Classroom Management & Technology

• Productivity - It's MS Office vs. Open Office, and you have to have one. MS is typically $50/PC, but let's say they change their model to $15/PC to keep Open away.
• Security - Beyond anti virus, you have DyKnow Monitor for app and URL blocking to focus the classroom and Computrace for anti-theft outside of class, each ~ $10/PC.
• Creativity - Apps like Inspiration or Adobe's Digital School Collection are great, but I don't believe the cost will get below $25/PC even if they change their biz models. 

Last week I was in Seattle presenting at the Intel/HP Digital Learning Environments hands-on event, but I also got the opportunity to visit two very different, but very transformational schools. Both schools have 1:1 laptops for teachers and students, but that wasn't the focus for either school.

First I visited Kent School District in southeast Seattle. I got to visit several 7th grade classrooms. Two classes included kids sitting on the floor in small groups in discussion and classroom activities. One class was creating collaborative presentations that included songs, charts, and games to reinforce their main points. Both teachers regularly encourage this type of group work, sometimes with or without the computers. Sure, the laptops allow the means to streaming music, Internet information, and Excel, but it wasn't about the laptop. It did it feel like it was artificially injected into the classroom; rather it was a natural part of learning. A lot of this has to do with the attitudes of the two great teachers in that they have traded out the "sage on the stage" teacher-centric model for one that puts students into the mix as content creators. Superintendent Barbara Grohe reinforced this in her keynote at the DLE event the next day by retelling a Semour Papert metaphor for educational change. Congrats to the district for having the vision and classroom technology plan to support this type of relevant teaching and learning!

On Friday, I headed to Capital Hill to visit a school very different from Kent, but just as effective: Seattle Academy of Arts & Sciences. Academic technologist Vicki Butler was my apt tour guide, and it quickly became apparent how the school supports learning. For example, I was surprised to find out that admission is not heavily weighted on SAT scores, but rather the creative potential of the student and what he can give back to the community. The result is a much more diverse student population with less of a pressurized performance-based culture. This encourages intellectual curiosity, creativity, and trying new things. And oh, by the way, there is a required laptop program for grades 9-12, as well as some interactive whiteboards and the most successfully integrated use of Moodle LMS I have ever seen. In fact, it was almost as if they thought laptops were not really that special - more like an expectation or a required tool like crayons are for 1st graders! I digress - the point is that the classroom technology really blended into the background because of student-centric learning, what the school calls a performance culture. As a musician myself, I see how this idea fits nicely with the arts focus, but I think SAAS can take other schools to school with this concept. Read more about SAAS from a more famous ed tech visitor, David Warlick.
 

Since budgets are tighter, funding technology is not an easy task today. But can schools afford NOT to continue to innovate and invest in tools that make learning more efficient, relevant, and effective? It's a tough job for the district CIO.

Some suburban districts I work with that have successfully invested in teaching technology and classroom software on a broad scale have done it primarily through levies that generate tax revenue for capital purchases. This funding allows for an outright purchase of hardware, but not all communities are receptive to levies.

Most other schools, in fact, are stuck with annual operating budgets and occasional grant awards. This funding environment seems like a good fit for leasing technology, but in working with our partners, I hear that many districts have policies against entering into a lease.

Next week I'm speaking with a leader at a notable private lease company who works with many schools with laptop mandate programs. I'm curious to hear about the funding environment and how we can work together to convince schools that leasing may be the ticket to putting relevant technology in the hands of teachers and students without breaking the bank.

What do you think?

1:1 computing, the idea of every student having a laptop in the classroom, has gone mainstream. I read today that, according to Tom Greaves of the ADS Report, 27% of school districts currently have a 1:1 computing project and 13% more plan to start one in the next couple years. Wow, that's almost half our public schools! Traditionally the private K12 schools have led the charge with required student laptop programs, and at DyKnow we work with many of them. However, for the past 7-10 years, our partner, Intel, has been aggressively promoting ubiquitous computing to state governments with the goal of keeping US students competitive with technology skills in the global economy. Intel has also helped by creating a low cost mini laptop spec that is now being OEMd by major computer suppliers. Other suppliers have their own versions of laptops with 7-10" screens. I heard a couple months ago that one California district purchased 10,000 HP Minis for students. While the technology may be here, I wonder if teachers are ready for the shift in teaching and learning strategies required to appropriately leverage this technology. In my experience, most do not have the classroom management skills or student-centric learning plans to create a collaborative classroom with 1:1 technology. At DyKnow, we are intersted in helping teachers. I'll tell you more about this soon.