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EDUCATION COUNCIL

Nebraska Information Technology Commission


Friday, March 16, 2007, 9:00 a.m.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
City Campus Union -Heritage Room
14th & R Street, Lincoln, Nebraska

MINUTES

VOTING MEMBERS/ALTERNATES PRESENT:
Mr. Arnold Bateman, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Mr. Ed Hoffman, Alt. for Stan Carpenter, State College Board
Mr. Tip O’Neill, Alt for Mr. Clark Chandler, Nebraska Wesleyan University
Dr. Terry Haack, Bennington Public Schools
Dr. Jack Huck, Southeast Community College
Mr. Jeff Johnson, Centennial Public Schools
Mr. Dennis Linster, Wayne State College
Mr. Rich Molettiere, Omaha North High School
Mr. Bob Uhing, Educational Service Unit 1
LIAISON/ALTERNATE MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mr. Terry Dugas, Alt. for Mike Winkle, NET

MEMBERS/LIAISONS ABSENT: Mr. Ron Cone, Educational Service Unit 10; Dr. Eileen Ely, Western Nebraska Community College; Ms. Brenda Decker, CIO, State of Nebraska; Ms. Yvette Holly, University of Nebraska Medical Center; Mike Kozak, Department of Education; Mr. Joe LeDuc, Catholic Diocese of Lincoln; Mr. Chuck Lenosky, Creighton University;  Marshall Hill, Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education; Dr. Ed Rastovski, Wahoo Public Schools; and Linda Richards, Ralston Public School Board

CALL TO ORDER, ELECTRONIC POSTING, LOCATION OF OPEN MEETING LAW DOCUMENT, ROLL CALL INTRODUCTIONS
Dr. Huck called the meeting to order at 9:07 a.m.  There were 9 voting members present at the time of roll call.  A quorum existed to conduct official business. It was stated that the meeting notice was posted to the NITC Web site on January 23, 2007 and the meeting agenda posted to the NITC Web site March 12, 2007.

CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE MARCH 16, 2007 AGENDA
Mr. Linster moved to approve the March 16, 2007 agenda as presented.  Mr. O’Neill seconded.  Roll call vote:  Bateman-Yes, Hoffman-Yes, O’Neill-Yes, Haack-Yes, Huck-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Linster-Yes, Molettiere-Yes, and Uhing-Yes.  Results:  Yes-9, No-0.  Motion carried.

CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE JANUARY 19, 2007 MINUTES
Mr. Bateman moved to approve the January 19, 2007 minutes presented.  Mr. Johnson seconded.  Roll call vote:  Bateman-Yes, Hoffman-Yes, O’Neill-Yes, Haack-Yes, Huck-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Linster-Yes, Molettiere-Yes, and Uhing-Yes.  Results:  Yes-9, No-0.  Motion carried.

PRESENTATIONS
Portfolio Management.  Walter Weir, CIO for the University of Nebraska and Kimberly Harper, University of Nebraska, Director of Finance and Portfolio Management, provided the presentation.  This year, the portfolio management tool was used in the I.T. Budget proposal prioritization process.  (Click on “Portfolio Management” for the full presentation.
 
Project Management Strategies and Techniques.  Skip Philson, Office of the CIO, State of Nebraska, provided the presentation.  Mr. Philson’s office is responsible for project management which focuses on projects:  tasks, schedules, deliverables, resources, dependencies, planning, scheduling, executive, monitoring and control.  (Click on “Project Management” for the full presentation.)
Both presentations were recorded and will be available for members who were not able to attend.  Both of their platform tools are interoperable. 
All presenters provided contact information to the council members in case there was an interest.  

Mr. Bateman left the meeting.

1208 UPDATE:
Network services and support (RFP 1752Z1). The network support team is meeting today on the LB1208 project to make sure that the implementation will occur by the August 10th target date.  It is anticipated there will be a 41% discount off of Cisco list prices for edge devices and other network equipment if purchased off the State’s master purchase contract with MSI and shipped directly from Cisco to the site premise.

Statewide Scheduling System (RFP 1683Z1):  Courses are currently being entered into the Renovo clearinghouse for any recurring and adhoc conferences.  Mr. Uhing reported that the people who are already using the system are pleased.  In addition to courses, information on other asynchronous events will be available.

The videoconferencing equipment RFP will be released very soon.  All K-12 public and private and higher education public and private entities will be able to purchase off of the contract.  It is a multi-year contract through 2010.  It is hoped that the competitive bidding will bring about considerable cost savings for participating entities.

LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM STANDARDS WORK GROUP:
Mr. Rolfes reported that he communicated the January 19, 2007 resolution of the Education Council to encourage the NITC Technical Panel to consider formation of a smaller instructional/technical work group to research best practices and guidelines that could help guide instructional use of learning management systems. The Technical Panel politely declined and chose to stay with the proposed membership and charter of the work group, under the direction of Mr. Kirk Langer. It was explained that the work group’s priority will be to ensure that any viable learning management system will be required to be interoperable and that any content repository system be observant of standards so that instructional quality will be maintained. Mr. Rolfes also asked for the Education Council to review the membership list and to recommend members for the subsector vacancies that had not been filled. Current and former Education Council members and alternates serving on the work group include Joe LeDuc, Mike Kozak, John Stritt, Dan Moser, Chuck Friesen, and Rick Koch.

LEGISLATION UPDATE:
Mr. Rolfes provided a brief update on the four education technology-related bills before the Nebraska Legislature; LB 601, LB 603, LB 656, and LB 657.

NITC PERFORMANCE AUDIT:
Mr. Rolfes explained that the Nebraska Information Technology Commission was being reviewed for a legislative performance audit. State CIO Brenda Decker urges all members and alternates to be honest and forthright with information, should they be contacted by any staff of the performance audit committee. Failure to cooperate with the audit review constitutes a misdemeanor.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
There were no announcements.

MEETING MEETING DATE, TIME, AND LOCATION AND MEETING ADJOURNMENT:
Members requested that an update of LB 1208 be a continuing item on the agenda until the project is complete.

Mr. Dennis Linster volunteered Wayne State College for the May 18th meeting.
Co-Chair Terry Haack adjourned the meeting at 11:40am.

   Meeting minutes were taken by Lori Lopez Urdiales and reviewed by Tom Rolfes of the Office of the CIO/NITC.Meeting Minutes