Event ID: 3178621 Event Started: 2/15/2017 8:00:00 PM ---------- Please stand by for realtime captions. >>This is Robbin Bull. I just want to thank you for joining us. We still have people coming into the room. We will get started in just a bit. >> This is Robbin Bull. Thank you for joining us. We will get started in about four minutes. >> We will give it just another minute or so as people are getting in the room. >> Okay. I am showing we are at the top of the hour. This is Robbin Bull with NCDB. I want to begin by welcoming everybody. I'm going to go through some housekeeping items before I headed over to Linda McDowell who is going to be kicking off today's webinar. First of all, phonelines have been muted to alleviate background noise, as you probably have experienced. The question answer session will occur at the end of the presentation. However, feel free to type your questions in the chat pod at any time during the presentation. And it will be monitored throughout the webinar in preparation for the question and answer session. Or answered immediately if necessary. This webinar will be recorded and archived for future viewing, and we will post in the chat pod where you can find that recording. And, I am going to start the recording -- excuse me -- the recording now. And you will hear an announcement momentarily. Linda, that will be your cue to get started. >> This meeting is now being recorded. >> Linda, you are muted. Star six. >> Hi, everybody. Welcome to this pre-summit webinar. I want to acknowledge up front that I know that at this meeting today, and also among those who may be will be listening to the recording, that we have people who have been running projects for years. They have years of experience, multiple grant cycles, and then also, there are those who may have less than 5 years of experience, that are leading a project, and only their first grant cycle. Our hope is that indeed, another grant cycle is coming, and next year, we will be writing our plans again. But, this is a time and a technical assistance grant cycle to reflect on what practices should continue. What could or should be done differently. And, if we are honest with ourselves, we know that our work is a combination of accomplishments and struggles. And our struggles are often because we have so much to do with so little. Meaning, there are real limits to what we can do in our individual states are -- on our own. Our aim is to focus this reflection first on the TA practices with children, their families, and the direct service providers on the educational teams. And then, quickly move based on what seems to be working, and what is still a barrier for quality services, into a reflection on systems level TA, work that is needed. All of you engaged in both. The child's level TA and also the systems level TA. And we hope that the organized presentation of tools at this time will help you reflect and then possibly regroup, holding onto what is working, and then considering these offered solutions in your planning for the future. Once again, possibly regrouping, and definitely, with renewed commitment to partner across the network with us, and with each other, for improved outcomes in your state. First with the children and then their direct service providers and families and then with the system is. They should be committing resources for sustained reports. So, welcome to this time of reflection and regrouping. Sam and Peggy and Elizabeth, thank you for putting together this presentation to help with that. >> Great. Thank you, Linda. So, we will launch into it. So, today, we will spend roughly the next hour, possibly a little bit shorter than that, to talk about four main things. First of all, just to give you an overview of Summit. And, the agenda, and what we are actually going to do together. Talk a little bit more in depth about the two blocks of time that we have that are collaborative, where we will be working in groups together. I will talk to you a little bit about the group and the app which you are all familiar with from past years likely but I will talk to you a little bit about how we are going to use that. And then, Peggy and Elizabeth are going to give you an explanation and walk-through of the TA guide. So again, if you have any questions, please put them in the chat pod or you can hold them until the end and we can answer them then. >> So, Summit this year, we are getting together Sunday and Monday in Austin, Texas and a heartfelt thank you to Cerro Miller and all of the folks at Texas school for the blind and the Texas deaf-blind project. It is a great place to meet and a wonderful place in the city. Besides our time together I hope it will be a time for everyone to connect and recharge.'s -- so specifically Sunday. We will have large group presentations where you will be receiving information and the remainder of the day will be spent in groups talking about child specific TA and using the TA guide as a basis for the conversation. Is the day, Mark will talk to us about the results of the national needs assessment. He will do a presentation and will have a chance for question and answer with that. Some really interesting information that I'm sure everyone will welcome to here. We will again go through them TA guide, assuming that it will take multiple times to really get to know it and navigate it. And the more time we spend with it, I think the better. So you will see some of it today and hopefully take time to go through it before Summit. I think it will be useful for us to do that again when we are all in the same room. To continue to get to know it and how it is organized and formatted and how we can use it. We will have an example of one state's process for child specific TA and how they have put that together, using some of the resources that we have, and finding a way to have a solid process for child specific TA, but also have it be really doable and sustainable for the state project, which I know, again, given limited time and resources, can be difficult to accomplish. So, that example hopefully will serve as a means for people to think about their own TA. And then, we will have these three blocks of time. They are each a bit longer than an hour. And, they will correspond to different sections of the