Students Win in ConnectME (My Education) Approval

On April 14, 2020, the Boulder Valley School District School (BVSD) Board took a giant leap forward to ensure the digital divide, otherwise known as the homework gap, is dramatically reduced for the students of our district. They did this by approving a long term contract with Live Wire Networks to provide over the air broadband to qualifying students for free. This public-private partnership is the culmination of 5+ years of work to close the digital divide in BVSD. It has taken a broad team to support the pilot as we slowly progressed to a scalable district-wide solution.

When the major internet providers did not provide free internet to those in need, and the FCC rules would not allow BVSD to run E-Rated internet into the Boulder Housing Partner facilities, a new way to connect students was needed. As a result, ConnectME launched and Live Wire Networks leaned-in as a partner, putting their FCC-approved equipment on three schools in Lafayette, CO, allowing them to connect over 50 qualified students to free internet.

My drive to close the digital divide has always been about ensuring our district provides every student an equitable opportunity to learn. Our current situation with the Coronavirus and remote learning has shed an intense light on the homework gap and how it is real, even in BVSD. This national blog put out by SHLB (Schools-Health-Libraries-Broadband) further explains the challenges students face without internet access.

Boulder Valley School District has set a local, state, and national precedent in solving the digital divide that we hope others will use as a model to build upon. In addition to Live Wire Networks providing free internet to eligible students, BVSD will also share in the revenue generated by providing an over the air alternative for internet access to the BVSD communities in Boulder, Nederland, Broomfield, Erie, Louisville, Lafayette, and Superior.

I appreciate this tremendous team effort, and I am pleased we will now move from pilot to full implementation. As always, please share your thoughts by chiming in below.

Andrew, CIO Boulder Valley School District

   

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

ConnectMe! (Connect My Education)

The BVSD move to the digital world reflects the way our economy and society operate in general and allows for learning to happen any place and anytime for our students, who have a digital device and an internet connection. When students lack internet access, these learning experiences and opportunities are impacted. My team and I are working to bridge this digital divide to help ensure equitable access for all students.

Although BVSD IT has run internet into one Boulder Housing Partners community as a pilot program, that option is not viable for all of our students. With that in mind, we are starting a new pilot called ConnectME (Connect My Education).

Background

The BVSD Success Effect speaks to the need for partnerships that help us to achieve our educational goals.

Recently, former Centaurus High School graduate and current CU student Balkarn Shahi approached me with an idea to address the learning gap in east county by partnering with city government, charitable organizations, and BVSD to get families connected who otherwise would not be connected. The key is that Balkarn will lead the effort to go door to door, with help from his CU friends to work through the issues with connecting through Comcast's Internet Essentials or Century Link's Internet Basics which are both $9.95 internet options.

Balkarn described his time at CHS where friends, would come to his house to complete homework, check social media and be connected to the world using his available internet connection. He understands the digital divide that exists for our students first hand and is passionate about working to bring access to all students.

Funding

My department will be working alongside Balkarn to support his efforts to find the funding to provide access to the Internet for families in need. BVSD IT will not be supplying funds for this portion, rather providing the support to build these relationships with the City of Lafayette, Sister Carmen, and others.

Balkarn has even started a GoFundMe campaign to provide startup funds for this project.

Partnerships

This work would not be able to happen without building the partnerships that the Success Effect highlights. The initial reach of this opportunity is for the Sanchez Elementary community to explore how family access can impact an elementary school and the learning of students and families.

Through this partnership between IT and Sanchez, teachers will receive professional development from BVSD’s Ed Tech team to encourage and support the shift in instruction to a balance of the traditional and digitally enriched classroom. With partnering from the school, the team will also lead learning opportunities for parents to experience and learn about the digital tools, much like what is already occurring within the parent community through the 1:Web pilot.

Next Steps

IT will collaborate with the pilot team to articulate details as well as begin working on the financial partnerships needed to make this happen. We should officially launch the ConnectME Pilot in the 2016-17 school year.

Please chime in with your thoughts below and help me support Balkarn and CU in their efforts to help close the digital divide in BVSD.

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

Chromebooks @ BVSD

One of the most frequent requests I get is for more student devices, and it makes sense: it’s becoming increasingly important for our students to have access to technology since many of our educational tools and assessments are going online. That’s why I am excited to announce that we have purchased over 70 Chromebook carts, each containing 30 Chromebooks, that will be distributed to schools in April.  Click Here for a video of the rollout.

This Chromebook rollout is not just a matter of ordering and delivering equipment. Teachers using Chromebooks also require professional development and support to ensure that they are integrated effectively into the classroom. That’s why I’m pleased that our Ed Tech team has been offering Chromebook professional development throughout this year, with more opportunities continuing throughout next year.

In particular, I would like to encourage all interested staff members to attend the Digital Innovative Learning Day (formerly iPad Learning Day) on Saturday, May 3 at Angevine Middle. This all-day event will feature workshops led by BVSD educators and Ed Tech specialists with a special focus on Chromebooks and iPads in the classroom. For additional events and trainings, please the Ed Tech Professional Development Opportunities page.

While I know that many of these Chromebooks will be used for standardized testing, I also want to emphasize that they are primarily for enhancing the educational experience for students. I’m excited to see how classrooms will transform as a result of these and other digital devices.

Do you have any thoughts or comments about Chromebooks or carts? Leave a comment below.

Andrew

Extending the Learning Day

Kids have been doing homework around the kitchen table for generations without the internet, but times are changing. Now they can work on a Google doc from their laptop in the basement or watch a video lecture from their tablet in the car. Internet access makes it possible for students to extend their learning day—they can access online educational tools anytime, anywhere.

But students without internet access at home can’t take advantage of these opportunities; this situation creates what is known as the digital divide and contributes to a general opportunity gap. As more teaching and learning is done online, this gap grows.

To mitigate the digital divide within its student population, BVSD has formed a partnership with Boulder Housing Partners (BHP), Impact on Education, and the City of Boulder to pilot a program that provides free wireless internet service to students in one of BHP’s housing developments.

"Extending learning time and opportunity through home BVSD internet access is a key way to increase student success. BVSD appreciates community partnerships like this, which are needed to expand capacity and enhance educational opportunities for all students.”  Dr. Bruce Messinger, Superintendent, BVSD.

Here’s how the program will work: BVSD will provide access to the fiber network and internet that it already pays for; BHP will install wireless infrastructure in the buildings. Since students will be accessing BVSD’s network, the connection will be filtered and authenticated (meaning that students must use a password to get online).

The pilot will run from Feb - May. Based on our learnings from this pilot, we hope to extend the program to other housing developments both in Boulder and east county.

I’d like to hear your comments about this partnership with BHP to bring wireless internet to BVSD students extending their school day. Please chime in below. (remember to login first)

Andrew