Should schools privatize technology?

photo © 2011 Michael Coghlan | more info (via: Wylio)
The annual Beaufort County Budget War is about to begin and this year's battle looks to be a near fight to the death if you believe the political rhetoric that is flying around the press and local blogs. Each year the school district has to submit its budget for the coming fiscal year to the Beaufort County Council for its approval. It seems the councilmen and women always kick the buget back to the school board with two words in big bold red letters: CUT IT! Despite the rhetoric, a compromise that will please no one will eventually be reached because both groups of politicians don't want to actually kill public education with an election year coming up. However, the reality is that school districts do need to look at what they need to fund and possibly cut. One thing that has not been mentioned too much, yet, is technology. There is a lot of people screaming that schools should be privatize, which would be a mistake, so they could run more efficiently. South Carolina Governor Nicki Haley wants to privatize school buses, another mistake based on my experience as a soccer coach. So why not get schools out of the technology business? How could education technology be privatized so school districts can save a few bucks?

1. Take Google up on their offer for Chrome netbooks: Google wants to get their new cloud-based photo © 2010 Jamal Fanaian | more info (via: Wylio)
   operating system into the mainstream by offering schools a sweet deal. For $20 monthly subscription, each student would receive his or her own netbook running the Chrome operating system with all of the software added on. Even better, the subscription also includes all hardware and software upgrades. With this deal you could possibly cut down your Instructional Technology staff and forget having to purchase software such as Microsoft Office per user. There are potential savings of thousands of dollars there alone. Would schools be willing to switch to Google Docs and other cloud-based applications? Some computers would be needed to do tasks such as MAP testing or other assessments. However, if schools actually jump on these deals the NWEA would migrate over to Chrome just to keep its customers. The school wireless network would also have to be maintained or even strengthened because if it goes down the netbooks don't work.
2. Cloud-based applications: If schools don't want to get into bed with Google totally they could keep their computers and just go with the cloud-based applications. The savings would be in software alone because the computers would need people to service them as in-house or contracted technology staff. Also, networks would need to be larger to allow the machines to work or at least go to the Internet for the applications.
3. Open-source: Similar to cloud-based because it can be had for next to nothing. Even the operating system, Linux would be open-sourced. While this sounds good on paper, it can be a nightmare trying to support on network systems. I have seen one open-sourced software disappoint students when they tried to run it on the network system. Flashing screens come up as the computer crashes. This would require more staff to service and maintain the network and we are not talking security issues here.
4. Parents provide the equipment: Maybe it is time for schools to tell parents they may have to purchase either computers or mobile devices and let the schools save those hardware and software costs. All the schools have to provide is the Internet as they would in the Google Chrome deal. Actually, schools could entice AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint to put up towers near the schools so the devices could receive a 3G or 4G signal and schools don't need the Internet that much. Just a small network for services. Of course the telcos would have to have an education plan for all that data being photo © 2010 Yutaka Tsutano | more info (via: Wylio)
   used. or they could setup wifi hotspots. All maintenance would be the responsibility of the parents who would make sure their children take care of those expensive devices. All the schools would do is require hardware and software standards each student brings whether it is tablets or netbooks. Schools could just upload textbooks so students would have them. The textbooks would delete themselves at the end of the school year. Some might say classroom management would be a nightmare.

Well here are some options for Instructional Technology to do its part for cutting school budgets while providing quality education experiences for students. While some of these ideas might work, each one is not a magic bullet to save education. Would schools be better off passing technology to outside parties? If you have any other ideas to save money through technology I am all ears.

SCETV is more than ferrets

photo © 2006 Sarah Marriage | more info (via: Wylio)
This past week I had the pleasure to give two presentations at the South Carolina Educational Television Spring Teacher Technology Workshop.  Teachers from across the Palmetto State come to Columbia to learn technology skills that will help them grow as educators and look for new ways to improve classroom instruction. For many teachers these workshops are the only way they are able to get any technology training. Some districts are so focused on giving priority to training that will help get test scores up. Other districts have spent lots of money on technology but failed to budget enough money for training or had to cut that part budget to save money. You have to applaud these teachers for taking their own time to better themselves. Unfortunately, more budget cuts at the state and even federal levels may may eliminate these workshops and the other valuable educational related services provided by SCETV. These are the things the majority of South Carolinians do not see. Unfortunately, when many people (and legislators) look at SCETV they only see Barney, Big Bird, and ferrets.

