Mid-Term Report on Mercy 2.0

The New Mercy iPad Case

The adoption of the iPad as a 1:1 device is the featured piece of Mercy 2.0. While the staff has unboxed their devices, we are not selling the new iPads to our students until May 14.

Nevertheless, more quietly other major elements of Mercy 2.0 are underway or have already been completed

A New Multimedia Lab will be built this summer and has been almost completely been paid for by donations. "Witte's Wish" and a generous donor have purchased the 26 new iMacs. The Mom's Club is buying the furniture and the Dad's Club is paying for the new cabling.

A Required Fundamentals of Design for ninth graders will be using the new lab and will provide a baseline curriculum of essential visual and skills. This course and a revamped Speech curriculum will five students hands-on experiences slide software, video, audio, and web design.

Moodle and Power School have been moved to the Cloud allowing us to down size our IT Department through retirement. More importantly, these essential applications (Moodle for the Curriculum and Power School for our student data) will receive regular updates and state of the art back-ups. The new versions also integrate with each other and Moodle has Google App features.

Google Apps for Education are now hold an essential (and branded) place in our instructional development. These powerful, plentiful and free apps will be completely deployed this July after all of us have switched to Gmail.

Professional Development proceeds apace. After our two days with Lucy Gray we decided to immediately institute a series of after school workshops on specific "apps". Forty teachers and staff stayed after school for the first one on Tuesday. What is more, staff will be investigating iPad and Google apps through the summer and reporting back to the collective through Google Groups. The next big in-service is then scheduled for August 23.

Mercy on the Cloud

The the cornerstone of Mercy 2.0 is our transition to the iPad, the first changes involve moving to “the cloud”.

We are in the process of moving us to Google Apps for Education.   Besides being free,  Google Apps gives us the advantage of moving easily across platforms.  Don’t worry, your work will not be immediately impacted.  Even when we move to Gmail (this summer), you will be able to keep the same name@mhsmi.org address.  Google provides fantastic educational tools which we will invite you to explore with your students through 2012.  Tom will be creating a Google Account for every student, teacher, and staff member.  This may create a hiccup for you that I will describe in a separate email, following on the heels of this one.

In addition, we are moving Moodle off the Mercy servers to a company called Moodlerooms.  They will host, support, back up, and update this vital vehicle for our curriculum.  We will pay for this service, but allowing them to assume the increasingly heavy technical  burden of keeping Moodle operational, we have reduced our own staffing through retirement. (not quite sure how to rewrite this since I don't know exactly what you were trying to highlight?)

We thought you would also be interested in how exceptionally well Moodlerooms has integrated Google Apps into Moodle:

• Automatic creation of users in Google Apps (Google Docs™, Google Calendar™, and Gmail™) when they are created in Moodle
• Automatic log in to Google Apps when a user logs in to Moodle
• A Gmail block in Moodle that displays latest Gmail messages on the Moodle Front Page
• A Google Apps block on the Moodle Front Page displays links to Google Start Page, Google Docs, Google Calendar and Gmail

Six Interesting Reads

Saginaw high school students find 2 Lake Huron shipwrecks

"The best kind of learning is hands-on," he said of the Lake Huron adventure. "This wasn't just about finding a shipwreck. This was a lesson in life. ... They came in with doubts about what they could do. ... They did the work. They ran the equipment. They were the crew. What they achieved, well, it was beyond dreams."

http://bit.ly/qRKcPx

When Schools Are Forced to Rely on Sheep

 In one area, cash-strapped schools are now using sheep, instead of lawnmowers, for lawn care. . . . .You know, nothing says “21st century global superpower” like schools turning to sheep because they can’t afford lawnmowers.

http://bit.ly/oVYXqk

Should the U.S. Government Trust the Cloud?

The biggest advantage cloud computing offers governments is the areas efficiency and affordability. In his 25-point proposal to reform federal IT, outgoing U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra identified cost savings as one of the main justifications for adopting the "cloud first" approach to federal IT he advocates.

http://rww.to/nHsWZv

Math and Science: Out of the Classroom, Into the World

It’s great to be a student these days. The opportunities to learn math, science, technology and engineering have come such a long way from the days of sitting through interminable hours of watching teachers solve equations and explain complicated theories on the chalkboard. . . . . 

