A place for questions and answers related to the Enhanced Peer Coaching Grant project

Each year the George Lucas Foundation through its "Edutopia" magazine does a "Reader's Survey" on a variety of technology issues, products and topics.  This is probably the largest survey of teachers of its kind and they present the results in a very interesting and fun way.   This year's results are a little special for me as well.

The Reader's Survey covers many things and you can see the results yourself.  Two answers that I'm not surprised about are the "Best Education Site to Download" (Marcopolo) and "Best Education Software" (Inspiration).   This was the second year in a row for Inspiration and the Edutopia staff sent out a follow-up query about "What's so good about Inspiration".  I responded to the query and TWO of my comments are included in the article.  They are the first two bullet points under #1)

• "The ability to easily create, edit, print, and share graphical constructs of thinking processes, topics, and timelines makes Inspiration an essential tool for all teachers."
• "Maps are extremely helpful with complicated topics and new subjects. Students can better remember the maps than their notes."

I'm not mentioned in the article of course but I do have the copy of the mail I sent them and these are my comments word for word.

I also enjoyed their comments about Marcopolo:

Marcopolo-education.org

Like the Venetian explorer for whom it's named, the Web site at www.marcopolo-education.org travels to faraway places and finds the treasure of knowledge. For the second year in a row, it's our reader's favorite site for free material. The expansive site offers hundreds of lesson plans, as well as a deep range of professional development and training material. Recently, the Verizon Foundation, which runs the site, changed its label to the clunky-sounding Thinkfinity -- a terrible name, but it has the same great material.

I'm not a fan of the new name either.... rhymes with stupidity ...    They also seem to want to put the Verizon name on everything.   But, if they keep funding it and making it better I guess I can get used to it.   They have just added the Smithsonian Museum of American History as a partner for MarcoPolo/Thinkfinity and that's very cool.

Check out the survey.   Do you agree with the results?  What question(s) would you like to see added?

This year's Northwest Council for Computers in Education conference was held in the new convention center in Spokane.  It is a very nice facility with more than enough space for the festivities.  The overall attendance was a little low though as it often is when in Spokane.

There were two main highlights for me and both of them happened Thursday morning during the main session.   

First, the Qwest awards were announced and Lani Black, 4th Grade teacher from Naches Valley SD and nine other teachers were each awarded a $10,000 grant to support the use of technology in their classrooms.   Lani has been involved in technology for some time and is her third year of Peer Coaching.   I had the privilege to visit Lani's classroom when she did her first video-conference with a classroom in Missouri.

Second, the former Governor from Maine, Angus King, was the keynote speaker and he shared about the Maine Laptop Initiative, one of the first such projects in the country.  It was fascinating to learn about all of the steps, challenges and obstacles they went through implementing this very successful program.  The Maine program continues to be funded and implements even though Mr. King is no longer in office.

The WA Ed Tech program had a booth in the exhibit hall and that kept me busy.  Otherwise I did a workshop on Moodle and a session on CSS.  It was a busy conference.

While NCCE is an ET (Ed Tech) conference the main OT (Operational Technology) conference is the annual Association of Computer Professionals in Education (ACPE) conference in Welches, OR.  This year I was asked to do a session on electronic document retention.  Thankfully this is a topic we have covered several times this year so there is a lot of material to work with.    I've been told 59 people have already signed up for the session so it sounds like a popular topic!

Did you attend NCCE this year?  Previous years?  ACPE? What are your thoughts about conferences?  Best, worst, most memorable....

Washington schools have three major efforts related to educational technology this year.  Each district will be developing a three-year technology plan, reporting on how educational technology is being integrated in classrooms and reporting on the technology literacy levels of 8th grade students.  The latter two items are NCLB requirements and are being conducted for the first time this year. 

The requirement for districts to have an approved technology plan was established many years ago.  Technology Plans are required for districts to receive federal funds through the E-Rate, Title IID and other programs.  All districts connected to the K-20 network are receiving E-Rate funds as K-20 rates are discounted due to the state's application and receiving E-Rate funds to pay for a significant portion of K-20 costs.    Therefore, a school district without an approved technology plan would see an immediate increase (doubling) of K-20 fees each year even if they (unwisely) are not applying for E-Rate discounts themselves.

Districts must include a goal for improving  teacher integration and a goal for improving and assessing 8th grade technology literacy in the upcoming and all future technology plans.

School buildings must include technology integration in their SIP (School improvement Plan).  This requirement was established in the RCW's by the State Board of Education four years ago.  Buildings that are in AYP status must use the OSPI online planning tool to develop and maintain their SIP.  This requirement to use the online tool is set by OSPI.   Other buildings are not required to use the online tool. 

