Day 41 - Introducing TECHXSCAPE at the Vault - Dennis Villano - Director of Technology Integration

This post first appeared on the BPSEdTech Blog 

Can you Xscape the Vault?

The BPS EdTech Team is excited to announce our new professional learning series. TECHXSCAPE will provide BPS teachers with opportunities to learn about technology devices and resources for the classroom. Teachers will join members of the BPS EdTech Team during half-day or full day sessions at the Vault room of the technology department. The Vault room formally served as a secure storage facility for technology devices. The Vault has now been redesigned as our new training lab. Teachers who participate in TECHXSCAPE will spend the first half of the session learning about a technology application or resource. The second half of the session will determine whether or not the teachers get to go home...

Teachers will be given a problem to solve during the second half of the session. They will need to use the technology that they have just learned about to find a solution to the problem. The solution will provide the key to exit the Vault.

No Solution = No Key

The BPS EdTech Team hopes that this new professional learning series will provide some exciting ways to explore technology that can be used in the classrooms of Burlington schools. Dates for the upcoming sessions of TECHXSCAPE at the Vault will be announced soon.

Day 16 - We Have an Overdue Assignment - Dennis Villano - Director of Technology Integration

Educators currently have an overdue assignment. We are behind as a nation with the move to Open Educational Resources (OER). The movement to OER actually began in 2009 and expanded in 2011 but the majority of districts in our country have made little movement towards the goal of leaving behind the overpriced, static, and outdated materials created by unbelievably profitable and stubborn publishing companies.

In Burlington we were actually at the forefront of the OER movement when we led the first regional OER event in 2011 called the Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaborative (MADPC). The event was directed by Burlington Superintendent Dr. Eric Conti, former Bedford Superintendent Dr. Maureen LaCroix, and former Andover Superintendent Dr. Marinel McGrath. Our outstanding Burlington team at the time included myself, Andy Marcinek, Patrick Larkin, Bob Cunha, Tim Calvin, and Dan Callahan. We helped develop and lead a productive three day conference that would become an annual event for the next several years. After each event participants left with information about OER, resources, technical training, and knowledge on how to curate, organize, remix, and share content. Teachers would leave each event with units, lessons, and assessments that were open and ready to implement.

Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaborative – began in 2011

The move to OER does have it’s challenges…

What teachers often ask me about OER:
– What’s OER?
– How will I have the time for this?
– How do we know if the resources are vetted?

It is now our challenge to finish the work started at the first MADPC event. We must find the time and resources to support this important work in Burlington and throughout the country. In Burlington we hope to set a goal for the year 2020 when we would like to see all of our resources for middle and high school be open. This challenge will take the training and implementation of new curation leaders to help lead the movement and support teachers. The work will also take the unyielding support of administration and department heads along with perhaps the most critical ingredient of all…time. Time is incredibly difficult to find for our teachers due to the tremendous work that they already put in on a daily basis but it must be our priority to support this movement and help find that time. Teachers often feel that they don’t always have the chance to create their own resources or curate materials for their classrooms. So it’s completely understandable that teachers often find it easier to simply go with the previously created work from the big publication houses. Again that’s understandable but it’s simply no longer the best way to teach our children. We must help our educators find the time and potentially provide the compensation they need to do the work.

It’s Time – a post about the importance of starting the move to OER

Ultimately though the challenges include more than the need for time. We must also convince our nation’s educators of the importance of this work. We must show our teachers how remixing open resources to meet the needs of their classrooms and individual students can create vastly improved learning experiences. We must help our teachers understand that most open resources have value and are of high quality. This is also important for our teachers who often trust the vetted resources from paid content. Teachers must be provided with the support to curate and create open resources so that we no longer rely on the publication companies that have drained our school systems for too many years.

Andy Marcinek’s Reflection in Edutopia following the first MADPC event

Day 47 - #GoOpen with Open Educational Resources - Dennis Villano Director of Technology Integration

This post first appeared on the BPS EdTech Blog

Recently, the U.S. Department of Education announced a national effort encouraging school districts to #GoOpen by taking advantage of free, high quality, openly licensed educational resources (OER). While OER is making headlines (search #GoOpen on Twitter) and is becoming a viable alternative to textbooks for school districts across the country, the foundation for OER began in 1994 and has been growing ever since.

