Students Can Take Advantage of Discounted Microsoft Software Titles

Please share the following message to your parents in your school/district. A letter is available for download here.

Thanks to your school, Microsoft, the Iowa Educators Consortium (IEC) and Iowa Area Education Agencies (AEAs), we are pleased to announce that all Iowa K-12 students are eligible to purchase select Microsoft software titles at substantial discounts (up to 85% off retail prices). The IEC and Iowa AEAs have made this possible by participating in the Microsoft Student Select K-12 program.

*Stated savings compare retail prices of Microsoft products to Microsoft Products through the IEC Student Select Program. Actual reseller prices may vary.

In addition to the Microsoft products, significant discounts are available on other popular software titles such as:

• Adobe Products (including-InDesign CS5 & Adobe PhotoShop)
• Dragon Naturally Speaking - You talk, it types. Fast, Easy, Accurate
• Inspiration & Kidspiration
• CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5
• FileMaker Pro

These products are available for the purpose of being installed on a personal laptop or a home computer. Visit http://www.journeyed.com/select to apply for discounts and more complete information. To place an order, you will be asked to register and provide proof that your child is a student in an Iowa school.

If you have questions or need assistance, please contact Judy Cleveland, Heartland AEA Technology Specialist, at jcleveland@aea11.k12.ia.us or (515) 270-0405 ext. 14538.

Test-drive the New HEART 2.0 Before its Launch

We are very close to declaring the next version of HEART “done.” We hope to put this new version into production within the next few weeks if possible. There are just a few loose ends and bugs to attend to. If you want to take a test drive, you can log into the development server and try it out. Use your regular login information and the following address: https://heart2.aea11.k12.ia.us. The data in the system are up-to-date as of July 1.

You may also use the North Overshoe login to try this server:
District: North Overshoe
UserCode: Try HEART
Password: tryme

If you encounter any problems or bugs, we’d like to know about them. Please send contact Connor Hood at chood@aea11.k12.ia.us with specific information about what you saw, where, and what you expected to happen instead. (One known bug affects the login page. If it doesn’t draw completely, click the refresh button on your browser.)

Here are a few comments about the new system:

• A lot of the work is behind the scenes to make things faster and more consistent. Hopefully you'll notice the speed and not something odd.
• The look and feel has been standardized, and some things have been moved around.
• The lists are sortable in both directions. Click the column header to sort one way, click again to sort the other way. You can also download lists if needed.
• User setup should be similar to what you are used to.
• Class setup is changed fairly dramatically and we still look for ways to simplify and improve it. If any of you set up classes in the current system, your feedback would be appreciated.
• The management control panel has had a complete makeover to reduce confusion; there are some new features and some redeveloped ones.
• The cleanup interface has also been upgraded. You can try it out, but be aware that any work done will not be permanent as we are still in the development stages of the server. Upgraded features include the status column that helps spot new records that need attention, duplicate State ID search and sorting/cleanup enhancements.
• Additional data error search tools have been added. They are intended to help find and clean up some of the common errors in student records.
• Individual student reports should behave much like they always have.
• All the graphs have been recreated using newer graphing technology. One new feature is the return of a high-resolution graph version (made possible by making the graph shrinkable as needed) without the need for the GraphViewer application.
• Flexibility has been added to view data that are collected more than once a year (MAP, DIBELS, etc.). The default option will behave as you are used to in the current version of HEART.
• There are more options in the growth chart with one new feature that allows the selection of the student data to display in average and percentile ranks (names of these options might be reworked later). The average rank display shows the average for the selected group. The percentile rank display adds two lines which are calculated from the selected data based on the percentile ranks of the comparison lines. (For example, if 25-50-75 is selected, the 25th percentile, 50th percentile and 75th percentile for the selected group will be calculated and displayed along with the growth lines.
• Student scores now have a format selector. One can view scores by tests administered in a building and scores by students currently in a building.
• Behavior entry and analysis work a lot like they always have.
• Most other displays should work and appear familiar, but with slight tweaks to the layout and functioning.

Invitation to the Administrator Connection

If you are interested in having the Administrator Connection sent to other personnel in your district in addition to the superintendent, principal and curriculum coordinator, please contact the Heartland Communications Department at comms@aea11.k12.ia.us. Please include the name, title (assistant principal, curriculum director, etc.), email and building that each person serves.