Rivendell Academy

Compiled November, 2014

Rivendell Digital Learning Environment Inventory:
What tools, software, operating systems, and equipment are available in your
school and classroom? (including but not limited to: videoconferencing, streaming,
photos sharing sites, video sharing sites, document sharing sites, podcasts, blogs,
wikis, social networking sites, etc
In my classroom:
LCD Projector
9th graders with 1-1 laptops running Windows 8
Access to mobile laptop cart for use by 11th & 12th grade students
DVD player
Speakers for computer and DVD player
School issued laptop for my use.
Students also use their own devices: iPads, smart phones, laptops, and eReaders.
July 2015 Update: 1-1 Laptops will be issued to incoming 9th grade in August. This
means that students in grades 9, 10, & 11 will all have 1-1 laptops.

Programs I use:
EDU2.0

Google Drive

Google Docs Gmail

First Class

MMS

Youtube

Vudu for streaming film

Pandora

Wordpress
PBS streaming documentary videos & teacher resources: Frontline, Africans in America,
Lewis & Clark, The Civil War, etc.
News media sites: CNN, Fox, WMUR, the Daily Show, NPR, etc.
Historical sites: The National Archives, Massachusetts Historical Society, NH Historical
Society, the White House, National Constitution Center, US Supreme Court, Oyez
Online text resources: Digital History, Globalization101, Facing History & Ourselves
Rivendell Academy
Number of Students:

Grades: 7-12
250

Number of Teachers & Paraprofessionals: 32

The Rivendell District has an official website that has information about all 3 of the
Districts schools.
Rivendell Academy has an official school Facebook page.
Rivendell Academy has a Bring Your Own Device policy and students have their own wi-fi.
Faculty and Administrators have a separate wi-fi. Wi-fi is high speed fiber optic.

All students have Google Accounts, Gmail, use Google Drive for cloud storage of their
work, and have an ePortfolio using Google Sites.
All teachers are expected to use EDU2.0 as a class website, place to put course
materials, resources, student assignments, and the course curriculum. Some teachers
also use EDU2.0 for online quizzes, online discussion threads, blogs, etc. Update June,
2015: School is dropping EDU2.0 and switching to a Moodle platform that will provide
students, teachers, & the community access to all curriculum documents and each
teacher is required to host each of their courses in Moodle so students have access to all
course materials, discussion forums, collaborative workspaces, online assessments, etc.
The District uses MMS for student scheduling, gradebook with a student and parent portal,
grade reporting, attendance, report cards and transcripts.
The District uses First Class for all Staff email.
9th & 10th grade have school issued laptops that they can take home. They will have the
laptops until graduation.
All faculty have school issued laptops.
Library: 26 desktops
Media Lab 1: 8 Macs and 8 PCs
Mobile Laptop Carts: 3 with 24/24/12 laptops
Smartboards: 12
Cameras: variety of digital and video cameras for use by any classes.

eBooks: have 12 but not currently in service.

Photocopiers: 3 that are wifi printers & scanners for all staff and students.
Specialty Printers: 2 for color and larger format printing
Software & Operating Systems:
All laptops and desktops are Windows based with full Microsoft suite. Most teachers prefer
that students use Microsoft word or Excel for more precise document formatting. For
simpler formats, students use Google doc or spreadsheets.
The Macs in the Media lab are running Apple operating system and have full Adobe suite
Flicker and Google are used for photo sharing.
Lastpass for password management
Middlebury Interactive is our new partnership for teaching French through Middlebury
College and students are doing this in a blended learning environment.
Our NH students can do online courses for free via VLACS which is NHs Virtual Learning
Academy. This allows students to do credit recovery or access courses that we cannot
offer due to our size. Our VT students dont have access as Vermont doesnt have a
comparable program.
Prezi for presentations.
Quizlet for online study tools.
Faculty and students have full access to all Google Apps. Very little is blocked here.

