EDUCATION COUNCIL
of the
NEBRASKA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION

Thursday, September 2, 2010, 1:00 PM CT

NSEA Board Room, 4th Floor
605 S. 14th Street, Lincoln, NE

MINUTES

VOTING MEMBERS/ALTERNATES PRESENT:

Mr. Arnold Bateman, University of Nebraska

Mr. Clark Chandler, Nebraska Wesleyan University
Dr.
Michael Chipps, Mid-Plains Community College

Mr. Ken Clipperton, Alt. for Chuck Lenosky, Creighton University

Mr. Ron Cone, ESU 10

Mr. Don Davis, Alt. for Mr. Jeff Stanley, Conestoga Public Schools

Dr. Terry Haack, Bennington Public Schools

Mr. Leonard Hartman, Alliance Public Schools

Ms. Yvette Holly, University of Nebraska Medical Center

Mr. Jeff Johnson, Centennial Public Schools

Mr. Dennis Linster, Wayne State College
Mr. Steven Stortz, Alt. for Stephen Hamersky, Omaha Gross High School

Dr. Bob Uhing, ESU 1

 

LIAISONS/ALTERNATE MEMBERS PRESENT: Mr. John Stritt, ESU 10; Mr. Gary Targoff, NET; Ms. SuAnn Witt and Mike Kozak, NDE

 

MEMBERS/LIAISONS ABSENT: Mr. Ed Hoffman, Nebraska State College System; Mr. Craig Pease, Ashland-Greenwood Public Schools; Mr. Randy Schmaizl, Metropolitan Community College; Ms. Brenda Decker, DAS-CIO; Dr. Marshall Hill, CCPE

 

CALL TO ORDER, ELECTRONIC POSTING, LOCATION OF OPEN MEETING LAW DOCUMENTS, ROLL CALL, INTRODUCTIONS

 

Co-chair, Dr. Haack, called meeting to order at 1:05 p.m. The Meeting Notice was posted to the NITC and Nebraska Public Meeting Calendar Web sites on July 8, 2010.  The agenda was posted to the NITC Web site August 27, 2010. A copy of the Open Meetings Act was located on the counter at the entrance of the meeting room. Roll Call found 12 members present. A quorum existed to conduct official business.

 

Co-Chair Dr. Haack asked that members and guests introduce themselves.

 

 

CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA FOR THE SEPTEMBER 2, 2010 MEETING

 

Mr. Bateman moved to approve the September 2, 2010 meeting agenda as presented.  Dr. Uhing seconded.  Roll call vote:  Bateman-Yes, Chandler-Yes, Cone-Yes, Haack-Yes, Stortz-Yes, Hartman-Yes, Holly-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Clipperton-Yes, Linster-Yes, Davis-Yes, and Uhing-Yes.  Results:  Yes-12, No-0, Abstaining-0.  Motion carried.

 

CONSIDER APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM THE JULY 6, 2010 MEETING

 

 

Ms. Holly moved to approve the July 6, 2010 Minutes as presented.  Mr. Johnson seconded.  Roll call vote: Uhing-Yes, Davis-Yes, Linster-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Holly-Yes, Hartman-Yes, Stortz-Yes, Haack-Yes, Cone-Yes, Clipperton-Yes, Chandler-Yes, and Bateman-Yes.  Results:  Yes-12, No-0, Abstaining-0.  Motion carried.

 

PUBLIC COMMENT

 

There as no public comment.

 

PRESENTATION: ELEARNING VISIONING MEETING UPDATE FROM AUGUST 19, 2010

Matt Blomstedt, ESU Coordinating Council

 

Dr. Chipps arrived to the meeting. 

 

Matt Blomstedt and Gordon Roethemeyer provided an update about recent meetings at which various entities shared concerns, thoughts and ideas about the need for statewide learning management and content management for all students and teachers in K-20:

·         August 19, 2010, Learning Management System & eLearning Vision Team meeting, Ayars & Ayars, Lincoln. There were approximately 40 individuals in attendance representing K12 and higher education.  The meeting’s objective was to arrive at a common eLearning vision for Nebraska. Mr. Blomstedt also serves on the Governor’s P-16 Committee.

·         September 1, 2010, eLearning and Virtual Schools discussion held at the Harms Technology Center in Scottsbluff. ESU 13, in partnership with Western Nebraska Community College, has a virtual learning academy. There were approximately 15 individuals in attendance in Scottbluff, joined by numerous ESU staff and Panhandle school administrators over videoconferencing. Dr. Hoesing, Superintendant of Alliance Public Schools, provided a keynote address.  

