Bruce Bocknowski, Lake Forest
Susan Cornett, Elementary Workshop
Bethel Crockett, Lake Forest
Gary Feurer, University of Delaware
Karen Hartschuch, Christina
Wayne Hartschuh, DCET
Loretta Martin, Capital

Wendy Modzelewski, DCET
Joyce Nerlinger, Christina
Alyssa Rosenthal, Christina
Pat Sine, University of Delaware
George Slentz, OIS
Denise Tuck, Capital

Meeting was called to order at 5:00 PM.
Attendees introduced themselves.
No one offered changes to minutes. (note: there was no March meeting held due to a lack of attendance)

Delaware Instructional Technology Conference

• Thanks you to Susan Cornett for coordinating ITUG's presence at the conference.
• Thank you to those people who secured prizes for the raffle: Susan Cornett, Alyssa Rosenthal, and Denise Tuck
• Membership Update: There are now 174 people on the list
• Discussion surrounding the sale of conference t-shirts being handled by ITUG next year. This would require a checking account which many members felt might be a problem and one more thing to handle. Discussion was tabled until the fall.

Future Meeting Plans

• Monday, May 14th. Meeting will be a tour of OIS lead by George Slentz. Meeting will start at 5:00 with networking followed by Tour, and business portion of the meeting to accommodate George's schedule. This will also allow George's Wilmington College students in be a part of the business part of the meeting.
• June meeting - canceled after member vote
• Wednesday, August 15th - Member Picnic. It was suggested that we not reserve Killen's Pond if that is where we want the meeting since we can probably get their picnic area since it is midweek. More discussion and planning will follow about this event at the May meeting.

General Discussion

• Comments sent to list about volume of mail. It was mentioned that we specifically set up the list in this format because we felt that this was a "learning group" and that a threaded newsgroup might be difficult for some people to navigate. Also, the egroups format (not yahoo groups) allows members to modify the way they receive mail (digest of web format) so that we meet the needs of multiple group members.
• It was suggested that we send a quarterly message reminding people of the culture of the organization, how to remove themselves from the list and providing any updates. Wendy will try and assume responsibility for this role.
• Logo Contest - we have discussed a logo contest for some time so that ITUG can have a recognizable logo. We discussed timing of the contest, who can enter, how to pick a winner, what we would do with the logo, etc. It became evident that this issue required more information than we had so Joyce Nerlinger agreed to investigate a contest and report back to the group.
• Delaware Technical Academy is a summer inservice academy being sponsored by McDonalds and DCET. Information is on the web at http://www.dcet.k12.de.us/instructional. Information on becoming an instructor can be obtained by contacting DCET (update to minutes - information is available in the ITUG archives as of 4/25/01.)
• ITUG Agenda - it was suggested that we may want to contact conference presenters to be a featured speakers at ITUG so that people who were unable to attend the conference or a specific session could still benefit from the presenter's knowledge.

Evening Topic

Personal Digital Assistants (see resource page)

• Keyboards come in two types: Palm ($89 on state contract) and GoType which folds differently and is cheaper.
• Documents To Go - is purchasable software that allows you to create Excel and Word documents
• Writing Tablet - Palm fits on one side, tablet on the other. Write on tablet and it enters into Palm. Concern: file it creates is a .pic file. Not OCR.
• Portable Digital Notepad.Cross tablet (brand name as in the pens) - drawing tablet. Pen has radio frequency and transmits data. Non-standard file type is created. Used in Delmar for art classes. Pen is clunky and heavy.
  
• Free: Avantgo.com - Webclipping service. You select which magazines and news you want to download.
• Compaq IPAC - Win 2K, USb, onscreen keypad, wireless email. Better screen graphics than Pam IIIc. Difficult to get; wiating period is about 6 weeks.
• What to do with a PDA? Calendar, Notes, Mapquest
• Magazine: Palm has a training academy that focuses on the use of Palms in a classroom called Education in Hand.
• Syncing your PDA to a PC or a MAC is the same process.
• Handspring is a company; Visor is the name of their PDA.
• Vindigo is an application you can download to your Palm. It is not recommened by Pat Sine.

• If you have two PDAs of the same brand, they can use IR (infra-red) transfer to "beam" information back and forth between units
• Downloadable Books - quality of material available at this point may be questionnable due to limited texts.
• Batteries are rechargeable in newer units.
• Educational Purposes PDAs: Teacher can beam notes and assignments to students, Calendaring and time management, tasking - organizing homework, student productivity.

Related literature

• Technology and Learning, April 2001; E-Books and Education; What's the Story (available online at www.techlearning.com)
• Consumer Reports, May, 2001; Palms & Other PDAs; Which model fits your needs? Test of 15 Visors, Pocket PCs, Palms
• Curriculum Administrator's Education in Hand, monthly publication. Listserv: www.insync-palm.com
• Learning and Leading with Technology (I STE Journal) had articles on using Palm Pilots in education.
  

Next Meeting will be held on Monday, May 14, 2001.

Meeting adjourned at 7:25 PM.