WiscNet 2010-2011 E-Rate and Network Participation Fee Information


E-Rate quotes for WiscNet members are now available. Information regarding our 2010-2011 Network Participation Fee is also available online.

WiscNet Third Thursday: “The Future of Math Education” with Dan Meyer

by John Pederson on February 2, 2010

Dan Meyer.jpg

This month’s WiscNet Third Thursday features Dan Meyer, a high school math teacher that really likes to teach. Dan is among my favorite educators sharing his experiences teaching with the rest of the world. His blog at http://blog.mrmeyer.com is a must read for any teacher.

Dan provides the perfect introduction to his style…

I’m Dan Meyer. Five years ago I lucked into a job I love. I’m a high school math teacher stationed outside Santa Cruz, CA, and I get better at this job every day I keep at it and keep pondering my wins and losses. This is a documentary of all the fun I’m having.

My purpose here is practice not policy. I’m leaving NCLB and charter schools to the wonks and ‘wizes. (For the most part.) This blog goes out to the classroom grinders, to the teachers handling the tough classrooms. Let’s figure out how to make this job better and easier.

So no ads. This is for the joy of working hard at one of the hardest jobs there is. As much as I hope this is valuable to other teachers, I hope most for input from the outside. Please leave comments. The input of good teachers has always been valuable to me.

On Wednesday, February 17*, 2010 @ 3:00pm CST Dan will join us to talk about “The Future of Math Education”. Dan plays around with the idea of “WCYDWT” or “What can you do with this?” problems to help high school students understand math. His “Be less helpful…” mantra is also and interesting approach to how teachers and students interact in solving problems.

For some great examples of Dan’s work, check out this collection of projects online.

*Note: This is a special Wednesday edition of WiscNet Third Thursdays!

Attending is free and simple. Visit http://wisc.na4.acrobat.com/thirdthursday/ at 3:00pm CST on Wednesday, February 17th to join the session.

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WiscNet Third Thursday: MasStore with David Kieper & Craig Stephenson

by John Pederson on January 25, 2010

UW Green Bay.jpgJoin us on Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 2:00pm CST for a presentation & discussion with David Kieper (UW-Green Bay) and Craig Stephenson (WiscNet) about our MasStore project.

We have six pilot organizations, including UW-Green Bay, who have signed on to pilot MasStore. MasStore is large amounts of network accessible disk storage on WiscNet. Most, if not all pilots are investigating MasStore with the goal of using it for off-site disaster recovery of critical data. Each organization is at different points in their testing and use of their Terabyte of disk.

In the Fall of 2009 David Kieper compiled the details of what they found sending data between UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee. This Third Thursday presentation will be very technical in nature, discussing in detail the various strategies and results they used in testing out MasStore.

More information about MasStore can be found on our WiscNet MasStore site.

Meeting Archive Available! Click here to watch an archive of our Third Thursday session.

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WiscNet Does SSL Certificates Really Cheap for Its Members

by John Pederson on January 8, 2010

Security Lock Small.jpg

WiscNet wants to help you protect sensitive web application logins and data. Most student information, administrative business and payroll, lunchroom payment, transportation, content management, and learning management systems these days are on the web. These are all systems that should be protected with SSL certificates.

WiscNet purchases SSL certificates through GeoTrust and Verisign in bulk in order to reduce the overall costs to our members. The discounted rate we can provide compared to retail rates is amazing. We offer up all types of SSL certificates, however, most folks purchase the QuickSSL Premium to enable https on their various web applications. Prices for QuickSSL Premuim certs start at $93 for one year and can can run as low as $396 if you plan and purchase a six year cert. Pricing information for WiscNet members can be found on our SSL Certificate Price List.

Please don’t hesitate in contacting the folks in WiscNet technical support with questions about purchasing SSL certificates and getting them setup on your servers. It’s a simple process that we are experienced in handling with our members regardless of technical abilities.

For technical support on WiscNet services Monday through Friday from 7:45 am to 4:45 pm, you may call (608) 265-6761 option 2 or e-mail support@wiscnet.net.

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Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology

by John Pederson on January 6, 2010

This morning Will Richardson posted an outline of his presentation at the upcoming Educon 2.2. I know there are a handful of folks that will be there for this great discussion. I want to plug this discussion into our Wisconsin educational technology community.

Will’s upcoming discussion and recent thinking revolves around three quotes from Allan Collins and Richard Halverson’s recent book Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology.

Classroom.jpg“If educators cannot successfully integrate new technologies into what it means to be a school, then the long identification of schooling with education, developed over the past 150 years, will dissolve into a world where the students with the means and the ability will pursue their learning outside of public school.”