ESU’s have a statutory responsibility to provide distance education and administer a statewide learning management system.  The ESU Coordinating Council is re-evaluating what they are doing in regards to distance education and e-learning, and would like to see more statewide collaboration. 

 

Mr. Kozak arrived to the meeting

 

The Education Council has no funding or direct authority but the NITC does have a statutory requirement to develop a Statewide Technology Plan.  Network Nebraska and Digital Education are two of the NITC’s strategic initiatives and eLearning and digital content management comprise several of the action items.  The Education Council also makes funding recommendations for IT projects to the NITC.

 

Although Nebraska’s Race to the Top grant applications were not funded, there is still lots of interest in virtual high schools and eLearning.  There have been discussions of utilizing lottery funds for this initiative.  There are 190 static videoconferencing rooms and over 300 mobile videoconferencing carts listed in the Renovo system to help conduct high school and college video distance learning.  There is increasing interest in a statewide content management system and perhaps a statewide learning management system but the feedback reveals that entities would like more time to study this concept.  Over the next year, it was suggested to determine what systems are in place, evaluate if it would be in the best interest to have a single or multiple systems, examine opportunities for distance education incentives and ways to increase usage, and develop a vision that is evolutionary and flexible.

 

LB 1208 was written in such a way as to explain the value of Distance Education Units if the demand exceeds the supply but there was no language allocating the use of the lottery funds if the supply exceeded the demand. The Education Innovation Fund had a positive balance of lottery monies in July 2009 but the balance was transferred by the Governor and Legislature to the University of Nebraska to use towards the state budget deficit. The Education Innovation Fund excess balance is growing at approximately $2 million dollars per year.  Ideas for further discussion were as follows:

·         Introduce a new bill this upcoming legislative session to use lottery monies for an eLearning initiative.  Due to the budget submission deadline of September 15, if there is not enough time to develop and submit a proposal for the biennial budget and no state agency to include it in their budget.  A project proposal could still be developed and submitted to the Education Council and Technical Panel for a voluntary review prior to the Legislative session.

·         Use the information from Mr. Kozak’s Issues Document for the Nebraska Virtual School-STEM Academy as an important initiative within the statewide learning and management system.  The NVS-STEM Academy was estimated to cost approximately $5.5 million per year.

·         Upgrade of infrastructure in public schools is needed if daily learning and content management is to become a reality.

·         It was suggested to utilize the Distance Education Council’s blog to post discussions prior to the next Education Council meeting.

·         It was suggested to get a bill in place as a placeholder similar to how LB 1208 occurred.  Senator Adams was suggested to introduce the bill.

 

After discussion, it was decided to form a Task Force within the next 30 days to develop a white paper and proposal for the October 28 meeting.  If members are interested in serving on the task force, they are to contact Mr. Rolfes.

 

Mr. Targoff left the meeting

 

NETWORK NEBRASKA UPDATE

Tom Rolfes, Office of the CIO


Interrelationships between CAP, NNAG, EC, DEC, ESUCC.  Mr. Rolfes distributed the summary of the various information technology groups and their interrelationships. Neither the Educational Service Units, Distance Education Council, nor the Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council has any reporting requirements to the NITC. However, the NITC is required to have representation from the ESUCC on at least one of its advisory groups or a temporary member would be appointed to the Commission by the Legislature. The Education Council and Technical Panel each has ESU representation on its membership, as does the Network Nebraska Advisory Group.

Service Level Agreement.  The agreement is in its very early draft stage.  Members were asked to review the document and provide any feedback and recommendations.  The Office of the CIO’s goal is to have signed agreements from all partners by July 2011.

 

NETWORK NEBRASKA ADVISORY GROUP - AUGUST 30, 2010 MEETING AGENDA

Dennis Linster, Wayne State College

 

Dr. Haack stated that a conference call was held regarding the purpose of the advisory group and that the call was very helpful and provided needed clarification.  Network Nebraska Advisory Group (NNAG) met on August 30. Some of the topics covered in the meeting were as follows:

·         Traffic Shaper is close to being deployed. 

·         A discussion was held about fees and charges.  Mr. Linster serves on the MHEC Board which meets quarterly and from his comparison, Nebraska has the best Internet and Network rates in the nation.

·         Metro Community College and Nebraska Wesleyan are now Network Nebraska partners.

·         Rick Golden discussed how the network management system would help monitor and manage the network.

·         It was decided that NNAG’s role with the Learning Content Management System was a technical role.

·         Discussed charter responsibilities – membership guidelines and leadership.  John Stritt and Dennis Linster will co-chair for another year.

·         The next meeting is Wednesday, October 20.

