In October 2010, Nitin Julka, Vice President of Smart Solutions, Paul Karlin, Manager of E-rate, and Doug Jones, Director of Smart Solutions, shared knowledge and experience about ways Charter Schools can acquire and support cutting edge technology without spending a fortune. The session covered:

• Aligning technology strategies with your school’s educational and organizational goals
• Identifying the best technology tools and services to meet your district’s needs
• Leveraging federal funding for technology
• A case study on evaluating and selecting vendors for different levels of technology support
• Providing professional development for teachers to integrate technology effectively

Please contact Nitin Julka at njulka@smartsolutionsonline.com if you wish to learn more.

2011 COEHS Partnership Conference

Educating All Our Children: Bringing “What Works” to Scale

Friday, February 25, 2011
7:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Bert L. & Iris S. Wolstein Center 
2000 Prospect Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44115 

Cost:   The conference fee is $50.
This includes parking, two keynote speakers, breakout sessions, educational materials, continental breakfast and lunch. If you are interested in attending the conference, visit our website at www.csuohio.edu/cehs/partnershipconference, call  (216) 687-3737 , or email us at cehsconference@csuohio.edu. Continuing education contact hours for educators, counselors, psychologists and social workers pending. Conference fee with CEU $65.

Keynote Speakers: 
            Morning:        Sonia Nieto
            Afternoon:     Marc Lamont Hill                  

Conference Description:

Across the United States, educators and human service professionals are charged with helping all students develop in healthy ways and preparing students to achieve academically.  These high expectations occur in the face of challenging labor markets, scarce economic resources, mobility at the local and global level, and pressures from high-stakes standardized testing.  These conditions are especially pronounced in urban settings such as those served by Cleveland State University.  Increasingly, they impact the broader Northeast Ohio region.

In response to these challenges, this conference seeks to respond to the following questions: what positive, innovative educational practices promote student well being and academic achievement while attending to equity and honing the talents and cultivating resources of all students and families?  Through engaging key note addresses and interactive workshop sessions, the conference will highlight promising practices, policies, and partnerships that enable children and youth to flourish in the new global context. Join us in exploring effective ways of educating all our children and bringing “what works” to scale!

Information is everywhere. The challenge is making effective use of it.

How Handhelds Sparked an Education Revolution

Professors and Social Media

Why schools are turning to Google Apps

The State of the Internet Operating System

Smart Solutions Education Division Smart Solutions K12 is the Education Division of Smart Solutions, Inc., a 27-year-old company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. Smart Solutions’ goal is to help schools and school districts increase IT efficiency and enhance student achievement. Our multi-disciplinary team includes experienced educators, highly skilled engineers and technicians, and other specialists who work to ensure that all technologies systemically advance the academic and business goals of our clients. Our products and services include professional development programs, technology solutions, managed technology services, e-rate support, data solutions, and instructional and productivity tools.

Nitin Julka, Vice President

njulka@smartsolutionsonline.com

I could not be more proud!

Bill Julka, founder of technology company, donates $6 million to Cleveland State University for scholarships

By Karen Farkas, The Plain Dealer

May 26, 2010, 4:50PM

View full sizePlain Dealer fileThe Cleveland State University campus east of downtown Cleveland.View full sizeCourtesy of Cleveland State UniversityAnand “Bill” Julka says he donated $6 million to Cleveland State University so that Cleveland’s public high school graduates will have opportunities for success.CLEVELAND, Ohio — An area businessman, who enrolled atCleveland State Universitydecades ago because the price was right and he could take classes at night, has donated $6 million to provide scholarships — and opportunities — to graduates of Cleveland’s high schools.

Anand “Bill” Julka’s gift, the largest in CSU history dedicated to scholarships, is for students who pursue degrees in teaching, nursing, engineering and computer science.

“I want to make sure that financially disadvantaged students can finance their education and when they graduate have a job waiting for them,” said Julka, 60, the president and founder of Smart Solutions Inc., a technology company in Beachwood.

It is unknown how many students will be helped by Julka’s gift because the tuition scholarships will fill gaps not met by grants, work-study and other financial aid, said CSU President Ronald Berkman. He said the gift is expected to provide about $300,000 annually for scholarships.

“One of the things we are learning nationally in higher education is that even a small deficit of $1,000 to $1,500 is one of the main reasons a student decides not to enroll or not return to college,” Berkman said. Tuition at CSU is currently about $8,000 a year.

Berkman said that since he arrived on campus last year he has spoken to Julka and as many other CSU alumni as possible of the need for scholarship money. In recognition of Julka’s donation, CSU will name its new Education and Human Services building Julka Hall.

Julka said he is honored.

“I feel very grateful and fortunate that I am able to give back to the community that has given so much to me,” he said.

Julka ended up in Cleveland almost by chance and never left.

After graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology in India, Julka came to the United States with little more than his degree, seeking a master’s in industrial engineering.

“Three schools had the program I was interested in, but Cleveland State had the lowest tuition and was the only one who offered all their classes at night so students could work during the day,” he said.

So he chose Cleveland over campuses in Minnesota or California.

“I fell in love with the city the moment I set my eyes on it,” he said.

He worked at Eaton Corp. while attending CSU and stayed there after receiving his master’s degree in 1974. He founded Smart Solutions in 1983.

Julka, who lives in Moreland Hills, serves on the board of the CSU Foundation, which will administer his gift. He donated $100,000 for scholarships about four years ago, he said.

He said the current gift was prompted by the tremendous financial need of students, especially during the current recession.

“The president approached me and the development office approached me and they impressed on me to act now versus later,” he said.

