2-5+Agenda


 * Issue/Process || Expected Outcome || Lead || Time ||
 * **Review of agenda** || **Common understanding, Identification of additional items** || **Evan** || **5** ||
 * • In attendance: Brian (267), Sandy (8), Barb (NWAEA), Julie (9), Andy (10), Evan & Sharon (11), Judy (13), Kathy and Kurtis Christensen (14), Jeannie Campbell (IPTV), Gwen Nagel & Sue Swartz (DE), Chuck Sengstock (Drake)

• There will be an Adobe Connect Pro webinar on February 13 at 10:00. Evan will forward information on that meeting. ||
 * **Joint Director’s Feedback** || **Discuss, Prioritize, Next steps** || **Sharon and Rhonda** || **25** ||
 * • The feedback from the Joint Directors, as well as the criteria for prioritization, has been placed on the wiki. There were more items than originally posted on the "What's Next" page. Sharon explained the criteria that she and Rhonda developed for the process.

• The next step is to have both our committee and the Joint Directors to rank the suggestions (hi, med, lo) on each of the criteria. Brian suggested that we have a method for not ranking items if the person was not comfortable assessing them (or had no knowledge of them).

• It was decided that Barb would look at using NWAEA's survey tool to host the survey. Evan and Barb will coordinate getting the information into the system. At that point in time, each committee member and Joint Director will be notified, and they will be able to finish the survey. Our goal is to have the data assembled and ready for the March online council meeting. ||
 * **Common AEA "Clearinghouse" Registration System** || **Inform, Discuss, Next Steps** || **Evan** || **20** ||
 * • Evan gave an overview of the discussion. After our January meeting, he visited with Lori Thelen, Heartland's database programmer, about the possibility of sharing a common registration system among online courses. Lori mentioned that the easiest, "least messy" system would be to build a database that would sync with each AEA's database automatically. When courses are updated at the AEA level, the statewide database would be updated as well.

The result is that a teacher, checking her local AEA and not finding a course to suit her needs, would see a link to this statewide database of offerings. She could then search that database and find other offerings available, with a link that would direct them to that AEA for registration.

• This proposed system would be more of a "clearinghouse" than a registration system, because the statewide database would be used only to inform viewers what is available and then direct them to the AEA's website for actual registration. There would be no merging of student records with this system.

• Brian suggested the next step to be contacting each AEA's programmers to see the feasibility of extracting course data. Evan will meet with Lori Thelen and create a list of questions for programmers to answer. Each committee member should send the name and email of their local programmer to Evan.

• Barb suggested the importance of having a Plan B if the database syncing is too big an obstacle to overcome. It was mentioned that ILO's "[|Iowa Learns]" model would work for this. On the Iowa Learns website, post-graduate institutions list their courses, dates, subject areas, and delivery models. A user can browse the offerings and then click on the link to go to the provider's registration system. This setup would require manual entry (and deletion) from each AEA.

• It was recommended to look at ILO for hosting a possible Plan B site. Evan also mentioned he is attempting to contact Brent Siegrist about having the Iowa AEA Online website as a possible host. Brian suggested that the Iowa AEA Online site could be used to inform teachers of the offerings even if it didn't host the website. ||
 * **Introduce Online Communities** || **Inform, Next Steps** || **Evan, Brian, Andy, Vic (?)** || **15** ||
 * • Evan gave an overview of the discussion revolving around Online Communities. Online communities (such as a Ning) would be an asset to providing professional development to educators in a different way. They facilitate networking, sharing of ideas, posing questions, and conducting informal trainings. They also help the growing change in schoolwide professional development from a top-down structure to a personal learning network. This would help support in areas where geography and the size of schools hurt the networking opportunities.

• Evan visited with Marv Howard, the programmer who oversees the Mandatory Reporter site. After looking at a sample site, Marv informed Evan that this is something he could do. Evan also visited with Nate McLenehan from ESU 10, who mentioned that they have contracted to provide the source code for the communities before.

