President's Report	by Shelley Wilcox
October 21, 2005 Regional Conference
Using a Blended Approach to Online Learning in an Urban Classroom	by Scott Parker
Computers may not hurt kids grades, despite Sun reports	by Alan Zisman
Now, again and always a Treasurer	by Glen Holmes
BCEdOnline a real and virtual success	by Shelley Wilcox
BCeSIS - the startup	by James McConville
Benefits of your CUEBC membership	by Wayne Ulian
Time to put a Tiger on your school’s desktops?	by Alan Zisman
Integration of Technology and Science	by Kevin Amboe
CUE's new and 10% improved website	by Chris Rozitis
Pre-owned PC's: something sustainable?	by James McConville
Supporting adult learners with ICT	by Ray Steigvilas
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BCeSIS

If you're not familiar with this acromn it is British Columbia electronic Student Administration System. It will soon be in every district, as all but eight have signed on to the project. The reasons for this level of adoption are obvious. Most current systems are outdated, don't work well on the internet and are costing a bundle to maintain. A centrallized system used by all district and managed in one place makes sense for educational organizations looking to save money and improve efficiency.

Our district is one of the first adopters of the system. There are currently three elementary schools and two middle schools 'live' with student data. Three secondary schools will be doing their scheduling now in BCeSIS with full implementation in the fall. Within two years all schools in our district will be using the system.

What does it mean to teachers? There is minimal change for teachers. BCeSIS was only designed to replace functionality that was currently handled by our old SIS. This means at elementary schools teachers will have no interaction with the systems. It is solely used to track student's attendance and demographics. At the secondary schools teachers will be using it for daily attendance and entering marks at term end.

The level of support and organization by the district is very important. Not only do we have a consultant managing the entire project we have highly skilled support staff and a steering committe that represents all employee groups from teachers, CUPE, admin and senior leadership.

There is a new spotlight on the issues surrounding FOIPA. BCeSIS is being implemented in a way to make sure that all aspects of student privacy is protected. If you haven't already made yourself familiar with the FOIPA you'll find that many of the current practices of printing sheets with student personal information must be handled differently.

If you have any questions I'll try to point you in the right direction. Contact me.

Links: Provincial Newsletter about BCeSIS (pdf)