Category Archives: Bear NewZ

Its official, after the board meeting last night we were approved to pilot 1:1 iPads in our classrooms next year.  We have selected grade 7 (will go home with students) as well as several elementary classrooms (will stay in classroom on carts).

We are going to do some major infrastructure upgrades this summer to support our district moving in this direction.  We are upgrading our Internet bandwidth from 40mb to 100mb (with thoughts of doubling every year).  We will be doubling our access points district wide.  We also will be upgrading our connections between buildings from 1 GB to 10 GB.  We most likely will also install a new lion server to support and manage these devices as well as the apple/iPhone configurator.  I won’t lie – the management of the devices is so new and different it can be a little overwhelming… but I refuse to be the road block in moving forward in this project!

Training for our teachers in this project begins this Thursday!  One thing about the 7th grade team, is that they have all been “online certified” and have already digitized their curriculum – mostly via Moodle and Google Apps.  Last night our teachers demonstrated some great apps as well as the evolution of textbooks over the the apple TV.  Every classroom will have this device (Apple TV)  installed and will work nicely with their current multimedia systems.  I will be honest, if this existed several years ago – I am not certain we would have invested in the interactive white boards like we have.

While we have been planning planning and planning for this project (for months now) I thankful for districts,  like Minnetonka, that have put ALL their information out on the web.  This has really been helpful when developing our own plans including expectations and policy adjustments.  No one ever wants to reinvent the wheel do they?

I thought I would share the goals and measures of this project.  I am proud to say this has been a collaborative effort and our teachers have really stepped up to the plate in helping us with the planning.  It is their leadership that will drive the current and future success of this program!

Goals of this project

1. Prepare thoughtful, collaborative and creative students that can problem solve and think critically about global issues
2. Utilize innovative strategies for the delivery of rigorous and relevant curricula in an effort to increase higher order thinking skills
3. Increase student achievement and engagement
4. Develop customized, individualized content to meet each student’s unique learning needs
5. Improve the efficiency and efficacy of classroom instruction

Measures

Today I was fortunate to have my very first Google+ Hangout experience with brilliant,  passionate and inspirational tech integrationalists from Stillwater  and Edina Public Schools.

It was fun to “hang out” with Kristin Daniels (@kadaniels), Wayne Feller (@fellbop), Heather Wells (@technovinci), and  Michael Walker (@micwalker) and discuss our districts implementation of flipped classrooms.

First impressions of G+ Hangout – is it is fun, easy to use.   The quality was fairly good – even though there were a couple of hiccups where the video would freeze or we would temporarily lose audio.  For the most part – there is a tremendous amount of potential with hangout and I honestly need to give this technology further consideration.  I wonder where this leaves skype?

It was somewhat ironic our paths crossed. Just this week in the Pioneer Press – Stillwater and Byron were both mentioned as using the Flipped or Reverse classroom techniques in their classrooms.  While there has been quite a bit of buzz about this approach and the benefits for student learning, it was a tweet by Kristin Daniels that really sparked my interest, “…we are starting “flipped pd” where we work closely with teachers on personalized projects..” Flipped PD – makes so much sense to me – why on earth did I not think of it?

If you think of a traditional f2f professional development – About a third of your participants are high flyers – they are either 3 steps ahead of you OR are bored to death, waiting for the other participants to catch up.  You have the middle third, who are following along, engaged, and hopefully learning.  Then you have the bottom third, that are lost or confused and taking more of your time as a facilitator to catch them up – then you have to work with the rest of the class.  Sound familiar?

A couple of things that Stillwater is doing with Flipped PD really resonated with me! First of all, when teachers select their PD offerings, they are shown finished best practice samples of projects that have been developed by other teachers.  Not only does this engage potential participants, but it also is a great way to share (reward?) the work of that others have accomplished for the district.  Included in the offering is a type of recipe card, or plan of what educators need in order to accomplish the project.

I will admit, I really like the new apps we have available in Google Apps for education.  I transitioned our staff early this summer and was excited to present our staff Picasa Web Albums today at our Summer Academy!  I was thankful I did it early, instead of waiting for the automatic transition (which will happen whether your domain is ready or not… in a couple of weeks)

What I did not expect was the hand full of users with problems today.  These users  previously logged in with their SCHOOL email address – before our transition – to create an account on Google’s public side of apps (like Blogger, Youtube, Picasa, ect) .  I assumed that the email that Google automatically generated and sent to users with conflicting accounts would have been addressed. (Google does NOT give you the accounts that have conflicts – that would have been REALLY nice to have upon transitioning)  I assumed that if you were still able to actively use your school Gmail accounts, even logging on the public gmail.com, that you would be good to go!  Well, you know were assumptions got me today!

These users could not fully login to our Gapps Picasa app – and would continuously revert to a temporary account.  After about my 3rd problem account…and many clicking scenarios…I finally got the process down.  I really wish I would have made screenshots but, in a scramble, screenshots was the last thing on my mind.

I did want to share the gist of what you have to do to quickly transition the accounts.

You essentially have 3 options:

1. Transfer your data to your current school Google Apps account.  This is the EASIEST of the 3 options.  It essentially is 3 clicks and you are off and running.

2. Transfer your data to a current gmail.com account.  This also wasnt too difficlut, but if you want to separate your personal info from your school info – you may wind up transitioning the information later anyways.

3. Create a new public Gmail.com account.  This was painful  (well painful because I was in a time crunch) because I did not realize the process you have to go through to authenticate your NEW gmail.com address.  (they have to send you a text or call you to give you your authentication code)  I really appreciate gmail’s efforts to get rid of spammers, but this unexpected change made the situation a little bit worse.

