Page 118 - Lakeland Catholic Technology Plan

School Administrators’ Technology Integration Resource (SATIR)
The School Administrators’ Technology Integration Resource (SATIR) / Ressource Pour L’Intégra- tion De La Technologie Destinée Aux Administrateurs et Administratrices Scolaires (RITAS) will re- sult in the Internet being used as a resource to provide substantive just-in-time professional devel- opment for school-based administrators across Canada. The technology will be used to assist school-based administrators to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are essential to the provision of leadership to students and staff concerning technology implementation in schools. The project will use the Internet to deliver high quality professional development to thousands of Canadian school jurisdiction and school administrators at a very low per participant cost. Current partners for SATIR are Industry Canada (SchoolNet), The Canadian Association of School Adminis- trators, The Canadian Association of Principals and Alberta Learning. Start-up funding is provided primarily from Industry Canada, with some assistance from Alberta Learning.
This site was formally launched in October 1999 and can be found at www.satir-ritas.org. Work on the web site and the continuation of the collection of quality resources is scheduled for the foresee- able future. A modular on-line course opportunity for school administrators will be introduced dur- ing 2000.
Key Contact: John Hogarth: phone (780) 427–9042; e-mail jhogarth@edc.gov.ab.ca
Liaison with other ICT Professional Development Initiatives
STTG liaises with the Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortia regarding the Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) initiative, a three-part program including Skill Building, Technol- ogy across the Curriculum, and Technology Leadership and Mentorship. In addition, the consortia, in co-operation with Alberta Learning, will be holding regional ICT Principals' Conferences between March and May 2000 for school-based administrators.
The Chair of STTG serves on the Galileo Educational Network Association's Board of Directors. The Network, an education-business partnership, is working to provide intensive classroom and school-based support for various technology initiatives, including effective implementation of the ICT Program of Studies.
Key Contact: Peter Darby: phone (780) 427–0174; e-mail pdarby@edc.gov.ab.ca
5. Hardware and Software
Computers for Schools Program (CfS)
Computers for Schools is a national Program that collects and refurbishes used computer technol- ogy which is then distributed, cost free, to schools and public libraries. The Program was co- founded in 1993 by Industry Canada and the Telephone Pioneers, a volunteer organization of ac- tive and retired employees of the communications industry. To date the Program has distributed over 185,000 computers nationally, with a target of 250,000 by the end of March 2001. The Al- berta Program has distributed over 17,000 computers. In Alberta, Computers for Schools is man- aged by an Advisory Committee representing Alberta Learning, the Telephone Pioneers, Industry Canada, TELUS, the Alberta Teachers’ Association, the Canadian Association of Principals, the Alberta School Boards Association, the Alberta Home and School Councils’ Association, Treaty 7 Tribal Council and the Royal Bank. Workshops are located in Edmonton, Calgary, and Lethbridge. To date, the Alberta program has distributed over 16,000 computers throughout the province.
Key Contact: Lucien Villeneuve: phone (780) 427–9002; e-mail lvilleneuve@edc.gov.ab.ca
Technology Integration Funding (TIF)
Government re-investment is providing $125,000,000 in Technology Integration Funding for tech- nology upgrading for students from 1996/1997 to 2000/2001.
$2,500,000 $20,000,000 $2,500,000 $20,000,000 $20,000,000 $20,000,000 $40,000,000
January 1997 May 1997 October 1997 April 1998
May 1999
May 2000 September 2000
Technology Integration Funding may be used for the purchase and upgrading of computers, as well as the purchase of instructional software and networking components in schools.
Key Contact: Bonnie Brooks: phone (780) 415–1148; e-mail bbrooks@edc.gov.ab.ca
Provincial Software Agreements
The department has several provincial agreements for educational software—Microsoft, Apple, FileMaker, FoolProof, HyperStudio, Wiggleworks, Inspiration and The Learning Company School Alliance. These agreements allow school jurisdictions to purchase a wide range of educational software at significantly reduced prices. Negotiations are ongoing for additional priority product suites.
Key Contact: Bonnie Brooks: phone (780) 415–1148; e-mail bbrooks@edc.gov.ab.ca 6. Provincial Networking For Learning
In the 1995/1996 fiscal year, Alberta Education provided a Network Access Grant of $5,000,000 to assist schools, jurisdiction offices and funded private schools in connecting to the Internet. In addi- tion, funding was provided to operating charter schools in 1996/1997. The grant provided $2750 for each school site and jurisdiction office site to establish an administrative Internet connection.
The department is now partnering with Innovation and Science to provide AGNpac connections for school jurisdiction wide area networks (WANs). These connections will provide required bandwidth to jurisdiction WANs and will save potentially thousands of dollars per month in recurring telecom- munications costs. There are currently fourteen jurisdictions with connections to AGNpac, which includes sixty-two sites; i.e., schools and jurisdiction offices. This partnership is helping to ad- dress part of the bandwidth equity issue in some rural areas of the province. In addition, the depart- ment continues to work with vendors, federal and provincial departments to address bandwidth issues faced by many school jurisdictions. On February 29, 2000, Alberta Innovation and Science released a Request for Proposal to industry to further the development and implementation of a high-speed telecommunications network infrastructure in Alberta. Government's target is to have 100 percent access by schools to a reasonably priced high-speed Internet infrastructure by 2002/ 2003.
Key Contact: Erwin Loewen: phone (780) 427–0253; e-mail eloewen@edc.gov.ab.ca
117