EDUCATION COUNCIL
of the
NEBRASKA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION

Wednesday, January 16, 2013; 9:00AM CT

Host site: Executive Building Room 103, 521 S. 14th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska
Remote site 1: Alliance High School Room 405, 100 W 14th, Alliance
Remote site 2: UNMC, 4230 Bldg Room BSC3037B, 42nd & Leavenworth Streets, Omaha
Remote site 3: ESU 10, 76 Plaza Blvd, Kearney
Remote site 4: WSC Campus Services IVC, 750 Lindahl Dr, Wayne

 

VOTING MEMBERS/ALTERNATES PRESENT:

Dr. Terry Haack, Bennington Public Schools, Co-Chair (Lincoln site)

Mr. Ed Hoffman, Nebraska State College System, Co-Chair (Lincoln site)

Mr. Mike Carpenter, Doane College (Lincoln site)

Mr. Clark Chandler, Nebraska Wesleyan University (Lincoln site)

Mr. John Dunning, Wayne State College (Wayne site)

Mr. Stephen Hamersky, Daniel J. Gross Catholic High School (Lincoln site)

Mr. Leonard Hartman, Alliance Public Schools (Alliance site)

Ms. Yvette Holly, UNL-Medical Center (Omaha site)

Mr. Lyle Neal, Southeast Community College (Milford site)

Mr. Gary Needham, ESU 9 (Lincoln site)

Ms. Mary Niemiec, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Lincoln site)

Mr. Jeff Stanley, Conestoga Public Schools (Alliance site)

Dr. Bob Uhing, Educational Service Unit 1, Wakefield (Kearney site)

 

LIAISONS/ALTERNATE MEMBERS PRESENT: Dr. Kathleen Fimple, Alt. for Dr. Marshall Hill, Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education (Lincoln site)

 

MEMBERS/LIAISONS ABSENT:  Mr. Jeff Johnson, Centennial Public Schools; Dr. Mike Lucas, York Public Schools; Mr. Randy Schmailzl, Metropolitan Community College; Ms. Brenda Decker, Office of the CIO; Mr. Gary Targoff, Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission; Ms. SuAnn Witt, Nebraska Department of Education

 

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

 

Co-Chair, Dr. Haack, called the meeting to order at 9:01 a.m.  Dr. Haack informed the council that he will be leaving the meeting shortly before 10 a.m.  Co-Chair, Ed Hoffman will preside over the rest of the meeting.  Roll call was taken.  There were ten (10) voting members present at the time of roll call.  A quorum existed to conduct official business.  The meeting notice was posted to the NITC Web site (http://www.nitc.nebraska.gov/) January 10, 2013.  The meeting agenda was posted to the Nebraska Public Meeting Calendar on January 10, 2013.

 

 

CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA FOR THE JANUARY 16, 2013 MEETING

 

Mr. Carpenter moved to approve the January 16, 2013 meeting agenda.  Mr. Chandler seconded.  Roll call vote:  Carpenter-Yes, Chandler-Yes, Haack-Yes, Hamersky-Yes, Hartman-Yes, Hoffman-Yes, Holly-Yes, Neal-Yes, Stanley-Yes, and Uhing-Yes.  Results:  Yes-10, No-0, Abstained-0.  Motion carried.

 

Gary Needham, Mary Niemec and Jon Dunning joined the meting.

 

CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES FROM THE OCTOBER 24, 2012 MEETING

 

Mr. Needham moved to approve the January 16, 2013 meeting minutes as presented.  Mr. Stanley seconded.  Roll call vote: Uhing-Yes, Stanley-Yes, Niemiec-Yes, Needham-Yes, Neal-Yes, Holly-Yes, Hoffman-Yes, Hartman-Yes, Hamersky-Yes, Haack-Yes, Dunning-Yes, Chandler-Yes, and Carpenter-Yes.  Results:  Yes-13, No-0, Abstained-0.  Motion carried.

 

PUBLIC COMMENT

 

There was no public comment.

 

NETWORK NEBRASKA UPDATE

2012-13 Procurement.  Mr. Rolfes reported that 88% of public K12 school districts are participants of Network Nebraska.  A notice has been sent by the Nebraska Department of Education to all participants informing them that the equipment reimbursement  monies will expire on July 1, 2013.  Entities will need to submit receipts for new equipment purchased and then the Nebraska Department of Education will reimburse the district. The K-12 entities that accept the equipment reimbursement must send or receive the equivalent of two semester distant learning classes per year. The Office of the CIO will be sending out another reminder about Network Nebraska participation.  The letters will be sent to the superintendents, Educational Service Unit directors, and school board presidents.  Currently, the OCIO is collecting projected Internet purchase data from K12 entities for 2013-14. In the past, whenever the cost went down, the demand went up. Six years ago, the cost per megabit per month was over $200.  Today the cost is estimated at $.77 cents per megabit per month, after E-rate is deducted.  The bids for RFP 4180 were opened on December 26.  When the State contracts are approved and posted, there will need to be a quick turnaround from the school districts to meet the March 14 E-rate filing deadline. Mr. Rolfes and Ms. Witt have been working on Free/Reduced lunch data to submit E-rate for 2013-14.  Concordia Lutheran School in Omaha and Union College in Lincoln have expressed interest in Network Nebraska services, starting July 1, 2013.