“Schools were prevalent in the era of apprenticeship, and they will be prevalent in whatever new system of education comes into being. But the seeds of a new system are beginning to emerge, and they are already beginning to erode the identification of learning and schooling. As these new technologically driven seeds germinate, education will occur in many different, more adaptive venues, and schools will have a narrower role in learning.”

“Our generation faces a…radically new, design challenge. We are dealing with a mature, stable system of education designed to adapt to gradual change, but ill-suited to embrace radical change. The pace of technological change has outstripped the ability or school systems to adapt essential practices. Schools have fiddled with learning technologies on the margins of the system, in boutique innovations that leave core practices untouched. The emergence of new forms of teaching and learning outside of school threaten the identification of learning with formal schooling forged in the 19th Century.”

While I’m admittedly biased* a bit towards these types of ideas, I think it gets darn close to spot on with the issues that will cause erosion to K12 public education over the next 10 years. There are many examples over the past decade of institutions being disrupted by the Internet.

Craigslist used the Internet to disrupt the newspaper industry.

Apple used the Internet to disrupt the music industry.

Amazon used the Internet disrupt the book industry.

Google is currently using the Internet to disrupt the telecommunications industry.

Who sees the role Craiglist, Apple, Amazon, and Google have played in disrupting institutions as positive? Negative? How? Why?

Who will use the Internet to disrupt K12 education? How? When?

Who is in the position to disrupt the disruptors? How?

Here’s my challenge to the educational technology community here in Wisconsin.

1. If you have questions either in support of or pushing back against these ideas, leave them in the comments on Will’s original post. It helps the entire community.

2. Use these quotes locally to stir a bit of conversation. Pass them along to administrators, leadership committees, technology councils, colleagues, etc.

3. Share what you have learned and/or the trouble you have caused with others.

*I work with Powerful Learning Practice, LLC, co-founded by Will Richardson.
*I was involved with the inception and continually promote Educon.
*Co-author of Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology Richard Halverson is an Assistant Professor at UW-Madison. Go Bagders!

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Spring 2010 Schedule for the BadgerLunch Webinar Series

by John Pederson on January 6, 2010

[Reposted from the BadgerLink email listserve...]

Want to learn how BadgerLink can help you, your library patrons or students? Often wonder what BadgerLink has to offer? Need to squeeze learning into an already tight schedule? Ever want to eat lunch with a Badger? Ok, well…we are kidding about this last one… The Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction, Reference and Loan Library, has organized the BadgerLunch webinar series to help folks make better use of BadgerLink.

This series of learning sessions will explore BadgerLink’s rich collection of information tools. Each session covers one resource, database, or interface. All sessions are open to anyone who wants to learn. Topics include a description of the information/learning resource, searching techniques, and helpful features. All sessions are Thursdays at noon and last 30-45 minutes. Our first season schedule is below.

Each session is short so please log into the webinar a few minutes early so as not to disrupt the other participants. If you have little experience with webinars, then give yourself some extra time and log in a few minutes earlier.

An archive of previous sessions is found at http://www.badgerlink.net/training.html

BadgerLink is a project of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning. The goal is to provide access to quality online information resources for all Wisconsin residents.

Spanish Language Materials

01.14 Spanish K12 Books and TeachingBooks.net

TO REGISTER: http://tinyurl.com/ykdvp5r
NOTE: No advance registration necessary

01.21 Spanish Language Resources from Britannica Online School Edition

TO REGISTER: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/474609832

01.28 Spanish Language Resources from EBSCO

TO REGISTER: http://tinyurl.com/yg8olqa

Books and Literature

02.04 LitFinder for Help Finding Poems, Stories, and More!
TO REGISTER: http://www.meetme.net/anytime
NOTE: No advance registration, Passcode: 8548664

02.11 Novelist: Readers’ Advisory Made Easy
TO REGISTER: http://tinyurl.com/ykp5y4z

02.18 K12 Literature Resources from Britannica Online
TO REGISTER: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/449007736

02.25 Literary Reference Center from EBSCO
TO REGISTER: http://tinyurl.com/yfqqc3n

03.04 K12 Learning Tools from TeachingBooks.net
TO REGISTER: http://tinyurl.com/yz8gf5r
NOTE: No advance registration necessary

Health and Medicine

03.11 Consumer Health Complete
TO REGISTER: http://tinyurl.com/yfrztks

03.18 Health Resources from Britannica Online
TO REGISTER: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/960603880

03.25 Nursing Collection/AltHealthWatch/Medline from EBSCO
TO REGISTER: http://tinyurl.com/yjbbdmt

Ecology and the Environment

04.08 Learning & Teaching Tools in Student Research Center
TO REGISTER: http://tinyurl.com/yg8t785

04.15 GreenFile and Other Ecology Resources from EBSCO
TO REGISTER: http://tinyurl.com/ykm7cjp

04.22 Environmental Resources from Britannica Online
TO REGISTER: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/422072200

What is BadgerLink?

