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

  • #FutureReady Comes Full Circle

    Mike Magboo’s (@allurbaser) latest post hit me like a ton of bricks. I’d honestly forgotten that at Le Grand High School, we were doing 1:1 netbooks running ubermix way back in 2009. I know if feels like I’ve been doing 1:1 forever, now I remember why.

    In hindsight, for being on the bleeding edge, we got the basics right. We knew that we needed a solid infrastructure, especially wifi. We had to have the devices in classrooms, just talking about them wasn’t enough. We had to have teachers open to change and a curriculum/instruction purpose to focus that change. We realized very quickly that we needed lots of support, both on the tech side and on the professional development side. And all of that needed to be rolled into a compelling vision for student success and a long term goal of 1:1 district wide. (Big thanks to Mike Niehoff and Jon Corippo for opening their innovative 1:1 High School up to us and sharing in the process along the way and to Jim Klein for ubermix, the OS that made 1:1 netbooks possible)

    Reading Mike’s post, it is clear that Le Grand has continued to evolve and learn to the point where their 1:1 program isn’t about the technology anymore, it’s about teaching and learning. That’s #eduawesome because that’s where we all need to be to be able to prepare today’s students for their futures.

    Danny Silva (@iteachag) and class. 1:1 Take Home Netbook pilot, circa 2009
    Danny Silva (@iteachag) and class. 1:1 Take Home Netbook pilot, circa Jan 2010

    It took me a few false starts since leaving Le Grand, but roll forward to today and once again I find myself in a forward thinking organization that got the basics right. Together we are continuing to reflect, adjust and move teaching and learning forward.

    In both cases, these organizations were future ready before being #FutureReady was cool. It’s good to be a part of organizations like that.

  • Raising the Bar for Technology Services in Schools

    I’m in the middle of a nightmare scenario with our current wireless access point provider at the moment. Our 8-month old Aerohive AP230 access points randomly freeze up after 30 days and stop passing traffic until we reboot them. It’s a particularly insidious bug that has disrupted classrooms and consumed a significant amount of my team’s time, first in troubleshooting and convincing Aerohive there was a problem with the AP230s and mitigating the effects on our teachers and students. We’ve resorted to manually rebooting all of our 235 AP230s weekly as a preventative measure to get through online testing. Unfortunately, it turns out Aerohive doesn’t have a reliable way to schedule an AP reboot.

    All of this got me thinking, with the move to online state assessments, good enough isn’t good enough anymore. I came from the private sector where I was responsible for IT in a 24x7x365 production facility. In that high stakes environment, if things didn’t work at 3am on a Saturday, millions of dollars ran down the drain. I spent a few 3ams troubleshooting failures and many more hours designing potential failure points out of our systems. Then I went to work for a school district. Nobody called or emailed on weekends and when the Internet stopped working I was the only one that noticed. It was night and day.

    Not so anymore. Now the first people to notice technology problems are classroom teachers. When the wireless is down in a classroom, we know right away because the teacher calls us immediately. If the Internet is slow at a school site, we get three or four calls or emails in rapid succession. In fact, we have become so dependent on the Internet for our day to day operations, both in our offices and our classrooms, it’s starting to feel a lot more like that 24x7x365 environment.

    I’m having to dust off some old ways of thinking that I wouldn’t have applied to K12 just a few years ago. Like just how redundant is our Internet connection and where are the major points of failure in our network and what is the backup plan if we get a bad batch of Access Points? The new one that I’m thinking about now is, if all of our stuff is in the cloud, what does a day without access to our stuff cost us? These are scary questions to ask in a school district, because right now, the truth of the matter is very few of our systems are redundant. Our network is built on point to point fiber connecting single core switches running through one firewall out to our County Office of Education. The County Office has some redundancy and they are looking at ways to provide more, but that doesn’t do much to address the LAN side of the equation.