• Brian mentioned 267's past efforts to create communities has failed to reach a critical mass to keep the communities going. He advised that we look as a state-wide system to ensure the most participation.

• Andy agreed with Brian in that there were difficulties in sustaining communities, and that there needed to be key moderators to keep discussion alive. Sue Swartz suggested looking to state associations for leadership on moderation.

• Barb mentioned that NWAEA has had similar discussions about this layer of online learning. She sees a definite need, especially with support for the Iowa Core.

• Kurtis Christensen mentioned AEA 14 is looking at [|LinkedIn] as a tool to facilitate online community discussions.

• Evan mentioned that he has visited with Vic Jaras from the DE, who is also a proponent of this type of support. VIc is looking at similar services for Iowa's students and would be interested in further discussions with the online communities.

• Andy suggested it would be beneficial to have the online communities ready to be rolled out at major events, such as ITEC, High School Summit, or even SAI conference.

• The next step will be to develop a list of the items desired in these Online Communities. AEA 267, Grant Wood, and Heartland's Ed Tech staff will be meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 10 to discuss this topic. Barb and Julie also expressed interest to be a part of that discussion. Anyone else interested, please contact Evan. ||
 * **Offerings from PLS (Drake) for training online instructors** || **Inform, Next Steps** || **Evan, Drake Representatives** || **35** ||
 * • Chuck Sengstock (Drake) gave an overview of Drake's partnership with PLS in providing courses. The primary reason that Drake has partnered with PLS is the quality of the courses. Chuck mentioned that the face-to-face courses have over a million dollars invested in their development.

• Brian informed the committee that 267 had worked with Drake's Jean Cross informally, and were very impressed with the feedback that she had given their staff on how to develop online instruction. While not having specific next steps, 267 is continuing to visit with Jean about online course development. This would be another layer of support beyond online instructional courses for AEA's.

• Evan mentioned that, at this time, it was Heartland's intent to work with PLS courses to develop the training for online instructors, and that Heartland was open to partnering with other AEAs or opening that training up for other AEAs.

• Barb mentioned she had received inquiries from Jan Mitchell at LincoTower (working in partnership with Viterbo) about offering courses, and posed the question about whether we would, as a state, allow other entities to hold courses. After discussion, the consensus was that other courses could be offered by AEAs, but they needed to follow the teaching standards and course standards set up by our committee.

• The next step is for the standards task force to finalize their suggested standards and bring those before the committee at the March meeting. ||
 * **Online repositories (e.g. PD 360) for online courses** || **Inform, Next steps** || **Evan, Barb** || **15** ||
 * • Barb and Evan shared with the group that the Media Service Directors had been thinking about not renewing the PD 360 subscription, but it now appears that it will be renewed. It was discussed by the committee that we should look at ways to structure the resources to make them more easily accessible to teachers. This included using this resource in the courses to train online instructors (who would, in turn, use those to help create their own courses), as well as using the content in the modules suggested by the Joint Directors.

• Chuck Sengstock shared with the group that Drake had developed structured guides for study groups to use with the course material, and that these were available in 5 areas: 1) Differentiation, 2) Quality Instruction, 3) ELL, 4) Assessment, and 5) Diverse Learners. More information is available at the [|Drake Extension website.]

• Evan updated the group on the ongoing discussions with the Iowa Core network. Evan is meeting with the CIA team and Rita Martens on Feb. 12 to discuss several items related to the Iowa Core. This includes 1) the online committee's role in developing online content that supports training teachers for the Core, 2) the use of Adobe Connect Pro and/or Online Communities to help facilitate ongoing teacher support for the Core, and 3) how the Core can utilize PD 360 to meet their needs. || Future agenda items? Plan to set future dates** || **Evan** || **5** || • Discussion of data from prioritization • Feedback from programmers on feasibility of online clearinghouse • Progress report on online communities • Discussion on finalized online standards • Update from Iowa Core discussion. ||
 * **Closing** || **What needs to be communicated?
 * Next meeting will include: