Internet Safety, Web Filter, and Partnerships

As technology use at BVSD grows, so do the questions and concerns about internet safety. BVSD is committed to continual improvement in this area which remains a priority as the internet grows and tools to help mitigate safety concerns evolve.

Let me share some information on what BVSD does to help ensure our students are safe, starting with our web filter. BVSD’s Palo Alto firewall/web filter was purchased 3 years ago after a competitive search process. This top-rated technology is used by many school districts in Colorado and across the nation.

At the elementary level, we block 26 categories and over 300 additional websites that have been brought to our attention by teachers and parents. Some of the blocked categories include abused drugs, adult, alcohol, tobacco, copyright infringement, dating, games, gambling, hacking, malware, nudity, phishing, sex education, social media, swimsuits, intimate apparel, and weapons.

To allow for age-appropriate access and an increase in the student’s level of responsibility, the additional categories of gaming, sex education, and select social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Skype, Pinterest) are opened at the MS/HS level.

Our web filter, although powerful, is not perfect. This is true with all web filters, either at home or at school. In some cases, filtering, regardless of settings, can under-block bad sites and over-block good sites at the same time.

Current practices are in alignment with other districts and strive to strike a balance between a protected, yet real-world environment. An additional challenge is that students can and do use their phones to create “hotspots” in order to access restricted sites when the content they are looking for is blocked by our filter. We do not want our students on hotspots, as this prevents us from intervening when something unsafe is happening.

For these reasons internet safety is not viewed as just a technology issue, but something that requires a partnership between everyone involved. Teachers use engaging instructional practices and actively manage their classrooms. Students need to understand their responsibilities and practice good digital citizenship to prepare them for life. Parents can help by setting appropriate boundaries and having ongoing conversations with their students about technology use. All of us have a responsibility to continue educating ourselves and each other about the latest technology trends and research.

On Tuesday, May 15, 2018, the Board of Education will be facilitating a study session where we will share details about what we currently do to help keep our students safe and what additional steps could be taken with appropriate investments. 

Areas we will cover include classroom management software, proactive self-harm/bullying detection software, and policy updates, such as recommending a ban on the usage of hotspots and a requirement for staff and students to report harmful sites that get through our filters.

The meeting will be in the Boardroom at the Education Center from 5-7pm.  Please join us if this topic is of interest to you.

And please feel free to chime in below with your thoughts on this important topic.

Andrew

Technology Tools for 2018-2019

I am excited to share details on the 2018-2019 technology tools program which will be rolling out to schools this spring. Every other year, each school receives an allocation of “technology points” based on their enrollment. Schools are then able to spend their points to upgrade technology in their school.

This year’s model is simplified to better reflect current-day needs. With IT now covering maintenance costs, employee devices, and committing to reducing student equity challenges throughout the district by allocating funds to distance learning and the 1:Web program, school-based technology points can be specifically focused on student devices, labs, and classroom innovation needs. With the 2018-2019 technology tools update, schools will have more flexibility in how to spend their technology points.

At schools that are not in the 1:Web program, there will not be significant changes in the funding model. These schools will be able to spend their technology points on student devices, computer labs, and a new category called innovation tools.

The innovation category includes tools that are available at our newly-built schools, making sure this technology is open to everyone in the district. Some of these exciting items include: TV displays with casting capability, 3D Printers, Maker Kits, video production tools, and pen tablets.

Schools participating in the 1:Web program will also receive technology points, but without the need to buy as many student devices, they will be able to allocate more of those technology points to the innovation category.

If your school is on the cycle to update their technology tools this coming school year, the IT Ed Tech and Service Delivery teams will be coming by to talk with your principal this spring. We are excited to see how the use of these new innovative technologies will enhance the learning environment! 

One last thing - the technology point allocations at the schools will look larger this year, but the dollar amount will remain the same. We have moved away from 100 points being equal to the cost of a Windows device, to 100 points being equal to the cost of a Chromebook. This reflects the shift away from Windows devices to cloud-based Chromebooks. The increased point count should not be confused with more money being allocated.

Please chime in with any comments, thoughts, or suggestions. They are appreciated.

Andrew

ConnectME (My Education) - Solving for the Digital Divide Gets Traction!

In 2015, BVSD joined 3,100 other school districts in signing the Future Ready District Pledge, a program through the U.S. Department of Education’s ConnectED initiative. This pledge commits district leaders to fostering and leading a culture of digital learning. A target outcome of this pledge is to help schools and families transition to anytime, anywhere learning.

