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TABLE OF CONTENTS
California Educational Technology Professionals Association
Summer/Fall 2013 | Volume 2013 | Issue 2
ARTICLES 6 President’s Message By Brianne Ford
8 Keys to the Kingdom: Physical Keyboards, Virtual Keyboards and the Question of Which to Teach By Scott Mohr
12 A Modern Presentation System By Rolland Kornblau
14 CUE VIEW: Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards: The Rise of Project-Based Learning By Dennis Deets
17 Dreaming of a Professional Development Analytics System By Matt Penner
20 NetEqualizer Helps Prioritize Network Traffic By Rick Jex
22 Erate Update By Fred Brakeman
24 Member Profile DataBus Chats with Julie Judd
26 Resource Guide and Ad Index
DataBus is the official publication of the California Educational Technology Professionals Association (CETPA). DataBus is published twice a year as a service to our members and information technology managers for California’s K-12 and secondary education school systems. The CETPA and the DataBus assume no responsibility for the statements or opinions appearing in articles under an author’s name. The services of an attorney or accountant should be sought in legal and tax matters. All copyrights and trademarks are property of their respective owners. Except where otherwise noted, content in DataBus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Publisher California Educational Technology Professionals Association Managing Editor Steve Thornton sthornton@menifeeusd.org
Advertising Manager Cici Trino Association Outsource Services (916) 990-9999 Fax: (916) 990-9991 cicit@aosinc.biz
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Editor Lisa Kopochinski (916) 481-0265 lisakop@sbcglobal.net
Summer/Fall 2013 • DataBus 5
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Change is Our Constant Challenge
BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT
Brianne Ford
Chief Technology Officer Irvine Unified School District brianneford@iusd.org
By Brianne Ford
PAST PRESIDENT
E
Todd Finnell
Vice President of Technology Imperial Community College District todd.finnell@imperial.edu PRESIDENT ELECT/ COMMUNICATIONS
Steven Thornton
Director of Technology Menifee Union School District sthornton@menifeeusd.org TREASURER
Greg Lindner
Chief Technology Officer Los Angeles County Office of Education lindner_gregory@lacoe.edu SECRETARY
Kelly Calhoun Ed.D
Chief Technology Officer/Asst. Superintendent Santa Clara County Office of Education Kelly_calhoun@sccoe.org EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Andrea Bennett
CETPA andrea.bennett@cetpa.net DIRECTORS
Aaron Barnett
Director, Information Systems/Technology Moreno Valley Unified School District abarnett@mvusd.net
Stephen Carr
Chief Technology Officer Ventura County Office of Education scarr@vcoe.org
Tim Goree
Director of Technology Support Services Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District timg@fsusd.org
Julie Judd
Chief Technology Officer Ventura Unified School District julie.judd@cetpa.net
Sean Rozell
Chief Technology Officer San Rafael City Schools srozell@srcs.org
Phil Scrivano
Chief Instructional Technology Officer Las Virgenes Unified School District pscrivano@lvusd.org.
Peter Skibitzki
Director of Administrative Operations Placer County Office of Education pskibitzki@placercoe.k12.ca.us CETPA officers, the President, PresidentElect, Past President, Secretary and Treasurer serve one-year terms, while a Director-at-Large serves a two-year term with an election following that term.
6 DataBus • Summer/Fall 2013
State-level policy shifts place increasing demands for technology in the classroom. The fast-paced evolution of online resources and devices has exponentially increased this pressure.
ach year, school opening comes with new energy, excitement, anxiety and, most likely, a fair amount of smoke rolling of your overtaxed work order system. For this time of year in particular, I keep a magic wand in my office. It’s tucked inside a frame that reads, “In Case of Emergency, Break Glass.” Over the last year of Common Core transitions, tremendous budget uncertainties and dramatic shifts in education technology, I have been tempted to crack it open. So far, the wand and its casing remain intact. However, I have acquired a crystal ball to complement it. Change is our constant challenge. State-level policy shifts place increasing demands for technology in the classroom. The fast-paced evolution of online resources and devices has exponentially increased this pressure. All of these changes create both opportunities and distractions. Staying on your critical path becomes infinitely more difficult with the ground shifting beneath your feet. Even when immersed in change, there are some very important things that are constant in our profession. Meaningful student learning is our compass. Knowing “True North” on that compass is likely the only way to remain effective in an environment where you can’t possibly accommodate every request, anticipate every change, or respond to every new idea. It’s a chance to dust off the project list and reprioritize. It’s the perfect opportunity to revisit your standards and your support structures. Even better, it’s the perfect time to visit classrooms and remember why we love this work. Last year, I got to see a teacher engage his fifth graders in a collegiate competition for sustainable residential building. I can’t wait to see what they (I) will be learning this year. Each year, we commit to new projects and a new approach to our work. And, sometimes we even make it all the way through September before succumbing to the tyranny of the urgent. Some amount of triage is unavoidable. And, an ample supply of duct tape and paper clips is never wasted. Still, we ask our teachers and site leaders to reflect on and reshape their practice through the Common Core transition. As innovators by trade, we must make the same commitment to let the drive for student learning guide and accelerate the changes we make. Our current issue of DataBus provides a new lens for technology decisions. From classroom displays to the (maybe not) demise of traditional keyboarding, our outstanding contributors have weighed the merits of past practice and new alternatives. By reimagining the workforce our students will enter, and redefining how students and teachers interact with the technology now, the authors apply new tests to current questions about the classroom environment. Instead of evaluating alternatives exclusively by cost and supportability, the authors look at what students and teachers are trying to achieve as the primary criteria. As fast as the “right” equipment changes, student learning is evolving even faster. Read on in this issue to learn how high school students are solving real traffic congestion concerns. Even more, learn about a competition that allows students to reengineer the Twin Towers to create more efficient evacuation routes. Project-Based Learning, connected to real world problems, prepares our students for a future of significant contribution. I can’t imagine a better rationale for change. As receptive as our students may be to this transition, we also need to find new ways to prepare our adults to effectively, and confidently, use technology. Join Matt Penner on his search for a new system for professional development. Imagine being able to offer not just job-specific continued on page 25
