thinking out loud about technology, education and life
We still don’t have an official web page for the new podcast but we’ve got episodes. Here’s the latest.
Episode 2: The D10 Caterpillar Reform Plan
I ask Dr. V what the heck this quote means:
“Devolution of authority over student learning” — hmm, now there’s a thought. The wording piqued my interest – Tweet from @Dowbiggin
And then we dive into Prisoners of Time – http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/PrisonersOfTime/index.html and Caterpillars
Past Episodes:
So here is a prime example of why publishing student work to the web is such a powerful motivator to do well. Below is a link to my Leading Edge Certification Admin class portfolio. This is the final assessment for an online class designed to introduce school administrators to social media and online learning. Those of you that know me might be asking yourselves, “but Andrew, aren’t you all over that stuff already?” and the answer would be yes. You see, thanks to my pal Danny Silva (iteachag) I thought I was signing up to become certified to teach the class. I didn’t realize I was going to actually have to take and pass an eight (8) week online class.
So being that I’m all over it, it should have been easy for me, right? Well yes and no and I’m going to tell you why. You see, I’m an adult learner (thank you Career Tech Ed credential classes!) and I value my time more than anything. Repeating things that I already do, know how to do or have done is not very high on my priority list. Unfortunately the majority of the course work was just that for me. Repedition and repeats. Now, I’m not knocking the coursework in any way. I think it is all incredibly important, valuable information and the exercises I found barely tolerable would be excellent (dare I say necessary) for Administrators that haven’t got a clue about online learning, web 2.0 or social media. For me, I was just trying to get through it without gouging my eyeballs out to punch the ticket and get the certification.
Since we were ostensibly going to be future trainers for the class, I really wish they could have tested us out somehow. Have a blog with a recent post, check. Co-host a podcast, check. Active on twitter, check. Developed Online Learning modules, check. Google Certified, check. Learning about how to use online tools, developing a vision for how technology and web 2.0 can influence and affect your organization, opening lines of communication, developing a professional development strategy that incorporates all these elements, it’s all great stuff. I’ve just been there, done that and honestly, I now find myself starting all over again at my new District. So my heart just wasn’t in the class. I wonder how many students feel the same way in their classes. The ones they didn’t get to opt into. Had we been tasked with discussing the course curriculum and run through each module with the task of commenting, suggesting and improving I think I would have found the whole process more relevant and meaningful.
Anyway, back to my portfolio. You see, it isn’t very good. I know how much, or how little, time I spent on each assignment. How frustrated I was with each piece. How unmotivated I was to complete things when Swimming or Gymnastics or even BMX Olympic coverage was on. (note to self: Don’t sign up for an online class when the Olympics are on.) (second note to self: Don’t offer an online course when the Olympics are on) For all of the assignments that I did complete I received passing grades. Am I proud of the work that I submitted? Not really. Do I want to publish my portfolio? Not really. If I was invested in the class, I’d want to spend another eight to ten hours minimum on it redoing some of the portfolio pieces. Am I going to? No. I haven’t even completed the reflection pieces yet because I was having such a very hard time honestly reflecting on the entire process. Which led me to start writing this blog post instead.
So I’m not sure where I stand with the LECAdmin Certification but I know that my heart wasn’t in it and that is reflected in my portfolio which I turned in just a bit ago. This entire experience makes me believe even more strongly that one of the best ways to assess student engagement and make learning authentic is to make them publish. Perhaps if I have been publishing my work all long in the process, I would have taken more care. Ok, probably not in this case but then again I was never very good in school. Maybe if it was just a bit more relevant…
You can view my LECAdmin Portfolio here.
Hey all. I’ve started a new podcast with Mile Vollmert called Reboot ED where we’ll be talking about big ideas in education and ed reform. The pilot episode is up here. We’re working on a website and getting setup on iTunes. More to follow.
RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a pre twitter tool that really transformed how I consumed information from the web. My RSS reader of choice is Google Reader, mainly because it loads in iGoogle. Now that iGoogle is going away, I’m not sure how I’ll get to it. I might just have to open it in a new tab along with gmail and calendar. Of course I mainly access Reader on my phone these days and Flipboard on the iPad is taking over that role more and more. However while I find flipboard good for browsing the most current entries, when I really want to dig more in-depth into the 1000+ outstanding unread items, the Reader interface is still the best for me. Adapting is part of this new Web 2.0 world. Tools are created, we use them for a while and then they die and new ones sprout up with more features or better functionality. It’s the cycle of life at hyper speed.
