Future of Education Technology

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Future of Education Technology Conference and it was such an amazing experience to meet up with so many folks working hard to bring the best educational experience to the classroom. There were people there from all over the country and even across the globe. There is definitely a shift in the way technology is being used in the classroom, and I am excited to work with our own staff in implementing some new ideas that will bring about the meaningful experiences that our kids deserve.

Pre-Conference Future of IT Summit

One of the best parts of this conference was the pre-conference summit where over 300 educators gathered to discuss the future of IT, network and listen to a few amazing speakers talk about the importance of building strong relationships with students. Eric Sheninger, Senior Fellow and Thought Leader on Digital Leadership with the International Center for Leadership in Education, gave an inspiring keynote on "bringing the awe back in to learning." It is so easy to get caught up in the chaos of standardized testing and big data, that sometimes we forget to inspire. Obviously, testing is a necessary evil, but we have to be mindful about the way our students best learn and if that means moving away from traditional methods of educating, it is something that we should do.

VR and Robotics

Photo credited to
@AmyBradshaw_KET @LShafferKET

One of the trends this year is Virtual Reality and Robotics. These technological tools have taken off in the classroom due to the affordability, engagement factor and the real learning experiences that come with them. Virtual Reality has allowed the classroom to break outside of the traditional 4-walls and move into a new reality where students can increase their depth of learning and experience classroom content in a very engaging way.



Another fun tool happens to be classroom robots. These cool little gizmos allow students to think creatively and work on coding skills and even solve real-world problems. There are many different products out there, but I was fascinated with the Sphero bots because of their ease of use and affordability. These wonderful tools can help supplement classroom instruction and inspire students to take ownership of their learning.



Fear of Technology

Technology grows at an exponential rate and some of the world's most greatest advancements have happened in the last 20 years. This is exciting and scary at the same time as it highlights the advancement of our civilization but also shows how difficult it is to prepare our students for a world that will be much different than our own. Sometimes the fear of the unknown can be paralyzing, but we must not let that deter us from taking that giant leap forward. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that, "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." This is especially true in education. Even though we don't know what the future holds, we must have faith in our abilities and in our own students to take this world on. This is why it is important to inspire our students to think critically and problem solve on their own, to show them how to communicate and collaborate, because our world will never be perfect. Since our world will never be perfect, there will always be problems to solve, and people to help. This is where we can make a difference, not in how well our students test, but how they impact the world.

Dan Townsend
Director of Technology and Media Services
@dtownsend20

Student Grade Report

Would you like to be able to look at the students in the sections that you teach and be able to pull out just the ones who are getting a certain grade; such as all of the “A’s” or all of the “D’s” and lower? Well there is a way that you can do that.  Infinite Campus has a report under Student Information called the “Activity Eligibility Report”.  When you click on the report it brings you to a screen that allows you to choose the course, the grade option and the grading tasks whether it be the in progress grade or the posted grade.  You can choose to see all scores for students in your class or you can choose to see only the ones that have fallen below a certain level.    

Click the link below to view step by step instructions on how to run this report.

Activity Eligibility Report

New Music Recording Studio Goes in at Lee MS/HS

When the Superintendent and I visited Albemarle School District in Charlottesville, Virginia, we noticed a few things that we wanted to bring back to our home school district. One of those things was a Sound and Music Recording Studio for students. We noticed that kids were so passionate and enthusiastic about the opportunity to create something of their own. We even had the opportunity to speak to a few kids who talked about how much the studio has helped them in their overall development. Some students are in love with music but don't necessarily participate in band or choir, so this has become a way for them to express themselves and show off their talent.

The Christine Vettese Sound and Music Recording Studio

I knew that we had some of those similar stories here in our district and I wanted to ensure that we were offering our students a way to be creative and produce something that they could share with the world. It is almost impossible for a kid with no real income to afford studio time in a quality production studio, so that is where we can help. In the first week of opening the doors of the studio, we had several students sign up to use it. There is some pretty sophisticated equipment and software in there so it is taking some time for students to get the hang of production but the discovery of it all is an important part of the journey. I can't wait to see the talent of our students shine through this experiential process.

Dan Townsend
Director of Tech and Media Services

Infinite Campus Update Offers Teachers New 'Assignment Analysis' Report

On Sunday, December 11, our district will be receiving an update from Infinite Campus. After this update, you will see a new report option in your index under Reports (Grade Book). The purpose of this new report is to help teachers further analyze student grades on any given assignment. Below are the release notes from Infinite Campus on how to get to this report and generate it. 