One of the key barriers to helping all of our families transition to anytime, anywhere learning is the digital divide. The digital divide is a very real equity issue here in Boulder, Colorado, and the surrounding communities. Many of our students do not have consistent access to devices or an adequate internet connection at home. With more and more instructional materials utilizing online tools, this creates an equity issue and an opportunity gap for these students. Solving the digital divide is an essential component to leveling the playing field and giving every student an equal opportunity to learn.

BVSD’s 1:Web program has made great strides with getting a device in every student’s hands at our pilot schools that they can use both at school and at home. We are continuing to expand into a district-wide implementation, with seven new middle and high schools joining this year. As students get devices, teachers are receiving professional development on classroom management, web-based instructional materials, and teaching in the digital age. Through this comprehensive program, every middle and high school student will eventually have access to a device, addressing the first major challenge of the digital divide.

The second piece of the puzzle consists of connecting all students to adequate and sustainable internet access at home. ConnectME, or Connect My Education, was developed to help address this civil rights issue of our day by systematically bringing internet into the homes of our students. We want to ensure that we are approaching this in a way that can expand throughout the district without additional cost and is sustainable over time.

Our efforts in this area began several years ago, in collaboration with Impact on Education and Boulder Housing Partners. This partnership brought internet to ~60 families.  We have since shifted to a more scalable and consistent method of connecting students in need for free through a public/private partnership with a company called LiveWireNet® who specializes in high speed internet over the air. Through the partnership, BVSD is granting Livewire access to schools where they can install their small antenna. In exchange, Livewire is providing free internet to the homes of our students who qualify for free and reduced lunch. This program went “live” at Sanchez elementary last spring, and we anticipate getting Angevine Middle up and running in mid-December. By the end of the school year, we hope to have 30 families connected through LiveWireNet’s free service. We are also exploring another partnership opportunity to make wireless connections available to BVSD families in Kestrel, a Boulder County affordable housing community.

Our ultimate vision is to provide long-term, affordable ways to connect all of our kids in BVSD. While there are many programs out there that offer small-scale solutions or discounted access, I am committed to working to solve the problem systematically in a way that can expand throughout the district without additional costs. Every student deserves an equal opportunity to learn!

Andrew

Cloud Computing and Learning @BVSD

Today’s teaching environment is broader and more accessible than ever before. The online environment, or “cloud”, that our educators are able to access offers a robust supply of resources, experiences, and connections for both teachers and their students.

Yet, the move to Chomebooks, and cloud computing, in BVSD is sometimes perceived as a limit to experiences and resources needed for learning or working. And while this view is not surprising, especially for those who grew up in an age of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and locally installed software, it no longer accurately portrays the access that Chromebooks and cloud computing provide for learning and participating in our global society.

In my role as CIO, I use the Chrome environment and have not turned on my Mac in months. I’ve learned the device does not matter--it’s what I can access through the portal of the device that really impacts my work. I can communicate, collaborate, create, learn and lead with the resources available online. I see this shift to cloud computing in education as even companies like Microsoft are developing tools like the Cloudbook, a future competitor of Chromebooks.

In the shift to cloud devices and resources, we have a dilemma.  As a parent I want to see BVSD eliminate 40-pound backpacks and physical textbooks in favor of digital resources that are hosted in the cloud, but this shift requires devices and time. I’ve heard we don’t need devices until we have digital curriculum, and I’ve also heard that we don’t need digital curriculum until we have devices. The classic catch-22.

Like most transitions, at some point a leap is needed. In our case in BVSD, that leap is to the Chromebook, a device that allows for learning to happen anywhere and at anytime. In the move to the modern world of the cloud, BVSD has purchased an extensive set of educational technology software that is cloud-based -- powerful tools like Google Earth, WeVideo, BrainPop, Voicethread and G Suite (Google Apps) for Education to name a few.  BVSD is exploring digital content resources available from companies like Discovery Education that could potentially replace the physical textbooks that many of our courses still require. In addition, there are many free open-access resources, like Khan Academy, that can begin some of this work now.

This shift to cloud computing is evident in many classrooms in BVSD. For example, Kay Davidson, 1:Web Specialist and Biology teacher at Broomfield High School, leads the efforts to transform teaching by using cloud-based learning. This year, she’s exploring how Google Classroom helps her connect with students beyond the limits of face to face and in an online, blended environment where students can learn and collaborate in real-time. Kay has presented on these ideas in her work with the 21st Century Cohort. Her reflection on her time in the cohort illustrates how these connections impacted her students:

You can view a variety of projects designed and produced by BVSD students using cloud-based resources in our student examples collection.

