Friday, December 14, 2012
Happy Holidays from Heartland AEA
Best wishes to you for a very joyful holiday season. Please click here to view our holiday card.
Next Issue of Educator Connection with World of Media Now Available
Earlier today, we sent out the latest issue of the Educator Connection with World of Media. Like the one in the fall, this edition is an interactive, online e-magazine that replaces the past print, PDF and blog editions. We took some of your suggestions to include tabs that identify the content. Please do not hesitate to contact the Heartland AEA Communications Dept. at comms@aea11.k12.ia.us with more feedback on our new resource!
Click here for this issue which includes information on using ebooks to support the Iowa Core standards, professional learning opportunities and updates, interactive simulations for math and science and much, much more!
Click here for this issue which includes information on using ebooks to support the Iowa Core standards, professional learning opportunities and updates, interactive simulations for math and science and much, much more!
December Impacting Lives Update
Read the latest Impacting Lives update at http://aeas4iowa.wordpress.com/. In this issue, you'll find information about how the AEAs support English Language Learner needs in Iowa as well as how AEAs support technology tools and resources that are used to impact learning.
Preparations for August 2013 Online Training System
This past August during the peak season of traffic to our online training system (http://training2.aea11.k12.ia.us), many users experienced a delay in website load time. In fact, a few days saw the average load time for a page at over 30 seconds. The reason for these delays was an unexpected 125% increase in the number of people taking online trainings. In order to make the make the user experience better, we have come up with a series of solutions and recommendations.
Our solutions for 2013
To solve the issue in August 2012, we instituted a “maximum concurrent users = 100” policy. Immediately doing so, the performance level improved to normal. For 2013 we will be keeping a concurrent user cap, but we will be raising it as we make some other changes.
The biggest change we are making is distributing the training system over many different servers. This should allow more processing power for our system. We are also looking at re-optimizing our server software to see if we can minimize the load an individual user has. We will be testing this new environment this winter with some pilot schools. We are confident that we will have a successfully working system next August.
Our recommendations for 2013
While these changes will help, with the additional trainings we will be adding, we could see numbers double again. Therefore, we have some suggestions for districts to make the experience better for their employees.
1. Encourage employees to take trainings earlier. If your district sends out a welcome-back to school letter in July to employees, encourage them then to take the trainings. July is a down time for usage of the server, so the chances of hitting that cap are very small.
2. If you are having staff complete the training in August, avoid the heavy usage dates. To the right, you can see our projected usage chart for next August, the darker the color, the heavier the usage.
3. Avoid having your entire staff take the training at once. While this practice might be very convenient for the planning of pre-service days, it also greatly enhances your chances of hitting the cap, meaning some will be logged into the site and some will not. Plus, all the individuals from your school accessing the same training could impact your own district bandwidth, slowing down the experience as well.
4. Target district inservice days. Waiting until your first early-out can save a lot of frustration for your teachers. Do take note that many districts use Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as an inservice day, and we see a spike of usage on that day as well.
Our solutions for 2013
To solve the issue in August 2012, we instituted a “maximum concurrent users = 100” policy. Immediately doing so, the performance level improved to normal. For 2013 we will be keeping a concurrent user cap, but we will be raising it as we make some other changes.
The biggest change we are making is distributing the training system over many different servers. This should allow more processing power for our system. We are also looking at re-optimizing our server software to see if we can minimize the load an individual user has. We will be testing this new environment this winter with some pilot schools. We are confident that we will have a successfully working system next August.
Our recommendations for 2013
While these changes will help, with the additional trainings we will be adding, we could see numbers double again. Therefore, we have some suggestions for districts to make the experience better for their employees.
1. Encourage employees to take trainings earlier. If your district sends out a welcome-back to school letter in July to employees, encourage them then to take the trainings. July is a down time for usage of the server, so the chances of hitting that cap are very small.
2. If you are having staff complete the training in August, avoid the heavy usage dates. To the right, you can see our projected usage chart for next August, the darker the color, the heavier the usage.
3. Avoid having your entire staff take the training at once. While this practice might be very convenient for the planning of pre-service days, it also greatly enhances your chances of hitting the cap, meaning some will be logged into the site and some will not. Plus, all the individuals from your school accessing the same training could impact your own district bandwidth, slowing down the experience as well.
4. Target district inservice days. Waiting until your first early-out can save a lot of frustration for your teachers. Do take note that many districts use Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as an inservice day, and we see a spike of usage on that day as well.
December Blog Updates for AEA PD Online and AEA K-12 Online
The AEA PD Online and AEA K-12 Online blogs have been updates are now available. See below for more information.
Go to www.aeapdonline.org/ for AEA PD Online updates or click on the direct article links below. For real time updates, follow AEA PD Online on Twitter at @aeapdonline.
Recent Updates:
Go to www.aeak12online.org/ for AEA K-12 Online updates or click on the direct article link below.
Recent Updates:
Recent Updates:
- Preparations for August 2013 Online Training System
- SoftChalk: A Tool Brought to You by AEA PD Online
- Upcoming Course Offerings
- External Partners Webinars
Recent Updates:
Reminder: Clarification on Home Language Survey Usage
We have received guidance from Dr. Jobi Lawrence, Director of Title III and Education Consultant at the Iowa Department of Education, regarding the use of the Home Language Survey. Please see below for the message.
Please be advised regarding the current use of the Home Language Survey for all students. Based on guidance from our Title III program officer, until further notice, school districts are to provide the Home Language Survey as a hard copy in its full form to new enrollees and maintain that paper copy in a student folder. This form is located on www.TransAct.com and is identified as Form A. This will allow access to the form in 23 languages.
In light of the upcoming Title III visit to Iowa next year, we will want to maintain this practice. We will provide updated information as it becomes available.
Please be advised regarding the current use of the Home Language Survey for all students. Based on guidance from our Title III program officer, until further notice, school districts are to provide the Home Language Survey as a hard copy in its full form to new enrollees and maintain that paper copy in a student folder. This form is located on www.TransAct.com and is identified as Form A. This will allow access to the form in 23 languages.
In light of the upcoming Title III visit to Iowa next year, we will want to maintain this practice. We will provide updated information as it becomes available.
Dates & Times Established for 2013 I-ELDA Trainings
The Iowa English Language Development Assessment trainings will be conducted by Adobe Connect this year. Please note the times and dates listed below. We will send the link as soon as it is available.
Logistics (protocol for ordering and returning): January 8 from 8:00-9:00 a.m.
K-2: January 8 from 10:00 am.-12:00 p.m.
3-12: January 22 from 1:00-3:00 p.m.
If any sessions need to be canceled due to inclement weather, January 24 from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. will be the make up time. Sessions will be archived so if you are unable to view them at the scheduled times they will be available.
The I-ELDA testing window is February 1, 2013 to April 30, 2013.
Logistics (protocol for ordering and returning): January 8 from 8:00-9:00 a.m.
K-2: January 8 from 10:00 am.-12:00 p.m.
3-12: January 22 from 1:00-3:00 p.m.
If any sessions need to be canceled due to inclement weather, January 24 from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. will be the make up time. Sessions will be archived so if you are unable to view them at the scheduled times they will be available.
The I-ELDA testing window is February 1, 2013 to April 30, 2013.
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