There is another side to RSS. One perhaps hidden from everyday web use but still critically important none the less. RSS connects my podcast’s web site to iTunes and allows my co-host and I to post a link to a new episode in a blog and have it automatically available in iTunes and the world. RSS made publishing easy for the masses. It made subscribing possible before there was Like and Follow and + and it still is key to putting the 2.0 in web 2.0 today. That’s why it is important for current and future Education Administrators to understand what the Orange icon means and how they can use it to start building connections.
This post is part of the Leading Edge Certification for Administrators Bootcamp program I am currently participating in. Hope you enjoyed it.
I found this in the updated FAQ on the cde website today:
Q. What is SBAC computer adaptive testing?
A. This type of testing is a form of computer based testing that adapts to the student’s ability level. The SBAC summative assessments are being developed for use with technology known as computer adaptive testing (CAT). The CAT assessment “engine” begins by delivering a short series of moderately difficult grade-level test items to the student, and then, depending on the student’s initial performance, delivers items that are either more or less difficult. This process continues until the student’s level of proficiency is determined.
With CAT, every student essentially receives a unique assessment, eliminating the need to test all students at one time. Schools will be able to group and assess students in a configuration that matches their specific capacity. CAT also permits a much longer assessment window to run all the students through the assessment. This will allow California to move into the next generation of computer-delivered assessments without causing disadvantages to some schools because of limited bandwidth or computers-to-students ratio. (emphasis mine)
So it looks like they are going to bypass the need to test all students at the same time, never mind how we are going to teach all students to be ready to take the computer adaptive test. Apparently that’s not their problem anymore. Welcome to the wonderful world of equity in education at it’s finest.
I’m currently enrolled in the Leading Edge Certification for Administrators program. One of my fellow students Burt Lo wrote about the value of an Administrator blogging for his assignment this week. I thought it only fitting to complete my assignment by responding to his post. I think Burt is right on when he says;
I’m not convinced of the the use of a blog as a conversational tool for the following reasons. I have posted on and off for several years, and I can probably count on one hand the number of comments that I have received on my blog posts. (Of course, I realize that one of the potential reasons for this fact is that my blog posts do not contain any information worth commenting on.) So, unless someone an administrator is motivated to blog for the sake of the writing process, they could quickly become discourage at the lack of response to their blog posts. Most of the time spent on my blog has been spent deleting spam comments and installing updates so that my blog is not taken over by phishing websites, etc. Again, not reasons that an administrator would want to start blogging.
He continues:
However, as a communication tool, I see tremendous value in blogging. As has been pointed out by Susan Brooks-Young, Bill Robinson, and Greg Ottinger, a number of tools exist that allow parents to easily receive information posted by an administrator. In fact, it is so easy to receive information from blogs through RSS feeds, that it is easy to become overwhelmed by the information (similar to an email listserv). In fact, when I check my Google Reader account, I’m often discouraged by the number of posts that have piled up that I often don’t end up reading many of them.
Blogging is a great medium for sharing information but unless you’re this principal and can get 10,000 hits a month on your blog, where else might you be able to go to engage your community? As Burt pointed out, participation can be an issue as well as dissemination and consumption of the information. How many parents even know what RSS is anyway? Twitter is certainly an option. There are educators out there using it every day to connect and share. However, some may find the 140 character limit lacking for sharing lengthy information with parents and community. No, for real engagement we should be going to where the parents are. Any guesses where that might be?
If you answered Facebook, congratulations. Parents and students are on it regularly (constantly?) but they may only visit the school web site once or twice a year if we’re lucky. That’s why every school should have a Facebook page and every administrator should be publishing to it actively. Period. Blogs are great, RSS is awesome but Facebook is where the people are and so we should be there too.
Full disclosure: I don’t use Facebook, but I hear others do.
I sent this out to the Leadership Team in my District. Maybe it will spark some discussions.
I was lucky enough to attend the ISTE conference inSan Diego last week. Three main themes stuck out for me. iPads were everywhere, Social Networking was being used to collaborate and share and Google Apps has finally come of age in the classroom.