Assignment Analysis Report

PATH: Campus Instruction > Reports (Grade Book) > Assignment Analysis

The Assignment Analysis report creates a bar chart representing the students' grades for the selected assignment.

 

Generating the Assignment Analysis Report

1. Choose Assignment Analysis from the report drop down list.
2. Select the Term and Section of the assignment to analyze.
3. Select the Assignment for which you want to view the analysis graph. Only one assignment can be selected at a time.
4. Click the Generate Report button to generate the report in PDF format.

The header of the graph reports the selected assignment, as well as its Task/Standard and Category.

The graph show's each student's score received on the assignment, with the percentage of points earned shown next to the student's name.

Below the graph, the Mean and Median scores are calculated, as well as the +/- standard deviation. These values are also represented by blue lines in the graph itself.

Breakout EDU Mania!

Last year, our Tech Team introduced Breakout EDU to a group of our administrators.  Since then, we have provided several professional development opportunities for teachers and para-professionals, which has resulted in many games taking place in the classroom!

In our district, we keep our boxes in a central location and we set the lock codes before delivering them to the teacher.  This helps us minimize the chance of breaking a lock, or worse yet, getting locked out of a lock (do we even have to mention the joys of owning a directional lock?)!  We keep a Google Sheet that allows us to have a running list of the codes used and the teacher who used them just in case we have to go back and double check a setting.  This also allows us to see how the Breakout EDU boxes are being used across the district.  Below are several graphs that show a monthly use by building and subject area.
So far this year, we have been busy in classrooms with Breakout after Breakout and have several more on the calendar for the month of December!

Tech Refresh 2016

Summer 2016 was filled with many technological infrastructure upgrades. These upgrades will further enhance the district's connectivity while providing a more secure environment. Our network backbone is now capable of transmitting ten times the amount of data from our previous environment. This will translate to a future proofed network infrastructure that will carry us into the next few years.

Along with increased transmission rates, we further secured our internal network with new firewall and web filter solutions. We are better able to see and drop malicious activity on our network before it enters or exits our network. The new web filter solution allows us to get better feedback on search trends and block and log nefarious keyword searches. We will continue our work to provide great support to our students and building staff and we strive to make our network a great example in our community.

Top: New Core Switch and the iBoss Web filter

Bottom: Newly racked server environment with our Sophos Firewall solution

What to do with Design Thinking & Teacher Learning #rebelu16

Rebel U is so much more than just a gathering of teachers sharing cool tools they are using in their classrooms.  Although that is a part of it, the collaboration, conversations, experimenting, community, and much more are also critical components of the day.  Each year we are grateful that we are given a full day to work with teachers and administrators, so we work hard to make sure that are day is design with not only our end users in mind, but also making sure that it is aligned with district goals.  We try to make sure this is a seamless integration, where sometimes you aren't sure where the learning ends and the implementation begins!

This year, our Tech Team partnered with the Teaching, Learning, and Accountability Department in our district to align Rebel U to our district focus of Human Centered Design.  Our Team is by no means an expert in this area, so we were ready to learn all we could about the concept and how this translates to the technology that is being utilized by our teachers and students.  In a nutshell, we are all designers and the approach we take can follow an uniform process, but the end results could be very different and personalized.

Source

This year at Rebel U, we opened with our very own Carol Lautenbach, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching, Learning, and Accountability, with an introduction to design thinking.  She shared a document with our teachers that to help them think beyond the content to the reason, the essence, and the purpose of what is being learned—the WHY and WHO.  This was demonstrated through a quick activity about cell phones that helped demonstrate the WHY and WHO of design thinking.

At the end of the day, teachers were asked to separate themselves into one of five groups that they would like to explore further.  In exploration of this group, we were asking them how they could connect the ideas, tools, and resources they learned about during the day and use them to enhance communications and relationships.  Below is a breakdown of the number of teachers and the relationships they chose to explore further.
In addition to the focus group, we asked them how they would incorporate an element of the 5Cs into the process (bringing the higher-level thinking!).  The purpose in asking this question was to really think deeper about the relationship that is being explored.
When you take those two tidbits of information collected and combine them together, you get a nice looking chart that allows you to see the relationships and 5C focus for the district as a whole.  It is easy to see that the majority of our staff would like to focus on the teacher to student relationship, with largely a creative focus.  This makes us excited because of the potential for risk-taking, student exploration, and learning opportunities that might grow out of this activity. What is interesting about this snapshot is that you can clearly see the focus areas defined by our teachers that are important and will help improve not only the teaching process, but also build relationships within our community.  Where we go from this point is in the hands our teachers, students, imaginations, and so much more!