Dan Maas, Ed.D. Chief Information Officer

Gone Google

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:00:00 GMT

LPS has "Gone Google."

When school ended on December 16th, we jumped into full swing by migrating our email, calendar and contact data from our Exchange server to Google. The migration took 23 hours in which over 296 gigabytes of data and 4,000,000 emails, calendar appointments and contacts were safely uploaded. We were offline for about 10 minutes while the email routing took effect across the Internet. If you'd like see a timeline for the migration, click here.

School started this week and our staff came back to a new system for email and calendar. We had implemented Google for our students over a year and half ago which included most teachers as well. This laid a ground-work for an easier transition for staff as most across the district had a familiarity with the new servces before we launched. Nonethless, the shift did cause some folks discomfort, which was to be expected. Indeed, an entire field of research is dedicated to Cognitive Ergonomics which investigates how the brain thinks and works. What is amazing is how perceptive the eye is and how much subliminal processing our brains do every moment. A shift in normal, expected visual signals can be disconcerting and even alarming. Insitinctively, we humans have spent the bulk of our existence (as a species) outside and on watch for danger. When something looks mildly different in our environments, even if we don't pay it close attention, it can trigger a danger response. It's basic survival.

But over time, we get used to where things fit and our basic "safety senses" relax so we can apply our higher order thinking. I am, of course, referring to Mazlow and the Heirarchy of Need in which we educators are reminded that a learner needs physiological and security concerns to be settled before higher order thinking can be possible. In the case of Google Migration, once people relax about how the Google Mail looks and feels differently, they find that there are many more features and advantages than our old email. By and large, however, the vast majority of our staff have adapted very quickly and easily to the change.

What advantages might be found? Certainly the cost savings and the added storage are the first ones to find. LPS will save $45,000 annually with this move. And each email box has gone from 1 gigabyte to 25 gigabytes. After that, you start to notice just how powerful a collaborative Google Doc really is. And Filters in your email are an amazing and efficient way to keep your Inbox clean with minimal effort. More Smartphones are synching with our system than before meaning we have more people able to easily stay in touch. And the system works the same way at home as it does at work.

We have a developing Help Site at http://lps2.it/google where we are keeping all our step-by-step guides and useful tips for our staff. Visitors are welcome to check it out too. Ultimately, Going Google has Gone Well in LPS.

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Personal assets for the 21st Century

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 08:00:00 GMT

It's a topic we have to continue to discuss. It's a changing dynamic and I continue to strive to understand. Here are some of my latest ideas:

A recent thought was about how we need to rethink preparing students for the working world. I read a Denver Post article by Dave Maney and was intrigued by what this economist had to say about the middle class. He asserted that our middle class has a very large number of middle managers and factory workers whose work in many respects is "middle man" labor. The Internet has cut out the middle man and is wreaking havoc on our traditional views on the economy. Dave suggests retraining of the middle class to be able to deal with this reality.

It made me think (and send him an email, only get invited to coffee after learning his kids attend LPS ;-) about the fundamentals we are training. Yes, yes... I know we have new Standards, but what I'm thinking about is going deeper. I worry that, in our time of concern, too many are looking backwards; calling this a "Sputnik moment" and resorting to the age-old effort of standardization and rigorous assessment with consequences for failure to comply...

For people who say history repeats itself, I say they are looking for an excuse to diminish great people and our own free will. I see no guarantees for our own future nor do I think that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, Mother Theresa, George Washington, Joan of Arc and so on... I do not think they were mere products of their time. They were great people and they did great things. And while our times have become desperate, I see no guarantee that these times will produce some great person or great achievement. That's up to us and I don't think looking backward is the answer. We must look forward with clear eyes to understand the dynamics that are swirling about us and navigate our way to a better future.

So what's that got to do with K-12 education? It's the underlying forces that are pushing this change and we should recognize them. Once we do, we have a chance to take some actions that will position our children to be successful. I will admit as I write, that I am influenced by writers like Friedman, Pink and Zhao as well as others. I am reading Kamenetz (an associate of Dave's) and am through the introduction (having received the book in the mail last night).

What is resonating for me is this question: What are the personal assets that will help a young person succeed?