KEYS TO THE KINGDOM: Physical Keyboards, Virtual Keyboards and the
Question of Which to Teach
O By Scott Mohr
n a recent sunny Saturday, I began showing my 14-year-old son how to handle our weed eater. He wanted to learn so he could pick up a few dollars landscaping, but mentioned that he only had 25 minutes before he had a meeting. “Um… a what now?” He explained that he and his friends had a teleconference via Skype at 11:00 am to discuss their business: they join forces in online multiplayer games to create interesting videos, and then post and monetize those videos on YouTube via AdSense, or something. “Er...uh, OK...I guess.” Over the last 20 years the concept of “the workplace” has become a little mercurial. In contrast to the image of Jacob Marley chained to his desk under Scrooge’s remorseless gaze, workers since the 1990s— thanks to mobile computing—have been enabled to work from literally anywhere (Yahoo’s recent ban on telecommuting notwithstanding). Now—with the advent of smart phones and tablet computers— information and computing ability formerly regulated to large, bulky machines is now available in the palm of your hand. It’s an amazing time to be alive, oui? If tweeting is an integral or perhaps primary job
function for you, you might need nothing more than a smart phone and a Starbucks Rewards card to do your job. This is the world many students are growing up in—the “workforce environment”—in which they will need to make a living. It is also the academic environment in some districts. In April, the question came up on the CETPA listserv as to whether—in this day of ubiquitous virtual keyboards—we should continue teaching traditional fixed physical keyboarding skills to students. A suggested alternate teaching method was to drop the idea of teaching typing per se, and just encourage them to type—whatever their preferred method—and let them get as good as they can with what they use every day. This schema would eliminate the need for keyboarding practice time, adding to class time. The elimination of teaching keyboarding would represent a huge pedagogical shift for some, but it’s an idea schools and districts should explore because as human beings become more and more productive via mobile technology, how we interface with these devices matters. The faster and more accurately we can interface and transmit data to a device, the sooner we can do something else. continued on page 10
8 DataBus • Summer/Fall 2013
Keys to the Kingdon continued from page 8
Data input methods haven’t changed nearly as quickly as have the size of the devices, and until direct neural-net-to-computer interfaces become a reality, we’ll probably continue to use our fingers. Data input methods haven’t changed nearly as quickly as have the size of the devices, and until direct neural-net-tocomputer interfaces become a reality, we’ll probably continue to use our fingers. Of course there are technologies which recognize voices, eye motion, (and perhaps you can type with your toes) but for the lion’s share of our data input, we type with our fingers. We’ve been typing since the 1860s and with the exception of the blasphemous (and slightly faster) Dvorák keyboard, typing hasn’t changed much. Until now. The virtual keyboard is certainly a change in type, if not typing. The tactile sensation is removed in virtual keyboard (VKB) typing, and on many newer devices the keyboard itself can be programmed to be split, standard, include a number pad (or not), and the keys themselves can be rearranged if you like. The keyboard is becoming customizable and as commonplace as a wallet or pair of glasses. However, that doesn’t mean physical keyboards are going away. In fact, I submit that the predictions of the physical keyboard’s demise probably have equal weight with the predictions of the demise of the PC. We’ve been hearing that one for 20 years…yawn. So, which should we teach and encourage our students to use? Aren’t both important? When asked to write this article, I looked at studies, did some testing, consulted colleagues, and in this writer’s opinion the answer to that question is that there is no 10 DataBus • Summer/Fall 2013
perfect answer to that question. Like so many technology questions, the answer is determined by the environment and context in which it is asked. If you have grown up using the traditional tactile physical keyboard (PKB) you’re likely to find it difficult to generate content on a VKB with the same proficiency. I’ve not met the person yet who is equally as fast at both—but my (largely) anecdotal research indicates that students who are growing up using VKBs don’t experience the same frustration; and a few can type equally well on both. What I wasn’t able to find in the time I had to examine this issue is definitive research on the efficacy of PKBs versus VKBs. Under controlled tests with proficient participants, which keyboard would produce faster or more accurate results? I suspect that data will be coming shortly as keyboard cultures collide and the keyboard wars begin. However, it may not matter what those results are and here’s why: in our school district, for example, most students generate content on a traditional laptop or computer. Teaching them physical keyboarding skills in our case helps them get their assignments done better simply because that’s the interface 95 percent of them will use. If, however, your students use VKBs more often than not, then teaching them traditional PKB skills may inhibit them, because you’re ingraining muscle memory they then have to overcome to type
