In this episode of The Good Life EDU Podcast, we spotlight the upcoming Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium taking place on October 16th, 2024. Peg Coover of ESU 10 joins us along with the event’s keynote speaker Jen Casa-Todd as we dive into the history and evolution of the annual NE DigCit Symposium event. In the episode, Jen previews her message, highlighting her LEAD framework, which emphasizes learning, empathy, awareness, and digital role modeling as crucial elements of student leadership online. Listen to learn how students will grow as digital citizens while engaging in hands-on activities that empower them to create positive change in their own schools.
REGISTER YOUR STUDENTS FOR THE EVENT and access the NEDigCit online resources and competition at https://bit.ly/NEDigCit
Save the date for our in-person event on October 16, 2024! Our theme is “You’ve Got the Power to Lead!” and our focus age group will be middle and high school.You may choose from any of the five locations for in-person participation, even if it isn’t your ESU. ESUs 3, 5,7,10 and 13 will be hosting schools.
We invite you to send a team of students and teachers. We recommend a team of one teacher or librarian and five students, but you may customize your team to fit your needs best! You may also choose to send more than one team!
Teams of students and adults will work together to formulate an actionable plan to take back to their school aimed to implement the use of technology for good. We are excited to bring author, newly retired teacher, and speaker Jennifer Casa-Todd to facilitate the day and help students from schools across the state connect and learn!
Important Details:
Date: October 16, 2024 10:00 to 3:00 CST(lunch provided)
Cost: $120 for each team up to 6 (or $20 per person if teams are larger)
Who: Middle School and/or High School Students and a sponsor
Where: Join any of our host sites at ESU 3, ESU 5, ESU 7, ESU 10, or ESU 13
In addition to our in-person event, we will continue to provide online content on our website throughout the year! We will also be hosting our poster and PSA contest again! All school districts in Nebraska are eligible to participate in the online content, at no charge. Stay tuned for more information.
We are looking forward to working with schools in person and throughout the year! This will be a great way to celebrate Digital Citizenship Week October 14-18.
Nebraska Cybersecurity Network for Education (NCNE) is at the forefront of reducing cyber risk and enhancing cyber resilience for school districts across Nebraska. Established in 2023 by ten educational service units under the umbrella of the Educational Service Units Coordinating Council (ESUCC), NCNE addresses the growing threat of cyberattacks targeting schools.
In a significant boost to its mission, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska (BCBSNE) recently donated 450 pieces of computer equipment to NCNE. This donation includes 210 computer desktops and 240 monitors, which will be distributed among 196 high schools across the state. The equipment is earmarked for use in emerging cybersecurity programs that NCNE has been developing over the past few years.
Andy Boell, the cybersecurity director at NCNE, highlighted the importance of this initiative. “At NCNE, one of our goals is to establish cybersecurity programs statewide to address the growing opportunities in this field of work,” said Boell. “Nebraska has a lot of very talented students, but not enough resources to educate them on cybersecurity. We want to keep these students in Nebraska and educate them as much as we can. Thanks to Blue Cross, we’re able to keep working toward that goal.”
The urgency of NCNE’s work is underscored by a federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency report, which noted the increasing vulnerability of schools to cybercriminals. The collaboration between BCBSNE and NCNE is a strategic effort to combat these crimes. BCBSNE’s donation is not just about providing hardware; it’s about investing in the future of Nebraska’s students. By equipping high schools with the necessary tools to teach cybersecurity, BCBSNE is helping to empower students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in a rapidly growing field.
The partnership between NCNE and BCBSNE exemplifies how community and corporate collaboration can drive meaningful progress in education and workforce development. Together, they are laying the foundation for a more secure and prosperous future for Nebraska’s schools and students.
This K-12 school team training will help your school form or enhance the team that will focus on identifying, assessing and managing the risk/threat of violence posed by students, staff, and community members toward the school community.
Schools are encouraged to participate with a team of at least 4 members (e.g., administrators, faculty/staff, security or law enforcement partner, and mental health partner). Teams will leave the workshop with sample protocols to adapt for use in their school environment.
This reimbursement opportunity is grant funded and intended to support attendance for approved Threat Assessment Trainings. The district can be reimbursed for hotel, sub, mileage, etc. for up to five team members.
Prerequisite: Need to have taken Threat Assessment – Level I Training
During this one-day training, participants will explore practical threat management strategies for use in school settings. Different interventions will be discussed that are appropriate for use with students or adults/staff.
Effective interventions are built on good information and feedback that can be difficult to obtain due to privacy or legal barriers. Training will include strategies for addressing these barriers.
Participants will enhance their ability to obtain good information via interactions with subjects, witnesses, and targets by enhanced elicitation skill building activities.