Then I started a list in two columns, one for the Industrial Age (what we are familiar with) and the 21st Century (what feels new). Here's what I came up with:

What you know vs. Who you know

When we were growing up, the tried and true assets were your trade skills and your command of a body of knowledge. But today, the skills needed in any sector are a shifting sand dune. You are more likely to be successful through your relationships and connections than your command of knowledge or by holding a defined skill. Perhaps college needs to be more about making your first professional connections and less about your GPA? Perhaps your K-12 experience needs to be more about how you interact with people than your standardized test score?

Uniformity vs. Uniqueness

When we were growing up, the way to assure business success was to establish rules and standards. My own professional sector of IT is glorious about this... set standards, require a uniform work space so we can assure reliable system performance. But now look at Google. Here's a massive firm that allows its employees to bring any computer they want to their workspace. Anyone want to challenge whether Google's model is working? And now in education, we're talking BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology)... this is something we've positioned ourselves for in LPS for years. We've had full coverage, open wifi for over 5 years now and it's great to see our kids bringing literally hundreds of laptops to school daily. But the curriculum hasn't changed and until we teach differently, BYOT is nothing more than a financial strategy. It needs to fuel a different way of thinking about work... like at Google.

Conform vs. Invent

Don't rock the boat is how we were raised. Learn a trade, join a professional organization or a union and get a job in your "career." If you'll conform, you'll earn a pension and live a normal life. Today, is that approach being rewarded? I see more incentive to invent and create... less reward for conforming. I see companies getting bought out and the employees getting the opposite of reward for having conformed to the company policies and culture. I see the individuals who are inventive being pulled out of the failing companies and being rewarded handsomely. I have personal family experiences to this point... I bet you do too.

Adhere vs. Deviate

So this is my Tim Tebow paragraph. I just love the story. Here we have a throw-back Option QB (the winningest ever in college) taking his collegiate style to the NFL. All the adherents to NFL doctrine decry his ascendency, yet he is winning. In an age of micro-fine analysis and instant communications to the field, what hope does an NFL quarterback have of surprising a defense? One chance might be to be so different than every other QB that even though teams have tremendous analysis capabilities and can figure out just what he's doing... he's so different from everyone else, how easy is it really to prepare in just one week? I'm not going to predict a miracle season and a Super Bowl appearance for my beloved Broncos, but... hey, why not? It's working. And I wonder if deviating from the normal adherent wisdom isn't an emerging successful strategy today?

Fit in vs. Stand out

Consider our politics over time. In the previous age, you conformed with your established group and when you had served your time, it was your turn. See John McCain and Hillary Clinton. Now see Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. Regardless of your politics, you've got to admit that what these two and a growing number of others are really best at... is standing out. Even though both have remarkably short political careers before achieving the prominence they have in American politics today, they are good at standing out amid a blizzard of 24-hour news cycles, the bloggosphere, twitterverse, facebook... I don't know if it's a good thing yet. Perhaps it's just early and we're seeing the beginners at this new approach, but the trend is unmistakeable. "Tried and true" is not the trend.

Fair wage vs. Boom & bust

When we were growing up, the idea was get a job, work for a fair wage and make a living. Today, the whole concept of a fair wage for your labor is up for debate. It seems the individuals who know how to market their value can navigate a boom and bust economy. With the speed of fortune reaching near light-speed on Wall Street, there's no telling what's next. How many collapses and recoveries have we seen over the past ten years? Turmoil is the name of the game. Just as shipbuilders can build vessels for calm lagoons or stormy seas, we need to build our academic vessels for the tides we face (can you tell I liked Dave's metaphor?). The bottom line is attitude. Instead of expecting a fair wage because your skills deserve it, perhaps the well prepared understands his/her value and knows how to market himself/herself?

Quality vs. Choice

I attended a Jon Creighton presentation recently and he pointed out that while the data does not prove charter schools do any better than traditional schools, the data does support that charter school families really like their choice. In the Industrial mindset, there is a belief that there is a uniform concept called "quality." But today, we don't agree what quality is. Pro-Charter advocates can point to aspects of Charter school research and find quality. Anti-Charter advocates can find huge flaws and point out strengths in the traditional public school. Who is right? Who says there IS a right? Doesn't diversity lead to societal strength? Diamond suggests that is so... so while choice might offend some sensibilities around quality, who is the real arbiter of quality? Could the trend be that the idea of quality is in the eye of the beholder and not some arbitrary standard?

