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=AASB-CDL Software Advisory Committee=

Welcome
This wiki has been started as a way for members of the AASB-CDL Software Advisory Committee's to share the collective wisdom of the group on the subject of education software.

Agenda

 * Leveraging the collective buying power of CDL districts for software/seat license purchases. Is AASB-CDL the best venue for this purpose? District interest? Logistical issues?
 * Product evaluation: What's Hot and What's Not? Software/seat licenses currently being used effectively by districts. Other products desired?
 * Think Tank: What should this wiki include? Product reviews, user comments, links to company websites, etc.

Discussion Summary
//**Leveraging Collective CDL District Buying Power**//
 * More districts involved in a purchasing pool will help all participating districts reach higher vendor discount price break levels.
 * Once a list of software titles is compiled, vendors will be approached with the idea of offering their products to a statewide purchasing pool.
 * As an incentive to participate, vendors will be advised that their products will be listed, reviewed and promoted to all Alaska school districts.
 * It was suggested that Aaron at the [|Organization for Educational Technology and Curriculum] (OETC) be contacted to see if their list of application offerings could be expanded to include additional titles of interest to Alaska CDL districts.
 * Participants provided specific examples of seat license discount levels on applications currently in use in their districts, including [|MyAccess] (writing), [|Achieve 3000] (reading), [|NetTrekker], [|Britannica Online], [|Discovery Education], clip art sites, and other titles.
 * One of the most expensive applications is Microsoft Office. There was interest in pursuing a group buy for this application. As an alternative, some districts are looking into purchasing [|OpenOffice] or [|NeoOffice] for Mac OS X.

//**Web-based vs. Installed Applications**//
 * Many vendors are moving toward a subscription model for web-based applications and online learning tools.
 * Applications installed directly onto school computers are easy to include in the imaging process.
 * Applications accessed via the web can be bandwidth intensive, rendering them difficult or impossible to use on some slower school networks. Some districts have discontinued use of certain web-based applications for this reason. Certain resource-based applications (clip art, etc) require less time online per session and are therefore less bandwidth intensive.
 * The group expressed a general preference for installed over web-based applications.

//**Next Steps**//
 * Software Advisory Committee participants will make posts to the wiki regarding applications currently in use in their district, pros/cons of those applications, vendor contact persons and other related information within the next two weeks (by October 7, 2008).
 * AASB will poll all CDL Project Coordinators using an education software survey from Cheryl Bobo of Craig to see what applications their districts are using.
 * AASB will compile all committee wiki posts and CDL survey responses and develop a master software list that will be posted on the wiki.
 * The compiled list will reveal which software applications districts use most. AASB will start by contacting vendors whose applications are most widely used to discuss statewide licensing and discounts.
 * The committee will meet by teleconference in approximately one month (by week of October 20) to discuss the results.

News
Wikispaces has just finished a multiyear project under which it gave teachers all over the world 100,000 free wikis. Due to the project's success, the company is now giving away another 250,000 free wikis to educators, including this one. You can read [|an article about the project] posted on CNET.
 * Wikis in Education**

Help
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