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

Modernizing BVSD's Digital Communications

As technology continues its rapid advance, digital communications are taking on a new level of importance. In order to fully utilize these tools, BVSD is officially embarking on an update and modernization of our communication avenues and we need your help. This effort will impact all of our student, parent, and employee communications, including district websites, mobile apps, branding, and logos, so we need your feedback. Our goal will be to establish modern, consistent and accessible communications with all stakeholders, including those with visual, audio or other disabilities.

We recognize that this will be a significant undertaking. For this reason BVSD has contracted with a company that specializes in the understanding of digital communications. iFactory has worked with several educational facilities such as Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Chicago, Colorado State University, and Perkins School for the Blind to redesign their digital communications, and they will be working with us this school year.

As a part of iFactory’s work, focus groups surveys will help  gather input about what is working well and what needs still exist.  Through this process we will hear from all of our stakeholders, including students, parents, teachers, and administrators. The input from these groups, along with iFactory’s expertise, will provide us with a framework to redesign our digital communications with a focus on meeting the needs of our all of our users.

Our work with iFactory is only the first phase in a large scale project that will likely take 2-4 years to complete. I recognize that this may seem like a long path, but because this is such a big venture, we want to ensure we do a quality job from the beginning.

We value your input!

We need your feedback throughout this entire process, but most importantly during this initial phase. Our work with iFactory will set the stage for the rest of our work -- giving us a clear path forward as we move into implementation. If you are asked to participate in a focus group, please join! When you get the survey -- please give us honest answers. Additionally, if you have thoughts that you would like to share, please leave a comment below.

Andrew

Fairview Student Helps Convert PhET Simulations

*Photo courtesy of Andrea Lin

As part of our move to cloud-based resources, I understand the concern from our teachers about resources that aren’t yet fully cloud-ready. For example, PhET Simulations designed for K-12 math and science lessons were originally based in dated technology like Flash or Java which does not work on Chromebooks and iPads due to security issues.

Yet, the work to make these simulations ready for devices like Chromebooks and iPads has already begun! Recently, I met with Fairview High School Student, Andrea Lin, a high school intern for PhET at CU - Boulder. Her journey as an intern connects to the work PhET is now doing to to ensure their simulations are fully accessible from the cloud.

Andrea knows that she wants a career in Computer Science. Because of this goal, she is involved in a variety of CS-driven organizations and clubs both at Fairview and in the Boulder community. Through these avenues, she connected with Ariel Paul, Director of Development at PhET Simulations. After Andrea’s first month working on smaller projects, Ariel realized that she had potential to help with the conversion of PhET Simulations from Flash/Java to HTML5. Andrea joined PhET last summer as their first high school student intern.

While listening to Andrea speak about this experience, it is clear that her passion and excitement for her work with PhET and her future career goals in computer science make her a powerful learner. Andrea had a limited knowledge of the programming language needed to port a simulation from Flash/Java to HTML5. Remarkably, she had to learn and teach herself JavaScript, the programming language needed for the development of these updated simulations. Andrea remarked that “I would learn something, read it in a book, and apply it the next day”. She went on to say that because of the value she placed on the work she was doing (making a PhET simulation available on all devices), the learning meant more to her and has stayed with her.

The on-time, on-demand access that Andrea has to learning resources, as well as the immediate need to implement this learning, is the driving force behind 1:Web in BVSD -- we want all of our students to have these kinds of meaningful learning experiences both inside and outside the classroom. The essence of 1:Web is access.

For teachers that use PhET Simulations for their students, many are already converted to HTML5, and can be viewed here. Many more are on their way. Recently, I’ve been in contact with Ariel Paul from PhET to discuss the possibility of speeding up the conversion process for the highest-need simulations. Supporting Ariel's efforts to covert to HTML5 is a priority for me as I recognize PhET simulations that don't run in the cloud are a barrier to our staff and students who would like to use iPads and Chromebooks to access these resources.

As for Andrea, I asked what her advice would be for the next generation of students passionate about computer science. Her face lit up as she shared her inspirational circles for this work. These include things like participating in math events, science fairs, math groups, computer science clubs, etc. Her recommendation is just get involved!

For the work in BVSD, it’s heartening to hear that our own students are working to provide the shift to cloud-based applications and resources. My previous blog detailed the move in BVSD to devices that need these kinds of resources. Andrea’s story, as well as the continued support from our educational community to work on this together, demonstrates that we are heading in the right direction.

Please chime in below with your thoughts and comments.

Andrew