Institutions vs. Entrepreneurs

When we grew up, our successful futures were based on getting in with the right firm; we depended on our institutions to assure a lifestyle. Libraries, colleges and newspapers, as institutions, are struggling like never before in history. Think about that... these types of institutions have always been bulwarks in society. And now? Even if you do work in a company today, you have to be an entrepreneur. You have to reinvent yourself. Even if you work within what might be called "an institution," can you afford not to be entreprenuerial and reinvent yourself? Will you last if you insist on doing what you've always done?

Resume vs. Confidence

We were taught how to write a resume. Today you can YouTube it, get guidance from MIT, or utilize a resume generating web site. When we were in school, the idea of a good resume was that it could win you the job. Why? Because it would show how your skills and knowledge fit the job description. You're a widget that fits into the line just so... here's the spec sheet (your resume) to prove it. Of course, increasingly, we know resumes don't get you the job; they might get you the interview. But it's the confidence you exude and more importantly, the confidence you inspire that seals the deal.

Transcripts vs. Accomplishments

Finally, we were taught to take lots and lots of high-end courses... and get those high grades to pad that GPA. You're transcript was the story when placed alongside your test of knowledge and skill (ACT/SAT). Today, colleges and businesses alike are less and less interested in these forms of evidence of your worth. Wake Forest famously has made the SAT/ACT optional for their admissions. Employers and colleges alike are looking at what you've done with your life, not just what grades you earned. Transcripts tell a story of how well you can navigate a system; accomplishments tell a story of what you can do. Which is more important?

Do these things matter? Do we need to change how we approach our formative schooling?

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Skills for the 21st Century

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 08:00:00 GMT

This is not the first time I have blogged or commented upon 21st Century Skills, but since it seems to still be the 21st Century and will be for some time yet, I think the conversation is still valid. Certainly we need to stop talking about them as if they are brand new or in the future tense, but let us never cease to debate what's really important for kids to learn.

The slide show I linked here is an effort to describe what I see as an important distinction among the literacy skills of today; specifically there are skills that are timeless and there are skills that are new. To emphasize one set without the other would be an incomplete approach.

Certainly the list of skill concepts I've placed in the red box representing timeless skills are not new. I hope that everyone can agree we've always needed to teach critical thinking and problem solving, but I think we can also agree that today's society places an even higher value on the ability to think independently. But while things like teamwork (which includes collaboration) are timeless skills, they are morphed by the technology of the day.

In the second slide, I attempted to draw what that change looks like. While a paper-based collaboration depends on the leader of a group to reach out and involve the members of the team, the participatory team has a different dynamic. Instead of waiting for the leader to include the followers (and thereby control the process), in a truly collaborative work group facilitated by technology, people don't have to wait to be involved. The ownice shifts from the leaders controlling the collaborative process (and typically doing the most work) to a model of individual empowerment.

That may be the biggest fundamental shift of the 21st Century. The shift of self empowerment. If one thinks about the Arab Spring and how social media has enabled the people to rise up and demand freedom, the change becomes apparent. Certainly there's a lot to say on this topic and I don't expect to prepare a full treatise here, but the point is that our lives are fundamentally different as a result of our technologies. The timeless skills are still vitally important, but to teach them in a paper and pencil environment will be to miss the relevant application of those skills in today's society. Simply put, I do not believe you can teach 21st Century skills on paper.

It's not about technology. That's absolutely true, but that doesn't mean that technology can be neglected or ignored. The specific technical skills aren't as important as the intellectual habits of mind that we must develop in every learner. And we must develop those skills in a relevant context.

But while we can agree that it's not about technology, let's also recognize that we have always been somewhat defined by our technology. We describe our history in terms of our technology. The Stone Age wasn't a time when there seemed to be more stones lying around, but was the age of humanity when stone tools were the state of the art. We developed through the bronze age and iron age and more recently from an industrial age into today's digital age. The technologies we use affects how we work and think. Our sensibilities change and if the mission of school is to prepare kids for the world such as it is, then we must change our instruction to meet the challenge.