In Burlington, we’ve been supporting teachers with the transition to OER since 2011. Soon after Burlington High School moved to a 1:1 learning program, the BPS EdTech Team created the Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaborative. The collaborative held annual events to provide educators with the time and support to curate and organize OER resources. Former BPS EdTech Team member, Andy Marcinek helped lead the initial #MADPC program and is now the first Open Education Advisor for the U.S. Department of Education. Andy will support districts nationwide developing OER driven courses.

Moving into year five of our 1:1 learning program at Burlington High School, the BPS EdTech Team continues to advocate for the transition from static, outdated textbooks, to the creation of high quality curated digital content. We realize the benefits, both financial and from a pedagogical stand point of “going open” and plan to curate OER resources with teachers of all grade levels and content areas over the next few years.

Benefits of Open Educational Resources

The benefits of OER are tremendous for school districts, teachers, and students. At a district level, thousands of dollars are saved when schools move away from purchasing textbooks. This allows funds to be allocated for digital learning initiatives, professional development, infrastructure, and more. For a classroom teacher, OER allow the curriculum to stay current, flexible, and customizable. Teachers have greater opportunities to bring creativity and innovation into the classroom when they understand how powerful it can be to curate and create their own digital content versus relying on a pre-packaged, one-size-fits-all textbook. For students, OER provide access to rich academic content regardless of their school’s size, course offerings, and location. With support from Amazon, ASCD, Edmodo, Creative Commons and others, OER in K-12 education is clearly a great path for educators.

But how does a teacher begin the transition from the textbook to open source material? Stay connected with this site and the BPS EdTech Team for details and ideas about where to start. BPS EdTech Team member, Jenn Scheffer will have an upcoming post about Better Lesson. Jenn will also be highlighting some other great OER options here and on the BHS HelpDesk site.

From a 2013 #MADPC Post:

Warning. Simply purchasing powerful technology tools is not enough.

It’s time to work together and build our digital curriculum. It’s time to forget about educational content curation being a corporate activity. It’s time to take over the production of the materials that we use to teach. It’s time to collaborate and share across districts and communities.

It’s time to revisit each curriculum. In some cases it’s time to simply integrate new digital resources and materials. In other cases it’s time to completely start over.

It’s NOT time to simply recreate your current curriculum in digital format. It’s NOT time to take your old documents and simply make PDF versions. It’s NOT time to take the easy way out of the curation process.

Four years ago we created the Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaborative because we wanted to provide educators with a starting point. MADPC helps educators learn about the critical skills needed in digital content curation, production, and distribution. When we started MADPC many Massachusetts schools were just starting to consider 1:1 environments. We realized that the biggest challenge we would face is the fact that we often complete the curriculum development process in isolation. There is no longer time for isolation.

This process takes commitment. There is no magic formula. We must help each other learn about the resources available to us and how best to use them. We must support the technology related skills needed to complete the work. We must provide opportunities to share and collaborate. We must build a network of curating educators.

Curate. Collaborate. Create.

Day 177 - LightSail in Burlington Classrooms - Dennis Villano - Director of Technology Integration

This post first appeared on the BPS EdTech Blog 

Students and teachers in Burlington are using a new literacy accelerator called LightSail. The system has provided excellent opportunities for teacher intervention and support resulting in student academic growth. LightSail has been used extensively at Marshall Simonds Middle School in our 1:1 iPad learning program. The application has been praised by students and teachers.

LightSail provides a platform for completing independent reading with a full class of students all at different levels. Teacher have the ability to personalize the experience for every student. Teachers are able to see exactly where students are in guided reading groups and are able to pinpoint individual breakdowns of comprehension in the moment. LightSail provides students with the ability to ask the questions they may be embarrassed to ask during class as well as the use of scaffolds built in for the various levels of students in the class.