With access to a computer or mobile device, apps and websites, students can have a completely different learning experience – one that resonates within the digital world they live.

http://bit.ly/qbBeyg

-------------------

Flickr CC Photo by Urban Gazelle

How to Fix Our Math Education
There is widespread alarm in the United States about the state of our math education. The anxiety can be traced to the poor performance of American students on various international tests . . . . All this worry, however, is based on the assumption that there is a single established body of mathematical skills that everyone needs to know to be prepared for 21st-century careers. This assumption is wrong.


http://nyti.ms/oGHiGP


The Dog-eared Paperback-- Newly Endangered in an E-Book Age

A comprehensive survey released last month by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group revealed that while the publishing industry had expanded over all, publishers’ mass-market paperback sales had fallen 14 percent since 2008.

“Five years ago, it was a robust market,” said David Gernert, a literary agent whose clients include John Grisham, a perennial best seller in mass market. “Now it’s on the wane, and e-books have bitten a big chunk out of it.”

http://nyti.ms/qOmwgn

Survey Anxiety!

Flickr CC photo courtesy of Beinecke Library

I have been working this summer on a survey for our staff on their technology usage.  The intent of this project is entirely for planning purposes.  I have put a lot of thought into this and solicited feedback from various experts in our community.  The process has created some challenges for me that I have decided to air in this blog post.  Perhaps you will have insights or suggestions.

Change

This is a very exciting time to be in educational technology.  The rapid development of mobile technologies, touch technology, and cloud services call for new ed tech support and solutions.  But change is anxiety producing.  So simply by raising the subject, we may surface objections.  Furthermore, since Mercy is an early adopter of 1:1 computing, there are not too many road maps for us to follow.  The big companies like Apple, HP, Microsoft are introducing less expensive computing solutions for schools who are not yet 1:1.  Consequently, the concern that we might accidentally downgrade what we have worked so hard to build is a legitimate concern.

Transparency 

I wish to promote transparency and collaboration for major decisions that affect many stakeholders.  In this case, however, should all the results be shared?  I don't want to manipulate the results, but not being experienced in survey authoring, I'm a little concerned about dud questions producing results that may muddy the water.  Nevertheless, I'm strongly inclined to share the results within the community.  So here's a greater concern:  Some responses may be easy to identify individually.  Teachers of a particular course, one person "departments", etc. may be easy to spot even if names are withheld.  Will this affect candor?

Ulterior Motives

For me the biggest issue is dispelling concern that the survey is actually a way to "check up" on people.  We absolutely need to know who is filling out the surveys so that we get a clear idea of how critical certain softwares and functions may be.  If we decide on changes we want to be sensitive to current users, so as not to simply jerk the rug out from under them.  I'm hoping that transparency will help to alleviate this.  But I am a little concerned that folks will overstate usage "just in case."

Leading Questions

Obviously, not everything is up for grabs as we develop our "tech plan".  Consequently, we are focusing more attention on specific areas and have discussed some options that we want to "air out."  I've discovered that it is challenging to develop a set of questions that are not "leading," particularly since I of course do have my own opinions.  Nevertheless, I don't want to foreclose feedback.  This is a tough one

Open-Endedness
From a practical point of view, I have found it challenging to find the right blend of fixed choice questions and open-ended prompts.  Obviously, open-ended questions allow for more nuance and intensity of expression.  They also may have the desired effect of making respondents' feel more engaged in the process.  On the other hand, they are unwieldy and may make it harder to discover patterns.


I don't plan on sharing the results of the survey at the Drive-thru, but will surely blog on the process.  It's already been quite a learning experience.