on a VKB. We could be doing them a disservice by teaching traditional PKB typing skills if, in fact, their academic environment is BYOD, or heavily encourages the use of VKBs on iPads, tablets, etc. Renee Ramig at Seven Hills School in Walnut Creek related to me that—somewhat by accident, and somewhat by necessity— their students migrated from traditional keyboarding skills to a “just type on what you type on” strategy and it has worked quite well. The teachers there are satisfied that, despite no longer teaching a PKB skillset, kids can turn in assignments with perfectly acceptable accuracy and timeliness, which freed up class time for teachers to focus on other subjects and leave the data entry methodology up to the students. Consider this as well: What is your school or district feeding into? Are your students likely to head into journalism and multimedia, and be expected to Tweet and keep up their companies’ Facebook page from the road? Will they likely move into real estate, sales, agriculture or other like industries in which tablet computing is growing? Or, do the industries in your area lean far more toward traditional keyboarding environments like health services, data entry, food service, and office environments? Those are some of the things we must ask ourselves and our local business leaders to get footing from which we can answer the question of, “Which should we teach?” Whatever we teach our students, in the end, they’re going to adapt to what they need to use when the time comes, and probably with frightening ease. Even an old, change-averse codger like me can learn—and is learning—the virtual keyboard; and the adaptability of kids is legendary. While we should do all in our power as technologists to weigh the factors affecting what we promote and teach, I have a feeling that no matter what we choose they’re going to be fine. The only real concern I have left is that, as we age, are we instilling enough weed eating skills in our youth to see us through our old age? Scott Mohr is the Technology Coordinator for the Chowchilla School District; a five-school district located in Central California. His super-powers included predicting holiday traffic patterns, and detecting frying bacon at great distances. He can be reached at mohrs@chowchillaelem.k12.ca.us.
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A Modern Presentation System
F By Rolland Kornblau
Today’s LCD TVs have more than enough connections; Coax, DVI, HDMI and VGA to connect a computer or tablet, but we decided to go wireless. For about $100, an Apple TV is a great way to bridge the connection from a computer or iOS device wirelessly to the TV.
or some time now, I have been struggling with projectors, document cameras, smartboards and laptops in the classroom when used as a presentation system. The total cost of said items can exceed $6,000 for hardware, and more when you factor in the cost of mounting the hardware and running the wires. Not to mention the trip hazard of connecting wires or hardware falling off of tables. All that and you still need some sort of hardware for sound. Maintenance of said equipment can also raise the cost. Some of the issues my district is experiencing; • Installation of new hardware and running cables is expensive. • Projectors need bulbs, filters and cleaning at least once a year, sometimes twice. • Smart boards need periodic calibration or the control boards go bad. • Document cameras fail or fall from tables due to cables getting pulled. There has to be a better solution. There is. My district will move forward with a 60-inch LCD TV, Apple TV and iPad. Now, before you say that everyone will be watching television in the classrooms, let me explain. We selected an LCD TV that is a 60-inch model, which is of reasonable cost considering current classroom screens are only 48 inches. It is larger, yet remains under $1,200, including a mounting bracket and mounting consists of four bolts in the wall. The location in the front of all of our classrooms has power, so there is nothing more to install. I didn’t have to go through DSA for a ceiling mount, nor am I worried about anything falling onto our students. We have eliminated the need to work before or after school hours to maintain the hardware as some projectors need to be removed from their mounts for cleaning or bulb and filter replacement. Televisions also have the benefit of built in sound. Today’s LCD TVs have more than enough connections; Coax, DVI, HDMI and VGA to connect a computer or tablet, but we decided to go wireless. For about $100, an Apple TV is a great way to bridge the connection from a computer or iOS device wirelessly to the TV. Other than connecting the Apple TV to the LCD via an HDMI cable and both to power, there are
12 DataBus • Summer/Fall 2013
no additional wires needed. I do like to connect the Apple TV to our network via an Ethernet cable, but it is not necessary as the Apple TV has Wifi built in. In addition, if the students have an iPad or new Apple laptop, they can also mirror their hardware to the LCD screen via the Apple TV. For computer hardware, we selected the iPad. While the iPad is not a direct replacement for a computer and was originally created for consumption, creation is becoming more prevalent in iOS with apps. The iPad is a very versatile piece of hardware that can be used for Internet, email attendance, pictures, and many other uses that expand daily. The use that closed the deal for this device was the built in camera when I realized that it could be used as a wireless document camera. Place the iPad on a stand (or dish rack for that matter) with anything underneath and you have an auto focusing stationary document camera or you can walk around the room, even outside, while broadcasting images wirelessly. Talk about flipping the classroom. Anyone in the room can simply showcase what they have done without relocating (or having to navigate) to the front of the classroom so the teacher is no longer the only presenter. The hardware wirelessly mirrors the device to the LCD. We have removed much of the maintenance, replaceable parts requirements and labor of doing so and all this for less than one-third of the cost. An added benefit is that this system can also grow in versatility as new software apps are added to the iPad. There are different solutions out there, but the ROI (return on investment) of these products working together is great. Rolland Kornblau is the Director of Technology for the Whittier City School District in Whittier, California. He has been in Educational Technology for over 15 years and holds an MPA. He is a CCTO, ACSA and TechSETS Advisory Committee member. A proud founding member of the Whittier Area Technology Leaders (WATL), he can be reached at rolland@whittiercity.net.
