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1990 was my first encounter with First Class. A dial-up BBS
system that I couldn’t afford but knew was the way of the
future.
I wanted to connect teachers, administrators and students in
our district to begin working collaboratively.
It has taken 15 years and I think we are almost there.
Out of the Box
ETC Courseware
Home Page Construction Kit
FINALLY, A First Class, A-1
LearningNetwork-Windham Central Solution
The Virtual School Network has helped bring
technology off the shelf and move it forward in the
district.
Quick Overview of District
April, 2004
 The district:
– 8 Elementary schools; 1 Middle/High school;
2 admin offices; Range from 25 to 425
students: Total = 1100
– Covers 365 sq. Miles
– Most schools single grade or grade clusters
– Teaching, support staff and admin approx 225
What Took us so long?
 Access through High School hub
 No central management
 Tech-lethargy
 Very limited Dollars for Technology
– Small schools; small dollars
The Matches that Ignited Change
1. High School drops hub model
2. No Child Left Behind requirements
3. State Technology Grade Level
Expectations
4. Desire to get more out of the districts
investment in First Class
SVTC First Class Project
5. Is that all there is?
Yarmouth School District
Yarmouth Maine
Dennis-Yarmouth District
Cape Cod, Mass.
What Did We Want to do?
 The system
– To increase the use of technology in the schools
– To keep costs ALAP (as low as possible)
– To allow for individual school identity
– To create district unity
– To be cross platform
– To grow with use and need
– To provide new and useable web sites for all schools
 Usage:
– Meet the daily communication needs of staff
– Easy to use – Low frustration
– Easy to publish of school information
– Non-techie management and content loading
– Lots of people able to contribute directly (incl. School board)
– Provide all teachers with easy web publishing for their classes
What have we accomplished?
 Given professional accounts for all teachers and
staff
 Raised the level of awareness and participation
by school personnel
 Presented workshops, discussions, and trainings
at all schools
 Attracted school board attention and involvement
with training
 AND
Individual School
User Desktops
Typical Desktop
District + School Webs
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Lets take a First Hand Look
What next
 Add High School students into the system
 Build up all school sites with CONTENT
 Expand use of forms, form tracking and paper
reduction
 Reach out beyond classroom for collaborative
work
 Integrate local SIS actively into the system
 Create on-line learning environments for PD and
student use
Conclusion
 Teacher logins and usage is UP
 Messages are being posted and people are
responding
 Comments are coming in about web sites
 We have a ways to go BUT we are moving
forward
 Special thanks to Bill, Tyson, Scott and all the
great folks at LearningNetworks for helping to
make this project an outstanding success.
 Questions
Virtual School Network
Virtual School Networks (VSN) uses FirstClass and
Microsoft SQL to create a robust, collaborative,
online learning and working environment. From one
desktop, VSN allows teachers, administrators, and
students to:
 Communicate using email and instant messaging
 Publish to the school’s website using custom FirstClass forms
 Create collaborative work and learning spaces for staff, teachers and
students
 Provide social space for staff, teachers and students
 Automatically upload information from your Student Management
System to VSN
 Improve personal productivity with an integrated calendar, to-do list,
and contact manager, all uploadable to a Palm Pilot
 VSN is easy for the end users--no advanced technical knowledge
required. If you use email and word processing, then you can use
VSN. Documentation and customer support are included.
 Learning Networks will also host the FirstClass servers and the VSN
applications, freeing technology staff to concentrate more helping
their school community use the tools for learning.
•EasyManage Website
We can design and build EasyManage websites for the district and schools,
uniting them into an easy-to-navigate site. Our EasyManage technology,
based on FirstClass, allows teachers and staff to easily update the site.
1) Specialize in building learning community websites
Schools, and other learning communities, have different goals for their websites than commercial businesses. While the
school site should be attractive, it's more important that it be easy to navigate and full of useful information.
2) Follow website usability guidelines
We build websites to meet the following guidelines:
• Intuitive navigation
• Consistent look & feel
• Pages load quickly (for residents with dial-up Internet connections)
• Attractive and consistent with the character of the school
• ADA Compliant (for voice web browsers)
3) Build using EasyManage web page templates
Your site will be a custom graphic design to meet your objectives and theme. But to make development less expensive,
we have developed a number of page templates to help us build your site. The template approach reduces both
design and build time because pictures, graphics, and text goes in pre-defined places. By using color, pictures,
different navigation buttons, and unique Home pages, we give each site a custom feel at an affordable price.
4) Make pages easy to edit
Building websites using FirstClass makes it possible to edit Web pages in the same way you edit a word
processing document. We even organize pages like you organize your word processing documents, with
recognizable names in logically arranged folders. Think of it as "My Documents" for your website. No special
technical skill or web design software is needed.