October 2, 2023 at 11:00 AM - Information Services Committee Meeting

Discussion:  Meeting called to order at 11:00 AM.

Staff:  Deb Hericks, Priscilla Quintana, Scott Isaacson, Rhonda Eis, Andrew Easton

Discussion: 

The Technology Direxctor shared an additional $100,000 in GEER funds was allocated to robotics purchases in late September and these were ordered by the ESUCC to distribute to schools. This will be the last GEER activity because the deadline to obligate funds was September 30, 2023. In summary, the total GEER I and II amounts handled by ESUCC is roughly $17.8 million, of which $521,000 was collected to offset administrative costs.

Discussion: 

The Technogy Director shared onn the Proofpoint Security Awareness and Training platform, 141 school districts and ESUs have registered 14,098 users. In October, we will be opening a year-two sign up period to see who will continue with the platform, or which new districts will want to participate. 45 school districts and ESUs are participating in the Duo Security multi-factor authentication licensing, with 8,600 licenses purchased. 1,400 licenses remain at the subsidized pricing of $2 per user for this contract year. Pricing will be $5 per user for the year beginning March 30, 2024. We will open a year-two sign up period in February, 2024. 186 school districts and ESUs are participating in the Nebraska Canvas consortium, totaling 90,149 licensees at this year’s rate of $4.50 per user. The team is working on a communication plan, including the possibility of hosting a regional Canvas conference, with the aim of providing more training opportunities and peer support for the platform. Dorann, Scott, Shara and Tammy are enrolled in a new Canvas certified system administrator training course and plan to introduce this to ESU and school district technical staff later this school year. We are working with our Instructure team on a report of usage analytics across the Nebraska instances.

Discussion: 

The Nebraska state committee for the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program has advanced all 3 ESU-related proposals for funding. The Nebraska state cybersecurity plan was approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reviewers. The funding process seems to always have one more step. Next, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency will submit a project worksheet to FEMA and then will receive funds which can be formally awarded to the sub-recipient projects.

Discussion:  Shared the continued discussion on how we can share our work with others.  

Discussion: 

The Technology Director share that the software development team continues to work toward the release of the new NVIS system and making improvements to the Project Para training platform.

Discussion:  The Digital Learning Director shared information from his report on all areas of his work. 

Discussion:  The Project Coordinator shared her report on Sora and the OER.  She also shared information on the upcoming TLT trainings. 

Discussion:  The meeting adjourned at 11:34 AM.