What’s New!!

Alberta Education, in consultation with stakeholders, has established a series of Education Standing Offers (ESOs) for technology products. The ESO system enables jurisdictions to acquire selected technology products from a centralized product catalogue at education pricing levels that would not be available using independent purchasing arrangements.

Electronic Whiteboard Technology – Agreements are in place with four of the world's leading manufacturers of electronic whiteboard technology that will enable Alberta K-12 schools to acquire a wide range of both front and rear projection electronic whiteboard devices, as well as accessory equipment, peripherals, and support services at education pricing levels.

Data Projector Technology – The data projector ESO consists of products from ten of the leading manufacturers of this technology and contains a wide range of data projector and document cameras designed to accommodate the full spectrum of presentation requirements from ultra-portable devices to large-format auditorium-based presentations.

Laptop and Desktop Computers – This ESO will enable jurisdictions to acquire a wide range of laptop, tablet, and desktop computers. It also includes stand-alone portable word processing keyboards, peripherals and accessories, and professional service and support products.

Text-to-Speech Software Update – Negotiations have been finalized with Texthelp Systems to expand their available product offering to include licensing options for schools that wish to provide students with 24/7 access to the Read and Write Gold software application.

Texthelp Read & Write Gold Jurisdiction Licenses – Three new Jurisdiction License options are now available for the purchase of Read & Write Gold to make this application more readily available to all schools and to provide for 24 x 7 access to the software on school supplied laptop computers. These new licenses must be purchased directly from Texthelp. For complete details, please refer to the "Read&Write Gold Jurisdiction Licensing Options" under the "Texthelp Products" ESO category.

Videoconference Endpoint Technology – The videoconference endpoint ESO consists of a comprehensive range of products and services including desktop solutions to full videoconferencing suites and everything in between.

Media Awareness Network's Web Awareness Teacher Training Modules - This professional development package is designed to provide the resources to help teachers develop the skills needed to teach young people to become safe, wise and responsible Internet users. This program includes materials for online safety and responsible Internet use, online marketing to kids, privacy issues, growing with the Net, Internet bullying, and authenticating online information.

Boardmaker ESO - Boardmaker software is the premiere software among educators for creating printed symbol-based communication such as schedules, worksheets, reading and writing activities, game and song boards, communication boards, books and more. A drawing program combined with a graphics database, Boardmaker features more than 4,500 Picture Communication Symbols (PCS) in both black-and-white and color, all in 44 languages. Boardmaker is available on both the PC (Version 6) and Mac (Version 5) platforms.

Please note: Education Standing Offers are available to Alberta, Kindergarten - Grade 12 schools and require that you log-in to the Learning Resources Centre's (LRC) secure website at http://www.lrc.education.gov.ab.ca using your LRC Account #, userid and password. Your school LRC account administrator (eg. principal, secretary, purchaser) can create you an account. Otherwise, please email your request to lrc.support@gov.ab.ca indicating your name, title, school name, and phone number.

For further information please contact the LRC Support Centre - (780) 427-2767 (option 1, 6) [toll-free by dialing 310-0000 first]