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Community college system reduces eMail costs with Metalogix
Posted By Metalogix On In Retired Whitepapers,Teaching Trends | No CommentsTired of the same old professional development? Try Edcamps
Posted By By Michelle Luhtala On In District Management,IT Management,Professional Development,Professional Development That Works,Teaching & Learning,Top News | 1 CommentAs educators gear up for a new school year, they’ll be doing some learning of their own in professional development workshops and sessions. Unfortunately, district and school-based professional development is often described as tiresome and irrelevant, but there are alternatives. One of these alternatives that’s quickly catching on is an Edcamp “unconference”—the antidote to mandated professional development.
Edcamps [2] are free, organic, one-day, participant-driven professional development gatherings organized by educators for educators. Typically held on Saturdays in educational facilities, Edcamps have no pre-set presentation schedule, nor any pre-selected presenters. Instead, participants volunteer to facilitate conversations and hands-on activities among peers.
The first Edcamp was organized in Philadelphia in 2010 by a team of like-minded educators who were frustrated by one-size-fits-all, passive-learning professional development experiences. Inspired by Daniel Pink’s book, Drive [3], the originators felt that their intrinsic motivation for self-directed learning was a more powerful incentive for professional development than district imposed “sit-and-git” training. They first met at another unconference for people in the local technology community, called BarCamp, to share their best practices and brainstorm solutions to common problems in education. It was there that the idea of the first Edcamp was conceived.
The current Edcamp schedule [4] lists 164 events, starting with the original Edcamp Philly in May 2010 and running through February 2013. Some districts, like Burlington Public Schools [5] in Massachusetts, have adopted the model for weekly professional development meetings [6]—strictly voluntary, and open to all. While most Edcamps are organized regionally, some target specific audiences, such as superintendents, principals, a specific discipline like art or social studies, or a theme—like Edcamp CommonCore [7]. There are even rumors of an upcoming Edcamp organized and facilitated by students—a vehicle for honest dialog between educators and students, education’s most important stakeholders.
Edcamps generally follow a similar timeline. An event is organized, registration opens (some fill up fast), and an online sharing space [8] (where participants can initiate conversations about topics of interest before the event, post content for sessions during the event, and comment about discussions afterwards) is created. Here is a typical schedule for an Edcamp:
- 8:00-8:45 Registration, breakfast, and networking
- 8:45-9:00 Introduction/explanation
- 9:00-9:30 Schedule building
- 9:30-10:20 Session 1
- 10:30-11:20 Session 2
- 11:30-12:20 Session 3
- 12:20-1:30 Lunch
- 1:30-2:20 Session 4
- 2:30-3:20 Session 5
- 3:30-4:30 Group smackdown/prize giveaway
- 5:00 After party
Session content is negotiated during “schedule building” time. It is malleable—often created with sticky notes or index cards to allow for reorganization, consolidation, merging, and time shifting. It starts with a blank matrix with designated spaces for room numbers (including capacity) across the top, and time slots along the left-hand side, and then participants post topics of interest. Related topics are frequently merged, and facilitators team up. Participants who wish to attend two sessions in the same time slot can move them around so they can attend them all.
While the physical schedule is under construction, Edcamp volunteers collaborate to populate a corresponding Google spreadsheet of the session activity. Quick Response codes with links to the schedule are posted throughout the facility, so that participants can download it to their devices and track its development in real time without having to revisit the board.
Edcamps are guided by a few principles. Gatherings are…
- Free
- Non-commercial and conducted with a vendor-free presence
- Hosted by any organization interested in furthering the Edcamp mission
- Made up of sessions that are determined on the day of the event
- Events where anyone who attends can be a presenter
- Reliant on the “law of two feet” that encourages participants to find a session that meets their needs
Back-channeling—synchronous conversations about learning, usually conducted via Twitter—is essential to Edcamps, because it helps participants practice the “law of two feet.” By following the conference hashtag (#EdcampCT, #EdcampBOS, etc.), participants can monitor other sessions. This empowers participants to literally steer their learning to meet their needs.
Session facilitators make time for dialogue, questioning, and reflection, so an esoteric conversation about inquiry can morph into a concrete, hands-on, question-building workshop. It is truly a democratic process.
While Edcamps are non-commercial and vendor-free, sponsor support enables Edcamp registration to remain cost-free. Participants also might make modest donations, or choose to support the event by purchasing an Edcamp T-shirt. Facilities booking, insurance, breakfast, lunch, and the after party can add up surprisingly fast, so organizers are obliged to reach out to educational organizations for support.
Each Edcamp ends with a grand finale—an educational technology “smackdown.” Participants gather in a common space where audience members take turns showcasing one technology they love. They bring their device to the podium and plug it into an overhead projector to share—in under two minutes—what it is, how it works, and possible instructional applications. Conference volunteers compile a list of all the shared resources, which is then posted on the Edcamp’s shared online space—usually a wiki or a blog.
