There is no box

thinking out loud about technology, education and life

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K-12 Superintendent, reformed IT guy, educator, 1:1 evangelist, life long learner, father, husband, geek, ex self-propelled field artillery turret mechanic, GCT, CCTO, INFP

  • A Proven EdTech Recipe For K12 Success

    Building a sound computing environment that provides “enterprise class” services for schools on a California budget isn’t rocket science. It involves making smart choices and focusing on what’s important.

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    1. Plant some cable. It’s the foundation for everything. Crap cable equals a crap network.
    2. Wifi like starbucks. Instant on and connected to the web. Buy the features you need, and honestly, you don’t need that many. Less is more in school wifi (except when it comes to APs in the classroom). You need easy guest access, preferably with all IP/DHCP/Nat services handled by the wireless system and you definitely need per SSID bandwidth throttling. It should be super easy to enable these features and everything should just work. Meraki was the easiest wifi I have ever setup and it had the best management UI, period. Ruckus had the best APs I’ve ever used. I wish they would marry and have a kid. Beyond that, I’ve been less than impressed with any other wireless solution on the market.
    3. Go Google. Google Apps for Education. It’s a no brainer and the only reason not to do it is because your IT Department loves Microsoft (or hates Google) and thinks Office365 is a viable alternative for teaching and learning (um, nope).
    4. Web Filter less. Less is more. CIPA does not require that we filter twitter or YouTube. So why get fancy with expensive solutions. Go simple. Untangle worked for me for many years both as a web filter and a firewall. I even ran the free version for a few years. That’s right. Free.
    5. BIG Baby Iron. Virtualize and reduce those big noisy expensive servers. Go Open Source if practical, Hyper-V if not and VMWare with VCenter as a last resort (It’s expensive). I’m still trying for a Zero Server Server Room design but keep getting stuck with Active Directory (AD) servers everywhere.
    6. Store it somewhere cheap. Cloud is preferable but those virtual servers still need on premise storage. Local is easy. Nimble Storage is easy too, and fast. And big. And did I say easy to setup? I don’t usually design for a SAN but when I do, I use Nimble. A FreeNAS box works too. Especially as a cheap iSCSI backup target.
    7. MacBooks for teachers. Because. No, really. Because. Teachers are highly educated creative professionals. They can (and should) manage their own updates and applications and because MacBooks just work even when everyone is a local admin.
    8. iPads too. Yes. For teachers. With a tablet stand. And a mounted projector or big LED TV. And an AppleTV. Hardwired to the network. Because it works and it’s magical. Special training not required (in most cases).
    9. Chromebooks for kids (or ubermix if you can pull it off). Because. Because again they just work (sense a theme yet?). They can be supported at scale and they get kids connected.
    10. iPads too. Yep. iPads. Because they’re iPads. Have you seen all the apps? Just don’t go iPad crazy. They’re still harder to support than a chromebook.
    11. BYOD. For everyone. Why not? Build the network and they will come. (Don’t forget to get more bandwidth and really big subnets before you open things up to the world).
    12. Ditch the NAC. Access trumps security and control is an illusion. We’re schools, not banks. Complexity is not our friend. Inform, train and trust users and they will do what is right the majority of the time. Help the ones that don’t.

    This way lies reliable, scalable access for learning. Don’t buy the biggest or the best at the expense of kids. Not when every dollar spent on “enterprise class” is a dollar less to spend on devices for kids. And reliable access doesn’t require “enterprise class” just “enterprise enough”. Unless you’re LAUSD or SFUSD. Then you’re pretty much out of luck. No matter your environment, focus on what’s important and make smart choices. Everyone will thank you for it.

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    Photo credit: @johnschuster

    Oh yeah. I almost forgot PD. Don’t forget PD. Lots of PD. Just in time PD. Individualized PD. PLN PD. Training Days PD. All kinds of PD. Lots and lots of PD. Don’t forget PD.

    What else did I forget?

  • I Have A Playdate #playdate14

    Define:Playdate

    On February 15th 2014, I’m going on a play date. No, my Mom didn’t set it up for me. It’s better than that. I got together with some fellow awesome educators and organized it. This is my first time organizing an event, so luckily the other folks on the organizing team have experience with this kind of thing and we’re on track for a fun day of play (just three weeks away!).

