"Oh look, another great website! I'm going to add it to my favorites!" A month later... "Where did I put that link? Was it on my home computer or my work computer? Was it this one? No... This one? No... Darn it, I know I had it somewhere!"

Have you had this conversation with yourself? Do you wish you could...

1. Access your list of favorite websites from any computer at any time?
2. Search your collection by keyword instead of having to remember the name of the website?
3. Easily organize your favorites into categories and put some sites in more than one category?
4. Share your favorite links with friends instantly instead of having to email them?
5. Access your colleagues' favorite links?
6. Highlight important information on a website and add sticky notes to it (aka annotate)?

You can do all of the above with Diigo! Diigo is a social bookmarking site - a place where you can collect and share links to the best things on the web. There are many such sites - Delicious, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon. But what makes Diigo stand out is that you can not only save the link, you can also add, save, and share highlights or sticky notes right on the webpage!

Take a look:

• View a website with highlights and sticky notes
  
• View my entire link collection (except the ones I decided to keep private).
• Search my collection for the word "inspirational."
  

Learn more by taking a video tour. Then create your own account and install the Diigo toolbar for easy access to all of Diigo's features. Don't worry - if you're on the go, you don't have to have the Diigo toolbar. You can still access and add to your bookmarks by going to www.diigo.com and logging in. Once you've learned the basics, join a group and discover what other like-minded web surfers are finding on the web! Get started with Diigo today!

Final note: Diigo offers great potential for helping students apply reading strategies to online text. However, the social networking aspect of the site poses potential risks. Contact me if you are interested in discussing this in greater detail.

 
Cyberbullying: Principals will be introduced to the Keenan Safe Schools online training system this month. The effort to implement the cyberbullying course will commence after that, likely in February.

Gradebook Programs: The committee has conducted an evaluation of the following programs: eSchool, Easy Grade Pro, and GradeQuick. The gradebook component of eSchool will be updated in the spring to include a standards component so the committee will review it again after this release. Some general comments were shared:

• We own eSchool so it would not require funds to use this gradebook program. It would require funds for security features to allow teacher and student/parent home access. It also requires students to be loaded into courses via a master schedule, something we only do at the secondary level right now. It is a traditional gradebook - it does not currently have a standards component.
  
• Of the three programs, Easy Grade Pro did standards-based grading most effectively. It allows teachers to do traditional or standards-based grading. The standards-based student report states the standards with current grade on each and lists the assessments for each standard and the student's grade on each of these assessments. So it is very clear which standards are strong/weak and how each standard was assessed.
• GradeQuick had a nice interface but did not do an adequate job of reporting by standard. An assessment could be associated to one or more standards, but the standards report does not indicate what assessments were used to arrive at the score on that standard.
• Committee members expressed the desire to have DataDirector data auto-imported into the adopted gradebook program. However, the DataDirector representative said it is not possible and is not aware of any school district importing data from DataDirector into a gradebook program.
  

Technology Scope and Sequence: To meet state and federal requirements for ensuring students acquire technology and information literacy skills, the District Technology Plan indicates that Rialto will develop a scope and sequence of lessons at each grade level. These lessons will be embedded in the core content pacing guides and provide progressive skill development K-12. To initiate the development of this scope and sequence, the committee will ask teachers to submit lessons/activities they are currently using within the content areas. The committee developed an online survey that will be sent to teachers to seek their recommendations.

 
Cyberbullying: Based on the committee's prior recommendations, all teachers and administrators will be asked to complete a 24 minute online course addressing the topic of cyberbullying. This course will be delivered through the Keenan SafeSchools online training system. The link to this system is on the district page under "Quick Links" and on every school's page under the "More..." link for staff. We hope to initiate rollout in January. Some schools expressed an interest in getting login information out to teachers before Winter Break.

eChalk Implementation:

• Principals and eChalk site managers will receive a site level midyear implementation report from our eChalk representative. This report will include # of active accounts, # of teachers with class pages, # of visits to the school website, and more.
• Districtwide, 86% of teacher accounts are active, 62% of administrators, and 45% of students. Actual activation is slightly higher since "old" accounts have not been cleaned out of the system and all 4th and 5th grade students were added, even though not all are participating in Project eSTELLAR,which is introducing student accounts at elementary.
• eChalk Training for teachers was announced via email, providing 2 opportunities each month in January, February, and March for teachers to learn how to create and use a class webpage. Dates and registration are available via the Professional Development System.
• Parents participating in the Parent Institute through the new Parent Center are receiving hands-on training in how to access and use schools' eChalk sites.

Gradebook Program Evaluation - GradeQuick: The committee participated in an online demonstration of the GradeQuick web-based software application.

• User interface is very friendly - mimics desktop software with traditional grid view of gradebook. Able to move quickly from one students' grade to another. System saves every 4 minutes or when switching screens.
• Traditional Grading View:
• Shows average, hi/low for each assignment.
• Sort assignment columns by date, name, category
• Can sort students by score on a particular assignment to quickly identify low performing students
• Scores are entered as points; can choose to weight an assignment within its category
• Varying grading scales; can assign unique scales to particular students (i.e. a different scale for RSP students)
• Standards-based Grading - Skills View:
• Standards are entered as "skills" in the system and associated to assignments in the traditional grading view.
• Can associate multiple skills with one assignment, but can only give one score for the assignment. To give a separate score for each skill within an assignment (i.e. a test that covers multiple standards), teacher would have to enter the assignment multiple times, once for each skill.
• Can set a rubric/scale for each skill
• Choose skill score calculation - average of all associated assignments, highest, latest, mode, or none
• Can manually override score for each skill
• Reports:
• Standards-based reporting: lists the skills and the calculated score for each. This report does not list the assignments associated to the skill and the scores on these (as we saw in Easy Grade Pro).
• Test report: lists the assignments and their scores. Does not show the related skill (standard) associated with each assignment.
• Additional Notes:
• Can add notes to an assignment, student, class and have them included on reports. Can keep private notes on students as well. Cannot create a note associated to an individual student's assignment score.
• Representative indicated that scores can be imported from DataDirector using the Testlink function (additional cost).
• Can administer online tests and have scores entered in gradebook using TestMaker module (additional cost).

Gradebook Evaluation - eSchoolPlus: The committee reviewed the gradebook of our existing student information system in February and determined that it did not support standards-based grading. However, the company plans to release an update that will address this. Noelle with work with Beth Ann in IT Dept to arrange a new demo session for the committee.

Next Meeting: Thursday, January 7th 3pm at the District Registration Center