School Districts are required to submit their Technology Plan using OSPI's online tool.  Each technology plan consists of elements provided/developed by districts and elements provided/developed by buildings.  The district elements MUST be entered in the tool online.  IF a building has used the online tool to develop their SIP and indicated which sections involve technology, then these sections will be automatically "included" in the overall district plan.  IF a building has developed their SIP in a paper -based format, the sections of the SIP that involve technology must be uploaded as a Word or PDF document into the online tool.  The district technology coordinator can do the uploading.  In either case, the entire technology plan will be stored online in OSPI's tool.

A district must also have successfully submitted their annual technology inventory, including their teacher integration and 8th grade student technology literacy results, as a prerequisite for technology plan approval.

Washington State uses the Classroom Use of Technology (Tiers) Model as the centerpiece for everything we do related to Educational Technology. The rubric for teacher integration and a similar rubric for the eighth grade literacy assessment was based on the Tiers model.

So, what do districts have to do and when?
Well, here's a map I've distributed and covered at several Technology Roundtables this year:
etsc.esd105.wednet.edu/pdf/TimelineForTechCoordinators.pdf

A school district would typically address the main technology planning requirements in this order:

Technology integration
I anticipate that most districts will have teachers take the Technology Integration Survey at PILOT to complete the integration requirement.  It will automatically aggregate the results into the counts of Tier 1, 2 and 3 classrooms.
Some of the important aspects about this to share with teachers:

1. The results are completely anonymous (even though you have to register)
2. District staff can track whether the survey has been completed by teachers
3. The survey is intended to determine how educational technology is being integrated in classrooms.  It is NOT attempting to determine teacher quality.  It also does NOT determine "fault" for any shortcomings.  As the Tiers model clearly establishes there are four categories that must be in place for educational technology to be used effectively:
   1. Observable and Best Practices
   2. Professional Development
   3. Required Conditions
   4. Technology Resources

If any of these four items is lacking it is unlikely that educational technology will be used effectively to improve student learning.  So the range/quality of use of educational technology in a classroom can be significantly impacted by the resources available, the professional development available to teachers, the technical support, administrative expectations, etc, etc.

After teachers have taken the survey the technology coordinator can access PILOT and click on "Enter Survey" > "View Reports".  If the "View Reports" option is not available let me know and I'll activate that permission for you.  The "General Completion Report" for your district will provide the information needed for the Teacher Integration reporting requirement. 


Technology Literacy
There are many methods available to determine the technology literacy of 8th grade students.  It is the school district's choice as to which method to use.  Probably the least valuable, but easiest to do right now, is to have eighth grade students complete the survey at "PILOTJR": http://www.edtech.wednet.edu/pilotjr
Students will have to enter a password for their building to begin the survey.   Technology Coordinators access PILOT and click on "Enter Survey" > "View Reports" to choose the "Set Passwords" area and establish the password for the building(s).    When the students have completed the surveys the "General Completion Report" for your district will provide the information needed for the 8th Grade Student Literacy reporting requirement.

These two items and the other standard technology inventory information is to be reported online to OSPI by March 28, 2007.

Building SIP Process
Buildings should report the section(s) of most recent version of their SIP that involve technology to the district technology coordinator.  This can be done in the online tool by marking items as technology or via a Word/PDF document. 

The Building SIP sections may cover just one year providing they submit updates during future years.

District Technology Plan
The District Technology Plan must cover three years (2007-2010).  While the building sections may only cover one year (with commitment to update in future years) the district sections must cover three years.  

• The "Networking" section of the District Technology Plan was probably updated in the fall 2006 prior to E-Rate applications being started.
• The "District Goals" section of the plan must contain a goal for the improvement of Teacher integration and a goal for the improvement/assessment of the 8th Grade Technology Literacy results.  Other district level intiatives should be included as goals as well.
• Upload building SIP documents if building SIP not completed in online tool.
• Submit the plan for board approval

The district technology plan must be completed, with signed school board letter, by April 25, 2007.

So, any questions or comments?

This past spring I was able to attend three technology conferences:

NCCE - Northwest Council for Computers in Education @Portland
ACPE - Association of Computer Professionals in Education @Welches
NECC - National Educational Computing Conferences @San Diego

There are interesting tales to tell from each event:

NCCE - February, 2006
I keep pretty busy at NCCE because we (the statewide ETSC Directors) host a booth in the exhibit area and I gave two workshops and attended one.  The one I attended was led by Patrick Crispen who is one of my favorite people in educational technology.  The session he presented was his third of the day and covered a product called "Camtasia Studio".  Even though he was tired it was still a great session.  In part because it's an excellent product. 

Camtasia is a product that will "capture" what you do on your screen and save it as a movie.  You can narrate while you are demonstating software/website features.  Simply put, Camtasia is a great tool for creating training movies.  I've used it in the past but this new version allows you to save the movie as a Flash movie, have an interactive quiz at the end and even show your face up in the corner as you're talking.