How does your school make use of school and/or teacher websites?
District Website is used for:
All district documents, school board agendas and minutes, etc.
Rivendell Academy calendar of events, photos of events, news, curriculum, lunch menus,
staff biographies, sports schedules, student/parent handbook, program of studies, and so
forth. Because we are a small district we dont have a separate official school website for
our site.
Official Facebook Page is used for:
Advertising and Promotion of school events and celebrating student success via photos of
the school theater performances, sports, clubs, field trips, and academic events. There are
a number of faculty who have rights to post material.
Teacher websites:
We have gotten away from separate teacher websites that exist in many different places.
Teacher websites now exist via courses set up in EDU2.0. Here, students can access
course materials, resources, assignments, etc. We did this to try and streamline access
and have a common format.
Effective August, 2015 all teachers will have course specific sites on the Schools
Moodle page.
How are you currently utilizing technology for learning?
1. From the list of global e-learning sites included below, which are
available and which sites are blocked by your firewall? The only sites

that you're required to explore are listed here, but feel free to look
at/comment on others on the list that I have attached. Please reserve
time to explore these sites and process what they have to offer.
1. Skype

www.skype.com

2. iEARN www. iearn.org

3. ConnectAllSchools http://www.connectallschools.org
4. Peace Corps Speakers
Match http://wws.peacecorps.gov/wws/speakersmatch/
5. ePals http://www.epals.com
6. Global Nomads Group www.gng.org
7. Omprakash http://www.omprakash.org/about
8. Primary Source www.primarysource.org
9. Edutopia http://www.edutopia.org
10. Outreach World http://www.outreachworld.org
11. The UN Works http://www.un.org/works/
12. Global Education
Conference http://www.globaleducationconference.com
13. Online Newspapers http://www.onlinenewspapers.com
None of the above sites are blocked. In addition Youtube, Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Pinterest, and other Social Media sites are not blocked. We strive to
teach and model appropriate time, place, and manner usage.
What sites and tools are colleagues in your building using?
See previous questions. All of the responses apply to our building.
Is there a system for evaluating student technology literacy in your school? If so,
how effective or helpful have you found the assessment?

No, we dont have a formal system for evaluating student technology literacy. Technology
is a tool that is embedded across all grades and content areas. We expect that through
daily use of laptops that students learn and become proficient in use of Google Drive,
Gmail, file management, managing their ePortfolios, accessing course materials in
EDU2.0, and so forth. We constantly demonstrate and teach students as we proceed
through coursework and grade levels. Students also teach each other. Prior to having
student laptops we didnt grade them on notebook or backpack organization. Beyond the
basics, students are evaluated in individual classes where technology becomes part of a
learning process that goes beyond the use of a laptop as a notebook or backpack
organizational system. For example, if students are asked to present information via
Prezi, the use of Prezi is taught and assessed along with the content of the presentation
and the students presentation skills. Students who participate in daily postings of
responses to reading assignments in a course online discussion forum are assessed on
the content of their responses as well as how they respond to each other. Students in
photography class are specifically taught and assessed on the use of Adobe
Photoshop. Having one set of technology competencies to cover everything was
determined to be rather unwieldy by our Technology Integration Specialists and it would
constantly change. We do recognize the need for students to be taught digital citizenship
and we are considering embedding this into our Advisory program. Currently, we address
issues of digital citizenship and acceptable use on an individual basis or when there is an
opportune teaching moment. As we continue to deploy laptops, students who are new to
our district will need access to a boot camp course for the basics so they can get quickly
up to speed on use of Gmail, Google Docs, and EDU2.0 in order to be successful in their
courses.
Gather suggestions from students on their ideas for integrating technology into
their learning.
More integration of music. Students protested last year when the district tried to block
Pandora and Spotify. Teachers use those services to integrate music into lessons.