    All of our email and increasingly our documents are in the cloud. Student learning is happening in the cloud. Teacher resources are in the cloud. K12 IT Departments are going to have to evolve to take on the new demands of providing services in 21st Century learning organizations. As much as I would like to think we can offload complexity to the cloud with services like JIVE, Meraki, Securly and hosted solutions from our County Office of Ed, each of those represents a significant relationship and requires a high degree of trust.

    We are highly exposed and incredibly reliant on our service providers and vendors like never before. My experience with JIVE last year was a pre-cursor to our current crisis. We rely on these outside vendors to provide the best possible quality products, services and support with at least some understanding of what it means in a classroom environment, what it means to teacher confidence and student learning, when their technology doesn’t work. I don’t know that the education sector technology providers are necessarily used to school districts demanding industry class uptime or support. I don’t think we complained all that loudly if things didn’t work in the past. Well, those days are surely over. Online assessments are here and the cloud is the operating system for our organizations.

    Time to put on the big boy pants.

  • Off to #CUE15

    And I’m off. Heading to the Airport. Soon to be at CUE15. I can’t believe it’s CUE time again. As a CUE Board Member, we receive status updates throughout the year about conference preparations, but it’s actually here! While I’m not presenting this year, I do have some Board duties to perform. If you see me directing traffic at the doors to the keynote sessions, be sure to say hi!

    In my free time, I do plan to check out some great sessions (see the session guide for all of them, warning, prepare to be overwhelmed). I’m really looking forward to the Thursday morning session in Oasis 4, Weapons of Mass Instruction with Hall Davidson and Jon Corippo. That is sure to be an awesome amazing show.

    I’m trying to wrap my head around getting over to the UnCon at the Hard Rock Hotel. As a huge #edcamp fan, I’m down for some self directed PD as a break from the overwhelmingness that can be CUE. One way or another, I’ll make my way over to hang out and enjoy some good conversation.

    Of course I’ll probably stop in the hallway for some good old fashion #hallwayPD time. There are a few topics I’d like to talk about that aren’t on the schedule. IT stuff like wireless access, chromebooks and Google Apps domains come to mind.

    Beyond that, I have to make sure I get over to Hamburger Mary’s for lunch with Mike Magboo. It’s become something of a tradition. I’m also looking forward to visiting Sherman’s Deli for at least one lunch, and maybe more.

    My fingers are crossed on the wifi. I’m confident that CUE has spared no expense and done everything possible to ensure that the wifi can support 5500+ computer using educators and presenters this year. But wifi is hard and CUE users use bandwidth like Californian’s use water. I hope someone tweets out the graph of bandwidth utilization during the conference.

    I am fortunate to be able to send twelve teachers and three administrators from my district to CUE this year. I hope they have the same incredible and overwhelming experience that I had when I first came to CUE. I remember feeling like I had finally found my tribe. A group of passionate educators that were also passionate about technology. Risk takers, explorers, innovators, lone nuts, novice and master educators all with an eagerness to share and learn in the exciting and amazing space that is EdTech.

    Whatever happens over the next few days, I’m looking forward to hanging out and taking it all in because spring CUE only happens once a year!

  • Future Ready Flexible Classrooms

    I’ve been meaning to write a post about our path down the flexible learning spaces journey and today coincidentally found myself having to write something on the topic for my LEC PLL course. We are 7 months into piloting “flexible” furniture in seven classrooms from VS, Smith, Paragon and Balt. Below is a reflection on how we started and where we’re going next:

    It all starts with a concept, based on discussions about what we think we want to do in the classroom. We know that desks in rows do not lend themselves to collaborative learning. We also know that rigid seating leaves students without freedom of movement. Desks and chairs without wheels make reconfiguring spaces quickly a challenge and therefore much less likely to happen often. We know this from observation and conversation. So we collaborate with a furniture distributor that specializes in flexible learning environments in schools. We brainstorm, look at options, examine our spaces, budgets and learning objectives and the results of all of those discussion are turned into 2D renderings.

