Web Delivery Services

ePearl for School / School divisions

What is ePearl?

Electronic Portfolio Encouraging Active Reflective Learning is the Canadian, bilingual, web-based electronic portfolio software that Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth has piloted and is now encouraging schools and school divisions to consider in creating electronic student portfolios to support evidence of student Literacy with Information and Communication Technology.

For more information visit: http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/tech/lict/index.html

For who is it intended?
ePearl has 3 levels that can be assigned by the teacher

• Level 1- intended for beginning readers and writers at grades 1-2,
  
• Level 2- aimed at early and middle years students in grades 3 – 6 and
  
• Level 3- created for senior years students and teachers.

For additional information visit: http://grover.concordia.ca/epearl/en/index.html

What is MERLIN’s Role?

MERLIN will be hosting ePearl on behalf of interested schools or school divisions. Software licensing is free. The hosting services include:

• Server
  
• Backups
  
• Server licenses
  
• Power and monitoring
  
• Sufficient disc space, including audio
  
• Installation of upgrades
  
• Point of contact to support administrators (not users)
  
• Assist divisions with the process of bulk loading
  
• Liaise between school divisions and Concordia University for technical support
  

What does a school or school division need to do?

• If you plan to host ePearl on your local server, there is no cost for the software. Visit: http://grover.concordia.ca/eportfolio/epearl_versions/
• If you are interested in MERLIN hosting the application for you, an application form needs to be completed and sent to MERLIN. (This form requires Adobe Reader v7 or higher)

What’s new?

• An enhanced version of ePearl will be released in Mid-August to make it easier to create user accounts.
  
• By August 31, MERLIN will be setting up the hosted ePearl environments using the enhanced version.
  
• The current data of students involved in the ePearl Pilot Project will remain on the server during the next school year and can be exported for external storage.

What will it cost for MERLIN to host ePearl?

For the 2007-08 school year:

• $500 per school division with fewer than 5000 student enrollments
  
• $1000 per school division with over 5000 student enrollments
  
• $350 if only 1 school in a division is seeking hosting services

What is the Role of the ePearl administrator for a school division or school?

• create teacher and student accounts
  
• make changes to accounts
  
• add new users to the system during the school year
  
• reset passwords for users who have forgotten them

What supports will be provided?

MERLIN and Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth will support the school or school division administrator to help them grow into this role and become comfortable and capable in it.

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Our Web Delivery Services also include technical support of the Web server and maintenance of the Departmental Web page.
This includes the Departments of Education, Citizenship and Youth and Advanced Education.
The Agency provides UNIX and Windows NT based servers to host the Departmental Internet
based information. Posting of updates is done as necessary.

WebCT administration and maintenance – MERLIN hosts for a number of secondary
school courses for web-based distance delivery. This provides an opportunity for teachers to
create and deliver courses and for students to access courses not otherwise available.
Improved access and support for distance delivery benefits the education community.

For information on these services please contact our office.