In the transition to education in the cloud, BVSD will continue to support many device types including PCs, Macs, iPads, and Chromebooks.  There are still a few programs in our schools (Digital Arts, Engineering, etc.) that need a device like a PC or Mac to run software for those specific courses. Even still, many of these programs are moving to the cloud and I anticipate will be available on a Chromebook soon. The latest graphics based program to move from the device to the cloud/browser is Google Earth. It runs just as well on a $180 Chromebook as it does on a $1200 Mac. The same can be said of the iMovie replacement, cloud-based WeVideo.

Regardless of where you are on the journey to using educational resources in the cloud, the transition is happening quickly. BVSD’s general move to Chromebooks and the ability to teach from resources that are always up-to-date and accessible highlights this change.

I know the full transition to the cloud will take a few more years. Be assured that IT and Ed Tech are here for you. We all can learn together in this migration to anywhere, anyplace, anytime education using the cloud.

I want to hear from you!  Please chime in below with your thoughts and questions and maybe examples of any software you rely on that requires a Mac or PC.

Andrew

Welcome back to the 16-17 school year!

After a much needed break our teachers and staff will be coming back to systems that have been updated for security and ease of use. New student usernames and passwords will help us educate our younger students on keeping private information confidential, and older students on strong passwords and why they are important.

Teachers and staff can now turn on dual factor authentication within their Google accounts making their account inaccessible by an intruder if their password is ever compromised. This feature is currently mandatory for all IT and Ed Tech employees.

Another change implemented over the summer is the way in which schools will order new technology. This new way of ordering technology tools is just like how schools currently order paper and pencils. No more special process for ordering technology! And most of what you can order is in stock to ensure timely deliveries.

This year I personally plan to spend more time finding ways to eliminate the digital divide in our schools. From continuing our 1:Web programs at Centaurus and Broomfield high schools to providing direct internet to those in need, my focus on this civil rights issue is sure to grow.

Finally, watch for information on new networks, phones, technology funding, and expanding partnerships as the year plays out and IT continues to support the Success Effect in BVSD. I continue to believe IT must innovate and adapt to support our teachers and students with new teaching practices. I will continue help to ensure that the best future-ready learning environments are available for all of our students.

Please log in to chime in below. I appreciate your input - innovative and critical alike. Both make us better at what we do.

Happy 16-17 School Year!

Andrew

BVSD Technology Tools Program

It is no surprise that changes in technology are happening all around us. My team now supports over 27,000 digital devices which is up almost 300% from just 5 years ago. Chromebooks, which entered the market only a few years ago, are now a classroom technology standard. This is evident by the 12,500+ Chromebooks already deployed in our schools.

In addition, new repair costs for aging projectors and wall-mounted touchpads are now covered in our existing budget. As technology and cost models change, the IT and Ed Tech programs must also adapt to be relevant in the learning environment.

The BVSD Technology Tools Program is the evolution of the long-running “Tech Refresh” program which allocated roughly $1.4M to refresh technology for schools, students, teachers and support staff.

The new Technology Tools Program breaks up the funding into three distinct sub programs - Schools, Employees, and Purchases.

School/Student Technology Tools: Allows schools to get new technology on a recurring basis.

Employee Technology Tools: Allows employees to have a digital device not older than 5 years.

Purchase Technology Tools:  Allows schools and departments to purchase supported technology using their own funds.

What has changed?

• Schools will no longer be allocated points to be used to purchase standard equipment for staff members. Instead employees will be able to replace their digital device every 5 years with the latest preferred technology.
• Principals can select alternative technology for teachers depending on instructional needs using school/student point allocations.
• IT will warrantee employee devices for 5 years.
• Projector, bulb, and touchpad repairs will be maintained by IT at no additional cost to schools.

What has not changed?

Schools are still divided into two groups: Odd-Year Schools and Even-Year Schools. Click here to view your school’s group. The only exceptions to this schedule are the 1:Web pilot schools, which are receiving new technology every year for incoming freshman.

For more information, check out the newly redesigned Technology Tools  website here.

Do you have questions or comments about the new BVSD Technology Tools model?  Please sign in to chime in below.

Andrew

Solving for the Homework Gap

My role as CIO has changed significantly over the 5 years I’ve been at BVSD. My first major challenge was to modernize IT practices and provide reliable technology and systems to support teachers. Today, that goal has been largely accomplished with open IT issues at their lowest point ever, and the reliability of our systems greatly improved.

This new, more stable environment has allowed me to focus on bigger picture issues. One in particular that strikes home for me is the “homework gap”.  Also known as the digital divide or opportunity gap, it is the recognition that some of our students go home to little or no Internet access.