 

Network Nebraska Advisory Group Report (11/1/2012 meeting notes).  Mr. Stritt reported that 17 ESU’s connected over videoconferencing for a special Affordable Health Care Act presentation.  This videoconference involving over 17 sites and 250 participants was a good test of Network Nebraska’s capabilities.  The state’s ESU Professional Development Association used Network Nebraska for one of their sessions.  This is another example of how Network Nebraska services can be utilized.  The Advisory Group continues to receive requests for varied services from both K-12 and postsecondary institutions.  Discussions have focused on what kind of services should be offered and then how will these services get compensated, and how would these services impact the network. Mr. Dunning stated that many higher education institutions are already using blended Internet access to increase reliability. The K-12 members commented that multiple Internet providers can provide complications for E-rate eligibility.

 

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Standing Committees and Bill Introduction (I.T.-related legislation)

 

As part of the meeting materials, Council members received a listing of potential I.T. related legislation that may be of interest to the members.  The list may grow as the legislative bill introduction finished on January 23.  In addition, the Council was given the list of Senators for the Standing Committees that oversee the CIO and NITC, which are the Appropriations Committee and the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee.  A list of the Education Committee members was also given to the Council members.

 

BLENDED INITIATIVE UPDATE

Gary Needham

 

Mr. Needham reported that there has been a lot of activity with the BlendEd initiative.   At the last meeting, Mr. Blomstedt had reviewed the project’s five components:  Single sign-on, a learning management system, content management system, professional development strategy, and an evaluation model.  Two top task priorities have been identified: Single sign-on and LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). The ESU staff have been discussing the digital content repository.  Having an in-state delivery engine would prevent having to retrain educators or having to retool.  In order to accomplish this, it would need to be a system that would do the following:

·         Allow the tunneling of streaming video statewide

·         Allow cataloging of information using cataloging systems already in place

·         Have good search capabilities

·         Needs to be able to integrate with current learning management systems in place. 

LTI (Learning Tool Interoperability) is a system that the group has been discussion.  The system will allow the objects (audio, video, etc.) to be used anywhere.  It will also allow for user creative content (educator developed content).   Another system being discussed is SAFARI Montage.  This system does have add-on capabilities.  The issue of digital rights was discussed.  The software licenses are for K-12 entities so licensing issues for higher education would need to be discussed.  Mr. Dunn announced that Wayne State College is hosting a State College Resources Summit.  One of the topics of discussion will be digital rights and sharing.  The University of Nebraska is also discussing this issue.  The Distance Ed group has also been discussing the need to involve more stakeholders in the discussions.

 

TASK GROUP REPORTS

Emerging Technologies Task Group Emerging Technologies.  The Emerging Technology Task Group met in late November with the Marketing Task Group to discuss the NN survey and how the survey can be refocused to address possible future needs and trends, which would be good to evaluate components of NN.


Network Nebraska Services Task Group.  Mr. Needham referred to his earlier report about future K-12 services on Network Nebraska.

There were no reports from the Governance and Marketing Task Groups.

NITC ACTION ITEMS (Resource materials)

Task Group Membership/Assignments.  The list of members assigned to the task groups was reviewed.  Mr. Rolfes will speak with Greg Maschman about serving on the task groups and will speak to Jeff Johnson’s alternate when that person has been appointed.  


2012-2014 NITC Action Items (Network Nebraska, Digital Education, and eGov action items).  Mr. Rolfes explained to the Council members that the action items are part of the Statewide Technology Plan that gets updated annually.  The NITC relies on the Advisory Councils to develop, monitor and complete action items.  Each NITC advisory council has an active part in the statewide plan.  Each advisory council member, working through his/her advisory council, may originate significant developments for the future for their sector which gets implemented in the Statewide Technology Plan.  The advisory councils are empowered to provide guidance and recommendations to the NITC. In addition, the Legislature utilized the Statewide Technology Plan’s goals, vision and action items when reviewing I.T. budget proposals.  The Education Council members were asked to review the action items for future discussion.

 

CONSIDER AGENDA ITEMS AND LOCATION FOR THE 02/20/2012 MEETING

 

After discussion, it was decided to have an afternoon videoconference meeting for the next meeting to be held on February 20. CAP is meeting in the morning on February 20. Education Council members were invited to attend.  The following agenda items were requested:

·         Network Nebraska Update 2013 membership and Internet cost information

·         Legislative bill summaries

·         Submit any additional agenda items to Tom Rolfes or one of the co-chairs

 

ADJOURNMENT

 

With no further business, Mr. Hoffman asked for a motion to adjourn. Ms. Niemiec moved, and Mr. Chandler seconded, to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed unanimously by voice vote.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 10:14 a.m.

 

 

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