Technology Integration in Education Grant Year 4

School Year 2000-2001

Edgewood ISD Strategies Accessing Virtual Education (SAVE) Project Summary

The members of the Edgewood ISD TIE4 Grant Consortium include Edgewood ISD in San Antonio, La Vernia ISD in La Vernia, and two private schools located within the Edgewood School District, Holy Cross High School and St. John Berchmans School, as well as the Education Service Center, Region 20 in San Antonio and UTSA. The consortium received $985,000 in funding, which will impact a total of 16,407 students and 1,300 educators.

The grant program, called SAVE, utilizes distance learning technologies to change the way ongoing teacher training, staff development and curriculum development occur. The systems and connections formed through this grant have unlimited potential for the delivery of instruction to students, parents and the community. Although the grant period covers one year, the Consortium partners have committed to maintain the connections and collaboration started through this grant for the next five years.

This grant will expand the distance learning facilities already placed in La Vernia ISD through a former TIFB grant. New distance learning facilities will be installed in 25 Edgewood sites. A state-of-the-art web-based streaming video server, like the RealVideo servers currently used to watch videos and see movie previews over the Internet, will be installed in La Vernia ISD. The Region 20 Education Service Center hosts the STARTnet regional videoconferencing distribution facility and will provide videoconferencing services and expertise to both Districts. UTSA will provide instructional content via the new distance education infrastructure.

Utilizing the new web-based video server, digitally recorded teacher and staff development sessions, video training presentations, virtual field trips and community-directed presentations will be made available to all schools in Edgewood and La Vernia. The grant will connect La Vernia ISD and Edgewood ISD together directly using a T1 communication line that will allow instantaneous, on-demand teacher and student videoconferencing collaboration to take place between any and all schools in Edgewood and La Vernia.

This grant expands Edgewood’s TIE Year 3 Grant and builds upon the Abacus curriculum development system already installed in Edgewood through TIE3. This system is designed to assist teachers in developing curriculum that integrates technology into every facet of education. La Vernia teachers will utilize Abacus via videoconferencing with Edgewood to allow joint curriculum development between Districts.

The specific objectives of this grant are to:

· Deliver staff development to teachers and administrators, and instruction to students, parents and the community, by installing distance learning live teleconferencing systems at all consortium school sites.

· Install a web-based video-on-demand server to deliver "just-in-time" custom content to educators, students and the community via the Internet.

· Share staff development and instruction, and collaborate on lesson plans, via the distance learning systems.

· Build an online instructional video content library, available via web-based streaming video, which will foster technology integration and improve teacher and student technology literacy.

· Use distance learning to deliver staff development content on-site and on-demand, creating teacher incentives by saving time and eliminating travel, and minimizing the need for substitute personnel.

· Target the distance learning staff development and instructional content to help teachers better implement the TEKS curriculum, improve the use of support programs and enrich the learning environment through the use of technology.

For more information, contact Allen Bordelon via e-mail at allen.bordelon@la-vernia.k12.tx.us