Overall, NCCE is a great conference and at the top of the list for teachers and educators in the Northwest.  This year's conference will be held in the new facility in Spokane.   "007 - Agents of Change"

ACPE - May, 2006.
This was my second time attending this conference in Welches, OR.  The last time was 12 years ago and the conference has really grown since then.  In fact, that's the most important point I can make about it:  If you want to attend this conference register immediately when it is announced.  You might want to reserve a hotel room now as they ran out of rooms last year.

Overall, ACPE is a great conference for "OT" (Operational Technology or what you probably think of as IT) issues.  There is a high degree of vendor involvement and the sessions involve networking, firewalls, network management, security, etc.    This is not much ET here so if you are a teacher looking for information about classroom-based technology NCCE would be a better choice.

NECC
I've been to this conference several times and it's always great!  The exhibit hall is the size of 6+ football fields and the speakers are excellent.  There are usually about 30 simultaneous things to do throughout the conference so one of the challenges is decided what to choose! 

I focused on several things:
High-Tech High School
Open Source Software
Marzano's Classroom Instruction that Works
Video Conferencing

The High Tech High School in San Diego consistently receives the highest rating possible within California's system.  (A "10/10" school)   The school is actually not that "high-tech" but rather uses a project-based curriculum almost exclusively.  In other words they are Tier 3 school.  Students use Dreamweaver/Fireworks to create an online digital protfolio and teachers use a classroom website throughout the educational experience.  Almost all teaching is done using project-based, Inquiry-based learning.   Students are drawn from all areas of San Diego and it's not a "rich/prep" school at all.  The model is currently being "exported" to other areas of the country including Philadelphia.

There was a session on an open source software and an OSS lab available all the time.  Two of the most prevalent products include Edubuntu and Moodle.  Edubuntu is a desktop version of Linux that's designed for education.  It's free, easy to use and works very well.  I've been using it (and I am now) since NECC and am very happy with it.  It's not perfect yet but it is in the neighborhood.   Moodle is a free tool like Blackboard or WebCT that allows teachers to conduct educational/instructional activities online.

Marzano's work on effective classroom instruction has always interested me and it was nice to see several sessions involving the use of technology with his nine strategies.  The use of Inspiration software connects directly to four of the nine for example.

There were several examples of video-conferencing projects including open-heart and knee-replacement surgeries.  What a powerful tool.  I think it's time for the "no bus, no-fuss" field trip to become a more common activity in schools.   I've recently collected video conferencing resources and projects on this page.

So, what are your thoughts about conferences?

In the beginning Steve Jobs said "Let there be a computer that ordinary people would enjoy using" and he created the Macintosh then he said "It is good".    Twenty-five years later the concept of personal computing has gone far beyond what Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve and others envisioned.    The use of technology in school districts has also changed substanially over the years.  Initially technology use was championed by trend setting teachers who could see the potential for this tool in the classroom.  Often these teachers served as District Technology Coordinators, developed technology plans, wrote grants, wired classrooms, managed servers, installed software and were involved in all aspects of technology use.

Today however the situation in most school districts is significantly different.   Given the requirements of filtering, anti-spam software, firewalls, wireless networking, video conferencing, managing the bysantine  E-Rate process it is almost impossible for an educator to be  a District Technology Coordinator and still have involvement in teaching.   The need for "operational technology" support in school districts has grown exponentially during recent years.

What is "Operational Technology" you ask?  Well, basically it's the same as "IT" or Informational Technology" in most contexts.   I thiink "Operational Technology" or "OT" is a better description of the work that these professionals do.  OT also avoids the inevitable confusion with the IT  acronym being used for "Instructional Technology" as many school districts refer to it.  The terms "Educational Technology" and "Operational Technology" clearly communicate the two primary aspects of technology use in schools without any "IT" confusion.

Today, these two essential, required leadership/direction roles for technology use need to be present in school districts.  Both the Educational and Operational aspects must be addressed if technology is going to be used effectively in schools by students and staff.  In some cases the same person can do both roles but in most school districts the two roles are done by different (groups of) people. 

But, a concern of mine is that It seems that the primary focus of some school districts is now "operational technology" rather than "educational technology".  Educational Technology, being used for instruction (Tier 2) and/or student-centered learning (Tier 3), should be the first focus within schools.  Operational Technology is obviously essential and required as well, but the reason schools exist is student learning.  Technology is a powerful, research-supported tool that can have a positive effect with student learning, motivation, engagement and retaining students in school.   I'm concerned that a lack of focus on Educational Technology is resulting in schools missing a powerful opportunity to help teachers and students.

 So .... do you agree?   Am I completely off -base here?  Does your district have both ET and OT clearly identified and supported?    How are these two aspects functioning in your district?