    21stC Furniture 1

    Then, after refining the size, shape and layouts based on the 2D renders, because collaboration tables are bigger than we thought or we just can’t fit 34 desks and chairs in the space the way we want, 3D renders are made and we really start to visualize what the space will actually look like.

    21stC 3D 1

    Once everyone agrees to a layout and equipment list, we discuss finishes. Light table tops show dirt. Dark table tops show dirt. Wood grain table tops show the least amount of dirt. Chairs will get dirty, do we want colors that show it or hide it? Do we want different colors or a standard color that is easier to replace and move from school to school. Once all of these questions are answered, the furniture is ordered and the conceptual becomes reality.

    21stC Pilot

    This is where reality sets in. We learn a lot about furniture. Making the transition from a static, standardized classroom to a flexible, dynamic learning space is a huge leap. Some assumptions are wrong. Both 2D and 3D space is different than the real classroom. Tables could be a little narrower to facilitate groups of four collaboration. Different desk shapes work well for groups of six but not four or five. Chairs with wheels have bigger footprints than we are used to and legs that stick out further into the isles. We find out that trying to add new furniture in with existing furniture makes for tight spaces. Layout is important as well, for movement isles as well as for seat alignment.

    We come back, evaluate and start again. This time with the following lessons learned:

    1. Transforming a classroom space is a major disrupting force. One that not every teacher is necessarily ready to take on. Teachers that agree to take on the challenge have to be willing to clear their classrooms of existing furniture but also be prepared to question their pre-existing notions of what a classroom should look like and how they and their students should interact with the learning environment.
    2. Students must be involved in the process from the beginning. Teachers need to have students participate in the exploration, reconfiguration and feedback loop for the flexible learning spaces.
    3. One size will not fit all. Finding a desk shape with the most flexible configuration is important. It’s amazing how flexible the old reliable rectangle is. It does groups of 4, 5 and 6 very well. New desks should also do these well but also provide for circles and curves and other shapes.
    4. Storage is a challenge. Teachers have a lot of stuff. It accumulates over time. Also, elementary students don’t travel the way middle and high school students do, so they are used to having their own book box to store things in. The flexible furniture of today doesn’t come with a book box option. Wire baskets are available and they are a must.
    5. Wheels on everything. Tables, chairs, everything.
    6. Standing height tables and cafe stools are very popular with students. Allowing options for seating throughout the day seems to be important, however moving past the idea that every student has to be sitting at the exact same desk is an obstacle to truly flexible learning environments.
    7. Teachers need a place to present from, but it shouldn’t have to be at the front of the classroom. A mobile standing height platform with storage is popular with teachers. This is in addition to a teacher desk for one on one student collaboration.
    8. Flip top tables in a custom 20”x60” size for middle school. And maybe for Elementary too for teachers that don’t require book boxes. We’ll be piloting some of these in the next round.

    Whereas the first round of pilot classrooms were really shots in the dark about what flexible learning environments should look like, the next round of classrooms has a much more focused design. We have an individual desk shape we think is flexible enough to meet most needs. We’ve refined the table for the middle school classrooms and will be trying it out in elementary classrooms as well. And we have several chair options that we are looking at since we’re finding the wheeled chair to be the most difficult piece of the puzzle.

    Next up is finalizing designs, creating equipment lists for each classroom and placing the order. Another thing I’ve learned is that furniture has long lead times. Trying to condense the feedback loop with classroom teachers has also been a time challenge. With another 10 classrooms entering the pilot, I’m sure we’ll be getting great feedback. This time, I’m hoping to validate what we know now and come up with a set of district standards that work for us moving forward.

    But to hedge our bets, I’m also ordering our own “Pilot” set of classroom furniture for the district office, so we can push it into classrooms, swap out components in our pilot classrooms and generally be more flexible without having to relay on vendor samples and availability.

    Who knew furniture could be so fun?

  • Excuse Me – How The World Has Changed!