    This play date is for educators. Educators that want to play with edTech tools to be precise. It’s a time to get together and figure out how to use cool tools (to PLAY!) with cool people that want to learn too. Playdate sprang from the minds of these awesome educators just last year and they are at it again this year with Playdate Chicago.

    We’re hosting ours closer to home. If you want to learn more about what a playdate is, check out Karl’s blog post and Hangout. If you want a day of No presenters. No agendas. Just playing, sign up for Playdate San Jose today!

    Hope to see you there.

  • VDI: The Old Frontier

    This is the final part of the VDI Saga I’ve been writing about on and off for the past several months. To catch you up, two years ago, I inherited a 1000 seat VDI infrastructure build in 2009 that wasn’t performing. The situation was a result of a trifecta of poor design, old (and slow) technology and VDI Sprawl. My solution was simple, pair down the active VDI desktops to a number the existing infrastructure could handle, leaving only student classroom and lab computers on the old system and then phase out VDI completely over time in favor of mobile devices for students.

    In the last installment, I explained how we moved all our student VDI desktops onto a Nimble storage array which allowed us to limp along through the end of the school year. Over summer we made several changes. We setup a VMWare 5.1 instance using the appliance based VCenter server and migrated all district servers not associated with running View into the 5.1 stack. At the same time, we also moved these servers onto the Nimble Array. We doubled the amount of CPU and RAM in the View Database server. We increased C drive space on teacher desktops by 2GB (from 8GB to 10GB) and doubled the persistent D drive to 4GB, buying us some time until we could migrate them off the system and on to MacBooks. Then, with all student Virtual Desktops and district servers running on the Nimble, we fired the system back up.

    Separating out the servers from the view desktops eliminated the problem of the View slow downs affecting the production servers. The Nimble took the load of both Servers and student VDI desktops well, although we were seeing CPU utilization on the array spike at 120%. However, we did not experience any negative performance that we could detect. Teacher desktops continued to run out of space and the old SAN continued to exhibit slow downs but overall the system was much more stable than it ever had been. With Windows XP running out of time, our Blade servers criminally low on memory and the Nimble array maxed to CPU capacity, getting Teachers off of the system was the next logical step to phasing out VDI. In December, that happened with the epic handout of 350 MacBook Pros to certificated staff throughout the district.

    Looking forward, as more Chromebooks and iPads come on line, phasing out student Virtual Desktops will continue. Eventually all the backend VDI hardware, now going on five years old, will be shutdown and the legacy of VDI will be over. At least that was my plan. The new Director might have a different vision.

    For me, I look at VDI as a cost neutral (at best) solution to a standardized office computing platform problem. For bank tellers where security and conformity are critical, it makes sense. For learning environments, particularly schools, not so much. VDI has a lot of moving parts on the back end. Unlike Bank IT departments, School district IT departments are generally understaffed. As a result, skills tend to be a mile wide and an inch deep. The many specialized skills (Database, SAN, Networking, VDI software stack) required to keep VDI humming along are usually in short supply. On top of that, fixed computers with one sized fits all desktops are not conducive to 21st Century Learning. Computers in classrooms need to be mobile, they need to follow the kids and they need to be adaptable, able to run what they need when they need it. VDI is a business solution to the student access problem. 1:1 mobile devices are an education solution to that same problem.

    Locked down, one size fits all environments conspire to restrict users. Open platforms encourage users to experiment and learn. In education, we should be building open platforms for our classrooms and empowering users to make their learning experience with technology their own. But the IT part of me things a nice simple VDI in a box solution (with a nice fast Nimble Array) for the Office staff might actually be a good thing. What do you think?

  • Wanted – Director of Technology Services

    In a few weeks I will start a new chapter in my career as Chief Technology Officer for Union School District. My last official day with Berryessa Union School District will be January 3rd.

    Berryessa and I have come a long way together in a short amount of time. Things started out bumpy with major Virtual Desktop issues and regular Server room AC and power outages but we’ve made significant changes and I am happy to say, now have a stable platform on which to build moving forward.

    All major systems are, or soon will be, cloud based; including messaging and collaboration (Google Apps for Education), Wireless (Meraki), Mobile Device Management (Meraki) and VoIP (JIVE cutover is set for Jan 3rd!). Firewall and Web Filtering services are in the process of migrating to hosted solutions at the County Office as well.