TA guide. And we really will have collaborative conversations with individual goals though she really with the goal of individual projects having information that they can think about their TA process. To wrap up the day, we will shows some examples of state collaborations in a variety of different ways, from state to state collaborations, to states internal collaborations within their states with agencies. And, that will really be a time to start to think about how we can continue to build our work together. That is what we will talk about the second day. That will really be the set up for that. Monday, the second day, it's essentially going to be all group work and it will be four blocks of time across eight topics. And those eight topics came out of the national needs assessment. At the end of the day, it will be a closing to hopefully identify what came out of the day and plant some seeds for everybody to take back with them and really start to think about those collaborations. Across the network, with each other, within their states. As we move forward. >> Again, the real purpose of us being together is collaborative work. We are going to do that in two ways. First on Sunday around the TA delivery. The child specific TA delivery. And secondly around the state collaborations. So, the first day Sunday, the primary goal again is that individual goal. Where the states will be able to take away ideas for their child specific TA delivery in their state, and how they might change that, improve it, grow it, whatever the case is for them. It's really up to you guys in individual states to determine that and figure out what you want to do. There is a secondary collective goal. And that is that within those conversations, we think, and we will try to get out of those conversations, opportunities for collective work together around TA. Other common processes and tools that we might develop together that can benefit all projects in their delivery of TA? That is the secondary goal. Again, the primary one is the individual one for state projects. Again, eight groups. Organized around topics. And, I will tell you where you can find that information in a minute. And, across those eight topics -- excuse me. Across those three areas of TA will be the eight groups. That will be some of those state project features that we organized ourselves around last year when we met in DC and that people really seemed to enjoy. In preparation for that, there will be some reflection questions, and that document will be available through the group. And it is actually there now. And again, we will talk in a minute about sort of the work that you can do before you arrive at Summit to prepare yourselves. The second day again is around the state collaborations. The primary goal of this is really the collective goal. It is really different than the first day. That collective goal is how can we collaborate together? In these eight topical areas that were identified by all of you within the national needs assessment, as areas of critical need. And, how can we do better together to address those? Those eight topics will be across four blocks of time. So, each of you will have the opportunity to go to four of those. So I know it's always disappointing when you can't go to all opportunities. I know it is for me. But, you will have four opportunities. So you won't have to pick and choose. Within those collective processes, what we are going to try to do is to use the wiki tool which is in the groups which I'm sure some of you are familiar with, to collect information as the day progresses within those topics, so that that information will become cumulative. And so hopefully, those four groups meeting around transitions will be able to build on the information of the previous. So, as in past years, and, we did not use the app last year because we were just meeting for one day. But for those of you in Salt Lake, 2 years ago we used the app and I think people really enjoyed that. We are doing that again this year. The app runs off of a group on the website. You are often there with that. I'm sure you have been in group spaces in one way, shape or form, across many of the different activities and initiatives. And, the group that we have at Summit will contain all of the information for summit. All so what is there now is a reflection questions for the TA. The facilitation guides, all of that will be in there as well, as will the wiki which you will be using on the second day. If you have registered for summit, you will automatically be enrolled in that group. So, that group will appear in your list of groups under your NCDB profile. Again, assuming that you have a NCDB profile. The group will also be available through and add bar on the website. So if you go to the homepage of the website you will see that there will be in Anbar therefore the group. So you will be able to access it that way as well. Now, for the app, you can either go to the app store, and if you search NCDB , I believe it is Deaf-Blind Summit. Gail is typing to prompt me to make sure I get the language right. But there will also be a link for the app in the group space. So, many of you remember the app from previous years but that is the homepage of it. Besides mirroring some of the group, it does not mere at all, it will have the schedule, it will have all of the materials, it will have the chat feature again, and it will also have information on dining options near the school for the blind. Because lunch both days will be on your own. So all of that information will be in there. Gail, was there something I missed that he wanted to -- >> No. >> No? Okay. So that is the technology end of things. Hopefully between the group and the app, you will really have a wealth of information before salmon and at Summit. I would encourage all of you too, if you have a laptop, tablet, or some other mobile form of technology, that you do bring that to summit with you, so you can use the group, the wiki, have access to the handouts. We will have paper handouts as well but I am sure some of you will want to use them electronically. It will be Wi-Fi access at the school for the blind so that should not be a problem. >> So, things to do before Summit. >> Sam, this is Robbin. >> Sure, Robbin. >> I