Many sessions were dedicated to iPads in one way or another. There was a lot of focus on specific Apps and how to use iPads in the classroom.
iPad resources:
http://flippingwithkirch.blogspot.com/2012/06/iste12-real-apps-real-classroom-ipads.html
http://www.scoop.it/t/ipads-and-tablets-in-education
http://macdonaldtechforteachers.wikispaces.com/iPad+Apps+for+Education
http://smartclasstech.blogspot.com/2012/06/there-app-for-that.html
This is the first conference that really showed me how social networking tools and the power of being connected can really leverage a Personal Learning Network (PLN). Adam Bellow, creator of http://www.edutecher.net/ used a tool to tweet out his presentations from Keynote in real time. Teachers were sharing links and resources on twitter so the ability to see what was happening in many sessions was greatly expanded. It was very powerful. Also, I sat in on a global classroom session where the flat classroom folks talked about connecting classrooms around the world. I listened to two elementary students from Mexico present their digital news letter on their iPad and saw many other examples of students showing off their work to the ISTE audience.
http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w2j1vJmEIs&feature=autoplay&list=PL8A5F88F3A2E9A7DC&playnext=7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyoafgmUhis&feature=autoplay&list=PL8A5F88F3A2E9A7DC&playnext=8
The keynotes were about change and what our Education System should be striving towards. They are available on YouTube.
Opening Keynote – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mleHwdP_2ds&feature=related
Tuesday’s Keynote – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFIkkmaBD9A
Personally I think Sir Ken Robinson is better in these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
Someone tweeted out this link on iBook Author student publishing – http://www.cultofmac.com/169745/these-7th-graders-have-already-published-their-first-ibooks-author-bestseller/
Some other general resources that were shared out via twitter:
A collaborative Notes document – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c9cpBaUqfPne9y6B9kJIkr1LyPUYb2qXGQqQXnYQgEQ/edit#
The Official Diigo group – http://groups.diigo.com/group/diigo-iste12
ISTE YouTube Channel – http://www.youtube.com/user/istevideos
Blogs:
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/
http://www.patrickmlarkin.com/
http://www.thethinkingstick.com/
The conference was overwhelming and it was impossible to see everything but the themes were clear to me; Mobile (iPads), social networking tools and the rise of Google with everything pointing towards students and teachers as content creators who use technology to facilitate collaboration, engage in project based learning and deliver individualized instruction.
Six years ago I attended NECC in San Diego. The two things that I remember from my very first edtech conference are the 4th of July fireworks show and Steve Hargadon‘s Open Source Pavilion. NECC 2006 was one of those pivotal moments in my professional education career where I realized there were a bunch of other educators out there that believed technology was important to education. It set me on a journey of exploration and discovery of technology in education in my role as an education technology leader. It’s also probably where I first saw Jim Klein’s Life 2.0 presentation which fundamentally altered my view as an IT Director of technology and education. I went back to my district and immediately started setting up open source LTSP computer labs and installing Open Office.
Fast forward six years and I’ve become fully engaged in the edtech community. First I started by attending conferences where I saw David Thornburg speak about the future of technology in education and was told that I teach kids and not business apps by Chris Lehmann. I watched Jon Corippo demonstrate 100 free web 2.0 tools in 50 minutes. I’ve seen Jim Klein‘s message about Life 2.0 become ever more relevant and watched teachers like Chris Scott, Diane Main and Matthew Schwartz grow into their own as edtech influentials. I created a twitter account in 2007 and then took about a year to figure out how to use it to build my Personal Learning Network (PLN). I became a classroom teacher, joined CUE, became a presenter at IT and edtech conferences on google apps, IT, open source and other topics, I started a podcast about edtech with my former co-worker Danny Silva and implemented 1:1 linux #ubermix netbooks and 1:1 iPads. I was selected to become a Google Certified Teacher and met awesome edtech leaders like Adam Bellow and James Sanders. I got taken to school on YouTube and Video for the classroom by Mr. Video himself Jim Sill. I had my teachers classroom’s flipped by Ramsey Musallam and his flipteaching.com website.
NECC 2006 got me excited about edtech and helped me see the possibilities that were out there. It ignited a passion and a drive to do something more. Since then it has been a roller coaster ride of new technology and new experiences. My primary focus has shifted from keeping servers up and running to empowering teachers and students with technology in the classroom. The zero server server room is within reach for schools of all sizes and with limited resources it makes sense to focus what little we have where it matters most. In the classroom.
