Institute **

In attendance: Beth Saunders, Sharon Day, Linda Laverty, Carol Beitler, Joanne Brustad, Shari Wiseman, Meryl Angelo, Jim Dunlap, Gina Roldos, Virginia Kennard, Jamie Kneisley, Kathie Glus, Bill Schulte

Palm Beach County has concerns about NIMAS/AIM and district buy in from the top.

TAPS have been distributed, and seems that districts should be paying attention to what is coming from DOE. AIM is bigger than Center Techs and LATS. More emphasis needs to come from DOE to Superintendents as well as Instructional Materials Management. All counties are experiencing the same concerns. Suggestion for information to go to Superintendents rather than just ESE Directors can be posted in Region 5 folder in AirSet. Consider developing a survey for Instructional Materials people in districts to see what their knowledge of AIM is. FL Association of District Instructional Materials Association conference scheduled for Nov. 17 – 19. This may be an opportunity to provide information about AIM and receive feedback. Broward Instructional Manager Team has attended AIM meetings and some activities have been shared.

“Just because something is digital does not mean it is accessible.” Invite David Davis to present on AIM to Instructional Resources staff as rep from DOE Project to make curriculum accessible, e.g. Wilson

• TSLL equipment – Loan time for equipment like eye gaze devices and high end AAC devices does not provide enough time to do adequate trials; some districts are buying their own equipment rather than being put on a waiting list for equipment. After the trials, if it doesn’t work out for the original student, equipment can be assigned to another student or kept for the next trial. Many districts are borrowing equipment from the Region 5 AT Lab. • Warning: Classroom Suite only runs in a later Quicktime version than is currently available; will not work with latest version that is out. • Not all district people have iPads yet. Beth will be ordering more.
 * Other challenges: **

• Folders for counties to submit ideas for posting, e.g. new apps that are good. Beth suggested that group refer to Institute 2010 for this information as it would contain more information on this topic because it includes postings from around the state. • Remember to indicate county first when posting to calendar (i.e. PB Classroom Suites); use purple color; David is using calendar to monitor activities going on around the state • Collier County posted rubrics for documenting portable word processor use in Collier folder. • Jim would like Beth to help with setting up email lists for AirSet
 * AirSet Uses: **

Group for discussing AT uses of iPad; keep adding to Institute wiki (Ian and Tony’s information)

Bill, Jim, Virginia, Joanne all have access to Adobe rooms. Sharon has room, but needs setup. To increase use of Adobe Connect, select topics and date and post on AirSet-individuals come if they can, Bill suggested making the beginning topic uses of iPads, sessions can be recorded; consider Mondays at 2; process is just as important as the discussion of the scheduled topic, we need to get comfortable with facilitating, collaborating and presenting in an online environment; consider starting in January on Jan. 10th from 2-3 p.m.; Bill and Shari will host; Beth to post links to Adobe rooms in other counties; possibility of having Ian present to district IT people on the management of iPads with session being recorded on Jan. 10th from 1-2 p.m.; Bill will check with Ian to see if he is available, each district will line up IT people to participate. Update on Jan. 10 – Neither Ian or Anthony are available for the 1:00 iPad/Touch management session. Bill will check with his district IT people to see if they are interested.
 * Adobe Connect Meeting Rooms **

Beth reported that Crick Software will provide one copy of latest version of Clicker 5 to each district; company would like feedback.
 * Bits and pieces **

Dave Butler is offering to do a webinar on downloading from Bookshare for ROL; Palm Beach will arrange the date, notify rest, and post on AirSet Calendar.

Mayer-Johnson is offering to do a webinar on Boardmaker Studio; company will no longer offer group buy for Florida and will not provide upgrades/trade ins for BoardMaker Studio. They are working on a purchase package that if every region purchased at least 100 copies there could be a discount; group does not seem to be interested

Develop rubrics to show impact of assigned AT for students. Some data forms have already been posted on AirSet in district folders.

Reminder –The recently released updated Accommodations Manual suggests that IEP teams consider using the SETT Framework as a planning tool to help IEP team members gather information and explore issues related to accommodations for instruction.

Beth to post Institute wiki web address on AirSet.