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At La Crescent-Hokah Public Schools in southeast Minnesota, we decided we wanted more of a buy-in to putting to good use whatever hardware was purchased. After researching other programs in our area, we gave birth to Educational Technology through Integration and Collaboration (ENTIC) in 2007. A Committment to TechnologyAs with so many other districts around the country, our budget is limited. Equipping every classroom in the district is not an option. So teachers are allowed to apply to become ENTIC participants only ater they work out a budget for the following year and explain how they intend to use the requested equipment in their rooms. We do not make everyone fit one mold: Each teacher decides what hardware would work the best with his or her age group, content, and student population. Of course, there is a financial limit to what one teacher is allowed to receive. Applicants are asked to describe their experience with collaboration with other teachers in the district. A rubric is used to score the applicants to make decisions in an unbiased manner. The scoring team goes over the applications and decides, based on budget constraints, how many teachers will be brought into the next round of ENTIC. Some consideration is given to keeping the technology distribution equitable from department to department throughout the district. Being accepted into the program means the teacher is agreeing to a two-year commitment to work with the integration specialist. The first year requirements are: 15 hours of integration training outside the contract day, including orientation to the equipment, any other technology training (usually provided by the integration specialist and paid at a rate of $17.50 per hour), preparation and delivery of a 15-minute presentation to a group showing how equipment is used in the classroom, and six hours of lesson preparation outside the contract day; Complete ethics training provided in the district; Complete a pre-survey, post-survey, and reflection form; Work with the integration specialist on a regular basis involving classroom observations and reflections; Integrate new technology into teaching and student learning; Create an implementation plan for the second year to involve district student technology standards; Develop a teacher Web site using the framework provided by the district; and Be responsible for the care and security of the equipment. With this list of expectations, it is apparent the teacher must have a commitment before applying to the program. For year 2, the teacher works with the integration specialist to implement technology into the hands of the students on a more in-depth scale. Each teacher choses two goals from Minnesota's State Technology Standards for students based on the NETS standards. If needed, the integration specialist will team teach with the ENTIC teacher. The mentor relationship continues through the second year ending with a final survey of how the teacher's skill in technology has increased.

A quick checklist then for your first Google Docs session

Have a document already shared with the class, so that when they open their Docs Home there is something there. Use a shared Doc to begin with to demonstrate the collaborative nature of Docs – use Spreadsheets if you are expecting more then 10 simultaneous users. Keep it simple and easy like the My Favourite idea I used today. Before you get into the document show the children around the Docs Home screen. Demonstrate how the different views or filters on your documents changes the view. This is often a problem when children think someone has hacked their account and deleted everything, but they haven’t clicked on ALL ITEMS. Good to take time to demo this. Show children that there is a right click menu on the documents. When viewing a document talk about how it is automatically saved and how each change is logged and can be viewed. Explain how important it is to SIGN OUT at the end of the session.