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Digital Divide: helping needy families get online

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Today, the Digital Divide that seperates those with online computers at home and those that don't is getting smaller. More and more opportunities exist to help needy families get online. Here are some examples:

http://www.internetessentials.com/

http://www.centurylink.com/home/internetbasics/?rid=internetbasics

In both cases, families can apply for the lower rate. It does require demonstrating financial need, but it's better than being faced with full price. I also appreciate the effort to help families acquire netbooks and even basic Internet training. And I can assure families that those netbooks offered in these ads will work quite nicely with our wifi services in LPS schools and with our Google Docs services. Thanks to Comcast and CenturyLink for providing this valuable benefit to the community!

IMPORTANT NOTE:

The school district does not provide information to these companies. Our link provided here is only for information purposes and is not an endorsement of these programs. We provide these links to our community as options to consider.

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Musing in the morning

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 08:00:00 GMT

The mind has no timetable. As inconvenient as it may be (like waking up at 4:00 AM with a blog post idea), our minds work at their own pace. I'm not the first to recognize that our schooling system places timetables on learning and that human minds don't always fit into the nice little boxes that would make it so convenient. But I am grateful for all the teachers and principals who get it; learning is the constant, not time.

Modality influences mentality. I've been saying this for the last several days and while I keep toying with different words, I keep coming back to this statement. The medium in which you do your work influences the way you think. Would there be a post office if we wrote on clay tablets? No chance. Will there be a post office for long now that we have so many ways to share digital messages? One wonders. Here's a great example: students at Arapahoe High School blogged with Daniel Pink about his book "A Whole New Mind." They skyped with him at the end of the unit. When the class moved on to another literary work, "Little Brother," they decided to email author Corey Doctorow and asked to blog and skype with him. They took the initiative because their mentality shifted from reading and writing about authors to reading and writing with authors. It's not about the technology, but you just can't teach 21st Century skills without it.

We are still data-poor. Surprising as it may be, I still consider us to be data-poor. Despite being awash in state level and district level assessment data, these are just snapshots in time. I don't see how we have dynamic, reliable and validated data sources about learning progress for most kids. I do see it in our interventions and in some of our alternative programming. As our district ramps up to tackle the new Colorado Academic Standards with revised curriculum and resources, I hope to see this ailment cured. And I hope that doing so balances the needs to protect teacher workloads, assure quality instruction and still foster innovation. Not an easy task. But we can do it.

Collaboration trumps gizmos. In considering how cloud technologies work in comparison to typical software apps, the most glaring difference is the austerity of the cloud. Compare Google Docs to Microsoft Word and the difference between a cloud-based collaboration word processor and a desktop publishing word processor becomes apparent. But my experience shows two things: collaboration is far more powerful than spinning objects on a screen; and you don't actually have to choose one for the other. While some folks may really like the engagement value of advanced features of Office products, I worry that kids can get pre-occupied with the gizmo aspects of desktop publishing and rush to the "dessert" before "finishing their peas" by putting together a really well-written document. In fact, I say, you don't need to choose. Collaborate and write a great document in Google Docs, then download it into Microsoft Word and dress it up.

Citation management is a game-changer. Tools like EasyBib can change how you write by helping you keep a list of relevant readings and then inserting references in correct format as you write. Even inside Google Docs. Spare yourself the tedium of figuring out all the punctuation of an MLA or APA reference list. Use your technology to get it right so you can spend your effort on higher order thinking. One warning; it isn't magic. You need to spend some time on your references list, just not as much. And don't redirect that research paper time you saved with EasyBib to video games. Spend the same amount of time on the paper, just give more thinking time to the content. Master this skill and college just got a whole lot easier.

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Going Google

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 08:00:00 GMT

I used to sound like an engineer, but these days I'm more like a character from Seasame Street. Advanced degrees aside, my language once had such a professional and impressive cache: "We need to install a new TCP/IP protocol that will allow multiple subnets and virutal LANs..." Now I talk about Moodle, Google and Doodle. All I need now is a catchy jingle to help you remember how they are different. Oh well.