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CUE VIEW
Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards:
The Rise of Project-Based Learning
T By Dennis Deets
he City of San Diego City Council has determined that one of the biggest problems facing the city is the congestion at the San Diego International Airport. Students at High Tech High (HTH) work in small groups on short-range and long-range solutions to present to the city council. As part of their assessment, they will present their group’s proposals to actual members of the City Council, one or two civil engineers, a couple of city planners, their teachers and their peers. This was a project-based learning activity students were working on a few years ago at High Tech High in San Diego. They are now probably on to solving the Coronado Bridge problem or the Qualcomm Stadium issues. At the Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART) in Clovis, some groups of students were redesigning various floors of the Twin Towers so as to have better facilitated evacuation. The winners of local competitions were flown to New York City to compete in national competition. Other groups of students at CART were working with the local Park Rangers — think Yosemite — to nurse and raise injured ducks for reintegration into the park. These are some brilliant projects. And, for my money, the further we get from multiple-choice assessments, and the more we move towards authentic assessment, the more possible and viable projects like these will become typical for all students (not just those lucky enough to find themselves at HTH, CART, or other similar schools). So what do problems like these have to do with CCSS, NGSS, educational technology, and CTAP?
14 DataBus • Summer/Fall 2013
First, our new standards and especially our next generation assessments will expect students to be able to address issues at the Webb’s Depth of Knowledge Levels 3 (strategic thinking) and 4 (extended thinking). In short, students will need to be able to provide good answers, good arguments, and creative solutions to open-ended problems. One of the most difficult things I have to do is helping educators identify open-ended questions. Somehow “right answer” and school have been joined at the hip for so long that it is very difficult to break this bond. But, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), and project-based learning (PBL) will all help us move in the direction of providing solutions to problems that do not have or at least do not yet have “right” answers. Secondly, in most cases, technology is now our own portable research library. Once we start working on problems that do not yet have solutions, we will need to do research in areas that are not nearly as well defined as those in which the answers are already known. When you ask, “Who killed President Lincoln?” you know which materials to provide for students to be able to find the answer. When you ask for a short-term solution to the congestion problem at San Diego International Airport, it is not so clear which materials and which information will be needed. Our teaching responsibility will move away from providing the right information to students to teaching them how to find the information that is relevant to their solutions. continued on page 16
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Most teachers learned how to do research in school, college, at their graduate university, and now at the dinner table at night when their spouse says something that they think might not be all that factually correct. (Yes, I can no longer make up facts at the dinner table.) But CTAP and CUE are experts at helping teachers better facilitate research in their classrooms, and in their PBL labs.
Fourthly, at least one-third of coming up with good solutions to PBL activities is in communicating one’s solution to one’s peers, to the community, and to whoever is assessing, and eventually paying for, the work. My father used to tell me, when hiring aerospace engineers for NASA from a pool of mostly MIT and Cal Tech grads, “They all have good ideas. They are all competent aerospace engineers. I hire the
candidates that can communicate their good ideas to others and work with others on projects that cannot be done in isolation.” Modern technology has profoundly changed the way we communicate. (I hope I do not need an argument here.) It is imperative that we help students leverage the technology that they know how to use and teach them those that they are not already familiar with to better communicate both their solutions to complex problems and perhaps even more importantly, to communicate the next set of problems that we have not even identified yet. So, PBL is good. CCSS is good. SBAC is good. NGSS is good. All will help move our educational institution into the 21st century. I want to give a very short caveat here, though. One thing we learned back in the College Preparatory Math (CPM) days (I bring this up because the end-of-unit activities in CPM — while not fully PBL — were pretty nice at helping students develop open ended problem-solving skills) was that asking students to solve problems without providing adequate instruction was not always the best way to go. There is a huge amount of instruction that needs to go into a student’s knowledge base before they can even grapple with problems like redesigning skyscraper floors or raising ducks. PBL, CCSS and NGSS are not asking that we stop teaching DOK levels 1 (recall) and 2 (skill/ concept) skills. These are necessary! But they are not sufficient for being adequately prepared for the modern world. Instead, we are asking that our students aspire to so much more than being able to identify the correct words, phrases, or numbers on multiple choice assessment. Dennis Deets is the Director of the Educational Options Center in the Riverside Unified School District, which includes the Riverside Virtual School. Before moving to the EOC last month, he was the Statewide CTAP Chair. He has worked in the education field for the past 28 years. Dennis worked as a high school principal and high school math teacher. When not working on online education, Dennis spends his time reading, swimming and walking his dogs. He can be reached at dennisdeets@gmail.com. This article first appeared in the Fall, 2013 issue of OnCUE, the journal for ComputerUsing Educators, Inc.
16 DataBus • Summer/Fall 2013
Dreaming of a Professional Development Analytics System
T By Matt Penner
his will be a different article than what you might be used to reading. This isn’t an article on the incredible changing world we live in, the tidal wave of technology that we’re either riding on or getting swept away with, nor is it an article giving pointers on a recent complex implementation. Rather, this is an article in search of a solution, because we don’t have one yet.
