Home Base Maintenance This Weekend   The next Home Base Maintenance Weekend is planned for  April 19-21, 2019. Schoolnet is the only application scheduled for maintenance.  PowerSchool will remain available throughout the weekend. Schoolnet will undergo a maintenance release to fix known bugs experienced by North Carolina users. This maintenance will begin Friday at 5 p.m. and is expected to only last one hour. Questions or comments pertaining to this maintenance activity may be addressed to home_base@dpi.nc.gov.  Stay apprised of all Home Base planned maintenance periods by visiting our 2018-19 Home Base Maintenance Schedule.

NCDPI Awards $1.8 Million to Economically Distressed Counties to Support Local K-8 Digital Literacy   The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) is excited to announce a new partnership with Learning.com to improve digital literacy across the state!  Nurturing students’ digital literacy skills encourages growth in areas such as computational thinking, digital citizenship and online safety, visual mapping, databases and computer fundamentals. Local Education Agencies (LEAs), Charter Schools, Lab Schools, and Innovative School District (ISD) schools within the most economically distressed counties (as determined by the North Carolina Department of Commerce Tier One designation) will now be eligible to receive funding totaling approximately $1.8 million for implementation and adoption support provided by the Digital Learning Initiative (DLI). For complete details, please click on the K-8 Digital Literacy Announcement.  You may also visit the Home Base website's Learning.com page.

Thank You for Attending the 2019 Spring Home Base Meet-Ups!

The DTL Home Base Team sends a warm thank you to all of the 2019 Spring Home Base Meet-Up attendees!  Your participation is always valued and appreciated. As you reflect on your experience, please provide your feedback by completing this survey:  bit.ly/HBMU_Feedback_18-19.

If you were unable to attend or you came but would like to review what was shared, presentations and resources are available online at http://bit.ly/HBMU_Shared_Files.  Please  save or bookmark this folder for future reference, as we will continue to add information after each set of meetings.

We sincerely hope you continue to take advantage of these opportunities to partner with us.  Stay tuned for next year’s 2019-20 Home Base Meet-Ups schedule.

NC Information and Technology Essential Standards (ITES) - Review, Revision & Implementation Process

The State Board of Education (SBE) and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) are committed to providing personalized digital-age education that K-12 students need to be successful in college, careers, and as globally engaged productive citizens. Revising the NC Information and Technology Essential Standards (ITES) for students is an important part of this work. These standards are critical building blocks for the education of our students. ITES represent the "must have" information and technology skills and knowledge that each student must have in order to achieve success at the next level. The standards are designed to be delivered by classroom teachers in all curricular areas and grade levels.

As part of the NC Standards Review, Revision and Implementation process, the NC Department of Public Instruction is seeking your input on adopting the International Society for Technology in Education - Student Standards (ISTE-S). We recommend spending some time reviewing the ISTE-S prior to completing the survey. We anticipate the survey to take approximately 5 minutes. The survey may be accessed via: https://ncvps.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6gs8hkURr6o8j6R

Please share this with staff  in your district. Thank you in advance for taking the time to contribute to this process.

Home Base Opt-in is Now Open for the 2019-20 School Year

Home Base users, please remind your district finance officers and charter principals to opt into Home Base for the 2019-20 school year!  This will ensure continued use of the Schoolnet and NCEES Unified Talent applications. Access to these tools will end July 1 for those who do not opt in.  The deadline for opting in is June 15, 2019.

Additional applications are available to districts and charters, some at a state negotiated convenience price (Canvas) and others for free.  For more information on the Home Base applications, visit the Home Base website and the Home Base Opt-in FAQs.  Also, checkout the Home Base video.

Canvas Teacher Spotlight

District: Union County Schools

School: Union County Virtual

Teacher: Garrett Williams, E-Learning Program & Development Coordinator

Grade Level: 8th-12th Grades

Project: How to Create a Blended Learning Experience Using Canvas

Union County Public Schools has a unique model for virtual learning. Union County Virtual, its blended learning program, was launched in 2013. That year the district first introduced elective courses, such as Psychology-Sociology, and ACT Prep. UCPS now offers 54 blended courses including elective, core, and Occupational Course of Study offerings.

The Union County Virtual program employs a blended learning approach with teachers assigned full time to facilitating their blended classes. Currently there are 8 full-time teachers who travel to all 21 middle and high schools meeting with students face-to-face each week. Most students in Union County Virtual courses have dedicated time in a computer lab setting each day to complete their online coursework. A facilitator is assigned to the lab also to provide support for the online learning programs in the district. Students who are completing virtual class as a 5th period complete their work at home; however, they do have opportunities to contact the teacher and meet synchronously when needed. 

The Union County Virtual courses were developed by Union County teachers and the program is coordinated by Garrett Williams, E-Learning Program & Development Coordinator. Williams sees the course development process as an opportunity for professional growth for teachers and notes that not only do the teachers learn to effectively integrate technology, including Canvas, but they also take a deep dive into unpacking their curriculum in order to develop these blended courses. Because the district offers a variety of courses, staff is able to help a wide range of students. This includes students that need Advanced Placement credit to Exceptional Children Program students that are enrolled in their Occupational Courses of Study. For this reason, Williams emphasizes that their courses are designed to support differentiated instruction and personalized learning. Good instructional design practices are a key factor in the success of Union County Virtual classes. When working with teachers, Williams emphasizes that online best practices should mirror classroom best practices. For instance, each digital lesson they create is accompanied with an overview that is similar to the daily agenda traditional teachers post on their whiteboards. He also encourages teachers to incorporate warm-up activities that prepare students for the deeper learning that takes place in their interactive presentations and extended learning activities. To learn more about the Union County Virtual program, including examples of their course development process, check out the presentations located on their website: https://www.ucps.k12.nc.us/Page/3027 Additionally, this Getting Started with Union County Virtual is a great example of how they prepare students for success:https://uclor.ucps.k12.nc.us/UCVirtual/GetStart/ChecklistInteraction/story.html Join us in congratulating Union County Virtual on the program’s success!

Canvas End of Year/ Summer Checklist

Be sure to check out our 2019 Summer Checklist for important end of year reminders and recommendations!

You may also want to consider conducting user surveys (teachers, students, parents, and administrators). Our Faculty Survey Toolkit is a great place to start when designing forms to collect feedback!

Schoolnet Presentations from CCES 2019

Did you have the chance to see our awesome educators present about Schoolnet at the Connecting Communities of Education Stakeholders Conference? If not, here are the links to the 2019 CCES Schoolnet presentations:

• Introduction to Schoolnet
• Schoolnet Basics
• Using Goal Summary Reports to Build Better Assessments in Schoolnet
• The Basic Ins and Outs of School Net Manual Test Building
• Schoolnet: The Recipe for PEPs and IEPs
• Creating and Monitoring Schoolnet Assessments
• Building Benchmarks - An Innovative Approach to Schoolnet Benchmark Assessments
• An In-Depth Review of Schoolnet Reporting
• Creating Creating Standard Driven Assessments with SchoolNet (ELA focus)

A huge thank you to those who shared their expertise at the conference!

Updated Released Items for Math and Science Now Available in Schoolnet

This past weekend, over five hundred new released items for Math and Science End-of-Grade, End-of-Course, and North Carolina Final Exams were loaded into Schoolnet. Educators can find these items by using the advanced search and search by publisher “NCDPI_Released”. Looking for older released items? View instructions for finding previously released items.

NCDPI_Released Items by Subject and Grade Level:

We encourage you to share this Home Base Biweekly Update. For past issues of recent Home Base Biweekly Updates, please visit Biweekly Updates. An archive of updates from 2015 also is online.

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