Smart Solutions K-12 Digital Academy Success
May 29, 2009
Hello! My name is Michele Gasser and I am a recent addition to the Smart Solutions K-12 team. In my role as a Professional Development Specialist, I work with Ohio school districts to help teachers learn 21st century technology tools to enhance student learning. When I joined the team in January, I hit the ground running with my first project, a Digital Academy designed for Brunswick City Schools in Brunswick, Ohio.
Kicked off in February, the nine-week program included three groups of elementary, middle and high school teachers from throughout the district. These teachers met once a week for face-to-face sessions and supplemented their learning with a Moodle course custom-designed to their needs.
The focus of the academy was to learn about the exciting ways that web 2.0 tools would enhance not only their personal learning but their teaching style as well. By the end of the nine weeks, I was hearing comments from teachers on how much more engaged their students were. The new technology certainly made an impact in their classrooms. We covered a broad range of topics including Social Bookmarking, Blogs, Wikis, Moodle, SMART Notebook software, SMART Sync classroom management software, Google Docs, Google Forms and more! (By the way, you may be familiar with some of these tools and some of them you may not. Look for more information on these in future posts.)
One of the goals of the Digital Academy was for participants to learn how to collaborate and make a team wiki. The wiki would be used to share quality lesson plans and as a one-stop-shop technology resource for the other teachers in the district. The resulting Brunswick etoos4teachers wiki is a great example of their collaborative effort and mastery of the new skills learned throughout the course.
It was exciting for me as an instructor to watch the enthusiasm for technology grow and it was just as exciting for the teachers to see the same results in their students. Just days after the Digital Academy finished up, I received a wonderful email from a kindergarten teacher with a link to a Mother’s Day project her kindergarten students made in Voicethread (one of the tools we explored in class). Their slide-show presentation consisted of students’ drawings of their mothers accompanied by audio clips of the students’ Mother’s Day greetings. It is absolutely delightful to see children this young interacting with technology. What a great way to introduce them to the 21st century!
Results like this are what make my work so rewarding. I look forward to sharing more success stories with you in the future.
Random Sites and Links
May 13, 2009
I thought that I would share some of the latest random things that I have read or seen over the last few months.
Finance
I have tried to stay away from politics in this blog. But everyone realizes that we are in the midst of one of the worst financial crises in our history. Therefore, I think it is important to share two of the best articles that I have read about the current crisis in the last few months.
“In Praise of Primitive Finance” by Amar Bhide
“Making Banking Boring” by Paul Krugman
Design
This neat site, 99Designs, allows individuals to bid on logos and web designs. It is a really innovative Web 2.0-ey way to do design work.
Voice Chat
Voxli is an extremely easy to use internet-based group chat service. I believe it was actually developed for use by computer game players, but I think this service could easily become the next standard in phone conferencing. If you are using another application, your chat continues without disruption. Imagine combining this with Google Presentation and we have a distance learning platform.
The Greatest Product Demo Ever
An Open Institutional Learning Network
This blog post is an informative window into the future of course management and data management in a school district.
6th Sense
Awesome video from the Ted Talks.
Datasets
This web site has links to hundreds of datasets from around the internet. As a former data junkie in my previous life as a consultant, I get very excited when I find easy access to data!
Top 25 Social Enterprise Web Sites
Open Source Textbooks
I recently discovered this awesome web site of Open Source textbooks. I believe the publishing industry, particularly the textbook industry, is ripe for disruptive innovations due to technology. It seems highly natural for the industry to move towards a more individualized wiki-style organization rather than large centralized publishing companies dictating the only texts to be used. The school publishing industry will soon follow the fate of the encyclopedia market.
University of Chicago 6to16: College Success for More Urban Students
April 22, 2009
My friend is a Consultant, and is currently working on a project called 6:16 College Success for More Urban Students at the Urban Education Institute at University of Chicago.
Here is a YouTube video of the program:
From everything that my friend described to me, this appears to be one of the most technologically advanced and innovative school programs that I have ever heard. I may not be getting the details of this program correct, but let me recap some of the ideas from our conversation.