Ode to a Land Line

Flickr CC Photo by alfromelkhorn

This past week,  my wife and I passed a significant technological milestone. . . . (at least for our demographic). We got rid of our land line phone. Granted, to younger folk and the masses of other cultures, having the expensive redundancy of a house phone in addition to a mobile seems ridiculous. But to us, the home phone seemed such a basic feature of family life. We waited until it was pretty obvious that it had become useless-- neither of us were picking up the voice mails left there and the telemarketing calls outnumbered those we might care to answer.

In fairness, we were ready to make the move last year, but we changed from cable to DSL,  purchasing a new package that made it cost-effective to hang on to the old ways until this month even though we both have iPhones and have steered nearly all friends and family to our mobiles.

At this point, you may we wondering, "So what?"

That's exactly what I am anxiously wondering, "So what does radically evolving landscape  mobile devices and virtually ubiquitous connectivity mean for education?".  And more urgently for me, "So what should my school be planning in terms of infrastructure, hard ware, software, and professional development?

I know that applications and storage are moving to the cloud.  I know that the reasons for spending money for a laptop instead of a mobile are becoming fewer.  I know it takes far less training to teach a student or teacher to use a "phone" than a "computer", even as they ironically become less and less distinguishable.

I also know there are huge cultural issues to overcome. Administrators correctly believe that students are far more adept at using technology socially than for rigorous learning. Having such terrific access to information is a marvelous boon for education, but if we start to give up uniformity of software and machinery, what will this mean for the classroom?

The consequences of my choosing to slog behind the times by staying with my good old land line were almost inconsequential.  But holding onto a land line mentality at my school in specifically and education in general has major consequences.  So what's cutting edge in instructional technology, today?  Droids? Twitter?  Google Apps?  iPads?

I am not sure at all, so please tell me.  But make it quick because your answer might change in a couple of months!

Cloud, Mobile, Touch

Flickr CC Photo by Etrusia UK

As Tom James, our IT Network Administrator, recently put it, "These are exciting times!".  For anyone involved in educational technology, like Tom and I, yes indeed, 2011 is an exciting time. We stand on the edge of so many changes.  Ours is a school which strives to be cutting edge in ed tech innovation. Since resources are finite but the possibilities seem infinite, it is extremely challenging to draw a road map into the future. So I am using this space to muse upon major areas of change and some of the big questions which attend them:

* The Cloud

It is clear that more and more computing, storing, and sharing is moving to the cloud.  The cloud allows for anytime, anywhere access and facilitates collaboration. When storage and applications are cloud based it is also possible to improve security and achieve savings (maintinaing one's own servers, etc).

But how fast do we make the move and what might we lose in the exchange? For example, if we announced tomorrow that we were going straight to cloud computing, teachers would lose access to several applications which are only available in our on-site system.  It would be demoralizing to these teachers and detrimental to instruction to pull the rug on them.

* Mobility.  Even adults who are inclined to shun technology have been pulled into computing by smart phones.  Many persons work from their phones.  The iPad has also stood computing on its head.  Not only has it created a category of hybrid between the netbook and smart phone, it is a category killer.  97% of all "slate" computing is done through the iPad.

As iPad-like devices gain in functionality, it becomes harder to justify the expense and inconvenience of requiring students to have a laptop.  An iPad's battery easily lasts though a school day.  It turns on and off instantly.  Both of these features are incredibly attractive to classroom teachers annoyed by the daily recurrence of laptops dying or interminably rebooting.  BUT, for a 1:1 school such as ours, going from an elite laptop to an iPad would result in significant loss in capacity to create documents, slides and assorted media. Moreover, in our case we currently use HPs.  As of today they have not even released a comparable product.  Moving to an iPad would be a radical change.  But moving to an iPad wannabe qualifies as early adaptor and potential PR disaster  (No apps, no iTunes, "No thanks", I can now hear my students saying).  But, on the other hand, the whole market and technology could turn on a dime (VHS v. Betamax).  Whose to say that a Droid-like slate won't successfully enter the market and gain a huge share (and requisite apps).

Touch Technology

Recently, Tom shared with me a video demo for Windows 8.  I was stunned by the degree to which Microsoft is betting its future on the touch environment of Droids and iPads. 

