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| Agent Michael Richards with Pres #41 Dennis Crowe |
ACTEM hosted the 2008 spring meeting of the New England ISTE (NEISTE) affiliates on March 14-15 at Federal Jacks in Kennebunkport. Twenty-two educators attended representing all six New England states and seven affiliate organizations.
Maine’s Dennis Crowe, technology coordinator for the Gorham schools, assumed the NEISTE presidency taking over for Peter Drescher, the new technology coordinator for the Vermont State Department of Education. Dennis will likely serve two years in the position once the By-laws are accepted, though he has requested “time off for good behavior.”
Friday afternoon began with a FirstClass training session facilitated by Vermont’s Neil Manders. The NEISTE.org web site is hosted by Learning Networks.
Twelve ACTEM members attended the reception and dinner Friday evening highlighted by lively conversations and laughter. ACTEM President Vincent Vanier of Madawaska welcomed the attendees and explained a local resident had arrived to greet the group. Dennis Crowe played the role of George H.W. Bush accompanied by Secret Service agent, Arundel's Michael Richards. Crystal Priest attached her laptop to the sound system and "Hail to the Chief" was piped in for Dennis' grand entrance. Craig Dickinson ran a nonsense PowerPoint slide show.
NEISTE will again sponsor a New England reception at NECC in San Antonio. The NEISTE reception is open to anyone from New England and is scheduled for Tuesday, July 1 from 5-7 PM in Conference Room 17-18 at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter Hotel.
Gary Lanoie shared information that any NEISTE members will
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| Vince Vanier & Gary Lanoie collaborate in Kennebunkport |
be awarded in-state rates for the MAINEducation conference. Registration cost for the full-day October 17 conference will be $85 per individual for any NEISTE members. October 16 Pre-conference workshops will also be offered with some free. Gary inquired if other states be interested in reciprocating by offering similar conference arrangements for ACTEM members to attend out-of-state conferences.
There was brief discussion of possibly offering a combined conference in the future. Gary cited the initial Nashua meeting in October 2006 where attendees recognized the state conference as essential revenue generators and NEISTE’s intent not to interfere with state conferences.
A significant amount of meeting time was devoted to revising the first draft of NEISTE By-laws, which will hopefully be ratified at the fall meeting tentatively scheduled for Newport, Rhode Island in early November. Annual association dues will remain at $250 per association. State department of education representatives are welcome to attend NEISTE meetings as ad-hoc members. Maine DOE was representatived by Jeff Mao and Dennis Kunces, who as an ACTEM Board member, served
a dual role.
NEISTE members will have the opportunity to receive special pricing on netTrekker subscriptions beginning March 17. During this promotion NEISTE will receive the lowest available netTrekker price, $.99 per student with a $395 minimum order. The promotion period runs May – June with orders possibly accepted the first week of July. For March 17 – April 18 schools new to netTrekker can get April-June free and the next year for the pricing listed above. P.O.s dated July 1 will be accepted. Details will be posted on the ACTEM Software page.
ATOMIC Learning will aggregate orders over the six states and determine the price for all at the end of the promotion. Orders are to be submitted by the end of June and they will accept POs dated July 1. Atomic Learning orders are for a school or a district and need to include the number of students and staff. Parents are automatically included extending the offering into home.
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| Crystal Priest & Dennis Crowe at FirstClass training |
A requirement is for each school or district to submit a non-binding Letter of Intent available online from the ACTEM software page. We will not know final pricing so most schools may have to initially figure on $1.38 per seat with sliding scale to $.99. Anyone can go to Atomic Learning and get the first couple of demos and Atomic Learning will establish a trial for an interested school upon request.
NEISTE established a vendor committee with Craig Dickinson serving as the Maine representative. Dennis Crowe suggested the association allow a vendor presentation before or during the Friday night dinner session of NEISTE meetings. The vendor committee aims to recruit corporate sponsors for the NECC New England reception and screen vendors for possible future allegiances.
Jeff Mao, Coordinator of Educational Technology for the Maine Dept. of Education, delivered a brief overview of ISTE Island on Second Life. Jeff proposed that it is less expensive to purchase a virtual meeting space from ISTE directly than possibly in the future for a separate purchase.
ISTE Island is a totally open space and PG offering occasional speakers
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| Jenifer Van Deusen, Crystal Priest, Laurie Underwood, Alice Barr, and Michael Richards at NEISTE reception |
and presentations. Jeff’s interest is getting teachers to talk to other teachers, and Rhode Island’s Lee Rabbitt sees Second Life as a potentially powerful professional development tool.
"I thought this weekend's meeting went extremely well," observed ACTEM President Vincent Vanier. "NEISTE meetings are an opportune time to exchange information with like-minded people. We need to look for future opportunities for ACTEM members to come together for work and socializing."
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