|
Showing posts with label edtech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label edtech. Show all posts
Monday, February 23, 2015
Innovation is Not About the Technology
Thursday, January 1, 2015
My New Year's Wish List for Ed Tech
It's been another fast-paced year in educational technology, with nothing more certain than change. 
|
 |
| Ed Tech - change is for certain |
Friday, November 14, 2014
Dell World 2014 Report
 |
| Michael Dell and company judging ed tech startups at the Pitch Slam at Dell World 2014 |
Last week
I had the opportunity to attend Dell World
2014, an event that showcased Dell’s commitment to its education customers
and continued
support of education innovation. This was especially evident in Dell’s
sponsorship of the “Pitch Slam,” where three chosen edtech startups pitched
products to the judges, headed by Michael Dell. The three products were
very different, but all had lots of potential to be used across K-12:
·
BeeLine
Reader helps readers use color grading of words to make it easy to follow
sentences.
·
EduCanon
helps teachers create videos to flip their classrooms. The product includes an
embedded check for understanding, which students must complete before
continuing on with the video, giving teachers a great formative assessment
dashboard.
·
PenPal
Schools, which won the Dell Pitch Slam, enables students from
different parts of the world to write and learn together. The students learn
new languages and cultures in a safe and secure online system, which includes
pre-made assignments that make it easy for teachers to get their classes
writing to peers across the world.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Buying buses without drivers - and computers without support
Our local group of K-12 technology leaders shared some interesting numbers this past week about how many devices each one of their technicians usually supports. The numbers were very telling, especially when looked at in the light of the increasing spend on educational technology, which topped out at over $13 billion this past year, up over 11% from the past year. Several districts shared that their technicians were now supporting between 1,100 and 1,300 devices each. By any measure, this is a daunting workload for one person. One district shared that its workload for each technician was more than 1,900 devices. This monumental workload is only being increased as schools increasingly turn to technology for almost all back office functions and instructional use.
Can we really expect that teachers and students are getting the attention they need and work-order turnaround times they deserve, when they rely so heavily on technology? In what other industry should a professional have to wait a week to have his or her technology operational again? Yet in K-12 this happens all the time, as schools buy more software and hardware, yet fail to fund the personnel needed to ensure high availability and quick repair times.
Many technology departments have even faced personnel cuts, as budgets have been tightened. Is this really setting K-12 up for success in implementing technology, or is this a recipe for disaster? What district would add 100 buses to its fleet without more mechanics and bus drivers? Of course this would not be done, as it is plainly ridiculous. Nonetheless, districts do this with technology every day, without assessing the real impact on teachers and students of having poorly supported technology.
This blog entry is cross posted with the great folks at SchoolCIO
Sunday, January 12, 2014
From zero to working server in ten minutes – Trying out managed hosting
In an earlier blog I mentioned my requirements for a great
help desk for our organization. After a
lengthy search, trial, and selection process, a winner was picked. As it turned out, while the help desk used
standard software that we support, it used a database version that we did not
yet have running in our organization. We
were not able to upgrade our current databases, because other vendors’ systems
required older database versions.
We talked about options such as starting another database
server, and our help desk vendor mentioned that they had a lot of customers
starting to run their software in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. Like many districts, while we have had many cloud
based software applications, we had never tried managed hosting, which has
gained a huge amount of traction in recent years, with a huge number of players
, now increasingly dominated by heavyweights such as Rackspace, Amazon,
Microsoft, Google, Verizon, and IBM.
Managed hosting is akin to renting a server, rather than
buying it. The customer gets to choose
the operating system and the software stack that goes on top. The customer typically will pay based on the
software chosen, the size of the hardware needed and more. Other charges may include additional charges
for bandwidth, storage, monitoring, support, and security services. Much like a rental of anything else, the
customer has control over how long they want it, from minutes to years. It is truly a pay as you consume
commodity. The servers are housed in the
managed hosting provider’s data center, so the customer never has to worry
about the plethora of mundane non-mission critical tasks that have been
traditionally associated with the acquisition, installation, maintenance, and decommissioning
of servers.
The traditional procurement and setup of servers in schools
districts and other institutions can traditionally takes weeks, if not
months. All of the following are tasks that
can be eliminated with managed hosting, so time to server spin up can be
slashed:
1.
Quoting of hardware.
2.
High up front capital costs.
3.
Data center space.
4.
Air-conditioning.
5.
Power.
6.
UPS and generators.
7.
Racks.
8.
Purchase orders.
9.
Receiving and inventory of equipment.
10.
Physical setup of equipment.
11.
Operating system and software installation.
12.