Ferrets? Barney, yes even if many adults want to do evil things to that unfailingly cherry dinosaur. What adult has not grown up learning how to count and recognize letters by watching Sesame Street? But ferrets? Yes, ferrets. A recent Facebook discussion I was privy to started when someone criticized SCETV of wasting taxpayer money because of a show about ferrets. The discussion became somewhat heated as those for and against SCETV weighed in on the topic. Here is a newsflash, the ferret program was not paid for by taxpayers. It was paid for by donors and foundations which includes individuals who may only give maybe $20 or corporations who may give millions. What the taxpayers pay for, according to an SCETV brochure, includes the network’s infrastructure such as towers, transmitters, buildings, and employees to make it all work. What the brochure did not mention is the many other things SCETV does that is not seen on regularly scheduled television and radio programing. So I thought I would mention a few of the SCETV programs do to help schools and teachers besides the technology workshops that most people outside of education did not know existed.

Teacher training: While I have already mentioned the technology workshops SCETV puts on twice a year, SCETV has two trainers who crisscross the state giving workshops to schools and various educational conferences. The dynamic duo of Debbie Jarrett and Donna Thompson work tirelessly to show teachers how to use the tools SCETV provides teachers to make instruction more informative and enjoyable for students. Debbie and Donna not only talk about SCETV services they also teach teachers how to use technology tools such as Microsoft Movie Maker, Photostory, podcasting, and other media creation tools to create digital storytelling projects. They are so good at their job, in a legendary tale, they went into a training session and did not know it was about the new Movie Maker Live but did not miss a beat as they showed how to make it work. For a private trainer to come and do the same thing it would cost $200 per hour or more.

ETV Streamline: This has to be one of the best things for teachers by far. This site has thousands of hours of free programing for teachers to copy and use in the classroom. Lesson plans with assessments can be created using the site and the programing is broken into clips so time is not wasted watching parts of a program that is not relative to a lesson. Students can access these clips for viewing at home and take online assessments. In my opinion this is a very underutilized tool in a teacher’s toolbox. If private companies provided this service they would charge each school thousands of dollars for this content. Actually, they may not want any copying of video due to piracy concerns.

Media Share: This is part of Streamline that is so good it deserves its own mention. Teachers and students can create and share online any media they create for viewing only by other Streamline members. This provides security for students if they produce audio or video projects for school. Teachers can select who can see the media such as school, district, state, or national. This is a great resource for sharing great teaching ideas or developing training materials that are school or district specific. There is YouTube and it has great content but do we really want to send students looking around there?

KnowItAll: A web portal for K-12 students, teachers, and parents to search the Internet safely. This includes appropriate videos, games, curriculum, assessment tools, websites recommended by the South Carolina Department of Education and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. There are other web portals out there but to make money they collect Internet surfing data to sell to marketers or do outright advertising.

OneplaceSC.org: This SCETV site brings all of the SCETV Internet offerings for educators into one easy to remember place. All of the resources I mentioned above are only a click away and I only have to remember one website to visit. Definitely worth its weight in gold.

Discovery Educator Network: Here is a great example of public and private working together and depending on each other. DEN is a network of teachers who collaborate and share instructional ideas with each other about technology, media, and other practices used in the classroom. SCETV promotes its services and hosts events for DEN teachers to gather and share ideas face to face. There was such a meeting at the technology workshop where member teachers showed off their favorite technology gadgets, websites, or ideas in a fun “American Idol” type forum. I came away with some ideas to use in my class and items on my wish list. DEN also has the Star Educator program which is a network of teachers who conduct trainings at their school or district on using Streamline or other Discovery services. SCETV provides help and ideas to assist this special group of technology savvy teachers.