    The Virtual Desktop system has been relegated to providing legacy student desktop computer access. Staff were upgraded to Windows 7 desktops at the beginning of the calendar year and over summer we pushed out iPad carts, ubermix netbook carts and chromebook carts so that there are significantly more student devices available in schools now than there were just a year ago. If that were not enough, we just wrapped up a district wide MacBook deployment for teachers.

    There is 5 year technology budget roadmap, an updated technology plan and a likely upcoming Bond measure with classroom technology as a top priority.

    The IT team is solid and dedicated and have performed miracles given what we’ve bee able to accomplish with the resources we’ve had.

    While at Berryessa, I’ve had the opportunity to work with great administrators, amazing educators and passionate parents who all care deeply about students and learning. Throughout it all, I felt very lucky to get to go to work everyday, knowing that we were on the path to making classrooms places of endless possibility and wonder. I am sad to be leaving Berryessa and yet very excited to be joining Union.

    Union is right now in the process of defining what their 21st Century Classrooms will look like in the next 1-5 years. I’m looking forward to bringing my background in building 1:1 learning environments, my experience with emerging education technology trends and my amazing Personal Learning Network of #eduawesome educators to that discussion.

    With my departure imminent, Berryessa has posted my position. If you’re awesome, believe in the power of technology to transform teaching and learning and really, really like helping empower administrators, teachers and students with technology, please apply.

  • If At First You Don’t Succeed

    Well, I goofed the last rebootED episode post big time. First, the initial YouTube upload cut off the last 7 minutes of the interview. Second, I posted our guests name as Ewan McGregor (you know, that actor guy) when in fact we talked with the ever so more interesting Ewan McIntosh. so here is my attempt to get it right. Ewan McIntosh talking with Mike and I about bringing startup and design thinking to education. It’s the most compact and informative episode yet.

  • Instruction vs. Teaching

    Last week I had the opportunity to interview Ewan McIntosh from NoTosh on rebootED and he got me thinking about Instruction versus Learning. He said that here in the states we tend to substitute the word teaching with instruction. Think of all those Curriculum & Instruction departments out there. The word instruction carries with it significant meaning for us as educators, particularly at a sub conscious level. It implies, as Ewan points out, that learning requires instruction. Instruction also implies that there will actually be “instructions” and that to be successful at learning, one must complete the instructions as provided. The word instruction carries with it a very 19th century factory model connotation of what we do in the classroom. Instruction is certainly one aspect of education but it is not the only one.

    Contrast this to the word teaching. Teaching carries it’s own sub conscious baggage but I’d argue it’s more in line with student centered learning and where we need to go in 21st Century information rich, knowledge based classrooms. Teaching is the work of a teacher. It includes instruction of course but so much more. It implies “education” which includes academics but also encompasses moral and social aspects of a child’s development. Teachers teach, we don’t instruct. While the two words may be synonyms, the meanings can be very different.

    So if I were building up a new culture and shared vocabulary at a district, I would choose to use Teaching over Instruction but really I’d prefer Learning over both. Learning is an action word centered on the student. If we replace instruction with learning, magical things happen. Instructional rounds become Learning rounds and the focus shifts from what the teacher is doing to what the students are doing (and then how a teacher’s design and application of the craft, the pedagogy, is influencing student action). We get Learning objectives instead of Instructional objectives and Learning strategies instead of Instructional strategies. Teaching becomes about much more than just instruction, it becomes about learning. And building up self sufficient, intrinsically motivate life long learners is what it’s all about, isn’t it?

  • Chromebook Management Best Practices (again) #cetpa13

    I’m back in the Chromebook Lab (Rm 104) at the CETPA Annual Conference for day two of Chromebook Management Best Practices.

  • Chromebooks, Netbooks & iPads, Oh My! #cetpa13

    I’m presenting at the CETPA Annual Conference in room 214 (live right now!):

  • Deploying Google Apps: What Not Do To #cetap13

    I’m presenting at the CETPA Annual Conference in room 207 (live right now!):

    Screen Shot 2013-11-17 at 5.34.25 PM

  • @TimGoree, Powered By Open Source #cetpa13

    This weekend, Mike and I had an opportunity to Hangout with outgoing CETPA Board Member and Director of Technology Support Services from Fairfield-Suisun, Tim Goree. Between airport security announcements, he talks about how Open Source is powering his district’s open devices network and BYOD program.