Education Action Team to Meet

A meeting date, time and place has been set for the first Education Action Team meeting.

Where: Essex Town Superintendent's Office, 58 Founders Road
Time: 5:00-7:00 PM

All are welcome. If you can not attend but would like to give your input - send me (Ellen) your top 3 ideas to ethompson@etsd.org.

Growing Up Digital

Hello everyone,

I'm sure this will be a very worthwhile event. Please consider attending and pass it on to friends and colleagues.

-Karyn

HOLD THE DATE!
Friday, September 26, 2008
sponsored by ACME Vermont

Growing Up Digital: Kids, Commercialism and New Media Culture

Bishop Booth Conference Center at Rock Point 20 Rock Point Circle Burlington, VT

REGISTER TODAY! (click)
Friday, Sep. 26, 2008 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Keynote Speakers:

Josh Golin, Campaign for Commerial Free Childhood

Lauren-Glenn Davitian,CCTV Center for media & Democracy

Workshops include:

Social Networks and New Media-Sheryl Rivera and Adam Kenner.

Packaging Girlhood-Sharon Lamb

Media Literacy Through Media Production-James Valastro

Disney and the marketing/ morphing of Child Stars-Sheryl Rivera and Adam Kenner

Why People Under 40 Don’t Follow the News-David Mindich, SMC Journalism Dept.

Blogging, Screening, and Print In-Betweening: Reinventing Journalism for the 21st Century

Internet Safety-Sgt. Carlson, Crimes Against Children Task Force

Teacher 2.0: Literacy and Learning in a Digital World-Tre Redmond and John Henson

Public Square Program on e-state initiative

The air date of the Public Square program on VPT that highlighted the May 29th conference has been moved to Thursday, August 21st at 8:00 p.m.

Education Action Team - Interested?

Fulfilling Our e-State Potential: Building Community in a Connected Age
What does this statement mean to you?

On May 29th several hundred Vermonters converged on the campus of Champlain College to discuss just what a community would look like and feel like within an actively "wired" state. From this meeting came many BIG ideas and several action groups. I volunteered to bring people together around the charge of EDUCATION. The time to begin is now.

This group can approach this work in so many different ways. There is the actual work of educating a public as to the power and potential of using digital literacies to support, enhance and improve ongoing work across all venues. Add to this the importance of adding more uses of collaborative web 2.0 tools in our schools, businesses, and community centers. Sprinkle in the ability to capture the life work and ambitions of our community elders. Mix it up by finding ways to increase our global awareness through the use of technology.

The problem for our group will be: Where to start?

Are you interested? Intrigued? Confused?

I would like to set up a preliminary planning meeting to better define our charge. Here are a couple of dates to consider...
August 5 OR 6
Morning 9:00-11:00
Afternoon: 1:00-3:00 OR 3:00-5:00 OR 5:00-7:00

We can meet here at the Superintendent's Office in Essex Town.

Drop me an email at ethompson@etsd.org if either of these days would work and if there is a best time for you. I will choose a day and time when several can attend just to get the ball rolling.

Do you have someone you think should be involved? Send me their email address and I will send an invite - or better yet bring them to the meeting with you.

Thank you,
Ellen

Ellen A. Thompson, Ed.D.
Director of Instruction and Information Services
Essex Town School District

Online Tools Training

At this very moment, E-State Action Team leaders are logged into a webinar to learn how to use the E-State wiki and blog to support our teams.

Team Needs Members

I sent out a note to the individuals who signed up for this action team at the Symposium, but we need more people to get involved. I'm going to propose at our organizational meeting later this summer/early fall that we go out on the road and talk to folks in some of the regions around the state. Having representation from different regions in the state would not only be good for the team, it could help facilitate the process for establishing the meetings. Let Karyn or I know if you want to sign on, or if you know some people I should reach out to and invite.

Access to low cost computers focus of new business

Equity and Access to technology is one of the key concerns that came up during the e-state symposium. Here is an article about a new business in Essex Junction that aims to help the environment and provide low cost computers to people who need them.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880702019