One only has to watch a teenager text with her thumbs to get an idea at what kind of gap can grown generationally as kids slide easily into new phones, new games, new tablets. As kids grow up with these popular and ubiquitous devices, will the schools cling to keyboards and mice because the teachers are more comfortable computing that way?  Furthermore, the difference between consumer hardware and "enterprise" machines is far less distinguishable. Do we continue to ban smartphones and closing off our wi-fi systems to the kids' phones, readers and slates? Or do we embrace them with all the confusion attendant

*Machine Refreshes

Tom tells me that the given cycle for a new model of device is now down to about 10 months.  He also predicts persuasively that many of the major players in technology won't even be around in a few years.

In my mind this issue relates directly to the others.  How can I ask the school and our parents to invest in hardware that may become virtually obsolete in the time it takes a student to move through a four year school. Yet, without uniformity of some kind for every student, how can the teachers take advantage of some of the exciting possibilities of this brave new world.

Tom and the rest of our team have a lot to chew on.  The stakes make me more than a little anxious, but he's right-- This certainly is an exciting time. 

Doodling Around

If you have not tried it, I would like to introduce you to Doodle.  It is a wonderful cloud tool for setting up a meeting or conference with folks who don't share the same software.  I first became acquainted with it when I received a "doodle" in order to set up a conference call with folks in three different time zones.  It's a snap with Doodle.  Simply set up a free account with a couple of clicks, and with a few more selections you can basically send out an easy to use little poll to others.

I've used Doodle to set up my recent M-Hub club meetings at school.  It also strikes me as the perfect tool for setting up family gatherings or scheduling a dinner with busy friends.

MACUL Cloud Conference Presentations

I'm delighted to be at the MACUL Cloud Conference, today.  I'm looking forward to sampling some really interesting presentations on a theme near and dear to my ed tech heart.  I also have been eager to see Holland Christian after hearing about their innovative 1:1 program from Tim Kamps at  the 2009 ADE Summer Institute.

Here are the slides for my presentations:

A Cloud Based Digital Anthology  
8:30 am
Room 223


Baker explains how he has replaced a traditional reader with a cloud based text linked to current information and packed with multimedia. The tools and resources to be discussed — Moodle, Google Docs, PBS, iTunesU, Academic Earth, NPR, Gale Virtual Research — could be used for most courses and grade levels.


An Elaborate Congressional Simulation Moves to the Cloud
12:45 pm
Room 217


The centerpiece of an American Government class now exists completely in the cloud. Students access instruction and tools from Box.net, Google Sites and WikiSpaces. Each builds (and visits) multimedia Google Sites for their fictional characters including a cloud White House. Full access to 2010 materials and exhibits will be included.

Collaborating on the Cloud

I have recently completed my first set of professional cluster group presentations. The "PCGs" consist of five inter-disciplinary groups of teachers and administrators from our school who meet with me once every six school days. All staff are included.

The PCGs are intended to foster Challenge Based Learning and technology integration. In order to familiarize themselves with the process the staff has undertaken a challenge of their own:

Collaborate departmentally to design a challenge based learning project which develops [Tony Wagner's Seven] "Survival Skills" for at least 15% of the students that your project team serves.

Recently, I termed this, "Challenging the Challengers".

I wanted to get off to a good start. My greatest concerns were

1) making tech novices feel as though the train had not already left the station.
2) boring tech savvy attendees by slowing down aforementioned train!
3) clarifying the confusion stirred up by the CBL launch.
4) roviding implicit reassurance that these PCG presentations would be purposeful and engaging.

I took a thematic approach for both CBL and tech-- beginning with collaboration and cloud computing. Here's the slide presentation:

Collaborating on the Cloud(PCG #1)

It starts with a cloud productivity tip. Box.net is an old favorite of mine. I find that it is a wonderful place to store files that I want access to across platforms. It's easy to link the files to different locations. The uploads are fast and sweet. 1GB of memory is offered for free.

After this warm up I gave an overview of cloud computing, suggesting that attendees complete a survey posted to our staff wiki, indicating their level of interest in some tools we might investigate at future sessions.

