There is no box

http://www.teachthought.com/learning/21st-century-learning-is-not-a-program/

I was saving this title for another post because Flash Gordon is one of my top ten favorite movies of all time, but I’ve reached that frustration point where I need to write and the title was on my mind, so here it goes.

Why am I frustrated? Well, I’ve been working on a technology report for a district as part of consulting gig, something I do occasionally where as part of a team we go in and evaluate the technology status of a district. I’ve done a few of these over the years with this organization, as well as consulted independently for a few districts, not to mention my brief stint at East Side which might as well have been a consulting gig, and the story is always the same. A lack of technology leadership, vision and funding leads to a technology wasteland in classrooms. It completely boggles my mind how Superintendents and boards of education can allow this to continue and yet, it’s common place. At least in California schools.

I call this the “technology for attendance” level of adoption where technology is seen as a means to take attendance, record grades and check email. This is technology as operational necessity rather than strategic imperative and it’s the mindset that is robbing kids of their futures and robing teachers of the excitement and possibilities of teaching in a technology rich 21st Century classroom. This is the current state in my district, despite my year of attempting to move us forward (not being on cabinet hasn’t helped). It is a continuation of the status quo; classified as Substitution on Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR model of technology adoption. And it’s not good enough anymore.

We need Modification and Redefinition at all levels of technology adoption in schools. And yet most districts aren’t moving in this direction. I think it’s precisely because most districts lack the strategic, visionary technology leader with a seat at the decision making table that technology has not made the impact it should in schools (yet). Well, time to get with the program, or the districts that do have visionary IT leaders sitting at the table, integrating technology into every aspect of a districts DNA, fighting for budget for updated technology and devices for students, are going to make 20th century classrooms look like the obsolete models of instruction they are fast becoming. And increasingly, boards of education are going to have to explain to parents why their children are still being taught like it’s 1999.

It’s 2013 for crying out loud. Technology isn’t optional anymore. In 2015 WE TEST KIDS ON COMPUTERS! (hint, that means districts need computers that aren’t as old as their 2nd graders). A few years back I went looking for information on average school spending on technology and found a report from the 90’s. It said tech neutral districts were spending about 3.5% of their budget on tech and tech heavy districts spent closer to 5%. Most districts were spending around 1% at the time and their level of technology reflected the lack of spending. It seems to me like many are spending even less than that now. And that was before 1:1, Common Core and SBAC online assessments. These low historical spending levels have left many districts ill prepared to usher themselves into the 21st Century. But no one wants to come out and say, “Your tech budgets have been historically underfunded, plan on increasing them year over year for the next three years to catch up!”

The common response I hear to this is “we have no money.” Well, I’m not talking about new money for technology. Their is no pot of gold at the end of the California budget rainbow. I’m talking about taking a hard look at current spending practices and adjusting priorities accordingly. Districts are doing it. Sylvan Union recently decided to eliminate instructional aids and redirect those funds into 1:1 computing because they determined that instructional aides were not improving educational outcomes for students. Transforming for the 21st Century is not going to be easy. If free money was just floating around, everyone would be doing 1:1. The challenge is doing it with the resources we already have.

Districts can’t hide from this technology thing anymore. It’s something district leaders can’t afford not to understand. Because I’m not talking about increasing spending on the same old paradigm. This is not about doubling up on servers or switches or network admins (although if you’re big enough, you really should have two, you know). It’s about budgeting for a sustainable infrastructure so you can build a technology infused instructional environment on top of it.  It’s about funding an edtech staff to help teachers, administrators, students and parents understand the information revolution and align the instructional paradigms for the new connected Common Core reality. It’s about building out the most robust wireless network you can afford to support the mobile device revolution. It’s about making sure teachers have current hardware, laptops and tablets and projectors and unblocked internet access not so that they can take attendance, input grades and read District Office email announcements but so they can participate in the global education community, build PLCs and PLNs, become content creators and curators and bring the world into their classrooms to share and explore and learn with their students. It’s 2013 people!!! We are a third of the way into the second decade of the 21st century. Wake the BLEEP up already!

