Mecklenburg County Schools Technology Presents!

VSTE 2008-2009 Annual State Technology Conference

2009-02-26T18:04:00.000-08:00

The Virginia Society for Technology in Education held its Annual Technology Conference on February 22-24 at Virginia Beach, Virginia. Amy Newton and Stephanie Carter, Technology Resource Teachers for Mecklenburg County Schools presented a session on using Google Docs.

Click Here for the 2008-2009 Conference Program.

Check out the session:

GET YOUR I ON GOOGLE DOCS! | T103
Need your students to discover the writing process or show their mastery of editing skills? Ever wondered how to enhance collaboration? Step into the future with classroom ideas that are googling with possibilities!Presenter: Amy Newton (anewton@mcpsweb.org) | Mecklenburg County Public Schools
Audience Level: All Levels
Grade Level: All Audiences
Presentation Strand: Cutting Edge Technologies
Presentation Type: Concurrent
Tuesday: 8:00 am – 9:00 am in Meeting Suite 1D

Mecklenburg County Business Education Partnership Meeting

2009-02-22T00:32:00.000-08:00

2009 Ed Tech Conference: Randolph Macon College, Ashland, Virginia: February 2009

2009-02-08T12:38:00.001-08:00

Ernie Conner, Director of Technology and Career Education, Chad Wollenberg, Manager of Technical Services, Stephanie Carter, Technology Resource Teacher, and Sheila Beck, Google Applications Specialist made presentations at this state conference.

Click here to access the conference program.

Using Open Source and Free Resources in the 21st Century Classroom

Find out how Mecklenburg County Schools uses a variety of open source and free resources to integrate technology into their schools at little or no cost.Presenters will show how the division provides teachers with these free tools that allow them to more effectively engage today’s learners.

Connecting and Collaborating with Google Applications Education Edition

Find out how Mecklenburg County Schools implemented Google Applications to replace many of their existing services, and paired it with other open source technologies that is estimated to save their division over $250,000 over the next five years. This session will include a nuts and bolts discussion about how the implementation process is progressing.

2008 Virginia Educational Technology Leadership Conference, Roanoke, Virginia: December 2008

2009-02-07T03:58:00.000-08:00

Check out the presentations made by Ernie Conner, Director of Technology and Career Education; Chad Wollenberg, Manager of Technical Services, Remona Tomko, Technology Resource Teacher, and Sheila Beck, Google Applications Specialist. Amy Newton, Technology Resource Teacher, and Linda Goodman also presented at the conference. Video from their presentation will be included on this site soon!

Click Here for to check out the conference program. It is in PDF format. Below are videos of each presentation

Open-Source Mashup—A Discussion about Open-Source Technologies

Are licensing fees weighing you down? Are you getting what you need out of the software you pay so much for? Do words like Apache, Drupal, Moodle, and Asterisk sound foreign, or are they familiar to you? Open-source software has gone from a mystifying industry renegade to a mainstream technology standard found in most businesses and educational institutions today. Learn what open source is, how to
utilize it, and what technologies can help your district. Find out how Mecklenburg County Public Schools utilizes open-source strategies to save hundreds of thousands of dollars, and come share your open-source experiences, good or bad. Join this open discussion and get your questions answered.

Server Virtualization—Saving Time and Money While Going Green

Are your servers beginning to crowd your office as more and more services get introduced into your network environment? Can you fan yourself on the electric meter in your building because it is spinning so fast? Find out how Mecklenburg County Public Schools virtualized their server room, reducing the environment from more than 20 physical servers to four. Virtualization saves money, reduces electricity
consumption, eases administration of servers, and allows easy roll out of new services in less time. During this session, presenters demonstrate various types of
virtualization technologies, answer questions, and install a virtual machine live.

Connecting and Collaborating with Google Applications

Mecklenburg County Public Schools has implemented the education edition of Google Applications to replace several key instructional and administrative tools. This
free online application suite provides free 24-7 e-mail services; online document storage; and an online word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application.
The school system has saved more than $123,000 in operating expenses during the initial year of implementation and estimates a total savings of $200,000 over a five-year period. Presenters explain how Google Docs can create documents, spreadsheets,
and presentations online; share and collaborate in real time; and safely store and organize work. All participants will receive access to an online Google Docs users manual that outlines the basic features of the program.

The first session was a huge success! Because of the huge demand, this presentation was made again on Thursday!

Implementing Google Apps for Education— Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs

Mail servers, spam filters, server maintenance, congestion, downtime, and the list goes on. E-mail servers can give even the most experienced and knowledgeable network manager trouble! Is there a free and robust alternative? Google Apps for Education
provides not only full e-mail services to educational organizations but also a suite of applications ranging from an office suite,Web-builder software, and a Python development environment. Find out how Mecklenburg County Public Schools implemented Google Apps to replace many of their existing services; paired with other open-source technologies, it is estimated to save the division more than $200,000 over the next five years. This session includes a nuts-and-bolts technical discussion
about the implementation process and how procedures and fine-grain planning helped the process.