ERAC Update – April 2012

In this April issue you’ll find::

• Whitepaper on database evaluation
• 4 ways to gain value as members
• Strategies for using KnowBC resources
• New reviewed apps for K-12
• IT4K12 registration
• MNet report on young Canadians
• ERAC job posting for Executive Director
• FAQ on Microsoft PML agreement
• Feedback survey

....and so much more!

DEADLINES

1. No deadlines to announce for April

NEW FOR YOU

Database Evaluations in High Demand

Gone are the days of evaluating one simple database. Now one product can include multiple databases. Vendors understand the benefit of database evaluations and have increasingly requested ERAC to provide this service. To properly accommodate these evaluations, there requires some database evaluation criteria. Databases in themselves can be quite a complex resource, covering a variety of components. In specific, there are three different areas to address as part of a complete evaluation and these include: content, coverage and technical. To assist in this process, we’ve created a whitepaper called “Database Evaluation Criteria”. ERAC met with teacher librarians from around the province for a day to discuss evaluation criteria and relook at databases in the current bundle. Teacher Librarians who participated in the day were Heather Daly (Coquitlam), Lisa Domeier (Surrey),Gordon Powell (Richmond),Michele Farquharson (Vancouver), Al Smith (Central Okanagan) and Cindy Martin(Prince George). To see the entire review, click here.

Inactive Report – BC Ministry Recommended

A new white paper has been created to help with your search for Ministry Recommended listed resources. The inactive report has recently been added to the ERAC online collection By choosing “Ministry Recommended” in the “Status” field, you can search for those items only, or watch for the icon above to show you the resource is from the Ministry’s list. Click here.

Google Sketch Up Pro at No Charge to Members

Want to see your ideas come to life in 3D? You can achieve this with Google SketchUp Pro, a powerful tool used to explore and present ideas in creative 3D models. The BC Ministry of Education has executed a license agreement and ERAC is implementing it for our members. Google does not charge Canadian educational institutions. This product is for educational purposes only and certain conditions must be fulfilled (including privacy concerns) before obtaining a license through ERAC. Please be sure to review the agreement and all important requirements.

Made the Grade:

Check out ERAC’s Online Resource Collection to find out what's new. Click on the titles to go to the evaluation. Log in and see the ERAC Review from your peers!

Title	Vendor	Grades/Subject Areas/Annotation
Salmon Bears: Giants of the Great Bear Rainforest	Orca Book Publishers	Grades: 4-7. Subjects: Language Arts, Multidisciplinary Resource. This resource connects the lives of sea wolves to the unique environment of BC’s Great Bear rainforest. Provides in-depth look at lives of wolves, their background and connection to BC. Colourful photography captures and engages. Comes with online learning guide with relevant PLO’s, lesson plans, discussion ideas and more. Good fit for grade seven science strand Ecology.
Sea Wolves: Living Wild in the Great Bear Rainforest	Orca Book Publishers	Grades: 4-7. Subjects: Language Arts, Multidisciplinary Resource. This resource connects the lives of sea wolves to the unique environment of BC’s Great Bear rainforest. Provides in-depth look at lives of wolves, their background and connection to BC. Colourful photography captures and engages. Comes with online learning guide with relevant PLO’s, lesson plans, discussion ideas and more. Good fit for grade seven science strand Ecology.
Generation Us	Orca Book Publishers	Grades: 11-12. Subjects: Social Studies and Science. Dr. Andrew Weaver presents an overview of the issue of global warming. The resource discusses the scientific, social and moral perspectives of the topic. Scientific facts can be clearly understood and the resource is a useful supplement to curriculum materials.

Dollars and Sense:

4 Ways to Gain Value Through Membership

ERAC Membership has many benefits. Just a few of those benefits to find out what’s new. Log in and see the full product review from your peers!

1. Media Awareness Network has two products for use, MyWorld and Reality Check

2. National Film Board

3. SOCAN (extended until June 30, 2012)

4. Enclyclopedia of BC

Access to these resources is simple and flexible, so don’t miss out and expand your world through these valued available products through ERAC.

Stay Up to Date with Microsoft E Desktop Solution

By moving from the Microsoft PML agreement to a common Microsoft E Desktop Solution, ERAC members will have access to all the latest versions in Office Professional, Windows operating systems and the ECAL Suite. ERAC believes there is tremendous value in moving all participating members to the full E Desktop solution. To view the benefits your District or school can derive from the individual components of E Desktop, click here But that’s not all, a list of Value Added Benefits included with this agreement, can also been seen here Click here to view the full agreement.

ERAC in the Classroom

Digital Road Map Project Focuses on Online Products

Teachers from 16 schools in the province participated in ERAC’s Digital Media Solutions Test Drive, providing weekly report experiences with online digital media resources.

Bob French, learning resources project manager for ERAC, said, “It’s been a busy year to take on such a project and ERAC appreciates the commitment of the teachers who participated.”

ERAC partnered with vendors, service providers and PLNet early in 2011 and the final report will be released very soon through an ERAC announcement as well as on the ERAC website and in the ERAC Update newsletter.

The project evaluated locally hosted video libraries, cross-curricular interactive video and interactive multimedia resources, subject- and content-specific digital media resources, adaptive and interactive curriculum content and interactive learning programs. Online digital products were test driven in real-world classroom environments. Consideration was given to school and district infrastructure, school and classroom technology, student mobile devices, ease of the use of digital resources and required teacher training and support.

Even schools that struggle with providing technology to their students because of location or aging technology were encouraged to participate so that solutions could be found to provide support for all students throughout the province.