believe if people have downloaded the app in the past and it is still on their device, it should still be there and be loaded with the 2017 information now. >> Yeah, thank you for saying that. That is true. If you downloaded it in 2015 and used it then and you reload it then, it will not be the 2015 app, it will be the app for now. Gail just put it in the chat box now. So, things to do before Summit. First of all on the 22nd, which is next Wednesday, at 3 p.m., and I will put information in the group but I will also send some information out. We are going to have a drop in Adobe meeting. If you have questions about the TA guide, you have questions about Summit, anything pertaining to those two things, please just come. You don't need to stay the whole time. Get your questions answered and you can leave. We will be there for the hour. So just drop on by if you have questions and hopefully we can get them answered for you. We hope that you will go through the TA guide and have a chance to do that. And, using the self reflection questions which will be in the group for summit, just have a chance to prepare your self a little bit and think about what it is that in your TA you would like to do differently, if anything. Or like to do better. And, those reflection questions are organized as the TA guide is organized and should help you to think about that. So, download the app. Make sure you have that. Sign up for the group. Well, you will be signed up, but go to the group and familiarize yourself with it. And, what you really want to look for there would be helpful for you is obviously the agenda. And obviously the facilitation guides. They are not up yet but will be soon. And that will give you an idea of how those groups are going to function. And so you will see how they will be facilitated and organized and what the topics are, at her. Just as a point of information, NCDB staff will be facilitating those groups. State projects, you guys are really there to think and reflect and participate. >> Okay, I think that's it for me. Again, any questions, use the chat box. Feel free to email me as well. I will be around and I look forward to seeing you guys in Austin. >> Hi, everybody. I am going to give a brief overview of the guide, overview and review, I think, some of the content will be familiar to you. Just to kind of provide some orientation and then Elizabeth is going to give you a tour. So, the long name of the guide is implementing evidence-based practices for children who are deaf-blind, ATA reference guide but we usually just refer to it as the TA reference guide for sure. And, what it provides is information and resources that hopefully will be helpful to state projects, as you all provide TA, to increase the ability of teams to use effective practices with children who are deaf blind. And, with this graphic, which, for anybody who is just on the phone, shows phases of implementation, exploration, preparation, initial implementation and full implementation. What it shows is that while implementation of effective practices is it self and outcome, it is also a process that consists of a series of activities that ideally lead to high-quality implementation by service providers. And intensive TA provided by state deaf-blind projects typically provides support to all of these phases. And, the format of the guide as you have seen or will see is that it is new. The format will look familiar to a lot of you. It was previously housed in a series of tables housed in a Google doc. It now has a new home that Elizabeth is going to show you. And as we were moving into its new home, we also did a fair amount of revision to the wording. And so you may find some changes. But, the basic elements are still the same. And, it has strategies, that implementation science and TA literature suggest are most likely to lead to sustainable implementation. And also, there is advice from colleagues, you guys, who are part of the network. And then there are also links to tools and resources. The strategies adapted from the literature which included resources like -- I was going to write down what the abbreviation stood for but forgot, state implementation of something something something. Scaling up. [ Laughter ] anyway. But I think everybody knows what it is. And, lots of other resources. So, we research, synthesize, and adapted that information to make it applicable to state deaf-blind projects answer out that process, we had assistance from many state project personnel, and one thing we learned from all of the literature was how consistent the recommended strategies from implementation sides generally are with the work that the state deaf-blind projects have done for years. >> So, the purposes of the guide, there are a number of intended purposes, one is to inform practice, to provide TA, that is purposeful, structured and effective. Another, probably one of the most important ones, is to help orient new TA providers. It is also to provide a common vocabulary that will enable us to increase our level of collaboration, and this is the purpose that we will be using it for at Summit. It also is going to be a great place to share resources and tools. And, finally, to share what we know to benefit other low visibility disciplines. >> How to use the guide. The reason this was created as a reference guide rather than some other format was so that it could be used for different purposes and by people with different levels of experience and knowledge. So as you will see in a minute, when Elizabeth gives the tour, you are able to easily and drill down on specific sections and strategies. And, being able to do that is useful when you want to obtain information to meet an immediate need. Or maybe you're wondering if there are tools, resources or advice from colleagues that shed light on an activity that you are planning. And then the other way to use it is to go through the whole entire guide. Which some people may want to do particularly, that is likely to be helpful for new personnel, who want to learn about TA delivery. But, it also should be very useful for projects that are updating their processes and procedures, and want to be able to, you know, examine and look at recommended processes and strategies, and have some structure to carry out