As a participant in several Edcamps since April 2011, I can’t say enough for the model. My takeaways always reflect my real-time professional development needs. Even when I don’t have time to apply new learning during the sessions, I leave with a list of new contacts eager to review what they shared later on. The shared online space archives the schedule, session notes, related resources, the backchannel, the smackdown record, photos, and a list of attendees.
Even though the gathering occurs in real time, the learning remains accessible in perpetuity. I’ve made great friends through Edcamps—educators I admire, who share my passion for innovation, and who fuel my curiosity. “Giving up” a Saturday for an Edcamp is no concession. It’s a gift.
Text: Jeb Bush’s ed speech at GOP convention
Posted By Staff and wire services reports On In District Management,IT Management,Teaching & Learning | No CommentsFormer Florida Gov. Jeb Bush addressed the Republican Convention on Thursday night, giving a speech about education reform that is likely to fuel talk that he could be Mitt Romney’s education secretary should Romney win the presidential election, the Washington Post reports. Here’s the speech by Bush — who predictably attacks President Obama and teachers union — as well as remarks by a Florida teacher and student…
Is education a privilege for the elite?
Posted By Staff and wire services reports On In District Management,IT Management,Teaching & Learning | 1 CommentIn June, Mitt Romney told Virginians on the campaign trail that he wanted “to make sure that we keep America a place of opportunity… [13]” the Huffington Post reports.
“…where everyone has a fair shot. They get as much education as they can afford and with their time they’re able to get and if they have a willingness to work hard and the right values, they ought to be able to provide for their family and have a shot of realizing their dreams.”
Except if everyone is to have “a fair shot,” then they likely need to get more education than they “can afford.” July 12, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, along with eight students, filed a lawsuit against the state and the Highland Park School District for failing to see that children were reading at their grade level…
Chicago teachers vote to strike on September 10 if no deal
Posted By Staff and wire services reports On In District Management,Teaching & Learning | No CommentsThe Chicago Teachers Union voted on Thursday to allow its first strike in 25 years starting on September 10 in the nation’s third-largest school district if negotiators cannot reach a contract with city officials, Reuters reports. The strike would start during the second week of classes for most of the system’s more than 400,000 students. The last Chicago teachers’ strike lasted four weeks in 1987. The union representing more than 26,000 teachers and other professionals wants improved job security, a raise, a new curriculum and a nearly 20 percent increase in instructional time, following a push by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for a longer school day. Public schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard has said that with a projected $3 billion deficit over the next three years, the school system cannot afford the raise the teachers want…
Not all private schools parallel Romney education plan
Posted By Staff and wire services reports On In District Management,IT Management,Teaching & Learning | 1 CommentExpanding school choice is a central piece of Mitt Romney’s education platform [16]. But allowing more public dollars to follow low-income and special-needs children to private schools — one of Romney’s main proposals for reforming American education- does not guarantee those schools will open their doors to them, says the Hechinger Report. For example, a private school not far from the convention center — highlighted on the GOP Convention website [17] as one of Florida’s best independent schools — did not take part in Florida’s first voucher program, which was ruled unconstitutional in 2006. And Tampa Preparatory School — founded in 1974 by a group of Tampa citizens, including Al Austin, chairman of the 2012 Tampa Bay Host Committee for the Republican convention — does not participate in the state’s current school choice programs…
Google Fiber could widen digital divide in Kansas City area
Posted By From wire service reports On In IT Management,Top News | No CommentsShe has no internet access at home, so Robinett Foreman sweats over lost computer time at school.
The 17-year-old is one of 11 students out of 18 without home access in her business technology class at Kansas City Public Schools’ Central Academy of Excellence.
Stress builds in class, she said, “when I’m on a project, trying to do research, and [the internet] is running slow.”
Her high school, with its overwhelmed internet connection, sits in a neighborhood lagging well behind the pre-registrations Google requires to light up its cutting-edge web access.
“It’s not fair,” said Mona Price, Central’s dean of instruction. “It’s not fair to the kids in urban settings who are trying to get an education.”
Many of the schools, libraries, and poorest neighborhoods given first shot at drawing Google’s ultra-fast internet service look in danger of missing out on Kansas City’s digital revolution.
See also:
Broadband: Huge potential, but access barriers remain [19]
School program makes use of new skills, old computers [20]
Many low-income students struggle with lack of internet at home [21]
Despite an offer by the tech giant’s Google Fiber operation to virtually give away some internet service to customers, the areas most lacking in online connections also appear the most likely to be left behind in Kansas City’s leap ahead on a light-speed network.
Less than two weeks remain for dozens of neighborhoods to sign up enough potential customers to qualify for Google’s service before a Sept. 9 deadline. But many neighborhoods—chiefly the least prosperous pockets of the metro area—remain far behind the pace needed to hit the Google-established thresholds of customer penetration.
That means many of the free connections Google agreed to make to schools, public buildings, library branches, and community centers won’t happen.