Switch ports.
13.
SAN space.
I am sure there are many things I left of the list, but the
point is we saved a large amount of upfront costs and saved time for our already
overburdened staff.
In our case our help desk vendor had an image for us to spin
up our server off of in the AWS cloud. We literally went from no server to
running application server in about ten minutes. It was incredible and makes me inclined to
think that we will be running many more servers this way in the coming
years. The huge capital costs and
efforts required to maintain data centers may not be sustainable when our money
could be better spent on projects that benefit student learning. While our need for servers is not likely to
lessen, the cheaper and faster bandwidth becomes, the motivation for districts
to move to managed hosting will increase.
This blog entry is cross posted with the great folks at SchoolCIO
This blog entry is cross posted with the great folks at SchoolCIO
Monday, November 11, 2013
An inspiring story that says a lot about education
 |
| November 2013 Issue of Wired magazine |
If you have not picked up the November 2013 issue of Wired magazine and read the cover story,
“The Next Steve
Jobs”, then you missed out on a truly inspiring story of a teacher,
struggling to get by with little to no resources in the drug war ravaged
Mexican border region. While the star of
the article is an impoverished young girl, 12-year-old Paloma Noyola Bueno, who
responds to her teacher’s radical change in teaching methodology and becomes
one of the best students in all of Mexico, the real story is about the teacher,
Sergio Juárez Correa.
Correa struggled to reach his students and meet state testing
standards (sound familiar?) He knew that
with virtually infinite access to information online (which his students did
not have access to), the days of him being the bearer of knowledge for his
students were numbered, and it was not producing results for his students. So as Correa struggled to learn about how
teachers are changing their instruction and having tremendous success, he
decided to make a change in his classroom. So he told his students that they do
have it extremely difficult and have none of the modern advantages, such as
laptops and high speed internet, which students across the river in
Brownsville, Texas have. But he knew his
students had potential to learn and to love doing it, which often seems to be
lost on students and teachers neck deep in state and national mandates.
The methodology employed by Correa was at least partially
modeled on the pioneering and increasingly cited work of TED darling Sugata Mitra. But rather than leaving students unattended,
Correa changed his role and now took a back seat in the classroom, as his
students became investigators, cooperatively working on problems and debating
answers in order to find solutions. He
largely did this without the use of technology, and had amazing results.
Would technology have hurt or enhanced what was done is his
classroom? I think it certainly could
have assisted in enhancing a great teaching and learning environment, but I
would also argue that if Correa had unleashed his students to lookup facts
using Google, his results would not have been the same. The power was in asking the students to think
about problems and work cooperatively on solving them.
Teaching and leadership make a huge difference in student
learning – clearly shown in this story, but they also too often stifle it: sadly,
the article the quotes the chief of the Regional Center of Educational
Development in Matamoros as saying “The teaching method makes little
difference.”
This blog entry is cross posted with the great folks at SchoolCIO
Saturday, July 20, 2013
E-Rate: The Sequel?
E-Rate: The Sequel?
While many educators have been enjoying the relative
relaxation of summer vacation, there has been a flurry of activity in DC around
the federal program known as E-Rate.
E-Rate has served as a catalyst
for school technology growth to power research, communication and
online learning, since its inception in 1997. E-Rate has provided schools
with funding for powerful networks, which have become pervasive, and crucial to
the functioning of the education process. School networks are now a
crucial utility to schools, much like electricity. But networks need
to change; much like the electrical wiring at schools has needed to be
increased from the days where all that was plugged in was a filmstrip
projector. The uses of networks in education are expanding daily and the
numbers of devices and users on them is climbing rapidly, with the advent of 1
to 1 and BYOD programs, bolstered by a host of online learning initiatives.
Several groups,
such as CoSN (the Consortium for School
Networking), have been advocating on schools’ and educators’ behalf and have
been pushing the FCC to revisit E-Rate funding, which has been largely static,
despite a massive increase in needs.
Just over a month ago, there appeared to be progress, with President
Obama’s announcement of the ConnectED
initiative. And just this past week, the
FCC voted to overhaul the E-Rate program.
A true
technology leader, Sheryl Abshire, Chief Technology Officer at Calcasieu Parish
Public Schools, testified before the FCC saying, “E-Rate needs to move beyond
assessing whether a classroom or library has an Internet connection to
determining whether that connection’s speed meets the needs of users who seek
to access and use the most up-to-date digital content, courses, resources,
services and tools.” We could not have
asked for a better advocate on our behalf and it appears the FCC listened.
So now the rest of us need to help out; The next step for all of
us is to provide comments on the new proposals as the FCC provides details on
the proposed programs, so be sure to keep an eye on the FCC’s site.