There are more services SCETV provides to educators and other groups as well such awareness of our natural resource but there is only so much time and space to list them all. If people would get past the ferrets and could see what SCETV does for the schools alone the taxpayers of South Carolina would see they are getting a bargain. Of course there is great programing on the channels too and it is not all about ferrets. Speaking of ferrets, I like ferrets and wished I had seen the program. My son had two ferrets and they provided our family many hours of entertainment as we watched them play around the house. Ferrets need love too and I am glad SCETV was there to provide it!

And the winner is?

There were four movies that stood out in my mind about education in 2010: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, The Social Network, True Grit, and The King's Speech. These movies had a common theme that did not jump out until I started thinking about them as a whole. In each of these movies the main characters were able to do extraordinary achievements without the traditional education, credentials, or certifications one would expect of such people. Is our media sending out a signal that education as we know it is no longer necessay? Let me explain.

True Grit: while Rooster Cogborn was a Federal Marshal, he did not have the benefit of law enforcement training. His skill came by experience and not all of it as a law abiding citizen. Marshal Cogburn could be forgiven since there was no such thing as law enforcement training just after the American Civil War. However, the character that impressed me was 15-year old Mattie Ross. This young lady, without a high school diploma much less a college degree, was able to skillfully negotiate business deals with more experienced adults and get what she wanted. Mattie probably would make Lawyer J. Noble Dagget squirm in a courtroom.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Harry, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley drop out of Hogwarts, believing the school could teach them nothing more about how to battle the evil Lord Voldermort. This would be like three 1940's teens dropping out of high school after their junior year to go fight Adolph Hitler and the Nazis on their own during World War II. Of course they had excellent role models in Fred and George Weasley who committed the greatest school prank in education history as they dropped out of Hogwarts to go into business in Diagon Alley.

The Social Network: most people now know Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to work on making Facebook the most popular social network in the Internet. There were two other characters in the movie who did not have the benefit of a college degree and did rather well. One was Bill Gates, another Harvard dropout who went on to build Microsoft into a dominate software company. The other character was Sean Parker who did not even darken the doors of a college (unless to party) but changed the music industry forever by creating Napster.

Finally, The King's Speech: Lionel Logue was able to help King George VI's stuttering problem after other experts had failed. The problem was Logue was not an accredited speech therapist, a fact the King's advisors pointed out as they pressured the new king to drop Logue for "expert" speech therapists. Logue was an actor who got his start using acting techniques to help World War I veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (then known as Shell Shock) speak again. No formal training, just techniques that worked from experience. It was those techniques that helped King George VI give a speech that rallied the British Empire during the dark days of World War II.

Much has been said that there needs to be a fundamental shift in education, especially given the current economic conditions. I have heard the students who learn how to master the art of learning as they create new ideas will be the most successful in the future. It will be this type of student who will be able to work in the as yet unknown career fields traditional schools cannot foresee much less prepare for. There is so much knowledge available for free that, some say, colleges are not necessary. With movies like True Grit, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Social Network, and The King's Speech is it possible that our media is preparing people for a change or is it reflecting changes already occurring?

Decline and Fall of the United States is Education Related

I read an article from Salon titled "How America will collapse (by 2025)" which the author, Alfred McCoy, tells of scenarios which lead to a rapid decline of American power replaced by China. The decline and fall of the United States as a dominate global power seems to be a forgone conclusion now. The United States' own government even marks the end at sometime in the middle of this century. This is not comforting if a government is predicting its own decline. The article goes through various scenarios which lead to a more rapid decline than others expect. These include a continued dependence on oil, costly military adventures which don't work, loss of technological leadership, and economic leadership. The bottom line is almost every scenario involves problems in our educational system that does not produce citizens that can meet the challenges the author presents.

