EDUCATION COUNCIL
Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 9:00 am CT
Varner Hall Board Room, 3835 Holdrege, Lincoln
MINUTES
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mr. Mark
Askren, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Mr. Burke Brown,
Palmyra School District OR1
Mr. Matt
Chrisman, Mitchell Public Schools
Mr. John
Dunning, Wayne State College
Mr. Ted DeTurk, ESU 02
Dr. Dan Hoesing, Schuyler Community Schools
Mr. Steve Hotovy, Nebraska State College System
Mr. Gary
Needham, ESU 09
Mr. Mary
Niemiec, University of Nebraska
Mr. Randy
Schmailzl, Metro Community College
LIAISONS/ALTERNATES PRESENT: Dr. Kathleen
Fimple, CCPE; Ms. Cassandra Joseph, South Sioux City Community Schools; Ms.
SuAnn Witt, NDE
MEMBERS/LIAISONS ABSENT: Mr. Derek Bierman;
Mr. Mike Carpenter; Mr. Steven Hamersky; Dr. Mike Lucas;
Mr. Greg Maschman, and Mr. Darren Oestmann;
Mr. Ed Toner; and Mr. Gary Targoff
CALL TO ORDER, ELECTRONIC POSTING,
LOCATION OF OPEN MEETING LAW DOCUMENTS, ROLL CALL, INTRODUCTIONS
Co-Chair, Mary
Niemiec, called the meeting to order at 9:02 am CT. The meeting notice posted to the NITC Web site
and the Nebraska Public Meeting Calendar on August 14, 2015.
The agenda was posted to the NITC Web site August 14, 2015. The Open Meeting Statutes were located on the south
wall of the Varner Hall Board Room. Ms. Lopez-Urdiales called the roll and
found nine voting members or alternates present. A quorum was reached in order
to conduct official business. Members and guests introduced themselves.
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA FOR
THE FEBRUARY 18, 2015 MEETING*
Mr. Dunning moved to approve the
meeting agenda as presented. Mr. Hotovy seconded. Roll
call vote: Akren-Yes, Joseph-Yes, Chrisman-Yes,
DeTurk-Yes, Dunning-Yes, Hotovy-Yes,
Needham-Yes, Niemiec-Yes, and Schmailzl-Yes. Results: Yes-9, No-0, Abstained-0.
Motion carried.
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
FROM THE MAY 27, 2015 MEETING*
Ms. Niemiec asked to table the review and approval of the
May 27, 2015 minutes until the next meeting.
Update
from the May 21 and July 23 NITC meetings
Mr. Needham provided an update from the May 21 and July 23
NITC meetings. NITC Commissioners have communicated to the various Councils
that each initiative and action item should be measurable and also include
strengths and opportunities as well as barriers and challenges. Felix Davidson,
Chair of the NITC, is the chief operating officer for the State of Nebraska.
Dr.
Dan Hoesing and Burke Brown joined the meeting.
A review of the
2014-16 Network Nebraska and Digital Education strategic initiative action
items
Mr. Rolfes provided a brief summary of the Network Nebraska
and Digital Education action items from the 2014-16 Statewide Technology Plan.
He reinforced that the Education Council has the responsibility for
recommending updated action items, which may include new additions, deletions,
and edited action items. This work will need to be completed in time for the
11/12/2015 NITC meeting. Lengthy discussion and comments were shared by the
Education Council members concerning the current action items, with suggestions
for modifications.
Ms. Niemiec elaborated that the Education Council visioning
process followed six guiding principles:
·
Transformation
of the learning environment
·
Professional
development to maximize the use of technology
·
Available,
accessible, reliable and secure infrastructure
·
Promote
information and technology literacy
·
Collaboration
and communication among all levels of education, government, and community
·
Commitment
to workforce development
Ms. Niemiec and Mr. Needham shared that the Visioning
Committee was recommending a complete replacement of the former action items with
action items that were more under the control and execution of the Education
Council with NITC staff resources. This will bring about a significant change
to all previous Education Council action items that were more a description of
other education entities’ efforts. The new action items that will be proposed
for the October Education Council meeting will be more action-oriented and more
measurable and be based on the following:
Network Nebraska Initiative (DRAFT)
·
The
Education Council will work in collaboration with the Community Council
Broadband Initiative to find solutions for available, accessible, reliable,
secure and affordable Internet access as related to academic success.
·
Challenge
the NNAG Participant Criteria subcommittee to develop a strategy for community
affiliate connections in Network Nebraska.
Digital
Education Initiative (DRAFT)
·
Create
Professional development opportunities for all Nebraska educators related to
blended and online learning.
·
Through
a collaborative research project, create a guide for best practices in the use
of blended and online learning technologies with the intent of narrowing the
gap between K-12 and higher education
Network
Nebraska Update.
Mr. Rolfes reported that on July 1, 2015, 14 new ESU 3
school districts and the Lincoln Diocese of Catholic Schools also became
participants of Network Nebraska-Education, adding about 57,000 additional
students daily using the statewide Internet service. Lincoln City Libraries are
putting down new fiber are expected to join mid-year, hopefully before January
2016. Additional inquiries for membership have been received from Lutheran High
School Northeast in Norfolk, Brownell-Talbot school in Omaha, and the Department
of Health and Human Services’ high schools located in Kearney and Geneva.