Faster wifi.
I put out the following question to my 9th grade American Studies students earlier
this week via Google docs:
Hi American Studies Students

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

I need your help with one of my homework assignments. Currently, I am taking a course
through the Teachers for Global Classrooms program and I need your input on one of my
homework questions.
Thank you very much! Mrs. Surprenant
WHAT IDEAS DO YOU HAVE FOR INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY INTO YOUR
LEARNING AT SCHOOL?
When you respond, please type your name next to your response. Also, please
dont delete other peoples responses as you are all contributing to the same
document. Thanks!
Will - When used correctly and not taken advantage of, student's personal electronics can
play a big role in learning. With so many apps, there is so much one can do with their
device. I am using google docs on my device right now. Google docs is a great app, as
well as Quizlet.
Shannon- I agree with Will, Quizlet is very useful on my phone. I know in the foreign
language classes we are using a new computer based program which I enjoy a lot more
than the old kind. I think the test on the computers (in english class) is fun and it feels less
stressful. Perhaps there can be more of that. Also, an idea I thought of just now could be
to have like a chat room thing with teachers (in each class) that any of the students could
join if they need extra help, but couldnt stay after school (maybe they had to be home to

take care of plants or something) and the chat can be from and to a certain time. I think its
easier to say things/ ask questions via online (an example would be cyber bullying and
how they feel stronger when not in person or whatever) so that could be helpful also.
Caleb- I feel that electronic devices can go either way, they can be helpful with like
reminding yourself that you have homework or they could really distract you in class.
Integrating Technology is a great idea for school because most people have electronic
devices and they are easy to use. Also we are growing more technologically advanced as
a society so we should take advantage of these tools to further our learning.
Melissa- I think the idea of Integrating technology into schools and classrooms is a good
idea. It allow students into just one more way of learning. I love shannons idea of having a
chat room with teachers and students who are unable to stay after and need some extra
time with teachers or say we are working on a project and we need more time with our
group. I think there are so many ways online learning has grown, we use a ton of
programs in all of our classes. Also maybe having some sort of fun activity intertwined with
online groups so it encourages students to go on and participate at home, but I dont have
an idea on how you could do that. For example Quizlet has this thing called scatter and its
like a mini competition between all of us, I dont know, its fun.
Karina- Like Caleb, I feel that technology can be a great tool, but sometimes is a hassle.
There are a lot of things that it allows us to do that are very helpful. I too like the idea of
having a place online where you can ask questions. It would be nice to have an open
space where you can ask anyone a question. To make this successful however, I think
that it is important to try to structure it so that it is productive. Sometimes things like that
can be a bit distracting, especially if it is one document where several people could be
typing at once. Maybe something similar to the discussion threads we have going on
chains where you post something and someone can respond. I am finding a lot of things
easier to access with the use of technology in my other classes. Like others have said,
Quizlet is really helpful for studying and being able to share things with people over google
docs is super helpful as well. Edu2.0 is also an incredibly useful resource. In terms of

having our own computers, it is nice to not have to compete with other classes for the
library, and to always have the internet handy when I need to look up a fact. However, I
feel like if we are going to be implementing new technologies we need to make sure that
everyone knows how to use them. I find it really frustrating when something doesnt work,
and I dont know how to work around it. It also imagine that it is very difficult to get around
not having internet access at home, as much of the work really does rely on that access.
Im wondering if there is a way to integrate both google drive and things on word or excel.
I think that it is important to learn how to use technology now, because I am sure that that
knowledge will be important to have in the future.
Bea- I think that integrating technology into school is awesome! As we progress into the
modern times, everyone has a devices and interacts with technology daily. As students,
technology can really help us at school day to day. Every student having a Google docs is
one way we use technology in school. I do not know how we did group papers and
projects without Google docs! I cannot imagine it. Edu 2.0 is another good example of how
using technology in school can make our day to day work easier to complete. A new idea
for how we could use technology at school are making the forums on Edu 2.0 actual
forums. For each class it says there is a forum, but they are not used for anything. As
others said above, it would be a great place to go to ask questions while you were at
home. If we used the pre-existing but unused forum function on Edu 2.0, each class could
have a specific forum. This would be an improvement, because now if we want to talk to
our peers we need their email addresses and know that they are online to use Google
chat. This is not very practical for getting homework help. Utilizing the forums would be a
great addition to our technology at school! Another thing that I think would be good is
making our tests more online. For some tests where we need to draw pictures and
diagrams, I understand that online is unwieldy. However, for tests that involve essays, this
would be amazing! I always find that when I get to an essay question and start to write, I
always want to go back and edit. This is impossible because I only have so much room
until the next sentence. Also, sometimes I want the sentences to be switched around,
which is nigh impossible on a written by hand test. Mr. Riess uses online quizzes in his