Google insists it’s too early to write off any of what it calls “fiberhoods.” It has begun to fix problems that have complicated apartment dwellers’ efforts to sign up for its service. And, most critically, the company points out that it has every incentive to round up as many customers as possible—and to expand to more neighborhoods rather than fewer.
Yet the Google Fiber rollout is driven by very real logistic and economic factors that make it impractical to offer the service where few people show an interest in buying service, even if that means a neighborhood school won’t get wired to tomorrow’s internet.
Meanwhile, community efforts strive to help Google find would-be customers. Some are even paying the $10 fee needed to cast a vote of interest in the service.
That, in turn, creates a problem for Google. Are people who didn’t pay their own registration fee likely to buy the company’s state-of-the-art internet and TV service for $120 a month for two years? Would they purchase super-fast, internet-only packages for $70 a month for a year? Or pay $25 a month for one year for installation of a 5-megabits-per-second internet connection that would carry no other cost for seven years?
“We’re thrilled that some local organizations want to encourage widespread [broadband] access by helping with the Google Fiber pre-registration process,” Google spokeswoman Jenna Wandres said. “That being said, people should only pre-register if they intend to get Google Fiber service.”
Google, after all, is using its ongoing “rally”—a now-or-never period when residents of much of Kansas City, Kan., and a large part of Kansas City, Mo., must put down their small deposits suggesting they want service—to identify the greatest demand.
Other internet service and TV subscription companies—in this market, chiefly Time Warner Cable and AT&T—entered the business under different regulations. Time Warner Cable was granted franchises, no longer in force, that demanded it offer service to virtually every home. The company still gives free internet and television service to more than 350 libraries, schools, and other public buildings in the two cities. AT&T’s U-verse service, although not as ubiquitous, still reaches 400,000 homes in the market.
Google has strong incentives to be prudent in its rollout. Each city block brings a significant gamble for Google. Some industry analysts estimate that the cost of installing a connection to a single home averages $2,500. Google is mostly waiving that cost to customers, and it will have to absorb the expense.
That drives Google to neighborhoods where the demand is most widespread. The company’s strategy, meanwhile, has stirred grumbling in areas where hitting Google’s goals looks most remote.
“Everybody thought all the schools and libraries were going to get this for free,” said the Rev. Rick Behrens of Grandview Park Presbyterian Church. “A lot of people are upset that that’s not going to be the case. It’s disappointing.”
See also:
Broadband: Huge potential, but access barriers remain [19]
School program makes use of new skills, old computers [20]
Many low-income students struggle with lack of internet at home [21]
In its agreement with the two city councils, Google said it would give free service to up to 430 locations in Wyandotte County and Kansas City. The cities picked the buildings.
Google then drew “fiberhood” boundaries. Next, it set the percentage of pre-registering households needed to qualify a neighborhood for service. Depending on the neighborhood, the pre-registration goals range from one in 20 homes to one in four.
Wandres, the Google spokeswoman, said the company has 60 people in Kansas City now trying to sign up enough residents to get more neighborhoods to qualify for its service.
Still, many are in jeopardy of missing out.
In downtown Kansas City, Kan., 11 places were slated for free service: Children’s Campus of Kansas City, the city health department, police headquarters, Memorial Hall, the main library, City Hall, the court services building, the Board of Public Utilities, the Kansas State School for the Blind, the county courthouse, and the Jack Reardon Convention Center.
Google has said 10 percent of the downtown district must pre-register before anyone there gets service. That means 89 homes. By Aug. 24, just 13 were pre-registered in the first four weeks, with a little over two weeks to go.
In the meantime, some neighborhoods cleared the hurdles set for them in a matter of days. Even a cursory glance at the map showing which neighborhoods are likely to get Google Fiber—more than 80 have met Google’s requirements—shows a strong correlation between rich and poor Kansas City.
West of Troost Avenue, the map is mostly green, indicating neighborhoods with plenty of eager customers. East of Troost, pre-registrations largely are low. In Kansas City, Kan., the map looks more quilt-like. Places where incomes are lower seem to have little chance of getting Google’s blazing-fast internet service.
“I’m concerned that the digital divide”—the gap between electronic haves and have-nots—“will be exacerbated by the fact that you’ll have extremely fast internet in some neighborhoods, while people in neighborhoods with fewer resources will be left even further behind,” said Christopher Barnickel, an assistant director at the Kansas City, Kan., Public Library.
The city’s school district is worried that many of its buildings will be left without the fiber optic connections that will blossom in areas that are better off.
“We worked hard to close the technology divide between our kids and more-resourced communities,” said school district spokesman David Smith.
All students in the district high schools, for instance, are issued laptops.
“It is unimaginable to us to have that divide reopen,” Smith said.
Some say the bridge over the digital divide now seems like a mirage.
“It does not have the feel of the universal access that was part of the initial description,” said Karen Hostetler, a resident of the East Argentine section of Kansas City, Kan.
See also:
Broadband: Huge potential, but access barriers remain [19]
School program makes use of new skills, old computers [20]
Many low-income students struggle with lack of internet at home [21]