Participant hosted memberships were explored by the Neihardt
Center in Bancroft and the Ashfall and Trailside
Museums, as part of the University of Nebraska State
Museum. The Network Nebraska Advisory Group are expected to finalize and
recommend the new section of Participant Criteria called Participant-Hosted
Entities and will be bringing this document to the Education Council. The
upcoming WAN transport RFP will be the largest telecommunications services RFP
in the history of Nebraska and will affect about 150 K-12 circuits, 30 higher
education circuits, and about 100 UNL Extension circuits. Bids will be opened
prior to the December holiday break.
Subsector
Updates
State colleges, Steve Hotovy,
John Dunning. Steve Hotovy
expressed his support for the Visioning Process and Team. Peru completed their
wireless upgrade using the DAS master lease option. Larger system-wide projects
include Parchment as their electronic transcript process. Implementation has
started and should be done by November. An RFP for services will be released,
soon. Proposals due in late November with implementation in December. State
colleges are relatively small and cybersecurity improvements coordinated with
the University staff are a challenge. Data reporting and analysis are growth
areas. John Dunning said that Wayne State is partnering with Northeast
Community College to take advantage of geographic proximity to leverage Network
Nebraska to get a gigabit connection between campuses and allowing redundant
Internet access between the two campuses. NCC and WSC standardized on a data
storage and recovery software that enabled cost savings and used UNCSN and UNMC
as 3rd and 4th backup sites for data recovery. WSC is
implementing a managed print system on campus. Bret Bieber at UNL has been
helping with federated identity management.
Community colleges, Randy Schmailzl. Randy Schmailzl focused
on the D O Space digital library
implementation for $28 million at 72nd & Dodge, which is a
digital content implementation, and a $90 million building project for 3
buildings on the Fort Omaha campus. Omaha Public Libraries is not expected to
be a fiscal partner with this project as it spends about $25 per patron on
digital content development while other cities spend $75-$119 per patron. [possible future tour] Randy will share the Program Statement
for the project and facility with Tom Rolfes, who will share it with the
Education Council members.
Independent colleges. No report.
University of Nebraska, Mark Askren, Mary
Niemiec. Mark
Askren shared that President Bounds is communicating that all campuses and
central administration is expected to work together more effectively within the
system, and to leverage more technology staff and resources through
collaboration. With I.T. spend as a flat budget, campuses rarely have anything
left over for innovation, with very few systems being retired and more
applications being added. Student success is a real focus with the pilot
project of Canvas helping to measure predictive analytics and lower costs and
to provide for students with greater needs and more educational efficiency.
I.T. security is a major concern. Mary Niemiec reported that the University
Independent High School will be offering seven dual credit classes that count
for general education credit. President Bounds has once again set aside funding
for 150 course registrations for Nebraska students to take University High
School classes.
Coordinating Commission, Kathleen Fimple. Kathleen Fimple
reported that the CCPE is working with the Nebraska Dept
of Education to compile accurate information for dual credit classes across the
state. State Authorization and Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) now involves 28
states, with AR, IL, OK, MI, all either being added or being considered. All 13
Nebraska higher education institutions are on SARA and 7 private colleges on.
K-12 public, Burke
Brown, Ted DeTurk, Dan Hoesing,
Gary Needham. Burke Brown said that hardware virtualization
is becoming more of a trend, and student data is enabling more effective
diagnoses. District OR1 will be upgrading its wireless this fall. Ted DeTurk reported that the LOR and LMS studies are important
initiatives, as well as the Data Dashboard. The AQUESSTT accountability system
is important for schools. Distance Learning needs are continuing
to grow. Dan Hoesing said that Schuyler just
renovated six schools for internal wireless and just put in a new recording
studio to offer programming and news to the home. Cargill corporate partnership
at Schuyler is a win-win for students and employee retention. The Homestead
Center will be a multi-tenant learning center in downtown Schuyler. Gary
Needham reinforced that hardware virtualization and cloud technologies and
applications are becoming more important. Summer 2016 will be a summer full of
change for Nebraska schools. ESUs have originated an ESU Statewide Technology
Plan to develop a federated environment for single sign-on and the Nebraska
Cloud, available for the pilot schools in the Dashboard and Advisor systems.
K-12 private. No report.
Nebraska Dept of Education, SuAnn Witt. There
will be an infrastructure clinic for internal networking and wireless E-rate
funding on October 8 at ESU 10 in Kearney. Distance Ed incentives provided $1.3
million for course exchanges in 2014-15 and for 2015-16 the budgeted amount
will provide for less than half of that.
OTHER
BUSINESS
Dr. Hoesing shared that there
will be a Technology Fair in Schuyler on October 13-14 to showcase agriculture,
health care, and education and to answer the “Why are we using technology in
education?” Dr. Hoesing will send the link for the
event to Tom Rolfes so he can share it with the Council members.
AGENDA ITEMS FOR THE 10/21/2015
MEETING
Agenda
items suggested for the next meeting included:
Strategic Initiative Action Items
CONSIDER LOCATION(S) FOR THE 10/21/2015
MEETING
The NITC
staff will explore possible meeting locations for the 10/21/2015 face-to-face
meeting and notify the Education Council members and alternates.
Mr. Hotovy moved to adjourn.
Mr. Dunning seconded. All were in
favor. Motion carried by unanimous voice
vote.
The
meeting was adjourned at 11:37 a.m. CT.
Minutes
were taken by Tom Rolfes of the Office of the CIO/NITC.