I am fortunate all of the participants in my session were patient while working out these bugs.  I also realize that if I knew then what I do now, that I would have done a better job at prepping my staff about what to do if they receive a “conflicting account” email from Google.  Was it a huge issue today???  Not at all.   But, I thought this experience was good enough to share with others – especially if you are planning any workshops utilizing the new applications.

Its been a whirlwind of a week and we have received quite a bit of press from our decision to lift the ban on personal learning devices in the classroom at our high school.  The following letter was created by Mike Duffy (BHS principal), Jen Green (BHS Math/English teachers) and myself.  It was distributed to all parents as well as posted on our district website.  I think it has some value and feel that if other districts are considering the same… maybe it will help them in their journey.  I would love to hear your feedback!

Dear Parents,
On Monday, May 16th, the school board unanimously decided to support policy changes that would allow students to use personal learning devices (PLDs) at Byron High School at the discretion of the classroom teacher.  Personal learning devices are defined as Smart Phones, Laptops, Netbooks, Tablets, MP3 Players (like iPod touches), or any other Internet enabled device.  After a five month pilot in four of our classrooms, we quickly recognized the potential for these tools to be used as learning devices.

We would like to share with you a some of the reasons, as well as expectations, for students before we start the 2011-12 school year.

1. We believe that these expanded opportunities of PLDs in the classroom will lead to increased learning, engagement, and collaboration among our students in a real world environment.
2. Using PLDs is an efficient way for students to access the Internet, as well as many other applications they already have installed and are familiar with on their devices.
3. We can not continue to ignore the power of these devices, as some of the PLDs have just as much, if not more, computing power than the ones in our computer labs.
4. PLDs are only to be used for educational purposes when directed by the classroom teacher.  Classroom teachers will determine when to use, how to use,  and appropriate access to PLDs for their individual classrooms.  Rules teachers establish will be supported by the district.
5. This innovation was researched by our high school teachers and staff.  We are not the first in the state to begin incorporating PLDs into the classroom, and many other progressive districts, like Delano and Osseo, have already done the same.
6. Having a blanketed school-wide BAN policy does not allow teachers who are ready to incorporate PLDs in their classrooms the opportunity to do so.
7. We are not requiring parents to purchase new equipment or change current cell phone/data plans. We are just seeking the opportunity to utilize what their students already own and use. The district will continue to provide guest wireless for students who have devices like Netbooks, Laptops, or iPod touches.
8. We will continue to use district-owned devices (like labs and mobile laptop carts) when the students don’t have access to PLDs or when the learning activity or lesson requires it.
9. Teachers will add safeguards in their classrooms to monitor for inappropriate use.
10. Students using PLDs must comply with the Byron School District Acceptable Use Policy (524).  This policy is available on the district website.

It is our belief that this policy change will continue to support our students’ academic success and preparation for the 21st century workforce.

Photo credit - Guilford School Watch Blog

Last year, we were given an option. Go with the traditional paper/pencil Math MCA’s (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments) or go with the computerized MCA’s from Pearson Access . (grades 3-8) Seeing the writing on the wall, and knowing that eventually all MCA’s will be electronic, we decided to opt in for the computer based testing.

My Rant:
While it was good to test our infrastructure and of our testing processes, I am amazed at how much TIME we (staff and students) have invested in this  getting this 1 computerized test to successfully work in our schools.

• We are very fortunate that we have several labs in our buildings, and  while our district computer:student ratio is better than most (3:1) , We basically will not be doing any technology/Internet-based classroom projects during the month of April and half of May due to testing. The Paper Test is generally done in 2 days and does not require any other resources than a pencil and/or paper.
• The hand rostering of students is extremely tedious. In each school database, we are given access to all the students, you then need to hand roster them to their appropriate teachers or groups.  Student missing or sick that day?  You will have to move them from 1 roster, and re-roster them into another makeup session.  While, I understand the process is similar to what you have to do “the paper way” we went from 3, 4, 5 people (in each building) being able to put the paper in the right piles to 1 person with the computer access and know how – to be able to do this.  Making what use to take several people a few hours, to one person  that can take several days.  Oh, and you HOPE there is not a tech support call anywhere in between.  I guess I find this frustrating because I am very aware of other testing vendors that allow schools to somewhat automate the process of  rostering students by using exports from their student information system (Hint – Not What Everyone Assumes)
• Yesterday when I asked one of my Proctors – “How did everything go?”  She said, “Good, we fished at 11:00”   They started at 8:15. These are 5th Graders. I guess I am very surprised that the electronic testing systems in this day and age, don’t have the sophistication to figure out where these kiddo’s academically are – without having to have have them sit 2-3hours through mind numbing assessments.  (paper or computerized)
• The time to get our results.  When is that?  Since this is computerized – why cant we get them within a day, week, or month?  However – more than likely – the computerized results will come the same day as those paper-based results.

With every rant, I have to also mention some improvements.  It is nice that there is some interaction with these tests.  The sample test had the typical multiple choice questions as well as the ability to drag lines on a graph or drop numbers in appropriate areas. I also can’t deny that it is nice that students can opt to have the tests read to them. (we have headsets and sound on all of our computers)  I am also happy with the tech support we receive when there are issues or even during the prepping.

I guess, my main complaint is the process we have to go through to provide computerized MCA’s.  Because of the exuberant amounts of time we spend prepping and testing and the fact that we do not get access to our results any faster – Is this system any better than paper?