Monday, January 28, 2013
We are social beings, so let's start learning that way!
This afternoon after checking into an early showing of Skyfall at the local theater on Facebook, I wanted to know how my drive up to Austin would be, so I opened my favorite driving app, Waze. Most readers are undoubtedly familiar with using Google Maps or other tools for navigation. Waze takes driving social, and leverages the power of connected drivers to predict traffic and travel times, but what is really powerful are the reports that appear on your map from others; there is an accident ahead, an object in the road, a traffic jam, or a hidden police car. Waze let me know that there was no major traffic, but to be careful about all of the police en route to Austin.
This is a fantastic use of social media. The reports of others are making my drives more pleasant, safe, and more on time. I never would have thought social media would be used to make driving better - but it has. Social media (which by most definitions involves a broad range of web sites, technologies, and apps) is a powerful set of communications technologies. Like any communications technology, it can be incredibly powerful, and of course like all others, it can be used for destructive purposes.
The ways which social media had helped are too numerous for a short blog post, but needless to say my travel, eating, professional networking, and learning will never be the same.
To some extent education seems very late to the social media game. Many schools are still just discussing if it should be used and if any social media tools are instructionally relevant. I am not advocating that all schools open up and start using every social media tool. There are many culture, policy, and instructional decisions that must be made at the local level before implementing many social media tools. But I am advocating that we should be leveraging some power of social networks, even if they are just walled garden social networks that we can use with our students to leverage peer learning. If I took one great piece of knowledge away from a great lecture last week by Dr. Abigail Baird, a Psychologist at Vassar College, it is that teens are social beings and that their peers are hugely important to them.
Dr. Baird did not advocate for using social learning with teens, but it really seems to be a great fit with what she talked about. She also pointed out that teens are most definitely not adults, which I think may be where much of our caution with social media in learning starts.
But ultimately social media has transformed many things we do and how we interact with our world and environment, but it has yet to make major inroads into most classrooms, when maybe it should, since social media technologies have improved our lives in many ways. Now it's back to improving my travel with social media; I am going to see what people on Yelp and Urbanspoon have to say about Austin's eateries.
This is a fantastic use of social media. The reports of others are making my drives more pleasant, safe, and more on time. I never would have thought social media would be used to make driving better - but it has. Social media (which by most definitions involves a broad range of web sites, technologies, and apps) is a powerful set of communications technologies. Like any communications technology, it can be incredibly powerful, and of course like all others, it can be used for destructive purposes. The ways which social media had helped are too numerous for a short blog post, but needless to say my travel, eating, professional networking, and learning will never be the same.
To some extent education seems very late to the social media game. Many schools are still just discussing if it should be used and if any social media tools are instructionally relevant. I am not advocating that all schools open up and start using every social media tool. There are many culture, policy, and instructional decisions that must be made at the local level before implementing many social media tools. But I am advocating that we should be leveraging some power of social networks, even if they are just walled garden social networks that we can use with our students to leverage peer learning. If I took one great piece of knowledge away from a great lecture last week by Dr. Abigail Baird, a Psychologist at Vassar College, it is that teens are social beings and that their peers are hugely important to them.
Dr. Baird did not advocate for using social learning with teens, but it really seems to be a great fit with what she talked about. She also pointed out that teens are most definitely not adults, which I think may be where much of our caution with social media in learning starts.
But ultimately social media has transformed many things we do and how we interact with our world and environment, but it has yet to make major inroads into most classrooms, when maybe it should, since social media technologies have improved our lives in many ways. Now it's back to improving my travel with social media; I am going to see what people on Yelp and Urbanspoon have to say about Austin's eateries.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Judson ISD Connect Mobile App Takes the Bronze Lovie Award
Yesterday we received notification that the Judson ISD Connect! mobile school app for Android and iOS received a Bronze award in the European Lovie Awards. I am so very proud of my co-workers who worked very hard to make this app what it is. I am also most appreciative of Conduit Mobile and their fantastic team who worked with us to make the app better and resolve issues to make the app what it is today. More info on the app is available at the app page at http://www.judsonisd.org/district/technology/jisd_mobile.cfm or read about our development experience here in the CTO Technotes blog via Tech & Learning Magazine.