Ironically, the homework gap is happening at a time when quality educational resources are rapidly moving online. The Khan Academy alone is a significant force in helping students learn outside of the traditional classroom environment. With thousands of tutorials on everything from basic math and calculus to classes in science, computer programming, history, art, and economics, Khan Academy and similar resources can be of significant help to a struggling student.

But what if you are a student with no Internet at home? What if you don’t have a mobile device to take to the library, Starbucks, or hundreds of other publicly available Internet access sites? This is what creates the homework gap, and it is real for many of our students.

At BVSD, we are working to eliminate the homework gap through these pilot programs:

• Providing Internet at a Boulder Housing Partner site while determining the feasibility of expanding the program.
• Promoting both the Comcast and CenturyLink $9.95 Internet access programs for students qualifying for free or reduced lunch.
• Providing Chromebooks to all freshman at Centaurus and Broomfield High Schools through our 1:Web program.
• Providing Chromebook carts to all schools to be used at the school's discretion, including taking the devices home. 

Although the above pilot programs are a start, I’m exploring additional ways to close the homework gap.

I am working with administration to find funding for a district-wide 1:Web rollout, but at a cost of $2.2 million it will take time and have to be balanced with other critical needs, all at a time when state K-12 funding is critically sparse. A more feasible first step may be funding 1:Web at the high schools for $800k.

This November, BVSD is asking voters to consider an override to SB152. An override would allow public/private telecommunication partnerships that are not available to BVSD today. New partnerships could allow the district to monetize the portion of the fiber that we are not using, giving the Board of Education new revenue to use at their discretion.

CoSN, a professional organization I belong to, is studying other ways to help resolve the homework gap. CoSN's CEO, Keith Krueger, is on sabbatical at Harvard studying the digital divide and how to address it. I encourage you to read his latest blog on bringing the Internet to our students.

As curriculum and educational tools move online, the need for ubiquitous Internet is becoming a necessity. I’ll continue to spend my time working to reduce the homework gap.

I would appreciate your ideas and comments on this topic.  Please chime in below.

Andrew

BVSD is Becoming Future Ready

BVSD is committed to being Future Ready. We’ve always been in the business of preparing students for the future, but how we prepare them is changing because our world is becoming more connected through technology.

Our superintendent, Bruce Messinger, recently signed the Future Ready Pledge, part of the federal government’s ConnectED Initiative, which recognizes the importance of:

“building human capacity within schools and districts for effectively using increased connectivity and new devices to transform teaching and learning.”

In other words, we are committed to supporting our educators who transform the way students learn using technology with professional development.

This short video illustrates what being Future Ready means for our students. I hope you take a few moments to watch it and be inspired.

I recently attended the Future Ready Schools summit in Denver wtih Dr. Messinger, Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services & Equity Ron Cabrera, and Ed Tech Director Kelly Sain. The summit, one of many across the nation, is sponsored by the US Department of Education and the Alliance for Excellent Education to help ensure that we, as leaders in public education, are proactively planning for the future of education.  I was pleasantly surprised that the summit was not exclusively about technology; it was about the support that our teachers need in order to be successful.We used our time together to plan how technology can improve student learning, and to identify the issues that need to be addressed so that we can transition smoothly into a digital learning environment. Specifically, we discussed:

    curriculum, instruction, and assessment

    professional learning

    technology, networks, and hardware

    budget and resources

    data and privacy

    use of time

    community partnerships

I’m happy to say that BVSD has already been working to address these topics.

• We are working to update our current 7-year curriculum adoption model, which was optimized for print materials, to a model that can handle subscription-based digital curriculum materials.

• We are supporting teachers at our 1:Web pilot schools, Centaurus High and Broomfield High, with extensive professional development that we will eventually scale up when 1:Web becomes district-wide.
• We are upgrading our internet pipe this summer to 4 times its current capacity.
• We are updating our student data privacy practices and policies.
• We will begin using the innovation funds from the recent bond to create areas for collaboration and learning within the schools.

Our biggest challenge to meeting the Future Ready Pledge is budget and resources. We need roughly $2.2 million per year to provide a digital device for every student and professional development for every teacher. Even with a budget of $300 million, this is still a big number.

In the meantime, our 1:Web pilots will continue so that we learn and prepare for the change in our educational practices over the next decade. 

I appreciate your thoughts, so please chime in below with how you are becoming “Future Ready.”

Andrew

Moving Toward a Printing Press in Every Backpack

Giving students access to technology is an essential part of my job. When I began in BVSD in 2010, we were a district of mostly Windows desktops, and not enough of them to go around. I’ve worked diligently to bring more devices into the district, starting with opening the door to Apple devices and continuing with Chromebooks (8,500 and counting), and now Android tablets. Through the 1:Web pilot, BVSD IT has provided take home digital devices to hundreds more.