Apparently, the goal of this program is to prepare Urban students for college. It is currently being piloted as a school based initiative, but the program is being designed to serve in a variety of situations including during after school programs, through community based organizations, or in the home.
There are many components to the program, including: Virtual Worlds; community mentorship; eLearning; Social Networking; and an advisory-based curriculum.
One activity is that students participate in a Virtual Game in which their objective is to best prepare your character for college. The purpose of the game is to teach students about the importance of college and socialize them to soft skills necessary to “win” in the game of life. Students can see how College acceptance and readiness leads to life and career success.
The premise of this game and the rest of the program is that Urban students have simply not associated the idea that getting into college is the path to success. Therefore, the game allows students to create and reinforce this connection. Once the connection is made, the students are better focused and perform better in their classes.
The results of the student’s game (and other activities) are also posted on a social network where everyone can evaluate each other’s results. In addition, the social network connects students with community mentors who provide real-life examples of people creating successful lives for themselves by getting into college and getting a quality education.
The program sounds fascinating, and I have never heard of something this innovative happening in any schools today.
Crash Course on ASCD – My Day 1
March 15, 2009
I am one of the lucky few who is currently attending the ASCD conference in Orlando. ASCD is a “nonprofit educational leadership association that develops programs, products, and services essential to the way educators learn, teach, and lead.” I am quickly learning that ASCD is the leading curriculum and professional development organization in the world. Apparently, they have a whopping 175,000 members from over 119 countries.
My initial impression of ASCD is that they “get it.” The conference theme was the excellent “Learning Beyond Boundaries.” There was also a focus on 21st Century Skills – and particularly how to inspire creativity in students.
I felt more comfortable at this conference than others ed tech conferences because it was centered around teaching and learning. Often times, education technology conferences seem disconnected from instruction.
The conference organizers have also been extremely friendly to mew media. The organizers created a Twitter tag, #ASCD09, and have been giving bloggers and members of the press equal conference privileges. The ASCD communications team is also doing their own live-blogging on the ASCD web site.
There was a variety of vendors at the conference including: technology; professional development; furniture; garment; publishers; and others.
The technology companies that attend ASCD are mostly established players with a demonstrated track record who are selling enterprise level solutions. The other unique aspect of the vendor crowd is that senior level executives were manning the booths that I visited.
While I only had the chance to attend one workshop today, I understand that they were a mixed bag.
The workshop that I attended was Borderless Learning: Using Technology to Connect Classrooms Worldwide. I was hoping this session would present a guidebook on “how to meet international partners.” Unfortunately, it went over the same tired Web 2.0 tools that I was already familiar with. One person asked the great question, “How do I connect with people in other countries?” The presenter’s answer was weak and uninformative.
I have been studying how to find international partner schools and the best examples that I have found are The Flat Classroom Project, the Global Education Collaborative, or Classroom 2.0. (There is also this great thread on Scott McLeod’s site with more ideas.)
One of my colleagues attended a session titled, Grading that Facilitates and Reflects Learning. The session was taught by Assistant Superintendent of Grand Island Public Schools, Stephen Burkholder. My colleague described the session as “excellent.” The overall idea was to stop using grades as punishments or as rewards – but instead to start using them to reflect what the students are learning. For example, instead of a grade for Reading, they may have rubric-based marks for Fluency, Decoding Strategies, and Comprehension.
Overall, it is wonderful to see an organization as large as the ASCD embrace global collaboration. Collaborative technologies create a wonderful channel to connect with like-minded individuals who are passionate about similar topics. Technology allows us to build Personal Learning Networks beyond boundaries. The ASCD is doing a great job of helping educators understand this trend and ready themselves for the massive changes underway.
Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom
February 3, 2009
Architecture For Humanity promotes open source architecture and provides professional design services to communities and non-profits to help build a sustainable future. They’ve announced their 2009 Open Architecture Challenge, and this year’s assignment is to design a better classroom. Anyone is eligible to participate in this competition to help imagine better learning spaces – you don’t even have to be an architect to get involved.
They explain:
We are inviting you, the designer, to work with students and teachers to design the classroom of the future for a school of your choosing. Your design should address the unique challenges your school faces in trying to provide smart, safe and sustainable learning spaces. Students and teachers, here’s your chance to tell the world what you need to make your classroom more effective. Architects and designers, you’ll work one-on-one with students to translate those needs into better classroom design.