that sort of review. >> So we hope that as you go through this guide and you use it that you will keep in touch with us and provide input on how it is working for you. It doesn't need to be anything formal but it would be wonderful going forward, to let us know what you think about any parts of it, large or small things, things that are not worded clearly, things that you wish weren't there. We see this as a living document that will change based on new information and contributions. So if you have a tool, resource, or advice to share at any time, just please let me or Sam know. And then, finally, acknowledgments. As I said, we have really had so much great input from people as this was being developed. And, you know, it has been feedback on earlier versions, people that have participated during dropping calls on specific elements of the guide. And, many of you shared tools that you used and most recently a number of you gave us permission to continue to use those tools and the version of this is now going public. And so, thanks to everyone who has helped. But I also wanted to acknowledge this core group of people that have been most consistently involved in providing input and advice. And they are Stacy Aguilera, Maurice Belote, Mark Campano, Julie Durando, Lisa Lawter, Melanie Lee, Molly McLaughlin, Emma Nelson, and Emily Taylor-Snell. >> Okay. I'm going to go ahead and put the link to the TA guide in the chat pod. So it is there now if you want to go to it. If you ever lose the link in the future you can also get to it through the state portal. So I'm going to go ahead and share my screen. I am sorry, Robin, -- Robbin, do I need to do something to get rid of the slides? There we go. Okay. So, I am sharing my screen. As you can see, I'm on the state portal home page. If you scroll down and look at the box in the lower right-hand corner that is labeled tools you can use, we have put a link to the guide in that box. So I'm just going to go ahead and click on that. And here we are on the guide home page. The content of the guide is organized in 24 phases. We actually adopted these from blah back. The names of the phases are along this dotted line, and then the circles will be telling you what to do in each phase. The circles of the phases are exploration. This is where you have initial conversations with people who have requested TA, you gather information and do needs assessments. The next phase is the preparation phase. This is where you create a formal TA plan. After that is the next phase, where you do the bulk of your work, training team members on how to use big practices -- new practices, provide them with feedback, troubleshooting, you might connect them with other service providers and families if you think that would be helpful. And then last is full implementation. During this phase, the TA recipients have for the most part mastered the skills you have taught them and are using them with a child. During this phase, you wrap them up to any evaluation you need to do and make sure that the team has a way of storing the information about the child going forward. One thing I wanted to note is that the word implementation here actually refers to team members implementation of practices, not your implementation of TA. So, initial implementation is when those team members are just first learning the practices and then full implementation is when they are using the practices accurately and consistently. >> Okay. So if you look along the left-hand side of the page, you can see we have a menu. And this is how we can navigate through the guide. You can see all of the phases listed here. I'm going to go ahead and click on exploration phase. And you can see this takes us to the introduction phase for the exploration of phase. Clicking on that also opens up the sub menu. This list the different steps within this phase. So, we have getting started, accessing and creating team and agency readiness, etc. I'm sorry, assessing, not accessing. And I'm going to go ahead and click on the third one which is assessing needs and identifying outcomes. So I will click there and it takes us to that page. And this is what most of the pages in the guide will look like. You can see that we have an overview here at the top, and then a list of strategies below that that can be used during this part of the TA process. So, if you click on one of those strategies, I'm going to click on conduct a needs assessment, it will open up. And if you actually click on it again, it will close. I'm going to keep it again open for now. You can see we have more information about that strategy. And then if you scroll down some more, we have advice from colleagues and tools and resources. So in this advice from colleagues section, what you will find here are quote that we have gathered from people in the state projects. So, you might even see some quotes from yourself here. Over here under tools and resources, that's basically what it looks like. These are items that we think might be helpful to you at this point in the process. And, there are three main types of items that you will find in this tools and resources category. The first one is example documents that have been contributed by state projects. These will be indicated with two letter state abbreviations in parentheses. So here we've got communication profile from Oklahoma, independent living inventory from New Jersey, etc. So, depending on where the resource is housed, clicking on this link will either take you to an outside site, or it will just automatically download the documents. So I'm going to go ahead and click on this one. And that was one that automatically downloaded. So you can see it has appeared here at the bottom of my screen. Where those downloads will appear will depend on what browser you are using. I'm using chrome so I am showing up here at the bottom. I will go ahead and click on that and it will open up in Microsoft Word. You can see we have this from Oklahoma. With the state contributed tools, the other state projects are free to use and adapt these for your own purposes. We just ask that you put a statement giving credit to the original source. You can see we have given instructions for that on top of the documents. So, I will go ahead and close this, go back to