    Wow, using google translate with the kids to explore how to say “Excuse Me” in other languages. Only five years ago they would have had to listen to me butcher the pronunciations and we would have been limited to Spanish, French and German. How the world has changed.

    Kid1 Using Google Translate

     

  • Rockstar Educators Wanted!

    My District is looking for amazing educators to fill two brand new Instructional Tech ToSA positions for next year. These positions will report to me (the CTO) in the Technology Services Department and have the opportunity to work with Mary Fran Lynch, our current #eduawesome Instructional Technology ToSA.

    We’re a Google Apps District, MacBooks and iPads for all teachers, 70″ LED TVs, AppleTVs and Chromecasts are being installed in every classroom this summer. We are 1:1 Chromebooks 3-6th with a 6th grade 1:1 take home starting next year. We are also piloting tablets (iPads and nexus 7) and chromebooks in K-2. We currently have 7 flexible learning pilot classrooms, expanding to even more next year. Great things are happening in Union School District!

    We have 3 Google Certified Teachers on staff and just had 5 Teachers accepted into the 2015 MERIT Cohort at the Krause Center for Innovation. Our teachers are exceptional and I hope and expect that several will apply for the positions but if you think you’re up for the challenge and are ready to bring your edTech A game to a future ready district, consider applying. You can see more details on edjoin: https://www.edjoin.org/Home/JobPosting/655663

  • Lobby Session Idea for #CUE15

    Hotel Lobby Session Idea:

    For any IT centric folks, I’m thinking about facilitating a session in the Renaissance Lobby sometime during the CUE conference. Preliminary title, “Chromebooks: The How and the Why” or alternatively, “iPads: Not Yet, Because”.

    What do you think?

     

  • edCamp Every Day #edCampSV #edCamp

    I just got back from #edCampSV and once again it was a day well spent. I attended two sessions in the morning, both involved great conversations around teaching and learning. The first session revolved around the very real challenges of integrating technology into classroom instruction from the perspective of two willing (but under supported by their district) teachers. The second session was all about building maker spaces and what others are doing to bring making into their schools. I then spent a very long lunch (we basically had our own session three at the lunch benches) talking about the future of edtech professional development. To sum that one up; more Pedagogy, less Cool Tools.

    Upon returning home, I got to thinking, we should aspire to have edCamps happening on school campuses every day. It’s a format for meaningful collaboration and it’s educators having face to face discussions around common themes of teaching and learning. And not only for teachers, but for students, parents and administrators too. Building forums for open communication and collaboration, for sharing ideas, failures, successes and strategies are what being a connected learner is all about. So, have an edCamp every day on your campus. In the staff lounge, in your classroom, post a few topics and get together to discuss. It’s a powerful model for collaboration and learning and sometimes it’s refreshing to take a break from the tech tool overload, slow down, sit down and just talk. What do you think about that?

  • A Google Classroom Wish List

    Google Classroom came a few years too late to rescue me from Moodle and Google Docs folder management nuclear winter but it’s out now and teachers are picking it up like wildfire. Early critics, myself included, criticized Classroom for all the things it didn’t do when in fact the simplicity of it is probably a big factor in it’s rapid adoption among “non-techie” classroom teachers. As more teachers have started using it, feedback and feature requests have started to roll in. Rather than try and remember all the ideas and issues teachers have had with Classroom in my district, I think Jeremy Davis (@teachtech) from Capistrano Unified School District hits the nail on the head with these 7:

    1. It would be amazing if our classrooms automatically generated a group with the same name so teachers could assign google play apps, extensions, and books to their classes. Maybe even a play store button on the classroom screen.

    2. The student count next to the word students on the main screen would be huge, because as students join the class, if the total was in parentheses next to the word students teachers would know when everyone was in and could disable the code so no stragglers popped in (parents, friends, other students who want to get the work ahead of time)

    3. Student View – A lot of teachers want to show off a student view (I need this during training as well) but we can’t manage 2000 dummy accounts for teachers. If there was a “student view” button in the stream that would flip the classroom to what the students see, it would be easier to teach.