Yes, LPS is heavily involved in Google Apps for Education. Not long after I began my tenure at LPS, I read about how Arizona State University was migrating all their email services to Google. That was prettty bleeding edge stuff back then, but I was very intrigued because LPS has all the right ingredients for such a move. We have a fiber network (thanks again to the City of Littleton's enterprise agreement with Comcast) that ties our buildings together at such remarakable speeds that computers literally cannot see a difference between a resource located at the ESC and one hosted in the same room. We also have a lot of bandwidth to the Internet. Back then, we had 100 megabits per second (ahhh, engineering talk... doesn't it feel good?) and we've upgraded that to 200 since then. Not only is that a lot of connectivity, but we have redundant connections to Comcast and TimeWarner Telecom. If one goes out, it's almost gauranteed the other will remain online. Only a natural disaster right in Littleton could bring both down... and then I'd hope school would be canceled.

We built a wifi network second to none. Even today, I doubt you'll find a more pervasive and faster wifi network anywhere in Colorado. We have 22 buildings and over 480 access points. We support both a highly secured and an open wifi service. The secured wifi is for LPS laptops. The open network is called PODNet and welcomes personal technology of all kinds (yup, bring your laptop, iPad, netbook to our schools... it's fast and easy to use). I know there is a national conversation about "BYOT" or bring your own technology to school. We've been there for four years now. Nice to see others joining the idea. Ultimately, we're going to depend on personally owned technology just as we depend on kids bringing their own binders and pencils to school. We're ready.

And most importantly, we have some of the best thought leaders on 21st Century learning among our teaching staff. No other district in the United States has three "20 To Watch" national award winners from the NSBA. At the TIE conference, we had 11 seperate presentations; we had 9 at the National ISTE conference last year when it came to Denver. Our IT deparment was just recognized for excellence by CoSN. Districts around the state have replicated our Inspired Writing initiative in which over 175 teachers have taken the deep dive into learning in the cloud. Blogs, wikis and now Google Docs are just as easy and common as paper and pencil in their classrooms. Whereas I once escorted visitors to a few "usual suspects" to see 21st Century learning in school, now I can literally pick any school in LPS and show you learning environments that boggle the mind. Any LPS school. When we remember the McREL research that shows the teacher to be the single greatest influence on student achievement any school can provide, I feel very good about the quality of teachers we have arrayed across this district.

So... Google.

Yes, Google is today's king of the cloud, in my opinion. The collaborative features built into Google Docs demonstrates this company's understanding of what collaborative work really looks like. I have observed classrooms in LPS where literally dozens of students simultaneously edited a single document sparking collaboration of a sort I've never seen... so inspiring that I wish I could go back to 5th grade. No doubt that's why LPS students created over 130,000 Google Docs last year and had an average daily login rate of 6,500 accounts. Out of a total 9,000 accounts, that's great adoption for year one. It speaks to ease of use and value. It also suggests those teachers I mentioned above know how to use these shared online workspaces (I used that term intentionally because you'll find it in the new Colorado Academic Standards... here, go look).

The company is firmly established, having survived the several tech crashes emerging as a rival to Microsoft and Apple in the tech sector. So I doubt they're going to go belly up anytime soon. And recently, they signed an agreement with the State of Colorado (among others) to assure security of the data and pledge to keep it state-side. In reading the agreement shared with me from the State CIO, it is clear that we can expect the same degree of security and obligation as we do other cloud-hosted services we use. The encryption of the services enables us to keep secure data with Google and the mirroring Google has across the US gives me more confidence for data intergrity than anything we could deploy... even if we did have the funding... which is desperately scarce.

So, we have run the tests, done our dilligence, tried other systems and are now headed down the same path Arizona State University blazed years ago. Our students have helped us master the Google Docs world and this fall we will prepare our staff email system to become a Google service. Between now and the winter break, we will provide training and support to all LPS employees to prepare for the big switch when all @lps.k12.co.us email will stop flowing to a server in our building and start flowing to Google. Here are some key points:

@lps.k12.co.us will remain the same. Staff will not need to notify anyone about the change and your email address will remain exactly the way it is today. Some folks have asked if we could come up with a shorter, easier address. While we certainly could, it is a painful thing to change because you'd have to notify everyone of your new email and we'd have to run dual systems for a while to make sure you don't miss important messages. Further, when you sign up for services online (see Prezi.com), you can get special benefits if you can show yourself to be an educator. With our email addresses, that's a slam-dunk.
Outlook will remain as a good choice for your email. You can use Outlook when we make this change. It will read email, contacts, calendars (both shared and personal) from Google the way it reads that information from the servers in LPS. In some ways, it will do even better. You will need to run a program once in January before it will work, but it's very easy... we'll cover it in the training.
Smartphones will work. Any smartphone that can link to our servers today will be able to get the data from Google. You'll have to reconnect once, but it'll actually be easier than when you connected to the LPS servers. And, other SmartPhones that don't work or don't work well with our current systems... will work with Google. So you'll have more choices with smartphone shopping. But you don't need to replace your smartphone if you already have one.
Chrome is recommended but not required. Google makes their own web browser and naturally it works really well with Google services. You'll like it but if you don't want to stop using your favorite web browser, that's ok. They'll work just fine. In fact, you can have several web browsers on your PC, and set the home pages for services for which they work best. You don't have to change. Your computer coach has access to an enterprise version of Chrome that they will want to run on any shared computer, but you don't have to wait... you can download it yourself. The version you download on your own will work fine.
Your inbox will grow from 1gigabyte to 25. Two years ago, we boosted your inbox from 250 megabytes to 1 gigabyte. This meant that 80% of our staff no longer needed to worry about offloading email into a personal folder to keep the inbox from filling up. With a move to Google, we should have 25 gigabytes for every employee. Now, nobody will need to worry about offloading your email to keep your inbox from getting full. Certainly, you can file your email into folders in Google, but that's just for your convenience. *OK, there will be those super-technical folks that will say our Google storage is just 7 gigs right now... Google announced the 25 gig level and we expect to have our domain upgraded before the switch. But even if so... 700% increase is pretty good, right?
The district will save money. Google gives this to school districts free of charge and without advertisements. Other corporate citizens could learn a thing or two (you know who you are). This service will save the district the costs of replacing server hardware and buying server software licenses.
Introducing Google Docs for all staff. You just don't know the power of collaboration until you've worked in this space. Say goodbye to versioning problems, lost files, limited access and problems working with people who don't have the same software you do. Take it from our students: collaboration is the bomb.

What does this mean to the average staff member in LPS? It means you should check with your computer coach to get logged in to Google's web site this semester. Your email will work the same way you are used to through the semester. Come January, you'll be ready and you'll have lots of new powerful tools. You can choose to keep using Outlook or you can adopt new and exciting ways to manage your data. I know that changes to email systems can be unnerving, but by the time we're done, I think almost everyone will agree that our winter break "go-live" with Google email will be another Y2K moment.... a highly anticipated non-event.

Welcome to the cloud.

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The case re-made for a strong library

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Just when you may have started to think that the Internet would make something like a library obsolete, the giants of the Internet (Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo) have made changes that should cause every citizen to clamor for a strong library service.

I am referring to a recent article in eSchool News which points out that the major search providers have implemented new filters on search results based on social media activities. Editor Dennis Pierce suggests that our online habits in social networks are being used to filter the massive amount of information we access every day. So if you happen to access liberal social networks, your search results will be from more liberal sources; if you’re a conservative, the conservative sources will gain prominence in your search result.

If this doesn’t frighten you, it should. Especially when you consider this recent BBC article in which industry experts are warning about the over-dependence on algorithms. Examples include how faulty automatically triggering algorithms bid an Amazon book to over a million dollars and the algorithm caused flash crash in May of 2010. In the flash crash, a rogue algorithm triggered massive selling on the stock market that caused an unprecedented crash in just 5 minutes. The SEC is still investigating and nobody really knows how it happened. The article suggests we have become too reliant on the black box of algorithms and are allowing programming to rule the world.

Since freedom and democracy are based on an informed citizenry, it should worry you that main sources of information for the public today are A) being tuned based on your online habits and B) are subject to algorithms that are becoming less and less understood. The result could become ever increasingly inaccurate echo chambers of thought bubbling around each American who become information rich but understanding poor.

I can’t think of a more cogent argument for information literacy and critical thinking. Kids need to be informed that search engine results are not necessarily objective. They need to know how to inquire among different information sources and they need to understand that the free services are being paid for by somebody. Know their motivation and you have a chance to avoid being duped. The information landscape is very much “buyer beware.”