While the $6 million gift will not be used until it generates interest after being invested, Julka plans to give a cash donation so some scholarships can be awarded this fall, Berkman said.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: kfarkas@plaind.com, 216-999-5079

9. Meetings aren’t action. This is a common mistake in management. They hold meetings to get things done. Meetings, unfortunately, almost always get in the way of actual doing. Stop holding those meetings!

Meetings are an easy target for criticism because so many of them are badly run. But that’s not a good reason to dismiss meetings entirely. If an organizational executive or business leader is trying to execute a complex strategy that touches several different divisions, meetings can be the most efficient way to drive things forward. The act of preparing for a big meeting helps clarify one’s thinking on a topic. Also, asking others to prepare for a meeting is a good method for understanding other division’s planning and strategizing. Finally, the meeting is a great way to ensure that stakeholders are aligned in a particular direction. Meetings are some of the most critical leadership “actions” that someone can do.

10. Talking (usually) isn’t action. Well, unless the action you need to take is a presentation or speech or something. Or you’re a television broadcaster. But usually, talking is just talking. Communication is necessary, but don’t mistake it for actual action.

I believe a leader’s most important role in an organization is articulating (ie talking about) a vision and aligning the stakeholders within the company, outside partners, current clients, and prospective clients around this vision. I am not sure of any method of achieving these leadership goals apart from doing a lot of talking. Talking is also a highly efficient way of brainstorming and problem solving. Again, if someone is just talking about sports, weather, or non-constructively whining about particular aspects of a company, then perhaps it is a waste of time. But just because a lot of people waste time talking does not make talking inherently non-action oriented.

11. Planning isn’t action. Sure, you need to plan. Do it, so you’re clear about what you’re doing. Just do it quickly, and get to the actual action as quickly as you can.

What!? If a business leader is responsible for directing and managing an organization where he or she is not directly responsible for the coding, product, delivery, or service, then planning is perhaps THE MOST IMPORTANT thing that a manager can do. Also, if you are a programmer or engineer doing a complex project, then planning is the absolute most critical action that you can be doing. It’s hard for me to think of any circumstance where it makes sense for someone to “just do [the planning] quickly” outside of simple tasks like doing laundry (and even then you’d want to plan enough so you’re not washing two pairs of socks every day!).

Rohit Bhargava on the Future of Business

The future of business isn’t about leveraging Twitter or weathering the storm, or even finding the next great groundbreaking product. The ones who really change our world for the better will be the ones most passionate about doing it.

3 Minute Personality Test

A Radical Plan for Helping Poor Countries

Romer, an economist, is a leading expert on the dynamics of economic growth, and he sees the tale of Hong Kong not merely as a historical irony, but the answer to one of the knottier problems of our time: the great global chasm between rich and poor. And to close that gap, he argues that the world needs not one but a hundred Hong Kongs, what he calls “charter cities.” In his vision these would comprise a global archipelago of economic powerhouse city-states, located in the world’s poor nations but built and run by wealthy ones.

Self-driving Electric Concept Car

For the Autonomobile, by contrast, Mike and Maaike “set out to design a concept car which questions current obsessions of speed, styling and driving in search of an optimistic new future.” As Dezeen notes, this search for new performance measurements led the designers to “focus on quality of time while in traffic and transit.”

What they came up with is a seven-seat lounge pod meant to allow comfortable productivity or social time while you’re stuck in traffic or rolling along at moderate speeds. The premise is that it’s rare that we use our cars’ max acceleration or MPH, so we might as well give up some of that performance in favor of a more relaxing, efficient ride. The Autonomobile has no steering wheel, brake pedal or driver seat, and to provide more interior space, Mike and Maaike envision electric motors in each wheel and energy (some of it generated using rooftop solar panels) stored beneath the vehicle floor.

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Hi,

Today, New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning announced his partnership with Samsung’s Four Seasons of Hope – a goodwill program designed to minimize the technology gap in the U.S. educational system – by announcing a 100-word essay contest that calls upon parents, students, and teachers across the U.S. to improve technology in classrooms by submitting an essay for the chance to win a portion of over $1million in technology from Samsung’s Four Seasons of Hope.

You can submit your 100-word essay by going to: www.fourseasonsofhope.com/education (it can be written in English or Spanish)

The philanthropic initiative will reward winning writers with a Samsung GO Netbook and their local schools with cutting edge Samsung products, Microsoft software, DIRECTV educational television programming and cash grants as well as special @15 gift cards supplied by Best Buy.  To date, Samsung and it’s education partners (Microsoft, Best Buy, DIRECTV) have provided more than $9million in technology, software, TV programming donations and cash grants to K-12 schools in the U.S. over the past 5 years.

100-word essay question:

“How consumer electronics, computer equipment and software awarded through Samsung’s Four Seasons of Hope could benefit your school?”

Rules:

• Contest Opens: 9/15
• Contest Closes: 11/1
• To view all rules and submit for essay – www.fourseasonsofhope.com/education
• Follow contest on FSOH Facebook – www.facebook.com/fourseasonsofhope
• Twitter: @SamsungTweets

Hope this interests you, and please let me know if you’d like any additional information.

Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn: Surrender to this Algorithm

The Sification of America

Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes

The Kaiser Family Foundation

In 1999, Sugata Mitra and his colleagues dug a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC, and left it there (with a hidden camera filming the area). What they saw was kids from the slum playing around with the computer and in the process learning how to use it and how to go online, and then teaching each other.

In the following years they replicated the experiment in other parts of India, urban and rural, with similar results, challenging some of the key assumptions of formal education. The “Hole in the Wall” project demonstrates that, even in the absence of any direct input from a teacher, an environment that stimulates curiosity can cause learning through self-instruction and peer-shared knowledge. Mitra, who’s now a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University (UK), calls it “minimally invasive education.”