So, What Is the Problem? In order to set the stage, I’m going to give you a brief account of what brought this to our attention. Recently we had an incident (or rather a recurring incident) where a school site staff member was repeatedly not carrying out various tasks, specifically concerning our
Student Information System (SIS). Often IT would only find out after the problem had occurred. Many times it was critical enough that we had to stop everything to correct the issue, including even resorting to migrating some data directly in SQL as a sensitive deadline for a procedure in our SIS had been missed. As you might imagine, this caused a bit of a political issue since the principal incorrectly assumed IT was at fault. We politely informed him that these were actually standard functions performed by the site and their staff member was the one at fault. Things were looking to get a little tense. However, what happened next surprised me. After talking with his staff, the principal found out that they were never trained for these new responsibilities. They had recently continued on page 18 Summer/Fall 2013 • DataBus 17
been transferred from a larger high school site where those duties were performed by someone else. How could I argue with that? I honestly couldn’t, but it did bring up a whole host of other questions. When discussing this with my staff, it turns out that, for the most part, all job-related functions are taught to new staff by their colleagues at their location. Teachers are largely trained by our teacher techs, specific teachers that have the technical ability and rapport with their peers to be our extension of IT on the front lines, if you will. Unfortunately there is no such core group to assist non-teacher staff members. Usually at the beginning of the year, various groups are trained on their responsibilities, but this doesn’t help newly transferred individuals or new hires. Hmm…not good. OK, so now I realized our district had no training plan in place for new non-teaching staff, who are in critical roles that directly affect the success of the school. This lack also heavily impacts IT and has the potential to create personal conflict. This wasn’t satisfactory to me, because it means that IT is the de facto trainer when our help desk line rings with a frantic person on the other end. We are called upon only after something has already gone wrong! This is not very proactive and it fosters a lack of confidence among staff by almost guaranteeing failure each time a new task is attempted.
What is the Fix? Let me clarify what I’m aiming to talk about in this article. While IT is not the first department someone thinks of when developing a professional development model, I pride ourselves
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18 DataBus • Summer/Fall 2013
on efficiency and we love databases. I think we could provide a set of specialized resources for this problem. I’ll leave the actual implementation strategy to another discussion. There are many ways to train staff whether it is in person, documentation stored in a knowledgebase, training packets, online videos, etc. However, I have yet to find much information regarding the first step: identifying what training is required and by whom. This is the topic this article is about. Finding a way to efficiently identify what training is required, ensure the right staff are targeted and provide individualized instruction. In essence, ensure the user is trained on exactly what they need without wasting their time. This isn’t just about new hires. I’m thinking of a solution that would allow us to determine gaps when a user changes roles and train them on just those items. When upgrading software or changing a process, we could easily update those tasks affected and inform those individuals who actually perform those duties. Lastly, if we had processes or roles that we would like to ensure our staff were frequently refreshed on we could identify anyone with those roles, no matter what position they held. Lastly, it would be nice to actually somehow determine the impact of our professional development. Did they retain what they learned? Was our help desk staff volume impacted? What training strategy was used the most by staff such as static documents, video, in person, online courses, etc?
Introduction of Professional Development Analytics I’m going to call this system something like Professional Development Analytics. That has far-reaching connotations, but I aim to take it there and there may be a series of articles on this someday hopeful solution. Initially though, we need to identify what training is required and by whom as the first step towards solving this dilemma. This summer, I will be working with some of my staff, HR and individuals in the district to start mapping out responsibilities and roles that may involve the use of technology. We also have a wealth of information in our help desk ticketing system about the common functions performed, generated by the many help tickets from staff as they get into trouble their first few times around (no training, remember?). I believe that if we could break up each common process into its smallest basic form then we could offer a single set of steps required. This would be referred to as a task. These would be small discrete processes, such as opening up a grading window. This example, in and of itself, is really only a few steps, but it does require knowledge of the SIS and the time frames when this needs to occur. This could easily be encapsulated in a five- minute video or document, or a portion of a larger in person training agenda. While many of my examples are geared towards teachers, we have documented common procedures frequently requested by non-teaching staff as well, such as a simple mail merge. There could be literally over hundreds of these individual tasks, from simple actions like taking attendance to more complex procedures like creating a master schedule. Each one of these would be identified in our training system. Higher level tasks would depend on knowledge of lower level tasks. For instance, adding an assignment to a grade book would require knowledge of how to initially set up a grade book with students. In these cases, higher level tasks would have their dependent lower level tasks identified.
Next, we would need to identify roles and those tasks that each role would be expected to perform. For instance, a discipline data role may entail all the tasks required, such as entering data, running reports, sending out SARB letters, etc. Finally, we would need to find out which job positions are responsible for which roles. This needs to take their locations into account. For instance, a principal and a secretary at an elementary school may take on several roles ranging from discipline to scheduling students, which might be spread among several different individuals at a larger high school where assistant principals and counselors are available. In addition, at our district, several individuals of the same position may have different roles based on their competency or the trust level of the principal.
There are many ways to train staff whether it is in person, documentation stored in a knowledgebase, training packets, online videos, etc. However, I have yet to find much information regarding the first step: identifying what training is required and by whom.