class, and I think that our making it so that we can type our essay tests would make the
quality of what we write a lot better, as well as making the writing process easier for us.
Griffin- Technology is great if used correctly there are a lot more variables when getting
assigned things such as your internet not working or the lack of internet at all. What i think
would be great is if there was multiple ways to turn in projects on the internet and written
by hand giving us a lot more freedom in case of problems. I dislike using the computers in
some cases and i feel as though i dont have much of a choice in whether i use it or not
but Exel spreadsheets are very helpful. As most other people said the computers are a
great way to contact teachers for questions about work or other such things. The
computers are also a splendid way to write no need to worry about handwriting or
formating and teachers commenting on your work online is also helpful
Lucas-Technology is good if we use it for classwork and homework and make it a tool not
a toy in class.The laptops are a good way to give us some help in class and a way to do
writing tests for those who don't have good handwriting.Other electronic devices like
iphones and ipods are a distraction in class and i often see people on them when they
should be working.The laptops on the other hand are a good way to study and get
information not to count making graphs and exel is a good way to a lot of our work. My
opinion is that the laptops are good but the other electronics are a hindrance and make life
harder for the students with them.In the end stick with the laptos and leave the others at
home.
Mikayla-I love our new computers, theyre so helpful, and theyre ours so we have all our
things in one place. It has certainly has made lots of our classes seem more modernized.
Like what Shannon said, the quizzes that we take for English class seem much easier
than on paper, and I think thats because of the computers we take them with. I like those
quizzes a lot, and would recommend them. In what Lucas said, I think that now we are
freshmen, we should know better than to misuse these very expensive devices, and we
should be mature enough to take care of them. Also the fact that we can email our
teachers and reach them in more than one way is very helpful if you have a question or

something you need answered right away. When I attended the 1:1 conference last
spring, we listened to schools talk about how they have gone paperless meaning they
used no paper at all, because it was all on electronic devices. To me that was scary, and I
do not want Rivendell to come to that. I think the amount of integration we have now is just
right.
Jacob- I think this year has been easier to manage with our new computers. Like for
example if I forget my math homework in class, I can print it out from edu 2.0. Its nice to
have access to things from anywhere.
Maureen- I am so glad that we get computers they are so helpful and all of our work is in
one place. I think that using rivendell edu is also extremely helpful if you forget what is for
homework you can go look there. Although I love having the computer and it makes
everything much easier I do not want the school to be all electronic. Other than that I think
that the computers and very helpful and great to have .

What tools that are not presently available, would help to achieve district
objectives?
Our math teachers have been discussing access to ixlmath and the pro version of
Wolfram Alpha to extend and support mathematic instruction. Students need further
options for support, tutoring, and reinforcement of basic math concepts as Khan Academy
doesnt work for everyone. This is also important for students who have to take college
math entrance exams to review the basics before taking a placement test during college
orientation. Some of our students have excelled at calculus but need a brush up on basic
math stuff. Hearing this from our Technology Integration Specialist was a surprise to
me. Having a similar setup for the basics of writing and grammar would also be helpful.
Having a variety of tutorial programs for students who need quick refreshers or more in-

depth remediation would further support the work of our special educators, para
professionals, Title I services, and the support that parents try to provide at home.
If I could have any piece of technology, I would love one of the huge interactive, high
definition, monitor/tv and supporting software like the one CNN uses for its election night
coverage. Being able to stream news, film, documentaries, and create interactive displays
and infographics straight from my laptop would be really fantastic. This would also be
great for Skyping. I dont use a Smart board because it is too small. I use my laptop and
project work samples, art, film, photographs, infographics etc right on to my white board
where we can mark it up. I then take a quick photograph of the work and upload it into my
online course site on EDU2.0.
More bandwidth and even faster internet speed would be helpful.
High speed internet access for every family in the district is also a huge need given our
expectations for students taking home their laptops and working on their assignments.
The majority of our students do have high speed access but there are a few who dont so
we work with those students to prioritize their work based on where they can get access.