One of the resources, BookFlix, pairs a fiction book with a non-fiction book on a wide range of topics. “It encourages deeper thinking. It brings books alive,” explains Monica Berra, teacher-librarian at Pinewood Elementary in Prince George.

Kris Sward, who teaches grades 5 and 6 at Cultus Lake Community School, was happy to try out BookFlix and Expert Space. “It’s always neat to have access to different products and different ways of doing things. And it’s definitely nice to have additional resources in the classroom. You teach from your perspective and knowledge. This brings another angle into it.”

Even so, it can be difficult to introduce new classroom strategies. “There is so much curriculum to cover,” Sward said, “and sometimes you think to yourself, ‘I’ll just do it the way I’ve done it before.’”

However, BookFlix turned out to be a resource that was easy to incorporate into lesson plans. “The kids and teachers just loved it.”

One book pairing combined Doreen Cronin’s Click, Clack Moo: Cows that Type, with a book about dairy farms. Students enjoyed reading or having the computer read the fiction story to them and were eager to learn more about dairy farming.

“The pairings seemed to fit,” she said. “They’re popular books that I’ve seen in book stores and in classrooms.”

Expert Space is an online social studies and science encyclopaedia tied directly to the B.C. curriculum. The materials are also presented at three different language levels. “There’s a huge amount of information and it’s a good jumping off point,” Sward said. Some of her students found it too advanced while others “just ran with it.”

A bigger issue was logging onto the site. “It was arduous because of the profiles that had to be set up, the passwords and router issues.”

Berra said that she and other teachers at her school encountered problems with students logging on and a slow hub. “But these are just growing pains,” she said.

Sward and Berra said ERAC’s evaluation process was very manageable. Berra said she enjoyed participating in the online evaluation meetings and it even prompted evaluation of all the resources she uses in her classroom. “There was great dialogue with teachers from other districts. I formed great professional relationships over it.

“I think ERAC took on a lot looking at these resources and I’m glad it did,” Berra said. “I enjoyed the whole process.”

April is Encyclopedia of BC Month in the ERAC Commons!

Did you know that BC once ran wild with camels? Don’t take our word for it, check it out in one of the many ebooks offered online through knowbc.com. In fact, we’ve captured this great Encyclopedia of BC resource, along with the rest of its rich online collection in our ERAC4U group. Every month we take the time to highlight a resource for our members and provide teaching strategies and tips for use so that you get the most out of your time. Make sure to check out the next one in May! Feel free to share your resource experiences at the ERAC Commons.

Apps, Apps and More Apps!

Newly evaluated apps are constantly being added to the Commons. website. We recently have 30 new ones to share with you! For instance, iCrosss is an app that allows students to explore three dimensional solids in a variety of ways. There’s also the Amazing Coin app that gives students the opportunity to recognize and understand the value of Canadian coins. Many of these are waiting for you to rate as well as for your feedback. So don’t wait, there’s so much more to share with you, just go directly to our site and check it frequently!

IT4K12 is NOW open for Registration!

With vendors congratulating us and districts commending us on hosting this long-time needed event in BC, we have high hopes it will be a great success. The IT4K12 event planning is well on its way with keynote speakers booked, presentation proposals coming in and vendors securing sponsorships. We’d love you to spread the news to your IT Managers and staff to join us for two days in June (12-13), to listen to leading edge experts discusses topics in four tracks: cloud, mobility, infrastructure and classroom. Don’t miss the early bird deadline and register soon! To make sure you don’t miss timely news like this – create an account on our homepage and you’ll automatically receive our newsletter.

A roadmap should be clear, easy to read and get you to your destination as quickly as possible. That’s what we are working on creating for you through our Roadmap to the Digital Classroom report. There are many components to the report and we are dedicating our time to make it as comprehensive as possible for you. So watch our site for the release announcement.

DID YOU KNOW?

Are We Too Plugged In?

Smart phones, lap-tops, IPods, the list goes on, but what does all this wireless technology mean to students, their learning and relationships with teachers? A new study by MNet (Media Awareness Network) explores these issues and has released a report, Young Canadians in a Wired World – Phase III, Teacher’s Perspectives. This research is one of the most comprehensive and wide-ranging studies of its kind in Canada. Beginning with focus groups with teachers, the study examined how digital technologies are integrated in the classroom, how they enhance learning and the impact on the teacher-student relationship. MNet’s next step will be a quantitative survey of over 5,000 students across the country, planned for January 2013. If you’d like more information on the study, contact Lynn Huxtable at lhuxtable@media-awareness.ca

EBSCO – The Place to Go

With vendors now offering online training and support, a wealth of information is literally at our fingertips. EBSCO is no exception, with choices from on-demand and online training courses to videos, tutorials, user guides and help sheets. Check out their website for more information.

Seeking Executive Director…for ERAC!

Don’t just be a member – be ERAC’s next Executive Director! ERAC is inviting individuals who want to work with ERAC in a management capacity, to apply on the recent Executive Director posting. Requiring strong leadership abilities, this role would be of interest to people with experience in educational leadership at the BC school district level, coupled with a broader provincial perspective. This position is open until April 10th, 2012, by noon. Click here to review the complete job posting. Pass this on to someone you think would be a good fit

Feedback Fuels Us

As we are a member-based organization, we believe in the importance of hearing from our members so that we can change and evolve for the better. We can only do this if we hear from you. Below is a link to a quick 1 minute survey. Please feel free to complete it to help us serve you better. Thanks!
Feedback Link: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/828765/ERAC-Feedback