BadgerLink is a project of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning. Its goal is to provide access to quality online information resources for Wisconsin residents. Users can search approximately 20,000 full-text magazines, journals, newspapers, reference materials and other specialized information sources. Included are over 8,000 full text magazines and journals, over 1,500 newspapers and newswires, and approximately 6,800 full text books. Full text articles are taken from 2,900 historical newspaper titles. In addition the BadgerLink vendors provide access to automobile repair manuals, company profiles, country economic reports, industrial reports and yearbooks, biographies, primary historical documents, charts, images, schematics, maps, poems, essays, speeches, plays, short stories, author audio programs and book readings, author video programs, book reviews or discussion guides, and many other full text resources not available through regular internet search engines.

What do I need to participate?

Generally speaking the requirements include a reliably fast internet connection, a recent version of a web browser, speakers on your computer or headphones to listen to the presenter. A telephone isn’t strictly required. Users can type instant messages to ask questions. Each vendor’s webinar system may have specific requirements. DPI strongly suggests checking for additional requirements when registering.

Do I need to register in advance?

Yes, we strongly suggest you register in advance.

Who is presenting?

For most of the series, a professional trainer from each of product vendors will host each session. The session on access and authentication is hosted by Lisa Reale, BadgerLink Coordinator.

I am not a librarian or a teacher. Does that matter? May I sign up?

Badgerlink is available to all Wisconsin residents and the BadgerLunch series is also. No prior knowledge of the resource is required. We want all Wisconsin to understand and use these information resources.

I can’t make that time. Will the sessions be recorded?

Yes, we will record these sessions and try to make them available on the BadgerLink homepage.

Who do I contact for more with my questions about this series?

Contact the BadgerLink Coordinator, Lisa Reale, at DPIBadgerLi@dpi.wi.gov OR complete the contact form at http://dpi.wi.gov/rll/wiscat/bl_sup.asp If you have other comments regarding the series or suggestions, please contact Lisa with those as well.

Should I log into a session early?

Yes, since each session is short, please log into the webinar a few minutes early so as not to disrupt the other participants. If you have little experience with webinars, then give yourself some extra time and log in a few minutes earlier.

Who can help me to get access to BadgerLink?

Contact the BadgerLink Coordinator, Lisa Reale, at DPIBadgerLi@dpi.wi.gov or complete the contact form at http://dpi.wi.gov/rll/wiscat/bl_sup.asp

I am a librarian. Can I get Continuing Education (CE) credits for these sessions?

Yes. If you are a librarian in a public library you can accrue .5 CE credit for each 30 minute session attended.

What about school library media specialists, teachers and administrators?

These folks can use sessions for their PDP’s (Professional Development Plans) if it fits with established goals.

Is there an email announcement list for BadgerLink?

Yes! Visit http://www.badgerlink.net/list.html to learn more.

Is there an archive of previous sessions?

Yes! An archive of previous sessions is found at http://www.badgerlink.net/training.html

Partial support for BadgerLink is provided by the Library Services and Technology Act funds received from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Other funding provided by the Wisconsin Universal Service Fund.

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Welcome to 2010!

by John Pederson on January 4, 2010

WiscNet Logo Small.jpgWith the flip of the calendar we get the chance to review the past and set goals for the future. When that flip involves a decade, we get to think in much larger chunks of time. I’m reminded of a quote from Doc Searls in the Cluetrain Manifesto a decade ago.

To understand what’s really happening on the Internet, you have to get down beneath the commercial hype and hoopla, which, though it gets 90 percent of the press, is actually a late arrival. From the beginning, something very different has been brewing online. It has to do with living, with livelihood, with craft, connection, and community…It’s tough and gritty and it’s just beginning to find its voice, its own direction.

Take a few moments to remember the Internet of the 1990’s, reflect on the 2000’s, and imagine what is possible between now and 2020.

On behalf of the staff of WiscNet, welcome to 2010! We have enjoyed bringing you the past two decades of this thing called the Internet. We look forward to helping you in connecting people and connecting strategies into the next decade.

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Network Participation Fees 2010-2011

On December 8, 2009, the WiscNet Board of Directors approved (1) a new method for setting internet access service fees, based only on mission and size of WiscNet member-institutions, and (2) a corresponding “network participation fee schedule” for all current and prospective WiscNet members. This schedule gives our “annually recurring” internet access service fees for [...]

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WiscNet Learning Online Workgroup [Invitation to Participate]

Christensen (2008) makes the claim that by 2019, half of all high school classes will be taught either fully online or in a “blended” fashion, with between 30% and 80% of the interaction happening online. There’s no question that the United States is becoming an increasingly wired society—and as schools increase their bandwidth, there is [...]

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