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<p>September 1, 2010 Meeting with Washington Learning Source (WLS) Attendees from WLS<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Attendees from NWERA Anne Anderson<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Jody McCrain Conn Quinn<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Karen Tennyson Today, Jody and I met with Anne from WLS, she asked Conn to join us as the discussion progressed. NWERA was there to introduce ourselves and our organization and to discuss the continued conflict of conference dates between WLS and other states and organization. We discussed with Anne how NWERA can help them increase participation of WLS vendors and possibly increase the number of NWERA vendors, who would join the WLS program. We also discussed our role with OSPI, Anne was impressed and this is when she included Conn. We discussed our upcoming meeting with Jessica and Allen to discuss RTTT, Common Core, etc. Because WLS now has a partnership with OSPI, they were interested in how our organizations could benefit each other in relaying accurate information to the schools throughout the state. Also on our agenda was how to educate school districts and the state to include technology in their requests for adoption materials. We also talked about how districts do not follow the same rigorous adoption process when they are purchasing technology materials and programs. The possibility of educating districts in how to adopt programs/materials, to be more consistent in their adoption processes and learn how to look at technical programs is one of the areas that both entities had a major interest. We also discussed the e-Learning Showcases held by PSESD WLS. The attendance for these has continued to dwindle. Having a nationally recognized expert is one way we thought attendance could be improved and the idea of having the speaker sponsored by a number of companies was raised. WLS would also like our help with their newsletter. They are interested in help with upping the content of the newsletter. Maybe a regular column by NWERA regarding technology based curriculum. Also, they have a “Teacher Feature” spotlighting a teacher who is using a program in an innovative or effective way. NWERA could nominate teachers for presentation in the newsletter. They would be especially interested if the teacher featured in the next newsletter could also present at the WLS Showcase this fall. Would it be necessary to identify NWERA members by the materials they carry, so we are not inundating textbook reps only with information regarding technology? Becoming involved in a partnership with WLS could help us increase our ranks of new members. We would have value to add.</p>
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