Our World’s current situation has many schools questioning the future, implementing spending freezes, and trying to predict the financial future. This is not the first time that school budgets have been in danger. It seems like we are always trying to provide our kids with quality education while pinching pennies.
This concerns me, not just as an employee of ESUCC, but also as a parent. I want my kids to have the best education that we can possibly provide. Whether kids are learning in the classroom or learning remotely from home, supplies and equipment are essential. A decrease in funding, especially with these uncertain times, can make it very difficult for schools to obtain needed products and supplies.
What are your needs?
ESUCC has many resources available to support schools, educators and students. Continually working with ESUs, NDE, vendors, and other State agencies, we can provide cost saving solutions to meet all of your needs. By working together and sharing resources we all benefit, saving time and money. ESUCC works to prepare strategic plans that assure cost-efficient and equitable delivery of services across the state, administration of statewide initiatives and provision of statewide services, and coordination of distance education.
Our Cooperative bid processes, leveraging bulk buying power, provide you with nationally and locally awarded contracts that give you low cost quality products and services. I have been doing this job for over 25 years and I have seen the cost savings and benefits of cooperative purchasing. It is amazing! Schools can save up to 35% on classroom supplies & software, technology products, custodial supplies, food, building/roofing needs and so much more!
Did you know? ESUCC Cooperative Purchasing saved Nebraska schools just over $6,000,000 last year!
Will things ever get back to normal?
Some days it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And most likely, we will never be the “same”. The technology has always been there, we have now been forced to use it on a daily basis to work, teach, communicate, and learn. And unfortunately, we will most likely always face financial concerns and budget issues. But thanks to the hardworking professionals, exceptional teachers, and the many educational support agencies working together in Nebraska, we will continue to achieve great results!
If money was not an issue, what would your world look like? What do you need help with? ESUCC is always looking for new ways to serve Nebraska schools.
If there is anything you need, please contact us!
Omaha office: 402-597-4843 or Ainsworth office: 402-387-1245
The Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium, hosted by the Nebraska Educational Service Units (ESUs), was held in person for the first time since 2019 on October 16. Students and their teachers joined at five ESUs across the state. The five sites connected virtually through Zoom. You can also see the participating school districts by viewing 2023 Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium Participants.
Twenty-two school districts with approximately one hundred sixty participants heard from national speaker and digital citizenship advocate Marialice Curran. Her message focused on being a digital impactor by being alert, balanced, engaged, informed and inclusive. Essentially the theme for the day was promoting the use of technology for good. More information on this topic can be found at her Digital Citizen Institute’s (DCI) website: DCI – Digital Citizenship Institute (digcitinstitute.com).
The teams also were privileged to hear from Heather Callihan, a technology integrationist at Northwest Public Schools. Heather presented information on how she has social media and content creation teams of students who work together to tell their district’s story.
After hearing from Marialice and Heather, the school teams had time to build on the inspiration by creating a school vision, plan, and/or call to action. Each team worked on this plan and then shared their ideas with the other teams. But the vision didn’t stop that day, as the teams will be working on this throughout the school year, documenting their progress, and coming back together on Zoom in April to celebrate with their fellow Nebraska teams, AND with others across the globe during the second annual Global Student Showcase.
The collaboration and learning will also continue in a unique and fun way, as a plush toy named Mundo will travel to all of the participating schools this year! The goal is to have Mundo learn about the different Nebraska communities it visits! Marialice’s team created an AI assistant for education and named it Mundo. She encourages the teams to use the AI assistance to learn more about Nebraska communities, and then share with others across the state, and eventually the world.
“Mundo means earth in Spanish and at the DCI, we model how to learn about the world, with the world to create safe spaces for ourselves and others, to solve problems, and ultimately to be a force for good both on and offline.” Marialice Curran
Shara Johnson had the honor of representing the Nebraska statewide Canvas consortium at the New York City Department of Education in September. She provided support during their Canvas launch, sharing invaluable best practices for the implementation process as they introduce Canvas to New York teachers for professional learning. The Nebraska Canvas consortium is a collaborative platform used to manage online learning, including reporting, resource-sharing, grading, feedback, discussions, content creation, outcomes and tasks.
The ESUCC Cooperative Purchasing staff recently returned from the Association of Educational Purchasing Agencies (AEPA) spring meeting in Omaha where 29 state members converged along with 44 vendor partners to strategize and discuss procurement in their states for the upcoming year. The spring meeting is also a time for AEPA to recognize members and vendors for Relationship Excellence, Quality and Innovation and Sales Performance. ESUCC was the winner of two of these awards – Relationship Excellence, Quality and Innovation and also earned an honorable mention for Sales Performance with a 44% increase in sales.