Does Such a Solution Exist? First I scoured our HR department and other resources only to find that the system we have barely provides more than a list of training videos and documents and tracks who has clicked on them. The content in that system is targeted mostly towards food service and security staff. It does not have the capacity to do anything more. So, loving the value of our CETPA organization, I emailed the listserv describing our need and asked if anyone had something like this. I got a few replies from members saying they would love to hear about what I find, but unfortunately no referrals towards a solution. Large companies or highly regulated organizations probably have a system in place. This is just screaming of large scale HR or ERP systems, none of which we use or have the funding for. So, in the end, I’ve identified the need and am on the hunt. Please give any feedback if you have any ideas or know of some possibilities. I was a software developer in my previous life (still moonlighting when I close my door and turn off my phone) so I’ll be looking for open-source solutions that we can contribute to. As we work towards solving this issue, I’ll keep my colleagues in CETPA informed and perhaps will write a future article, hopefully with a happy ending. Matt Penner is the Director of Information and Instructional Technology, CCTO, for the Val Verde School District. He can be reached at mpenner@valverde.edu.
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Summer/Fall 2013 • DataBus 19
NetEqualizer Helps Prioritize Network Traffic
A By Rick Jex
Regardless of how great a teacher or librarian’s classroom management is there will always be a little Johnny in the back of the library streaming YouTube of the latest music video.
s K-12 schools in California begin shifting to a new model of learning that is heavily reliant upon the Internet, this places pressures on IT directors to develop methods that ensure equal Internet access for all. By properly designing a network utilizing traditional VLANs (virtual local area network), and QOS (quality of service) as well as with smart networking tools like NetEqualizer from AP Connections, a school district can prioritize their network traffic based on a plethora of policies. Traditionally IT networks in K-12 schools have been straightforward with one network, consisting of district owned staff computers, student computers and district servers. What the EDTech community has seen over the past 12 years is an emergence of wireless-access points and the transition from desktops to laptops for students and teachers. Within the past four years specifically, K-12 schools have been and continue to be undergoing a transition, from wired networks to wireless internet access, anywhere, anytime on any device. With this transition, it is imperative that district administrators place a priority on adequately staffing an IT department with skilled IT professionals and an adequate budget to support all aspects of technology, not just purchasing laptops and throwing them into classrooms with little forethought to infrastructure and implementation. Likewise, IT
20 DataBus • Summer/Fall 2013
administrators need to take a close look at their infrastructure and determine how they are going to handle the ever-increasing load on their networks; how they plan to protect critical infrastructure communications, data and privacy, all while ensuring there is enough Internet bandwidth for every student, teacher, administrator and device. Regardless of how great a teacher or librarian’s classroom management is there will always be a little Johnny in the back of the library streaming YouTube of the latest music video. They may be working in another tab actively engaged on their lesson, but that music video may very well be eating bandwidth that the teacher next door needs to have for their lesson, causing that teacher’s pages to load slow, videos to buffer and programs not to load correctly. Multiply this by a few different students around the district and suddenly the entire Internet within that district comes to a crawl and legitimate lessons, teaching and learning all become disrupted. For many reasons, traditional VLANs and QOS are great. It allows you to separate out your staff, students, VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) and now BYOD (bring your own device) networks and give the traffic different priorities, such as VOIP highest, then staff, students and BYOD networks; along with the ability to set up simple access lists that prevent communication from one virtual
network to another. This traffic segregation ensures personal student devices do not interact with district owned servers, severely reducing the risk of data compromise by viruses and other malware that may be on personal devices. Although VLANs and QOS solve the issue of traffic separation and priority for security and reliability, separating out the network traffic does not solve the problem of equalizing the Internet bandwidth, it only helps for security and reliability. One potential solution I discovered during my research and planning for BYOD implementation is a product known as NetEqualizer from AP Connections. This product takes it one-step further by sitting as a bridge between your Internet connection and your main network, actively monitoring all Internet traffic. When your Internet bandwidth reaches a specific threshold, say 85 percent utilization, the device already knows who is using the most bandwidth and automatically begins throttling those users down based on a set of pre-defined policies determined by the Network Administrator. Because the policies are customizable, a different set of policies can be set for different users, VLANs and specific devices. For example, the device can be configured to throttle down students who are utilizing an excessive amount of bandwidth but not throttle down teachers who may be streaming videos. Therefore, Internet availability and reliable speeds would be improved for active users as well as provide new Internet connections to other potential users. Nevertheless, in order for any of this to happen, it requires district leadership placing a higher priority on obtaining an adequately skilled and staffed information technology department that is not consistently reactive, but proactive; an IT department that is able to think, design and implement new concepts as technology and education become more fused together. î Ž
By properly designing a network utilizing VLANs and QOS, as well as smart networking tools, a school district can prioritize their network traffic.
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Rick Jex is the Director of Information Technology at Riverdale Joint Unified School District and can be reached at rjex@rjusd.edu.