LightSail’s digital literacy solution takes the best practices of literacy instruction and combines them into one app. The results in Burlington have been overwhelming positive. Teachers report the enhancement of literacy gains and the ability to streamline instruction while personalizing individual student experiences with ease. Teachers have reported that LightSail allows for the personalization of materials for each student, allowing them to read the best books at their level. LightSail can also adapt students’ libraries as they grow and deliver instant, actionable data to teachers by embedding in-text assessments into books. Burlington teachers are using LightSail’s instant data progress dashboards to easily personalize instruction. School leaders and reading specialists can see daily data for every student and classroom if needed.

You can learn more about LightSail on their site.

LightSail Progress Dashboard

Live Progress Results

Day 67 - Update: BPS Foundational Apps - Dennis Villano - Director of Technology Integration

This post originally appeared on the BPS EdTech Blog

Burlington Public Schools is 1:1 with iPads in grades 1-12. We also have iPads available in each kindergarten and preschool classroom. Our vision for a 1:1 learning environment has always been to create the most engaging and collaborative student centered classrooms possible. Although our focus has never been on apps, we have always encouraged the use of core BPS Foundational Apps that can help keep students build skills and meet the standards of our curriculum. One of the most successful aspects of our 1:1 learning program has been the focus on these BPS Foundational Apps which can be used across grade levels and content areas.

This list of apps has changed slightly since our first 1:1 high school classrooms began using iPads. Students and teachers have had the opportunity to help adjust the BPS Foundational Apps. One of the most notable changes was a shift from Evernote to Notability as the core note taking and organizational app for students. Many Burlington middle and high school students preferred Notability and began using it as their primary note taking app. Our team has now amended the BPS Foundational Apps to include Notability instead of Evernote.

Burlington is also a Google Apps for Education district. Students and teachers use GAFE as their primary communication and collaboration tool. Google Classroom has been introduced and is becoming a popular option for digital workflow. All BPS students will be using Google Blogger as a curation tool for their PreK-12 BPS Digital Portfolios.

Day 51 - Boom or Bust EdTech - Dennis Villano - Director of Instructional Technology

This post originally appeared on the BPS EdTech Blog

Schools must stop boom or bust technology purchasing. Districts have to commit to sustainability planning with budgets and purchasing or technology initiatives will feel like a first-place team that wins the World Series one year followed by finishing in last place the next year. Sound familiar Boston fans?

Red Sox General Manager Ben Cherington recently talked about boom and bust mentality, a fairly common economic terminology, in an interview with local sports reporter Sean McAdam. Cherington talked about how major league teams often have a habit of spending incredible amounts of money on free agents by buying everything in sight to go for winning season without a long-term plan for payroll sustainability in place. This can lead to a great season followed by a terrible season. Schools fall into the same trap far too often. Poor planning causes schools to face the same frustrating cycle over and over again.

Our Burlington team is almost always asked first about what devices to buy in conversations with school administrators and technology leaders.

Why did you go with iPads for your 1:1 program? Why not Chromebooks? 

Whether it’s polite or not – I’m really not sure – we usually answer by asking questions of our own about their infrastructure and sustainability plans.

How is your wifi? What are you going to do in two years when your devices are out of date? What is your network sustainability plan for three to five years from now?

These questions are almost always followed by blank faces and silence. This is a problem. We can’t have the lack of understanding and planning when it comes to a discussion about sustainability. Too much is at stake.

Burlington Superintendent Eric Conti has often expressed how districts should look at technology budgets and purchasing as being just another utility. You can certainly never tell anyone that we could not have indoor plumbing or heat during the winter months – just like we can’t say that our iPads aren’t working today or you can’t use the internet this week.

Schools must spend more time planning on device refresh cycles and infrastructure upgrades. They must also seek the sustainable funding for the human support of technology initiatives. Sustainability is not just for network and devices. We must plan for the costs associated with hiring and retaining talented educators, technology integrators, administrators, and IT professionals.

School technology programs succeed or fail for many different reasons but often the reason that is most overlooked is the long term planning for infrastructure growth and purchasing of new devices. For schools to succeed with the integration of technology they must stop creating the boom associated with buying lots of new stuff followed by the bust of later running a network that can’t handle applications and owning devices that no longer work. The inspiration and excitement created by new technology resources can quickly become frustration due to lack of long term planning. Boom or bust technology budgeting is a truly sustainable way to cause a technology program to fail.