VITA-Learn Central/VTcite Meeting Minutes: U32 Library, Montpelier, March 26, 2009

VITA-Learn Central/VTcite Meeting

U-32 Library

930 Gallison Hill Road

Montpelier, VT 0502

Thursday, March 26, 2009

3:30 – 5:00 pm

Minutes

 

Attendees: Christine Eldred, Maria Forman, Tucker Cruikshank, Teresa Faust, Jeff Arey, Bob Sargent, Eric Hall, Jane Tolassi, Dan Greene, Sue Monmaney, Diane Pawlusiak, Becky Seymour, Sylvia Sweet, Shawn LaRocque, Becky Mackin

3:30 – 3:45: Introductions

VTcite/Dynamic Landscapes

3:45 – 4:40: A sharing of assistive technology tips and tools:

Dan began with sharing his experiences of incorporating more assistive technologies at U32. When renovating the library, they were sure to make it more wheelchair accessible (lower shelves, wider aisles, wheelchair cut in the circulation desk, etc.). What he then realized is that although students could now get to the materials easier, it didn’t guarantee that they could access the information within those materials. He then showed us the history of audio and digital books at U32: cassette tapes to CDs to Playaways, to iPod shuffles to Kindle and now Kindle 2.

Teresa Faust, Special Services Consultant at VT Dept of Libraries shared information on the services available. I was listening so intently at the time that I completely forgot to take any notes. But thankfully Teresa sent an email out over the VSLA listserv with the following information:

“We can't wait to get out hands on the new National Library Service digital book players, due to begin arriving in June. I recently learned that the new players WILL be able to play books downloaded from RFB&D, Recordings for the Blind & Dyslexic, in DAISY format.  After receiving a new NLS digital player, the student, teacher or parent, must contact RFB&D to get the digital "key." Books downloaded from RFB&D must be loaded onto a flash "thumb" drive, which will then be plugged into the USB port on the side of the new player. It may be the case that only one book will be recognized per flash drive, although these can be deleted and reused.”

We also had a general sharing of the following:

Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text: Kurzweil, Read & Write Gold, ReadPlease, TextAloud, Read 180, Don Johnston accessible technologies and reading and writing tools, Intellitools, Dragon Naturally Speaking, MacSpeech

Sheet readers

Wireless mike and amplifier

Touch-screen monitor

Scanner pens

One-handed keyboard

Alphabetical keyboard

Rollerball mouse

Microsoft Reader

 

4:40 – 4:50: Peter Drescher – State of the State

I am planning some LNV and phone conference, (and I hope, webinar-like) sessions around the Technology planning for the field. So far, I have the LNV dates.. April 15 and 29 from 2PM to 4:30 PM -- later if needed. 

 

Stimulus money is coming. I don't have too much more on that. At this point It looks like two waves: June/July for Formula money and Sept/Oct for competitive.

 

Competitive will focus on content areas and technology, distance learning, STEM initiatives, and supporting some existing areas.

 

Plan on allocation and a half for planning. Get to be familiar with how your Title IID is spent, and try to get involved in the process if you can at your school.

 

There is an RFP for someone or some entity to take on the update to the current Tech GE's.  Find it on the ed tech web page.

 

Tech plan is getting a more finalized draft on the web tomorrow. 

4:50 – 5:00: Due to the time, we did not settle on a date for the next meeting – Sue will send out another email asking if anyone is interested in a final meeting for this year. 

DOOR PRIZE RAFFLE -- An iPod Touch went to …. Becky Mackin! Congratulations Becky!