Now I’m back in San Diego for ISTE 2012. With my recent job changes, I almost didn’t make it but I’m really glad that I did. While the name may have changed from six years ago, I’m confident the impact this experience will have on me won’t. There has never been a more exciting time to be talking about technology and education. We’re solidly into the 21st Century. Technology is becoming disruptive and enabling pedagogy and learning opportunities that didn’t even exist five years ago. I have been privileged to be the IT Guy with access to amazing California ed tech professionals that are redefining education through the innovative use of technology every day. My plan for this international experience is to further broaden my horizons, meet twitter friends in real life, listen, learn, connect, take back and share. I hope everyone attending does the same.
A Pre-ISTE12 Find
Using AppleTV +iPad in the classroom slide deck from Jon Corippo‘s ISTE CUE Rockstar presentation – http://www.slideshare.net/jcorippo/apple-tv-i-pad-the-digital-swiss-army-knife
If you’re not buying projectors with HDMI inputs on them, make the change. iPads are coming.
An Ask Andrew Reply:
Fellow #ubermix aficionado and CETPA Certified CTO @_NOD55 asks, “I’m buying 50 iPads. Now what?”
Well, first off welcome to the party. I think at this point iPads in the classroom are inevitable and I’m guessing what comes out of WWDC next week will only cement that sentiment further. Or as the Borg like to say, “Resistance is futile”.
iPad2 or “The New” iPad. That’s up to you. Going cheap with the 16GB Wifi Only iPad2 may be tempting but take into consideration the camera kind of sucks and the updated iPad apps are taking up more space so they can look pretty on the Retina display. 16Gb might not cut it anymore depending on what apps you want to run.
Buy the 10-Packs. You get a slight discount. Also ask for the 10-packs that include the free engraving. (I hope they still do this for us). You can have your school name, program name, motto, etc… etched as long as it will fit on two lines. The etching text needs to be on the PO that goes to Apple. Check your spelling. This is a nice feature because Asset Tags can be removed but etching lasts forever.
For your shared classroom environment, the exact environment iPads are not designed for, you are going to need secure classroom storage. Apple sells Bretford PowerSync carts. These are nice but in my opinion, overpriced. Check out this alternative from D&D Security. While not required, I do suggest a cart that can both charge and sync, otherwise you’ll be plugging and unplugging iPads quite a bit. Of course, you could forgo the expensive cart options all together and go the MacGyver route like these folks did.
You can’t MacGyver your way out of setup and management however. You need a Mac to initially setup and manage the carts. And no, you can’t (and I do mean can’t) try and manage them with a windows machine. Apple Configurator only runs on OS X. If the carts will be separated by great distance and the teachers will be managing them in the classrooms, I suggest a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro per cart. Otherwise, one MacBook should suffice.
If you want to use profiles to manage the iPads over the air after you’ve released them into the wild and you don’t want to spend a fortune on 3rd Party MDM solutions, you’ll also need a Mac Mini Server running the Lion Server OS (Mountain Lion is around the corner, plan for the cost of the OS upgrade). You’ll want this if for no other reason than to clear pass code locks without having to reset iPads. And be sure to ask your Apple SE to come help setup the server. They’re there to help. Also, since these 50 iPads have opened the breach and more will soon follow, you need to start planning for a district management strategy. Deployment is the first step but you also need to be thinking about long term management, updating and Apps.
Apps. My favorite part of the evolving iPad management experience. Apps are going to be a pain no matter how you do it. For 50 iPads it won’t be too bad. Just be sure you put a process in place for when you have 1000 iPads. Because you know you will. And sooner than you think. Sign up for the VPP program, designate Program Managers and Facilitators and make sure every app is purchased with an iTunes account tied back to a school email address. Buy some gift cards for easy (ie. unencumbered) teacher app experimentation.
Buy some extra iPads. One for your IT guy to get to know and use as a master image iPad. You’ll want a few more for cart spares so when one or two get hosed (technical term for “become inoperable”) you can swap them out and not affect student to iPad ratios in the classroom. All in all, if you plan on having 50 active iPads in use, I’d buy 55.
Get a good case. One that has good corner protection. Don’t go cheap here, even though the temptation is there. Get a case like this one or this one (ask for the education price). Just make sure the iPad will fit in the Cart with the case on.
Your wireless better be rock solid. (I Like Ruckus!)
Get your teachers iPads. If they are going to have 50 students using them in class, they should at least be familiar with them. The best way to accomplish this is by having them use one on a daily basis. Preferably months before the students get them.
Profesional Development, Professional Development, Professional Development.
The sea has receded from the shoreline. You know what that means. The tidal wave is coming. Prepare for it and Good Luck.
There is no box 