Summer/Fall 2013 • DataBus 21
ERATE UPDATE
Erate 2.0: President Announces Support
H By Fred Brakeman
ow many times have you heard me say, “The only thing constant about Erate is that Erate is constantly changing.” Well, after several years of lobbying the FCC to put more money into the Erate program, it appears that not just the FCC has listened to our concerns but President Obama has thrown his support to increase the funding for Erate as well. On June 6, 2013, President Obama held a press conference and announced his support of the program and said, “We are living in a digital age, and to help our students get ahead, we must make sure they have access to cutting edge technology.” His plan is to connect 99 percent of America’s students, through next-generation broadband (at speeds no less than 100Mbps and with a target of 1Gbps) and high-speed wireless within their schools and libraries. For more information, visit, www.whitehouse.gov/sites/ default/files/docs/connected_fact_sheet.pdf Early indications are that some of the FCC commissioners are in favor of (1) enhancing the program, and; (2) increasing the funding as well. Since Erate is only one of four federal programs that receive monies from the FCC, the FCC has some discretion on how much money they can allocate between the four programs. In years past, the FCC has given Erate $2.25 billion dollars annually and three years ago they also put a C.O.L.A. on the program plus rollover monies from previous years that never got spent. It is rumored that the FCC could increase the funding for the Erate program up to $4.5 billion dollars per year. It’s important to note that President Obama is looking to do something much more comprehensive than just increasing the Erate program and the services that are paid for under Erate. He anticipates that funds could possibly flow from the U.S. Department of Education and the private sector as well. The three parts of his plan are: Upgraded Connectivity – Within five years to have high speed connectivity to 99 percent of all schools and libraries nationwide at speeds no less than 100Mbps with a target of 1Gbps. Trained Teachers – Ensure that every educator in America receives support and training to use technology to help improve student outcomes. Build on Private-Sector Innovation – Allow our students and teachers to take full advantage of feature-rich educational devised that are increasingly price-competitive with basic textbooks and high quality software providing content aligned with college- and career-ready standards being adopted and implemented by States across America. So, where does this leave us now as we start the planning process for the 2014-2015 Erate filing year? Unfortunately, it is difficult to say. For a change this large, the FCC would have to put out a Notice for Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), which is a somewhat lengthy process that includes a public comments period and then the FCC to send out new rules. Most likely, while we expect that the NPRM will have been published and released before
22 DataBus • Summer/Fall 2013
the release of this CETPA DataBus edition, they won’t rule on this matter until 2014 at the earliest. That being said, how do you plan for Year 2014? For the first time, for this current Erate funding year (2013-2014), Priority One funding requests alone exceeded the $2.25 billion dollar cap, which means that it’s in doubt if any 90 percent Priority Two funding requests will be funded this year. They do have enough money to fully fund all Priority One funding requests. Because there has been a huge jump in Priority One funding requests year over year for the last several years, most likely there won’t be enough money to fund all of the Year 2014 Priority One funding requests. If that happens, the FCC will have to deal with the issue of deciding how to allocate the available Erate dollars to all of those Priority One requests that came in. But, if the FCC significantly increases the size of the Erate fund, there will be money available for Priority Two requests and my dire warnings below will go away.
Here are a couple of suggestions: • Plan for the worst but prepare for the best. • If you plan (and budget) to do the projects anyway, then why not apply for Erate funding? • Don’t apply for any more services than you need to keep costs down for now and the immediate future. • Both for Priority One and Priority Two services, we have found you can significantly drive down the cost of your services if you prepare a RFP and aggressively publicize your RFP. • Make sure your contracts have a provision that (1) you can cancel the project if you lose your Erate funding, or; (2) or at least have the ability to renegotiate with your service provider a lesser service if your Erate funding is denied completely or reduced to make sure you don’t have to pay early termination fees, • Have a fallback plan. • Start lobbying your congressmen now to put pressure on the FCC to increase the size of the Erate program! Fred Brakeman is President of Infinity Communications & Consulting, Inc, a full-service consulting firm including Erate/CTF and Microsoft Ed Tech K-12 consulting, technology design services, and low voltage construction management and inspection services serving approximately 22 percent of all the school districts and county offices of education in California. Infinity Communications & Consulting is located in Bakersfield, California with field offices in Hollywood, Fresno and Emeryville. He can be reached at fbrakeman@infinitycomm.com, office phone (661) 716-1840, or via mail at P.O. Box 6069, Bakersfield, Calif. 93386. Please visit www.infinitycomm.com. Infinity is a proud member of the E-rate Management Professional’s Association and is Mr. Brakeman is currently serving as the EMPA President of the Board of Directors.
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MEMBER PROFILE
DataBus Chats with Julie By Lisa Kopochinski, DataBus Editor
Judd
What are your responsibilities as chief technology officer for the Ventura Unified School District? I understand that previously you were director of technology for the Moorpark School District. As of May 3, I no longer work for Moorpark Unified. I accepted the chief technology officer position for Ventura Unified. However, with both positions I am responsible for technology leadership including recommending and purchasing hardware and software, facilitating curriculum alignment, managing technology staff, etc. How long have you been in the computer industry? I’m not in the computer industry. I’m in the education industry. I began my teaching career in 1984 as an elementary general music teacher. Since that time, I taught middle school band for a total of 15 years and high school band for 10 years. During my last teaching job, beginning in 1996, our school had no computers. I partnered with a language arts teacher whose husband worked for the Navy. Long story short, we wrote grants, partnered with the Navy consultants, built a network on NT, bought computers and built our first lab. I became an active member of the district technology team, began taking classes to fill in my gaps of knowledge, became a CTAP mentor and slowly transitioned from being a full-time music teacher to half-time band and half-time technology. In 2008, I was hired as the director of technology for Moorpark Unified.