What is needed is a team of professionals who have an expertise in information and knowledge access. We need trained people who can give advice on how to identify bias in sources and how to find other sources. We need students to learn from these professionals how to access a variety of different information sources so our citizens know how to truly find and weigh multiple perspectives. Does anyone have an idea what kind of professional could fill this role? I do.

We call them “Librarians.” Maybe you’ve heard of them. I know, the title conjures up dusty books and quiet reading spaces, but that’s the old school and a dying creed. The 21st Century Librarians are masters of information literacy and motivators of critical thought. They are in their element when they challenge what you think you know and clue you into a different source of information you’ve never heard of. They are fun and controversial at times. They are supportive and always on the side of expanding human knowledge. They don’t just have a basic working understanding of the search tools and technologies of the day, but they have a deep understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of a wide array of information sources. Whereas the Librarian you used to know might have found your information for you, today’s Librarian helps you critically evaluate the information you find.

No, it’s no longer about cataloging and circulation desks. Today’s information landscape demands professionals who can help our students and our public break out of the echo chambers of filtered information. If this job description excites you, please apply within.

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Warschauer Report

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Noted professor and author on the use of technology in schools, Dr. Mark Warschauer and a team from the University of California at Irvine investigated the use of netbooks in Littleton Public Schools. The final report is available HERE.

The researchers used a variety of approaches to review the impact of the Inspired Writing project including site visits, interviews, analyses of student comments and a quantitative analysis of CSAP achievement data. The report states:

"The project investigated (1) the impact of the program
on teaching and learning processes, (2) the impact of the program on learning outcomes in writing, (3) student perceptions of the laptop program, and (4) the perceived match of netbook and open source software with the needs of teachers and students and their suitability in
educational improvement efforts."

The conclusion, after determining that achievement gains were made in the Inspired Writing grade levels, stated:

"Our observations and interviews, survey results, analysis of blog postings, and analysis of test score data all point to the same conclusion: the Inspired Writing has had a very positive effect on
teaching and learning process and outcomes in LPS. It appears that the benefit has come not so much from the hardware and software alone, nor from the curriculum alone, but rather from the integration of the technology, curriculum, and professional development in a very well-designed educational program."

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TIE 2011: For your consideration

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 08:00:00 GMT

During the Leadership Day (6/23/11) at the 2011 Technology in Education conference, we will explore the various aspects of the Inspired Writing initiative in Littleton Public Schools as a vehicle for a bigger discussion. In today's high tech environment, leaders are innundated with marketing and examples of the application of technology into the learning environment. Here's a blunt reality:

There are literally thousands of viable technologies for the classroom, the school, the district and the regional cooperative.

In such a dense environment, and with access to funding receding during an economic down-turn, tax-funded entities like schools suddenly become very desirable customers that might get overlooked during economic boom times. One need only scan the intensity of the marketing at any major conference (including our own beloved TIE Conference) to see just how competitive the educational technology environment really is!

How does a leader navigate these waters? What can a leader use to help cull through the array of viable, intriguing tools to make choices that will truly make a difference for kids?

If I had a simple answer, I'd be filthy rich. Instead, I think the successful approach is to be thoughtful about what you want to accomplish; have some clear ideas about learning goals before you start trying out tools; be prepared that no matter what direction you take... somebody will find something they think is more exciting... especially after you're down the road of an implementation.

Our session on Thursday will be about this great challenge. I'll share data from our successes with raising writing achievement using things like netbooks and Google Docs. We'll discuss our specific choices and guiding philosophies using the above questions as context. And when you leave, I hope you'll have developed some values of your own that you can use to make effective decisions.

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About Google Mail and decisions we've made

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 08:00:00 GMT

I received an email from an out of state colleague and started a long email... then I decided it was a better blog post. So here it is:

I am Joseph ,Tech teacher in MT. I was wondering if you could help me with some questions concerning Google chat and email.

I do realize that your district is not using chat at this time where we are for a limited time. At the end of this school year, the leadership team’s plan is to close email to a domain use only and no chat. I, am in favor of a more open policy, allowing students to continue to learn the responsibility necessary to become accomplished digital learners.

With this in mind, the obstacles that confront me are the ‘What about?“, “What if?”, “What happens when?”. I do not have answers to these questions and I am now seeking more answers form you.