* Share your design expertise and inspire school students to re-imagine their classroom
* Help students learn about the built environment using a companion design curriculum
* Become an advocate for better classroom design in your communityJurors currently includes Dave Eggers, Michelle Kaufmann, Hilary Cottam, Kigge Hvid and others. More will be added over the course of the registration period.
If your design wins, your school will receive up to $50,000 in funding for classroom construction and upgrading. You will receive a grant of $5,000 to help them do it.
For more information and to enter head over to The Open Architecture Network.
Links on Education, Leadership, and Data Warehousing
November 23, 2008
I thought it would be a good idea to post some of my latest delicious links.
Global Education Ning Space
This social network is a place for educators to meet other international partners. One of our districts is currently searching for a strong partner to collaborate with on classes and self. I am familiar with International Baccalaureate, but they may be too expensive for our purposes. This ning space may be a good alternative to finding international school partners.
Directory of Learning Professionals on Twitter
(Web site)
This is a directory of eLearning Professionals on twitter. Twitter is a great tool to meet new interesting people. I have browsed through facebook profiles, delicious users, Ning spaces, and other networks – and I have not found anything better than twitter for meeting and discovering interesting individuals. Twitter profiles are concise and descriptive. And you can search through “followers” and their “followers” to find a network of fascinating individuals in any field. Finally, Twitter users are typically early adoptors and thought leaders in the area of technology.
K12 Academic Excellence Solutions
(Web site)
I am not familiar with this company, but I discovered them through Tim Phillips’ profile on OETN. It appears that they build data warehousing solutions for education. As a SAS programmer and Computer Science major, I am a strong believer that database management systems, data warehouses, and business intelligence are the future of education. The only way to make good decisions is to have data to support decision-making. A strong data warehouse enables school districts to summarize and analyze student data and easily present it to decision makers.
On a sidenote, SchoolNet is another company leading the charge in Data Warehousing solutions. I also believe that understanding databases is a core 21st Century Skill.
Great Leadership: Guide to Leadership Assessments
This blog is an excellent resource on leadership. One of the most critical aspects of leadership is self-awareness and leadership assessments are a great way to build self-awareness. I am a particularly strong supporter of 360 Degree Feedback, or having performance reviews from “subordinates, peers, and managers.” Also, as a Psychology major, I have always been interested in personality assessments such as the Myers-Brigg.
If you have any interesting links on education, leadership, psychology, databases, business, or anything else – please do not hesitate to contact me.
New and Emerging Technologies for NSPRA / OSBA Sponsored Event
October 12, 2008
A few weeks ago, Doug Jones, Abby Kelton, and I had the pleasure of presenting on New and Emerging Technologies at an event sponsored by the Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA) and National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA).
The response could not have been more positive:
“Very stimulating information that I’m ready to go back and try more!”
“Needed more time for this!”
“*** Could have an all-day follow up session.”
“Thank goodness – wish they had more time”
“Wow! Overwhelming – but necessary”
“Enlightening”
“** Awesome!”
The greatest part about speaking at events like this is feeding off of the energy of the crowd. We had an excellent, engaged audience that was embracing our topics.
Of course, we hit on all the usual suspects:
- The growth of technology
- Web 2.0 (The Machine is Us)
- Our Vision of the Role of Technology in Education
- Shared Services Model (Supporting Technology in Small Districts)
- Social Networking in Ohio Education Technology
- Workshop on Use of Web 2.0 Tools in Education
My next presentation will be in Columbus, OH on October 15 at 12:00pm at the Ohio Association of Public Charter Schools on the topic: Technology Partnerships for 21st Century Schools.
The description is as follow:
An effective technology program is integral to preparing today’s students with 21st century skills. Yet, the components of a strong technology department – including E-rate expertise, networking, desktop maintenance, budgeting, curriculum integration, and professional development – are difficult to provide in-house, given budgetary constraints. This presentation will provide charter school leaders with an introduction to the shared services model of technology management and its benefits of increased technology service, stabilized technology budgets, and enhanced technology integration in the classroom.