24 DataBus • Summer/Fall 2013
What drew you to the industry? What do you like most about it? I was originally drawn to technology from a need to have a computer. In 1996, the only computers at our school site were in the front office for management duties. I had moved to California from Florida, where technology was provided for our classrooms, and when I was hired in Southern California, I had no computer! I couldn’t fathom doing my job without the use of a computer. Through the process of developing the network for our site and building our first Gateway Cow Lab, I discovered that I possessed an aptitude for problem solving (not unlike the rehearsal techniques used in band rehearsals) and grasped the concepts quickly. W hat do I like about educational technology? I enjoy the differentiation technology provides learners. I enjoy watching creative thinking, critical thinking, collaborative thinking and learning happening at all levels. I believe that the use of technological devices increases the capacity for learning as there are so many options for every person and adaptive technologies fills in the gaps and levels the playing field. When did you join CETPA and why? I joined CETPA in 2008 when I began my career in technology leadership. As a condition of employment, I was strongly encouraged to participate in the CTO Mentor Program offered through CETPA. I attended my first conference in 2008 and was chosen to participate in the 2009 CTO Mentor Cohort. My affiliation with CETPA has been a
very positive experience and has helped me develop professional relationships allowing me to grow personally and professionally. The CTO Mentor Program was my first foray in the study of leadership, which ultimately inspired me to continue my education in the area of organizational leadership. Where does CETPA need to grow? Legislative advocacy…We need to be at the table helping to shape the future of education in California. What is the greatest challenge facing the industry and how can it be overcome? In my opinion, the greatest challenge currently is the paradigm shift occurring in education with the transition to Common Core State Standards and the Smarter Balanced computer adaptive assessment. I don’t believe that policy makers, and often educational leadership, completely understand the scope of the change needed to successfully navigate the CCSS and SBAC computer adaptive testing. Twenty-first century learning requires the collaboration of technology and instruction with everyone working toward the same goal. What do you like to do in your spare time? In my spare time, I am the conductor of a local community concert band, play trumpet in a British Brass band. I’m currently working on my dissertation for my doctoral degree in organizational leadership through Pepperdine University. I play golf and ping pong and love to work in my yard or read a good book.
President’s Message continued from page 6
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training, but truly personalized learning. The level of differentiation we seek for our students must be available to staff as well for us to be successful. All of these changes depend on a strong infrastructure backbone. Articles in this issue provide solutions to maximize Erate dollars and bandwidth, even as resources are limited and policy shifts are eminent. Whatever decisions you have to make
this year, whatever changes you are leading, whatever challenges you face, I hope that you find this issue of the DataBus tremendously helpful. And, if you find yourself still struggling to find a clear path, you can never go wrong with a magic wand. Enjoy the fall and we will see you at the Annual Conference this November!
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Resource Guide & Advertiser’s Index CONTROLLER LESS WI-FI - LESS HARDWARE - MORE VALUE
Aerohive
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Neuxpower Solutions Ltd. 44(0)2074248700 neuxpower.com
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Smartetools
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Vector Resources, Inc. (800) 929-4516 www.vectorusa.com
Please see our ad on page................................................................... 15 NETWORK SOLUTIONS & SERVERS & PC SOLUTIONS
Sehi Computer Products, Inc. (800) 346-6315 www.sehi.com
Please see our ad on page................................................................... 19 OPERATIONS SOFTWARE
SchoolDude.com
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Edupoint Educational Systems (800) 338-7646 www.edupoint.com
Please see our ad on page..................................................................... 4 Infinite Campus, Inc.
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Please see our ad on page..................................................................... 3 TURNKEY TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS AND CURRICULUM INTEGRATION
IVS Computer Technology
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Tools4ever
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Please see our ad on page................................................................... 13 WEB DESIGN HOSTING
Interactive Educational Services, Inc. (877) 495-3276 www.cyberschool.com
Please see our ad on page..................................................................... 9 WIRELESS LAN
Ruckus Wireless
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Please see our ad on page................................................................... 21 AD INDEX
Aerohive............................................................................................. 23 Decotech.............................................................................................. 7 Eagle Software...................................................................................... 2 Edupoint Educational Systems.............................................................. 4 Infinite Campus, Inc.............................................................................. 3 Infinity Communications & Consulting............................................... 21
SOLUTIONS PROVIDER
Interactive Educational Services, Inc.................................................... 9
Decotech
IVS Computer Technology................................................... Back Cover
(800) 597-0757 www.decotech.com
Please see our ad on page..................................................................... 7 NWN
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Please see our ad on page................................................................... 11 STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Eagle Software
(888) 487-7555 www.aeries.com
Please see our ad on page..................................................................... 2 Sungard Public Sector
(866) 965-7732 www.sungard.com/K-12
Please see our ad on page................................................................... 27
26 DataBus • Summer/Fall 2013
Neuxpower Solutions Ltd.................................................................. 25 NWN.................................................................................................. 11 Ruckus Wireless.................................................................................. 21 SchoolDude.com................................................................................ 16 Sehi Computer Products, Inc............................................................. 19 Smartetools........................................................................................ 18 Sungard Public Sector......................................................................... 27 Tools4ever.......................................................................................... 13 Vector Resources, Inc......................................................................... 15
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