the guide. The second type of item you will find in tools and resources are links to outside websites and resources that we think might be helpful to you. You can see down here, we have a link to the CEC teacher competencies and the CEC intervener competencies. And also the classroom observation instrument. Elsewhere in the guide, we have links to resources for Perkins, like the Kansas distance mentorship project and various other sources. And then, the third type of thing you will find here are fact sheets that were developed specifically for this guide. There actually aren't any examples of that on this page. So I am going to go ahead and go to another page so I can show you what that looks like. I'm going over here to exploration and then to the getting started section. And then I'm going to click on the identified team members strategy. We will go down to tools and resources. You can see we have a link to the teeming fact sheet. And it opens up. So, all of the fact sheets we developed are in PDF format, and they are kind of intended to be grab and go resources that don't need to be used in conjunction with the rest of the guide. And actually if you want to see a complete list of all of the fact sheets we developed, you can also just go to the menu here and click on fact sheets. And here we have a list of links to all of the different fact sheets. So that might also be helpful. I also wanted to mention that some strategies don't necessarily have advice from colleagues and some don't have either. Just as an example and go to go to full implementation and then wrapping up. And you can see that none of these strategies actually have any advice or tools. So you will see that sometimes as well. Okay, another thing that can be useful for navigation is if you are reading the guide in order, you can use these links along the bottom of the page to go to the next section or the previous section. So the link on the right will take you to the next section and the one on the left will take you to the previous sections. You can also go home. In addition, if you go back up to the top of the page here and click on expand all, that is going to open all of the strategies. So then you can just read through the whole page. And then if you click on collapse all, that's going to close them up again. So that can be useful if you're just wanting to read straight through. Another thing that is important to keep in mind is that we have arrange the strategies throughout the guide in the order that they would be likely to be used under ideal circumstances. But in reality, of course, implementation is a nonlinear process, and activities will overlap both within and across phases. So you don't have to feel like you should be doing all of these exactly in the order we have presented them. Okay, I'm back to the menu again. I also wanted to point out that we have this background page there. That talks about why and how the guide was developed. So if you wanted to know more about that, you can just read through this page. Our references page here gives a full list of all of the resources we used in developing the guide. And our acknowledgment page lists all of the state projects staff members who helped us out with developing this. >> Okay. So that is the tour. I think it is pretty straightforward to navigate. You can actually go to the introduction pages by clicking on the phases along the top as well. And we are currently working on putting together a PDF of this and are hoping to get that done by summit so you can stay tuned for that. Again, I wanted to say just like Peggy did, but if you have any trouble with this or if anything is confusing or you want help with it, do please feel free to contact any of us at any time. That would be Sam, Peggy or me, and we would be glad to help you out with that. Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and stop sharing my screen. At this point we wanted to open it up for questions. If you have a question, go ahead and type it into the chat pod. You can also press star six to unmute your phone and say it out loud. Thank you very much, Tony, for that complement. I'm really glad that it's going to be a useful resource. >> While we are waiting for some of the questions, I wanted to say two things. One is that there is a bit of confusion on the app. What you want to download is the DB Connect app. There is in all 2015 app that will be deleted off of the App Store. So, what you are looking for is the NCDB DB Connect app. All one last thing before you guys hit the doors and leave is, I actually have three quick polls that I wanted to do. And, we can Robin -- and, we can, Robbin can put this up and you can answer them while people are asking questions. These are just to do as a group. We are just trying to get an idea of which groups you might put yourself in at summit. If you could give us an answer it would be great. It does not commit you to anything, don't worry about that. Is just trying to give you pulmonary information. So Robin will put that up and if you can answer those well questions are being asked, that would be great. >> This is Robbin. Number three is a little bit big so I will wait for that one. >> Looks like we have most of the responses in for those two questions. I'm going to open up number three. It's going to go over the top of those. Started that is great. Thank you for answering those. That's really helpful. >> Okay, if there are no other questions we will wrap it up. And, just remember that on the 22nd, if you are looking at the TA guide and those reflection questions if you have a chance for the 22nd, please just come by and hopefully we can answer them for you. And looking forward to seeing all of you in Austin, in just a few short weeks. So, thank you for being here today. >> Goodbye, everyone. >> Excuse me, Sam, this is Robbin. Did you want to mention anything about next week's drop in? >> I just did. But again -- >> I am sorry. >> It's okay. But I will just stay again if you're looking for the link I will post it in the group. And I will likely send out a question on the list serve as well in case you are not in the group yet. Okay? So take a look there. Thanks, guys. >> Molly, about the hotel, send me an email and I will tell you what's up. >> [ Event concluded ]