But as I’ve spent time with teachers and students, principals and parents, I’ve come to understand the greater impact that these devices are having on society as a whole and on education in particular. We are living through a time when how people connect with ideas and with each other is fundamentally changing. 

And it all started with the printing press.

That’s right, fans of inventor Johannes Gutenberg, it all began in 1450, the year of the first printing press. The thing that made it so special—so revolutionary in the truest sense of the word—was that it was a tool for publishing new ideas quickly and in quantity. (We may not think of it as fast now, but consider the time it takes to painstakingly copy a book by hand.) New ideas were shared and new voices heard that were once silent. Publishing flooded the world with new knowledge.

And now it’s happening again. Except this time the printing press is the device you carry in your pocket, your purse, or your backpack. These mobile devices aren’t just the new pencil: they aren’t just tools for capturing ideas, they’re tools for releasing those ideas into the world. Now there is nothing between the ideas you have and the audience you want to reach. 

Everyone is a publisher.

So what does that have to do with education? What does it change when you realize that a student can publish a blog about the writing process instead of writing yet another report? What if a class can publish the results of their microclimate study, and somewhere across the country a climate scientist reads it? I think it changes everything. When a student can create something with words or music or video and then shares their creation in an authentic way, it makes their learning more meaningful. Some of those creations will change the world.

This fundamental shift in education is not some abstract concept in the distant future; it is happening right now in our district. I see it when I visit classrooms and talk with students, teachers, and principals. Here are some BVSD student products across all grade levels and content areas that demonstrate the power of publishing. Our Ed Tech team also supports student publishing--check out their blog post, Don't Turn It In, Publish It.

You’ve probably heard it said, “It’s not about the tools, it’s about the learning.” Now, looking at these examples and reflecting on what I’ve seen in BVSD classrooms, I truly understand what that means. When every device is a printing press, every student is a publisher with the power to share their ideas with the world.

Chime in below with your thoughts about student publishing.

BVSD Launches 1:Web

After many years of hard work by teams within and outside of IT, I’m very excited that BVSD is on the path towards a 1:Web initiative, which signifies a fundamental shift in teaching and learning in our district. Read on to learn more about 1:Web, what it entails, and our next steps.

First, the term

1:Web is a term derived from 1:1 (or 1 device for every person), a phrase common in school districts across the globe. When we were researching this initiative for our own adoption, we came across the term 1:Web, which emphasized the importance of accessing the internet rather than focusing on the device itself. At its core, 1:Web is about each student being able to connect to the world online through any device.

1:Web is more than devices

Since the focus of this initiative is on the learning that happens when the world is at your fingertips, we knew that purchasing a device for every student wouldn’t be enough. We knew that we had to change instruction at a fundamental level in order to create next generation learners, not just 20th century students with new computers.

That’s why, as part of the 1:Web initiative, we are supporting teachers with targeted professional development designed to enable this shift in education. The 21st Century Cohort is just one example of a program we have in place to fundamentally change instruction at BVSD. For more background and details about 21st century teaching and learning, check out the BVSD Ed Tech blog and the Ed Tech website.

Trailblazers

1:Web wasn’t developed in a vacuum. We were fortunate to be able to learn from the schools that have already started down this path, including Monarch High with their BYOD program, and Centaurus High, who is officially piloting 1:Web starting in January 2015. Both of these schools invested significant resources in teacher professional development and school culture to make a successful transition to using devices instructionally.

Other schools have also started down the path toward a 1:1 environment. Eldorado K-8 has a BYOD program for students who pass a digital citizenship requirement. Angevine Middle allows student to bring their own devices, including cell phones, and their teachers receive ongoing technology integration training. Bear Creek Elementary has a 1:1 Chromebook program for 4th and 5th grade students.

With the help of all these schools, we are able to plan an effective transition for the rest of the district.

Next steps

An initiative of this size needs a lot of resources, especially staffing, funding, and digital content. In order to purchase devices for most every student and to provide professional development to support this initiative, we will need ~$2.2M more per year than what we have today for Tech Refresh. The cost for just the high schools is ~$800k per year, which makes this path more likely in the next few years.

In the meantime, schools interested in making the leap to 1:Web with their own funding are welcome to after talking with Ed Tech on program requirements. I know that for some schools, the excitement for this initiative is outpacing the availability of district resources. Schools can also prepare for 1:Web by investing in professional development for teachers in the area of 21st century teaching and learning. That way once the devices arrive, teachers will already be practicing transformative instruction.

I look forward to providing you with more updates about 1:Web as I learn more about funding and logistics. In the meantime, please leave your thoughts below. (Please login first.)