Going the Distance!
April 2006
Newsletter Articles:
Greetings from GCI SchoolAccess
You are receiving this email as a friend of GCI SchoolAccess. This monthly newsletter is designed to provide helpful news and tips to teachers, administrators and school technology coordinators.
Kodiak Island Borough School District Receives National Recognition for Leveraging Distance Learning Technology
In a report released by the Center for Education Policy, it was noted that 88 percent of teachers in the Kodiak Island Borough School District are "highly qualified" in accordance with the Federal No Child Left Behind Act. "Highly qualified" means that teachers have special training to teach in specific subjects and in various educational categories. This is a great accomplishment considering that two years ago, only 25 percent of the district's teachers met this standard.
Kodiak was one of 38 school districts to participate in detailed case studies that accompanied the report. The district credited its success in part to the videoconferencing technology provided over the SchoolAccess DLS network. Stewart McDonald, the Kodiak district's director of state and federal programs and assessment said that the schools utilize the two-way videoconferencing systems to allow "highly-qualified" teachers to teach the subjects of their specialty to schools throughout the district.
Though the district operates 15 schools over vast distances, the SchoolAccess system allows "highly qualified" teachers to be in any classroom throughout the district without leaving their home school. A consultant for the Center for Education Policy said that Kodiak Island Borough School District was the only district, among those in the 38 case studies that used such technology to meet the highly qualified teacher standards.
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~3278296,00.html
Legislative Scrutiny for New Mexico Initiative to Buy Laptop Computers for Students
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's administration implemented an initiative to provide laptop computers to seventh graders across the state. Under the initiative, about 5,000 laptop computers have been purchased over three years with $6.7 million approved by the Legislature. However, the Legislative Finance Committee for the state estimated it could cost about $35 million a year if every seventh grader across New Mexico is provided a laptop. The committee of auditors provided further scrutiny for the initiative, questioning whether the laptops are being adequately integrated into the curriculum. Auditors reported that laptops appear to be used mostly for special projects rather than for instructional purposes.
Source: Free New Mexican, http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/41457.html
Arizona Districts Expecting Further Funding for English-Learners
A federal judge recently told the state of Arizona to distribute $21 million in fines that were imposed when the state missed a court deadline to improve programs for English-learners. The $21 million will likely offer English-learners in Arizona more after-school tutoring and summer programs. It also could mean that that teachers will receive more training to help them succeed. School districts and charters expect to get a one-time allocation of about $136 per English-learner on top of the $358 they now receive annually. About 800 of the district's 2,700 students are English-learners, which means they qualify for extra help and state funding to help them learn English.
Source: Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0318ellschools0318.html
The 10 Biggest Network Security Myths
Joanne VanAuken of Secure Enterprise recently created the following list of network security myths to help IT professionals examine new security concepts and to take their enterprises to the next level. For a detailed explanation of each myth, please click the link following this article.
MYTH #1: Organizations are more secure now than they were a year ago. Although limited resources have forced some organizations to neglect security issues, most companies have initiated the necessary steps to safeguard their company assets.
MYTH #2: The presence or absence of regulations greatly matters when it comes to protecting both personal and customer data. Governmental regulations, such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and Sarbanes-Oxley, contain information security components in their guidelines.
MYTH #3: External consultants know more about information security than in-house personnel do. People believe consultants-whether they work for a consulting firm or independently-have tools and advanced training that's lacking internally. But that's not always true.
MYTH #4: Information security must be managed as a separate business unit to be effective.
MYTH #5: Complex, frequently changed passwords will make my enterprise secure. No one would argue that a password of 12 to 16 characters, with mixed upper- and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters, is hard to guess. But it's also hard to remember.
MYTH #6: The padlock icon present during an SSL session means my data is safe.
MYTH #7: Migrating from Internet Explorer to Firefox will make my enterprise secure.
MYTH #8: Increased security spending results in greater security.
MYTH #9: Wireless networks aren't secure. Wireless is one of the hottest technologies around, but, like other new technologies, it has suffered from a bad reputation.
MYTH #10: Dumping Windows for Linux will make increase security.
Source: School CIO http://www.schoolcio.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181500907&_requestid=36618 (Requires free account)
Upcoming Events
3rd Conference on Personalizing Education
Date: 04/21/-22/06
Location: Anchorage, AK (East High School)
The Anchorage School District and the learning services provider Teachscape are promoting the Third Conference on Personalizing Education. K-12 teachers, principals and other instructional leaders from Alaska will have the opportunity to hear from inspiring education authors and noted practitioners like Lorraine Monroe, Laura Besser, Craig Drennon and Bobb Darnell. To register for this conference, fill out the online form at http://www.teachscape.com/html/ts/public/html/events/anchorage_06.html.
Montana Education Association/Montana Federation of Teachers Classified Conference (MEA/MFT)
Date: 05/06 - 05/07
Location: Billings, MT
Event Contact: Debbie Hanna, Manager of Business Services, Montana Education Association, DHanna@nea.org