Does your district have issues with misuse and how are they handled?

What is considered misuse?

How do you deal with students who use their email account for personal or non educational use?

How is the discussion regarding chat?

Hi Joseph

I am for an open, but prudent approach. I was quoted in the June/July edition of the Learning and Leading with Technology magazine by ISTE by opposing the idea of students using their real names in cyberspace. For me, the best approach is the prepare kids for the world such as it is, not how we might wish it or remember it to be.

Global communications is real and incredibly important for success in the 21^st Century. It takes more than just simple technical skills to leverage these systems. It takes finesse and sensibilities that cannot be taught in a matter of days. I can teach people the technical skills of today in an afternoon… but the sensibilities needed, take an extensive array of experiences.

Here’s my example of what I mean by sensibility vs skills. I have an advanced education and I am considered highly proficient with technology. Office productivity tools are something I have used since middle school with great success. However, if I have a budget problem on my mind, my first instinct is to grab a calculator and a paper pad. Then, after wrestling with a few mistakes in my keying in numbers, I smack my forehead telling myself I should be doing this in a spreadsheet. I have excellent spreadsheet skills, but my first instinct was the calculator. Then I labor away at a nice complex spreadsheet and then need to get some input. I email it to three colleagues who each edit and email back… now I’m trying to merge three different versions and never fail to miss something. That’s when I smack my forehead telling myself I should be doing this in a Google spreadsheet! I have excellent skills with Google Docs, but my instinct… once I decided I needed to use a computer… was to reach for my software instead of the cloud! We need kids to use these tools everyday and all day so they develop the sensibilities to draw upon the right tool at just the right time.

The reality is if you limit email to in-domain only, the students will barely use it. They can easily setup Gmail accounts without restrictions and then their communications are untraceable by the District. By having open email, we give our students the opportunity and coaching to interact with the world. We have access to their messaging and can enforce filtering rules and policies. We place a copy of the student’s login credentials in the Infinite Campus system that they access for grades which means their teachers and their parents can get those credentials and login to see everything the student can see. This brings the parents and the teachers right into the supervision circle.

If a student uses an email account for personal purposes… we don’t care. Just so long as they aren’t violating the Code of Conduct by harassing someone or violating some laws. When that happens, we handle it through normal discipline channels. We do not scan for issues but can mine the email if an event brings the school administration into the picture. I remind people that the Google Mail is free, so the kids aren’t wasting tax-payer dollars. What would waste tax-payer dollars is excessive attempts at control that will accomplish nothing but push kids further away from school resources where caring adults are involved and ready to help when kids make mistakes.

So here are some What ifs

What if a kid sends a pornographic picture?

Kids do that through private, free email services now. What do we do about that? That’s what we’ll do if they use a District system… the only difference is we are much more likely to know about it. Being more likely to know means we’re more likely to put a stop to more of it which is good.

What if a kid threatens another kid?

Kids do that with private email… see above. Kids also do that in the bathroom and at the water fountain. At least in Google Mail, we have a record and can take stronger action as opposed to “he said, she said”

How are we supposed to monitor all the email?

Don’t. It is an unreasonable assumption that we would have the staffing to dedicate to such a task. We don’t monitor the Internet, for example. Instead, we react when we are alerted by a teacher or another student. That’s a better monitoring system anyway because while we can implement a filter that searches for certain obvious key words, cyber-bullying can be accomplished with context rather than just certain objectionable words. Technology doesn’t replace people.

How can administrators possibly stay on top of all this?

It's impossible to know everything. The reality is we need to be involved in the media that kids use; that their colleges will leverage; that their jobs will require; that they will choose for their adult lives. Think of the classic book Lord of the Flies. If we just dump kids out on an island by themselves, don’t be surprised at the culture they build up. Better to have adults out there with them so adult wisdom can influence that culture building.

What if a predator emails a kid?

Does telling kids “Never talk to strangers” immunize them against anything bad? No, but we teach it as part of a sensibility. That sensibility of being careful who you trust needs to be translated to cyber-space and many of the same rules apply. But just telling kids about cyber-safety without getting out into cyber-space will never produce the sensibilities necessary to succeed in today’s world

Can you tell I’m prepping for a seminar [;-)

I hope this helps

-Dan

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