Relationship Excellence Award
The Relationship Excellence award recognizes excellence in stakeholder engagement strategies that proactively support opportunities for co-discovery, intimacy, trust-building, collaboration, brainstorming, solution development, and other activities that support the mission of AEPA. ESUCC was nominated for this award by Preston Frazier with Pitsco Education. This award recognizes the work of ESUCC Cooperative Purchasing but also highlights the statewide collaborative work of the ESUs in providing support and assistance to all of Nebraska schools in this statewide initiative.
“In 2022, there was a monumental opportunity that presented itself in which Pitsco and ESUCC worked together to provide coding and robotics kits to more than 300 schools and districts as part of a statewide initiative in Nebraska utilizing GEER funding. We worked together to provide support and assistance to each school and district through collaborative webinars, a recorded podcast, a customized miniature catalog to be shared inside Nebraska, and a valuable resource page specific to this initiative. We also had multiple meetings and visits to make sure this initiative was successful for students and teachers throughout Nebraska. ESUCC has been a pleasure to work with, and they are the picture-perfect partner!”
The Quality and Innovation award recognizes outstanding projects, campaigns, and innovations in the fields of digital media and communications. ESUCC was nominated for this award by Michelle Selak, Michigan. The award was presented to Craig Peterson, ESUCC Cooperative Purchasing Director, for the work that he and his team do in supporting AEPA. The quality and innovation Nebraska brings to AEPA is above and beyond.
“Nebraska has been a strong force in supporting AEPA in many categories. Although Michigan supports the front end of the website, Nebraska supports the website behind the scenes. Craig, as website chair, has been hands-on behind the scenes working with the AEPA website developer to make sure the website is supported, running, and functioning to its full capacity. Craig continually works to help develop, maintain, and continue to grow the CRM reporting system. This work includes collaborating with the Reporting Committee to support the process within the website. Craig also collaborates with the Marketing committee to better serve AEPA website marketing strategies. I have learned so much from Craig and I’m thankful for him and his knowledge. Craig also serves on four solicitation committees including committee chairperson for one of them.”
The Association of Educational Purchasing Agencies (AEPA) is a multi-state non-profit organization made up of Educational Service Agencies/political subdivisions organized through a Memorandum of Understanding between all participating states. It is a true “cooperative” that serves to leverage purchasing power for all member schools and agencies with the ability to purchase at equal buying levels regardless of size.
AEPA Advantages
AEPA streamline the bidding and purchasing process through a single, locally and nationally recognized purchasing solicitation.
AEPA’s collaborative purchasing expertise ensures that contracts are legal, safe and bid law compliant.
Contracts are bid competitively and tailored to meet each member state’s specific legal requirements and is facilitated by the state’s cooperative member agency.
AEPA contracts are designed to protect buyers and are guaranteed to save members time and money.
Combining the needs of 25 million students nationwide provides an incentive to vendors to offer AEPA their best price and the highest quality products.
ESUCC Cooperative Purchasing
As a member of AEPA, ESUCC Cooperative Purchasing represents 17 Educational Service Units statewide which in turn service Nebraska school districts with over 300,000 students. We are authorized to coordinate purchases for public school districts, nonpublic school systems, other ESUs, and other public agencies, including any county, city, village, school district, or agency of the state government, any drainage district, sanitary and improvement district, or other municipal corporation or political subdivision of the State of Nebraska. For more information, contact Craig Peterson, or visit our website – ESUCC Cooperative Purchasing
The Nebraska Educational Service Units (ESUs) held the annual Digital Citizenship Symposium online again this year. The outreach was impressive because of the flexibility of the online delivery of digital citizenship content. The website was visited over 4,700 times from October through April by people from all over Nebraska and included visitors from 8 other states and 5 countries!
The online content included information and activities for grades K-4, 5-6, and 7-12. Heather Callihan, Technology Integrationist at Northwest Public Schools and teachers/students from Lincoln Public Schools recorded videos that HS students and teachers could access online. ESU staff also curated content for grades K-4 and 5-8. Students had the opportunity to earn a certificate of completion for their grade level content, which included Media Balance, Making Good Decisions, and Creation Over Consumption. Almost 600 certificates were awarded to students successfully completing the unit assessments!
The ESU group also hosted a statewide Digital Citizenship Message Contest. Students were invited to submit a Digital Citizenship poster or a Public Service Announcement communicating something they had learned. Students in grades K-12 submitted entries online and were judged in four grade group categories. Of the 132 contest entries, 21 award winners were selected and announced in April.
The GEER (Govenor’s Emergency Education Relief) funded robotics purchases sent over a million dollars’ worth of robotics devices into Nebraska schools. In a collaborative effort to support this monumental purchase, Pitsco Education and the ESUCC came together to develop a support site where educators and students can access video tutorials, online resources, and downloadable documents to ensure the successful implementation of these devices into student learning experiences. We even included a webinar series with implementation ideas featuring representation from Pitsco and our ESU network statewide.
