Educational Technology at IU13

This Spring has been a very exciting time for our newly revised IMS 2.0.  Please make sure that you have read about our IMS 2.0 changes that we have been making for next year.  Here are a few highlights to keep in mind:

• The IMS will go through a review every 3 years through an IMS Focus Committee to review services to make sure that we are continuing to meet district needs and initiatives. 
• We are committed to providing the IMS 2.0 for the next three years which includes, Discovery Education, Safari Montage, CultureGrams, OverDrive, and the Starlabs.
• We are in the process of eliminating MediaNet hardware loans and are asking districts to set up LDAP for Discovery Education.
• Literacy Book Bag Collections are being discontinued and as a replacement, we are adding OverDrive eBooks.  OverDrive is the largest eBook collection company for libraries so we are very excited to add on this service for all our members.

This past week, we formed a librarian selection committee representing Elementary, Middle School, and High School librarians to begin selecting titles for our IU 13 OverDrive account.  Each district will receive access to the collection and will receive their own Advantage accounts in which additional district owned titles can be purchased.  Districts will have the opportunity to even upload their own ePubs text materials in which they are creating for students to sign out and use.  Collections will be lexile-based so students and teachers can search by the specific lexile range desired. We are very excited to bring this new IMS tool to all our districts.  Stay tuned!

Please take a moment to check out our IMS May Events:

• May 1, 2014 Safari Montage Webinar - Broadcasting Made Easy
• May 2, 2014 iPAD Collaboration Day
• May 20, 2014 Technology Integrator/Media Specialist Celebration/Planning (Stay tuned for more details)
• May 20, 2014 Access PA Mtg.
• Site Visits (Ken is visiting districts to discuss the IMS 2.0)