 

Mr. Linster would like suggestions as to how to communicate better with the Higher Education sector.  K-12 does a great job at communicating with its ESUs and districts.

 

Dr. Haack left the meeting and Dr. Chipps assumed control of the meeting.

 

Ms. Holly wanted to acknowledge Brenda Decker and Rick Golden for the formulation and original vision of the Collaborative Aggregation Partnership and early joint projects between the State and the University of Nebraska.


TASK GROUP REPORTS - FUNDING/ERATE

SuAnn Witt, Department of Education

 

The Task Group has not met since the last Education Council meeting but there will be a meeting before the October Education Council meeting.


TASK GROUP REPORTS - SERVICES TASK GROUP REPORT

Ron Cone, Educational Service Unit 10

 

The Task Force has not met since the last Education Council meeting.  There may be some reorganization due to the marketing and services task group.  Discussions occurred regarding the pros and cons of the Network Nebraska Advisory Group (NNAG) and Services Task Group merging into one.  If this were to occur, then there would be a need for further discussion regarding:

·         strategic future of services

·         how to evaluate services provided to the customers

·         how to report outages

·         what process would be used to recommend new services such as the learning management system.

The Services Task Group lead and NNAG Co-chairs were asked to meet and discuss this concept before the next meeting and bring back a recommendation to the council.

 

Mr. Linster left the meeting.


TASK GROUP REPORTS - GOVERNANCE TASK GROUP

Yvette Holly, University of Nebraska Medical Center

 

The Task Group asked for recommendations on the draft proposed survey to evaluate the viability of NNAG.  Ms. Holly reported that Brenda Decker has reviewed the draft.  The members suggested including the list of goals in Questions 1 and 2.  The audience for the survey will be the Education Council and CAP members.  Once revised, Mr. Rolfes will send it out next week.  With some wording changes, it was suggested that the survey could be used to evaluate the other Education Council Task Groups. This will be discussed at a future meeting.


TASK GROUP REPORTS - MARKETING TASK GROUP

Arnold Bateman, University of Nebraska

 

The Task Group met on August 10 to discuss the Network Nebraska website and survey results.  The Marketing survey indicated that Network Nebraska needs to do a better job of communicating its services to all entities.  Council members were asked to provide feedback on the December survey draft. The Marketing Task Group hopes to segment the survey to gear it toward particular subgroups such as technical staff and teaching staff. In the marketing plan, an electronic newsletter was discussed.  The goal is to publish three electronic newsletters.  One will be done in December which would include information about Network Nebraska services, the Network Nebraska survey, and will direct people to the website.  The other two newsletters will be published in April and August.  Development of the newsletter is on hold until services information is fine tuned.  To assist in the development of the business plan, the Task Group recommended that a set of questions be developed that would be answered by the Council members and customers.   The Task Group’s next meetings will be held on September 23 and October 20.  Membership will be one of the items of discussion.   

 

BIENNIAL BUDGET AND I.T. PROJECT PROPOSAL REVIEW PROCESS

Tom Rolfes, Office of the CIO

 

Agencies’ biennial budgets and I.T. project proposal forms are to be submitted by September 15.  If there are any education-related projects, the Education Council will need to meet in October to make recommendations to the NITC by November 15.  Mr. Rolfes will be in contact with members if this should occur.

 

OTHER/ANNOUNCEMENTS

Update (Awards): The following five federally funded I.T. projects were awarded to Nebraska:

 

NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP)

  • NebraskaLink, NE $11,547,866 (announced August 2010), Connecting Nebraska Communities -- A High-Speed Broadband Network for All of Nebraska
  • Nebraska Library Commission, NE $2,416,403 (announced August 2010)

NTIA Broadband Mapping Program

  • Nebraska Broadband Mapping Project, NE, $2,100,000 (announced January 2010)

FCC Rural Healthcare Pilot Program

  • Rural Nebraska Healthcare Network, NE $20,000,000 (announced May 2010)

USDA Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP)

·         Southeast Nebraska Communications, Inc., NE, $11,285,367 (announced August 2010)

 

AGENDA ITEMS AND CONSIDER LOCATION FOR THE OCTOBER 2010 MEETING AND ADJOURNMENT

 

The next meeting of the NITC Council will be held on October 28, 1-4pm CT via video conferencing.  Following are proposed meeting agenda items:

  • Review of task group activities
  • Network Nebraska Advisory Group Evaluation Survey results
  • Learning Management System white paper and project proposal
  • Services Task Group structure and membership

Members were asked to contact Mr. Rolfes if they had any other agenda items.

 

With no further business, Dr. Chipps adjourned the meeting at 4:08 p.m.

 

 

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