Monday, March 26, 2012
iPad Productivity Apps (for Principals & Administrators)
I am going to be training our principals (and other administrators) on productivity apps for better utilizing their iPads. I have talked with several people, who have given some great ideas and many people across the state have contributed ideas through the TECSIG email list. So far, here is the list of iPad apps for productivity (this list would probably work for more than just educators):
iPad Apps for (Principal
and Administrator) Productivity
Stock iPad Apps
|
||
Safari
|
Web Browser
|
Included with iPad
|
Contacts
|
Syncs with Exchange (Outlook)
|
Included with iPad
|
Email
|
Syncs with Exchange (Outlook)
|
Included with iPad
|
Calendar
|
Syncs with Exchange (Outlook)
|
Included with iPad
|
Camera
|
Takes pictures
|
Included with iPad
|
Photos
|
Email, tweet, your photos..
|
Included with iPad
|
FaceTime
|
Real time video conference with other iOS users
|
Included with iPad
|
Notetaking Apps
|
||
Evernote
|
The e-filing cabinet of choice – use as your memory. Stores emails, text notes & audio. Syncs across many devices and web. Great search!
|
Free
|
Notability
|
Any
easy to use simple text, written, audio and photo note app – email or PDF notes
|
$9.99
|
GoodReader
|
Great PDF annotation and reader software
|
$4.99
|
PDF Expert
|
Simple
PDF annotation with WiFi transfer and Box support
|
$9.99
|
Audio
Memos Free
|
Voice
recorder, email up to 3mb files, WiFi download
|
Free
|
Dragon Dictation
|
Voice to text transcriptions
|
Free
|
Office Apps
|
||
Pages, Numbers, and Keynote
|
Apple’s GREAT office apps for Word Processing,
spreadsheet, and presentations. These are the apps to use if using iPad for content creation.
|
$9.99 each
|
QuickOffice Pro
|
All in one office suite – edits Microsoft Office docs and syncs with
Box.net and WiFi file transfer. This more affordable suite is geared towards just editing.
|
$14.99
|
CloudOn
|
Cloud-Based MS Office with Box
|
Free
|
Digits Calculator
|
Great desktop calc with editable, comment-able eTape that can be emailed
|
$1.99
|
Dictionary.com
|
Great dictionary and thesaurus
|
Free
|
Book Apps
|
||
iBooks, Nook & Kindle
|
eBooks from the big three.
|
Free
|
News Apps
|
||
Pulse
|
Incredible customizable news aggregator
|
Free
|
FlipBoard
|
Another great customizable new aggregator
|
Free
|
Texas Tribune
|
Stay on top of Texas news and the legislature
|
Free
|
Other Useful Apps
|
||
Box
|
App to synchronize files to the cloud and web browser..use to move files between PC and iPad
|
Free
|
Citrix
|
Get a JISD Windows desktop and use MS Office, access your H and T drives, etc
|
Free
|
Twitter
|
Great social networking tool to expand your PLN
|
Free
|
iThoughtsHD
|
Easy mind mapping with Image & PDF export and
Box synchronization
|
$9.99
|
Skitch
|
Simple annotation app – take a photo and mark up ideas and notes
(syncs to Evernote)
|
Free
|
Explain Everything
|
Annotate and narrate on screen then export video –
great way to narrate presentations then share
|
$2.99
|
Friday, February 17, 2012
Judson ISD Classroom Excels with iPads and iPods
 |
| Ms. Kellogg's Crestview Elementary Students working |
Yesterday, I had a wonderful time visiting with Judson ISD's elementary iPod and iPad pilot at Crestview Elementary School. One might think that managing the mix of iPods and iPads (plus computers) in a classroom might be overwhelming and end up being counterproductive. But from what I observed in the classroom, students were engaged and focused on their individual learning, as the teacher monitored and coached the students. Their teacher, Ms. Kellogg, writes:
The integration of iPads and iPod Touches into my first grade classroom has given me the opportunity to provide individualized instruction for the students that is both multi-leveled and multi-sensory. I utilize various iPod and iPad apps to differentiate for each student’s unique learning needs. I have been able to more tightly align my instruction with innovative, meaningful, and engaging lessons and activities. My students get continual feedback on their progress as they work on the iPads and iPods. I am able to retrieve and analyze real-time data on my students, then adjust their level of instruction as needed. One of the biggest rewards that has resulted from this pilot program is that all of my students are able to experience success, no matter their strengths or weaknesses.
This classroom works so well because of a teacher who was willing to fundamentally change how her classroom works and to investigate, learn, and experiment on a daily basis to keep improving the implementation and the students' learning. She admits to spending many evenings researching and preparing for the next day. To make this work on a larger scale, many teachers would need to have sustained and ongoing professional development and support to succeed. I look forward to seeing the progress this class makes this year and to see if the success can be broadened beyond this one classroom.
Some photos from my visit are available in my photo gallery.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)