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California Educational Data Processing Association |
The DataBus - Vol. 36, No. 5
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This year marks the first time that the complete breakout session schedule is being distributed with the announcement. This was made possible through the efforts of speaker chairperson Judy Acosta, who was able to completely develop the breakout program in time for it to be presented in the announcement.
The annual conference features a main speaker program including a keynote speaker and two other main speakers, 25 breakout sessions on various interest areas, and a vendor exhibit representing approximately 50 different product and service vendors. Also returning to this year's conference is the Internet Room, a popular venue of the past two conferences. This room will demonstrate network connectivity of equipment from various manufacturers, integrated to provide connectivity and access to the Internet.
Another first this year is a golf tournament to be held on Friday, October 18th, following the conference. The tournament will be an 18-hole, best ball tournament. Entry fee is $55 per person, which includes the golf fees, cart rental, drink tickets and awards. Those interested in participating must register with Greg Lindner by August 23rd in order to be included in the tournament. Greg may be contacted at (916) 668-3738 or by e-mail at [email protected].
This year, CEDPA has put up a Conference Central on its website. The Conference Central is a clearinghouse of information relating to this year's conference, including the complete program and an up-to-date listing of participating exhibitors. Please visit http://cedpa-k12.org or CEDPA's mirror website at http://www.cyberventure.com/~cedpa for conference information and other general information about CEDPA.
Also featured this year are two preconference sessions that will be held on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 15th. These preconference sessions are open to full conference registrants only. The fee for each session is $55, or you can sign up for both sessions for $100. These fees are in addition to the full conference registration fee of $225.
The first preconference session will feature Farley Stewart from Internet Products, Inc., presenting a primer on Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programming. Many of you will remember Farley's very successful and well-attended preconference session last year on web page programming. This year's session will attempt to remove the mystery about CGI programming, the method used to link enterprise databases to web-oriented search engines and produce web-oriented reports.
The second preconference session will feature Darryl La Gace and Addison Ching discussing classroom wiring issues. This will be another "discovery" session that will take you behind the scenes of the wiring closet, showing you how everything--from the hub to the termination--is hooked together and how it all works. A full working LAN will be available with all network components in full view for you to see.
The keynote speaker is Dr. Rudy M. Castruita, superintendent of the San Diego County Office of Education. His focus will be on STAC, the Superintendent's Technology Advisory Committee. This committee is a regular gathering of San Diego county school superintendents who meet to discuss technology and technology issues affecting their respective districts. The STAC has been instrumental in the successful implementation of technology in many San Diego districts. Dr. Castruita will explain why the STAC is important to the SDCOE and how it can possibly help other counties and districts in their technology implementation programs.
Dr. Castruita attended Utah State University on a basketball scholarship. He earned his bachelor and master's degrees at Utah State, and received his doctorate of education from the University of Southern California. He was superintendent for the 50,000-student Santa Ana Unified School District for six years before joining the San Diego County Office of Education, and has been in the field of education for 27 years. He received the ACSA Marcus Foster Award in 1991, and was named California's Superintendent of the Year in 1992.
One of the main speakers is Alex Kaplan, returning from last year's conference. This year he will speak on "Alternative Methods for Providing Service and Support to School Districts." Alex Kaplan is one of the nation's leading authorities on successfully implementing technology in school districts. He is currently the Principal for Solution Design and Delivery for IBM K12 for North America and is responsible for all of IBM's consulting and systems integration projects in school districts. Mr. Kaplan has extensive experience with school districts in technology planning, K12 product evaluation and selection, implementation of complex technology projects, and systems integration. He has also served as a policy consultant to state departments of education and is a published author and graduate of Columbia University.
The other main speaker is Jody Warne-Ellison. Ms. Warne-Ellison will talk about "The Difference Between Today and Tomorrow." Her experiences in the computer industry and unique perspectives will be sure to start you thinking about the future and how you'll relate to the technology of tomorrow.
Ms. Warne-Ellison is currently a consultant in industry working with companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Coca Cola, and IBM. Prior to this she was a California high school educator and administrator. She brings to us her humor, insight, and unwavering enthusiasm for the best in each of us.
This year's conference follows the format of past conferences. Registration begins on Wednesday at 8:00, with the conference commencing at 9:00 a.m. Following the opening remarks by CEDPA's president Ken Jones, Dr. Rudy M. Castruita will give the keynote address. Breakout sessions will follow for the remainder of the day. Wednesday's activities will conclude with the CEDPA-hosted President's Reception that evening.
Thursday will begin with breakout sessions that will lead into the all-day vendor exhibition. We expect about fifty vendors to be on hand to show you their latest products and services. Alex Kaplan will deliver our noontime address. The vendor exhibition will continue after lunch, concluding in the door-prize drawings that afternoon. Vendor-hosted hospitality suites will cap off Thursday's activities.
Friday's featured speaker and breakout sessions will be both interesting and informative. CEDPA's business meeting will conclude the conference activities. The golf tournament will begin about 2:00 at the Tahquitz Creek Resort Course.
While planning for this year's conference, there are several important dates to remember. They are:
The complete conference announcement, as well as a registration form package, are available in Adobe PDF format from CEDPA's websites. There is also a direct link to Adobe's website to download a free copy of the Adobe Acrobat reader which you will need to process the PDF files. Acrobat is a document processing system that can run on either PCs or Macintoshes and provides an exact-image representation of the original publication which can be either viewed on-screen or printed out. Additional conference announcements can also be obtained directly from CEDPA by contacting CEDPA's secretary, Jane Kauble, at (310) 922-6141, or by e-mail at [email protected].
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