As a technology leader in a district, I wouldn’t want to be stuck in the 20th century where technology is the third wheel, isolated and separate from the decision making process seen merely as a tool to be used rather than a key to unlocking every teacher’s and student’s potential with no real budget and no hope of rising to the challenge that is fast approaching. So please Boards of Education and Superintendents, stop flying blind. Put a technology leader on your decision making team, start funding technology and edtech as the strategic imperative it is and lead your district’s into the 21st Century. Our student’s futures depend on it.

Amazing. My Do Together vs. Do In Order Alice How To Video has over twice as many views as my rebootED interview with Dan Pink. Crazy. Even crazier, my Bredford Cart iPad Activation video has 5X the views of the Dan Pink video. I thought the Dan Pink interview was really good. Maybe I’ve got the tags wrong or something. Or better yet, maybe it has something to do with the preview frame…

358 Views

170 Views

877 Views

I was recently asked how best to store mobile devices for summer. Here’s the answer I gave:

As summer approaches consider how your mobile devices will be stored over the long break. Devices should be completely powered off and stored securely, either in a locked cart in a locked room or in a locked cabinet. If storing in a mobile cart, do not leave the cart plugged in as devices may “over” charge over summer and significantly reduce battery life.

If you have other ideas, I’d love to hear them.

Thanks

The Executive Briefing Center. A magical place where customers go to become enamored with products or ecosystems or solutions. Cisco, Brocade, Apple, Google and Microsoft. I’ve been to several of these corporate spaces and I’m struck by the differences of each.

Cisco’s was over the top impressive. Like visiting OZ. But look behind the curtain and you’ll find a room full of boxes, wires and network engineers making it work. They wowed with the tech but the reality isn’t so nice and clean. Superintendents beware.

Brocade was very straight forward. Nice facility, down to business. No giant heads or hidden curtains, just good clean big iron hardware. I think they tell it how it is. Tech Directors, ask your questions.

Apple. Clean and crisp and focused. Just like their products. Polished presentations on point and showcasing the ecosystem. Very tailored to the audience. Impressive, most impressive. CBOs, watch your checkbooks.

Google. A startup environment with stacks of extra chairs along the wall and round tables. Loosey goosey and organic. Or perhaps just youthful and inexperienced. I have a feeling that the next briefing will be iteratively better and different just like their products. Go back often to stay up to date.

Microsoft. Winding spaces, with stairs and hallways and doors everywhere. Chaperones in the halls. Almost locked down but not quite. An air of restriction in movement and options. A reflection of corporate culture evident in their products. The space feels like being inside of Windows. I’m not sure who this space is for.

Interesting to me that the corporate cultures are so reflective in these spaces. How are the spaces in our schools representing school culture and student outcomes and absent billions of dollars, what can we do about it?

In a perfect EdTech world, I would give every teacher an ultrabook running Ubermix, an iPad with AppleTV and a Projector or other Large Format Display (LFD) device. Perhaps even two. This would be the basic “Technology Package”. I’d wrap it around Google Apps for Education and the web. Then I’d throw in a classroom set of student devices; Chromebooks, iPads, Ubermixed notebooks, Nexus 7 tablets or BYOD devices and shake well. Windows and Office would be things learned about in history books as part of the first great wave of personal computing.

Absent too would be printers. The bane of Help Desks everywhere. When everyone has a device, printing becomes a throwback to a different era. A muscle memory that must be excised through conscious and concerted effort. Packaged Curriculum would also be a thing of the past, replaced with teacher generated and curated content, projects, inquiry, search and the web. With a device for every student, they would own their learning, top to bottom.

Classroom technology doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult or restricted. It doesn’t have to conform to the old business norms of yesterday. It just requires a different way of thinking about education technology and what we want to accomplish in the classroom. Free your OS and the rest will follow.