Finding
Solutions With
Online Services
Presented By:
Harris County Department of Education
By their 21st birthday,
digital kids will have
• sent/received
250,000 emails/IM’s
• spent 10,000 hours
on the phone, and
• watched 20,000
hours of TV (with
500,000 commercials
Preparing Our 21st Century Students
For The Future
Life At The Speed of Light2
“….Technology will increase the speed of communication, and the pace of
advancement or decline”. 1
“…. Educational institutions, communities, businesses and countries that
make appropriate use of technology will likely move forward at an
unprecedented rate. Those that don’t will likely fall backward at the
same dizzying pace.” 1
“We are preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies
that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even
know are problems yet.” 2
1 “An overview of Sixteen Trends, their profound impact on our future. Implications for students, Education,
Communities and the Whole of Society” Gary Marx
2 David Warlick Connect Learning
Life At The Speed of Light2
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It’s estimated that 1.5 exabytes (or 1.5 x1018) of
unique new information will be generated
worldwide this year.
The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in
2004.
Half of what a student starting a four year
technical or college degree learns in their first year
of study will be outdated by their third year of
study.
The US Department of Labor estimates that
today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of
38.
Implications for Education
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Meeting the demand for higher level teaching
skills
Capitalizing on the benefits of distance education
Emerging employment fields
Making the school a learning community, and a
learning center for the community
Offering preparation and professional
development that breaks habits and mindsets
Who is Harris County Department of
Education?
Harris County Department of Education was formed in 1889 to
administer free public education through what is now known as
public school districts.
We are one of two County Departments of Education left in the
state of Texas.
HCDE goals are aligned to provide services that meet
community needs, and offer cost-effective alternatives to
maximize existing district and campus resources.
HCDE continues in their endeavor to support the educational
community through several diverse programs and service areas.
HCDE Divisions and Services
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Adult Education
Cooperative for AfterSchool Enrichment (CASE)
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Business Cooperatives
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Center for Safe and Secure
Schools
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Center for School
Governance, Executive
Leadership, and Fiscal
Accountability
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Early Childhood
Intervention (ECI)
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Head Start Area I
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Special Education Related
Services
Instructional Support
Services (Staff
Development)
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Research and Evaluation
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Resource Development
Digital Learning and
Instructional Technology
Technology Services
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HCDE Special Schools
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Texas LEARNS
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HCDE Technology Services Division
HCDE Disaster Recovery Facility
HCDE Network Operations Center
Remote Disaster Recovery Strategies
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Cold Site - facility that provides only the physical
space for recovery operations while the
organization using the space provides its own
hardware and software
Hot Site - a fully operational offsite data
processing facility equipped with both hardware
and software
Collocation facilities - offer a secure place to
physically house customer hardware and
equipment as opposed to locating it in their offices
or facilities.
HCDE Technology Services &
Consultation
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Consultation services for infrastructure design
and implementation
Consultation services for Disaster Recovery
Strategic Planning
Data backup and data vaulting services
Hosting services
Emergency satellite communications response
For More Information Please Contact:
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Jim Schul (CIO)
 jschul@hcde-texas.org
 713.696.8205
Arthur Vu (Project Manager)
 artvu@hcde-texas.org
 713.696.8268
The HCDE Virtual Education Portal
What we do and how it works
 Identify districts’ needs
 Seek solutions for those needs
 Seek collaborative with the entities that:
• Address a particular need
• TAKS/TEKS aligned
• Researched based
• Have track record of success and stability
 Anytime, anywhere learning (primarily web based
applications)
The VEP Web Site
http://vep.hcde-texas.org
Virtual Education Portal
Collaborations
Advanced Academics
Product Focus: Credit Recovery
Product Features
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Grades 7-12
Fully accredited educational
services company
TEA and NCLB/SES approved
Online, Texas state-correlated
secondary school courses
“Anytime/Anywhere” learning
using web-driven technology
Fully accredited teachers
online working with students
Ways to Implement
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Credit Recovery
Drop-out Prevention
Curriculum Expansion; Courses
for credit
Virtual Summer School
Conflicting Class Schedules
Opportunities for Accelerated