    4. We would really love it if we could assign group work – When a teacher goes to assign work and wants multiple students working on the same template from Drive, they now will assign, it creates 35 copies, then the teacher asks one student from a group to go in and change the name on the assignment to include the last names of each of the students in the group, then the teacher has to go in and either delete the 20 copies that aren’t being used or just figure it out on the grid. If there was a fourth option in Classroom, “assign by group” that would pull up a list of all students in the class, with a drop down A-Z menu next to each name, then the teacher could assign John, Sally, and Jose to group A, Joe, Eric and Adam to group B, etc. Then Classroom would make a shared document between the selected students and the teacher. That is one of our most asked-for features.

    5. Timed assignments and date fix – We love that teachers can make an assignment and then select all 5 classes and assign it all at once. However, this doesn’t work so well if the teacher is pushing out an assessment. If they push to all classes at once, the students who don’t have her class until 1pm get the essay question at 8am. If there was any way to have a timer next to each class, so when you drop down and select the 5 classes to send the assignment, you could also select a time. Schools across the country have strange bell schedules, so you would want it in 5 minute increments. But if I could select Period 1 gets it at 8:05, Period 2 gets it at 8:55, Period 3 gets it after snack at 10:00, and so forth that would make things easy on assigning. Lastly, we have gotten reports that when a teacher selects multiple classes to assign, the date and time due do not transfer over to other classes. Is this a known issue?

    6. When we look at assignments in grid in the assignment folder, every assignment has the same name, and the student name is cut off unless you mouse over and click. There is no way to get a quick glance. Is there any way that google could put the student name before the title of the assignment rather than on the end?

    7. (also known as “the dream”) We would really, really like a snapshot button on classroom, that would take a quick snapshot of every student’s screen and create a quick grid with names for teachers. This would allow us greater classroom management (even just letting the students know it is possible) so teachers can feel more comfortable having side bar conferences and one-on-one coaching with students where they can’t see the screens of students. While some may ask for a live feed, the screenshot would not tax our networks in the same way.

    Ditto! Seems pretty reasonable to me. What do you want to see from Google Classroom in the next 3-12 months?

  • RIP InfuseLearning

    http://cdn3.volusion.com/sbcpn.tjpek/v/vspfiles/photos/FACE001C-2.jpg
    http://cdn3.volusion.com/sbcpn.tjpek/v/vspfiles/photos/FACE001C-2.jpg

     

    Sadly it looks like InfuseLearning is shutting down. You can read their announcement here. I did not personally use InfuseLearning but I saw Jon Corippo (@jcorippo) demonstrate it’s learning power many times. Had I still been in the classroom, I’m sure I would have used it straight away. InfuseLearning is not the first education based tech start up to build a great product that teachers and students love only to disappear for lack of a business model. I think the problem is that schools aren’t used to paying for software (unless it’s Microsoft Office). Historically, schools pay for curriculum packages, learning management systems, traditional assessment programs and drill and kill skills based applications but not innovative workflow apps like Infuse. In fact, I don’t think that Google Apps ever would have caught on and Google Classroom wouldn’t be the overnight success it is if schools had been required to actually pay for them. Thankfully google doesn’t have to make money off of these services, yet.

    Absent district purchases, companies are left trying to make money through ads or worse, classroom teachers. Teachers can only afford to pay so much so products like InfuseLearning are up against steep hurdles if they expect to generate revenue without district buy in. Too bad a company like Apple doesn’t take the opportunity to swoop in, pick up InfuseLearning and continue to develop it as a free for educators tool. It works great on the iOS platform. And yes, even if they took it iOS only, at least it might give schools a reason to keep buying iPads. On second thought, it would be even cooler if Google bought them and integrated the InfuseLearning feature set into Classroom.

    We used to say that in the age of Web 2.0, a new tool would always rise from the ashes of a failed one but i’m not so sure anymore.