The first scenario is the loss of leadership in technological innovation. The article cites the fact that the United States is not producing enough adults with university degrees much less in science and engineering. This means countries like China and India will have an upper hand in technology innovation which will continue to fuel their economies as they roar past the United States. The second scenario is the United State's continued dependence on foreign oil. According to the article foreign oil accounts for over 66% of our energy consumed. If oil producing countries want to cripple the U.S. economy then all they need to do shut off our supply. This time, China will be very willing to purchase oil and play nice politically with oil-producing countries. Not enough effort is being placed to find energy alternatives that are cheap and renewable. Other countries are doing more than the U.S. in finding alternative energy sources. Whoever finds this first will dominate the world. After 9/11 finding renewable energy should have a Manahattan Project or Moon mission type of national urgency. Yet, we are not producing the scientists needed to undertake such a project. Finally, the author tells about how the U.S. military is becoming more reliant on unmanned, robotic or cyber weapons to overwhelm potential enemies with little cost in life. The problem is these weapon systems need to be invented, built, and protected by technology specialists our country is not producing in the education system. The result, China launches a massive cyberattack that renders our defense capabilities useless because of sub-standard computer systems and not enough experts in anti-cyberwarfare. The U.S. could lose a war in a matter of minutes.

Throughout the history of the United States, the country has always prided itself for rising to meet the challenges other countries have thrown at it. Perhaps the dominate superpower is over relying on this ability when a crisis comes. However, a crisis must be met with decisiveness in a matter of seconds as opposed to months or years in the past. One thing the United States did have to meet its challenges is an educated workforce that could overcome any obstacle with creativity and determination. Does our educational system provide workers who could undertake the challenges like World War II or the race to the Moon? Would a cyberattack by China or anyone else be enough to wake the slumbering giant that crushed Germany and Japan? Would the giant be able to respond before it is too late or not at all? Can the United States place its national future in the hands of today's students given the state of education? Please let me know what you think.

Where it all began

Worried about being late, I screeched to a halt in an illegal parking spot at Spartanburg High School. I hurriedly grabbed my stuff I wanted to take and met my friends at the front of the school. Sounds like my old high school days? We won't talk about the distant past but this was today. Members of the Spartanburg High School Class of 1980 gathered to take a tour of our old school and see how things have changed over the years. Our tour guides, members of the student council who graciously gave up some of their weekend time to be with us greeted us at the front. One asked if Mr. John Woodring was in the crowd. Wow! Maybe my famous blogging preceded me and I am getting special VIP treatment?The young man took me to a room and told me the principal instructed him to take me here. When the young man rushed out I realized I was in the In School Suspension room. A note on the board said this is for that little classroom disturbance you caused in chemistry during your senior year, have fun! It was signed by the principal. I guess some things never change!

As we went through the school we marveled at the changes, reminisced about the past, and told old war stories (some of which the tour guides should not have heard). One thing I eventually heard was about how something that might have done in school that seemed insignificant back then turned out to define our lives. One woman who became a nurse talked about the chemistry teacher who helped her when she struggled in the course. Another man who was a true math and science geek now writes embedded software for satellites. It was at Spartanburg High School where I took a course to escape math, computer programing. This was where I first touched the technology that helps bring food on the table in Casa Woodring. 

The teacher was Josephine Earls and the computer was an IBM 5100. The first thing she told the class was computers were stupid and humans had to tell the machine how to do everything. This is something I tell students today. We learned how to program in Basic to make the computer do all kinds of tasks. Some of my classmates and I would hang out in Ms. Earls office, where she kept the computer, to program then play all kinds of games. We had lots of fun during those countless hours. There are more computers at Spartanburg High School  with far more power than that little IBM machine. Then again, looking at how some of the young users in 1980 turned out, maybe we are underestimating that little computer's power.

I am sure Spartanburg High is struggling through all of the problems schools across the United States are facing. It was surprising to find that not all of the classrooms have interactive whiteboards. There are not enough computers to satisfy everyone. Test scores, district initiatives, and other things that take up teachers' time are also discussed in faculty lounges and workrooms. Hopefully, those teachers should take a moment and realize that what they do does make a difference. 

Here's to the Spartanburg High School Class of 1980! Proud members of the best class of the best high school in the world! Go Vikings!

Note to the Spartanburg High School Principal: If you noticed the pep rally area has been repainted blue and gold with a Viking head and Class of 1980 Rules! We have no knowledge of how it happened. We were all together at the Marriott talking over old times. That's our story and we are sticking to it.