The most important piece was left for last: A review of the CBL model and a detailed discussion of the types of "guiding questions" that project groups should start generating. There was more discussion during this portion of the presentation (the five sessions varied greatly in terms of the quantity and tone!).

Assessment
Regarding my initial concerns, I felt that I did a better job meeting the needs of attendees with beginner skills than advanced (It's hard to stay down the middle). I felt that I achieved a good level of engagement overall, though I think some of the teachers might be surprised how much their body language resembled that of our less enthusiastic students! While I'm satisfied that the presentation set a tone of purpose, the give-and-take will definitely be the best part of the PCGs. Even though they intrude into everyone's busy schedule, these sessions will offer an opportunity for us to leave our daily routines and discuss some significant educational topics. I'm looking forward to round #2.

--------------------------------------
As of today's blog post, Larry's Opinion Drive-thru returns to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday posting schedule.

Loving Evernote

This post is dedicated to Ann-- my friend & "gang of four" comrade.

Way back in January 2009 (was it that recently), I presented one of my first after school workshops for staff. It was called QUICK HITTERS: GOOGLE DOCS + GOOGLE NOTEBOOKS + MP3S . Some of my colleagues quickly took to Google Notebooks, an online application that allowed users to save and organize clips of information while conducting research online. I loved it because it worked across platforms. But soon after I touted it, Google orphaned the app. That left folks who had climbed on board (like Ann and me) gnashing our teeth.

Well, now we have an option that totally blows Notebooks away. As WSJ tech guru Walter Mossberg has noted,

What if you could collect, in one well-organized, searchable, private digital repository, all the notes you create, clips from Web pages and emails you want to recall, dictated audio memos, photos, key documents, and more? And what if that repository was constantly synchronized, so it was accessible through a Web browser and through apps on your various computers and smart phones?

Well, such a service exists. And it’s free. It’s called Evernote.

Evernote works splendidly across platforms and has great mobile apps. Type a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screenshot. Evernote will keep it all safe in the cloud. It has many other features, but I am already addicted to the basic functions.

The free version offers 40MB per month is plenty for my personal needs. A premium service is available if you start storing big files for your work.

Please try it soon, Ann, before the fleeting shelf life of new technology breaks your heart!

---------------------------
All resources for this blog were stored on Evernote, of course.

Give Swirrl a Whirl

If you have visited this blog lately, you know that my latest social media passion is something that I have named M-Hub. This stems from recent experiences with personal learning networks and Challenge Based Learning.

I aspire to create an online vehicle that would help students learn how to network. It would be a database of adult "experts" within the school community (parents, teachers, alumnae) which students could access for research on projects, careers, college, etc. M-Hub could help give them more autonomy over their own learning and lead them to authentic outcomes. And as Bill Roberts recently suggested to me, if set up properly, M-Hub "may be useful to put together 'topic pages' so that students can see the advice provided to others with similar questions."

Some very dynamic students, staff, and alumnae have responded with enthusiasm to the project, and we have moved forward at a faster pace than I ever imagined we might. One of our first quests has been to find a "platform" for the knowledge hub.

I quickly found out that "cloud" databases are few and far between. The wikis with which I was familiar were not helpful. There are plenty of cloud apps for word processing, spread sheets, and even slides, but databases are rare and most that might fit M-Hub's needs are prohibitively expensive.

But then I found Swirrl. It has many of the features that we are looking for:

*Ease of use
*Unlimited Users
*Search and Tags
*permission control
*revision history.

Swirrl is wiki designed as a database. Essentially each "page" of the wiki can store information, uploads, tags. And it's all highly searchable. What's more, the free version is rather generous-- 1000 pages and 100 mb of upload storage. I'm confident that teachers might find this useful for classroom or personal use.

I'm not sure that M-Hub will be using Swirrl, as our needs go beyond the "free" model, but I wanted to share this resource with my readers and also thank the Roberts brothers for helping me become acquainted with Swirrl and troubleshoot some of M-Hub's technical challenge.

Check it out and give Swirrl a Whirl!

-------------------------------------------
Screen Shot of Swirrl home page