Students
Solution for Teacher Shortage
CompassLearning
Product Focus: Curriculum & Assessment
Product Features
Standards Alignment to TEKS
and TAKS
 Delivers standards-based
assessment, standards-aligned
PreK-12 curriculum
 Assess, Prescribe, Report and
Integrate
 Monitor student data/progress
 Reports student progress in
real time
 More than 30 years of
experience in the field of
research-based instructional
technology
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Ways to Implement
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Promotes integration of
curriculum and technology
After school programs
Benchmark testing source
Promote anytime, anywhere
learning at home
Home to school – Parent
Involvement
High stakes Test preparation
Teacher access to quality
curriculum, instruction, and
innovative learning tools
Lesson plans and resources
for teachers
Teacher Professional
Development
Questia
Product Focus: Digital Tools for Research
Product Features
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Over 20 million pages can be
searched from any computer
with Internet connectivity
Digital research allow users to
highlight text, properly cite
passages, bookshelf key titles,
automatically create
bibliographies, and organize
projects in a personal
workspace. Information is saved
on Questia servers
More than 60,000 books and
over 1,000,000 journal,
magazine, and newspaper
articles
Partnerships with more than 250
academic and university presses
providing copyrighted content in
addition to essential public
domain material
Ways to Implement
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Integrating technology into the
classroom
Facilitate the research process
 Teach students to search
safely and effectively, and
teaches search validity
 Teaches online research
skills
Supports teachers in their
homework assignments
Enhance reading skills,
encourage more reading
Create collaborative research
projects across the curriculum
Supplement library services
ESL Reading Smart
Product Focus: ESL
Product Features
 Program Components
 Newcomer
 ESL Level 1: Beginner
 ESL Level 2:Intermediate
 ESL Level 3: Advanced
 Teacher Support
 Aligned with TEKS and TAKS;
research based
 Use of culturally relevant content
in a web based multimedia
environment
 Integration of reading, listening,
writing, and speaking activities
 Literature-based teaching of
language skills
 Available 24 hours, 7 days per
week
Ways to Implement
 Improve the language and
reading skills of upper
elementary, middle and high
school ESL students
 Assistance in ESL classroom
environment
 ESL and regular classroom
collaborative projects
 Parent/student after school
program
 Summer enrichment programs
Walden University
Product Focus: Higher Education Degrees
Walden University
Accredited by the Higher Learning
Commission of the North Central
Association of Colleges and Schools
 Graduate Degrees
 8 Masters
 2 Doctoral
 All online
 Self-paced
“Best of the Online Grad
Programs” in 2002 by U.S.
News and World Report
HCDE/Walden University
Principal’s Certification Program
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SBEC approved
Blended model:
 Online degree – Walden University
 Face to face Texas certification specific - HCDE
Preparation for the TExES test
Personalized faculty internship advisor (2 years)
Audience:
Teachers seeking principal certification
Districts seeking to grow their own principals
Scholastic Red
Product Focus: Professional Development
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Entirely focused on the goal of
improving student reading
achievement
Proven to improve teachers'
reading instruction
Scientifically research-based
Tightly aligned to the
requirements of NCLB
Cost-effective and convenient
blend of online and in-person
training
Easily customized, systematic
and ongoing
Improves the teaching of
reading and the quality of
reading leadership in schools
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Scholastic has 80 years of
success in educating, and
motivating children and helping
teachers raise the achievement
of every student.
A comprehensive professional
development solution for
reading
RED courses are approved for
CPE credit hours by SBEC
Graduate credit available
through accredited university
partners
MindLeaders
Product Focus: Professional Development Technology Training
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Professional Certification Training
Business Skills Videos
Large library of self-paced courses
Tech labs
Management system
Preparation for technical exams
Instant mentoring
Personal Learning Paths
Other Products and Services
English/Spanish Math Vocabulary Handbook
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Teacher Manual K-8
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Teaching tools for English Language Learners in
Math
750 + Translated terms based on TEKS/TAKS
requirements
Base 10 charts in dual language
Problem solving processes charts in dual language
Aligned with NCTM Math standards
Student Manual K-8
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Student Math English/Spanish vocabulary list
Alpha order
Excellent for the LSAT test!
800+ terms
Instructional Technology Training
Focus: Integrating Technology
into the Curriculum
 Hands
on training (face to face)
 Using
technology to support
ADD/ADHD learners
 Microsoft Office products
 Technology tools for the secondary
and elementary classroom
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English Language Arts
Math
 Creating
 Online
online courses using Moodle
courses coming soon!
Questions?
Thank You For
Attending!
Noemi Lopez
Contact Information
Angela C Drake
Director of Client Development
nlopez@hcde-texas.org
Director of D.L.I.T.
adrake@hcde-texas.org