If you would like me or our team to speak at any event (free of charge of course!), please e-mail me at njulka@smartsolutionsonline.com.
Applying Decision Models to Schools
September 18, 2008
This was posted on my old education policy blog, EdPol, on May 22, 2006.
As I was sitting in my decision models class last week, I realized that there is an excellent opportunity to apply optimization models to K-12 educational institutions. The basic idea of a decision model is to optimize a function. For example, in business, we would design a model that maximizes our profit function. This is known as the “objective function.” Next, we need to choose a series of “decision variables” that we can vary. In a business, this could typically be the individual department’s budgets. Finally, the model relies upon a series of “constraints.” In business, this could be fixed proportions of certain units to build a product. For example, if we were a construction company, we might need to buy Y nails for each X pieces of plywood.
In an educational setting, I imagine that the objective function could be maximizing student achievement. The decision variables could be various budget allocations. For example, the decision variables could be class size, teacher quality, curriculums, supplies, textbooks, IT systems, janitors, etc. Finally, the constraints on the system could be the amounts that are budgeted for certain types of activities. The constraints could also include costs of certain curriculums, or restrictions due to union contracts. Another constraint could be if we do not want our class size rising above a certain amount. But the decision model would ultimately optimize all the decision variables to create the best solution given the constraints.
Some businesses use decision models with millions of decision variables and thousands of constraints. I believe that decision models could be applied to making decisions in an educational setting. The textbook that our professor recommended for this class is: The Art of Modeling with Spreadsheets.
I did not even know that decision models existed until a few weeks ago. Yet, I imagine that I have been exposed to more business concepts than the average principal or school administrator. Therefore, I believe that there is a huge opportunity to implement optimization models across all levels of education.
Teacher Leadership to Effect Change in Education
July 28, 2008
Leadership is a major theme on most educator’s minds.
A typical example of school leadership usually involves an enlightened principal, or great superintendent – but rarely involves a great teacher affecting the school beyond their classroom.
Teacher leadership should move to the next level to include the question: how can a teacher effect change in their district?
I believe that institutional change will be driven by teachers who are committed to changing the culture of their districts.
It is no longer tenable for enlightened educators to act as silos of innovation. Teachers should target educational leaders, curriculum directors, superintendents, and boards to help educate them on the importance of 21st century skills and the role of technology in teaching these skills.
The ed tech blogosphere would benefit from more discussions about implementing change management programs and less talk about the latest gadgets or web sites.
An ideal school culture would award risk-taking and innovation in instruction. An investment in technology is often a tough, risky decision that requires genuine leadership and buy-in.
But leadership does not need to happen solely at the principal, or administration level. Leadership can function at the teacher level as well.
Educators are great leaders and experts in consensus building, aligning students around a vision, gaining political capital, managing conflict, and driving change. But, educators are typically not trained in applying these skills to effecting enterprise-level change. In essence, teachers should apply their classroom leadership skills to their entire districts.
The education sector can borrow from change management, turnaround management, and leadership classes from traditional business schools to learn how to apply these skills to district-level change.
Genuine leadership at the teacher level is the key ingredient to institute systemic, sustainable change in school districts.
Ohio Education Technology Network
June 17, 2008
I am proud to announce the official launch of the Ohio Education Technology Network (OETN).
One of the greatest strengths of Web 2.0 technologies is its ability to empower individuals. In 2000, with the launch of Blogger, individuals were empowered to easily publish content online. Later in the decade, Podcasting empowered individuals to easily distribute audio content. Wikis empower individuals to contribute content to a central body of knowledge.
The latest transformational online technology that is empowering individuals is a free product called Ning. Ning allows an individuals to create an entire social network through a simple click of a button.
A few weeks ago, Abby Kelton, our manager of professional development, used Ning to create a social network called the Ohio Education Technology Network.
Over the course of a few weeks, the network has grown to include over 40 educators across the entire region! We have professors, teachers, education technologists, principals, and superintendents from all over Ohio collaborating on a free online space. They are sharing videos, discussing professional development, posting events, and making friends.
The launch of OETN represents the amazing power of the digital age that we live in. An individual educator can connect a community together through a click of a button.