The Technology Treasure Map

Achievement hunters around the nation are using corners of the technology treasure map to find value for their students. Yet, only a few of us treasure hunters out there have seen the maps that lead to real booty. Our journey begins below:

I saw a portion of the map in North Carolina at the Red Hat hosted event with NC New Schools Project. Experts, educators, and the business community responded to the elusive technology treasures possible with scaling STEM.

X marked the spot this week in Radford, Virginia where professor Matt Dunleavy debuted his work around augmented reality to engage students with probes for inquiry based science lessons.

Indeed, the Department of Defense Education Activity brought out the big guns this past month to scale online professional development in search of the next treasure clue for their worldwide network of schools.

Such corners of the map are offering new value propositions for the “more resources” theory of action crowd so pervasive in our national education debate.

Some school boards, superintendents, unions, administrator associations, teacher associations, colleges of education, state education leaders, parents, and teachers see treasure as simply more money and positions to hunt the elusive bounty. Those doubloons should solve our education ills right?

Perhaps, the real treasure falls out in theories of action for effective leadership and management, expertise collaboration, and empowering a performance culture when it comes to applying technology treatments that make sense for learning organizations.

Consider the shiny treasure of devices. Do we need to buy more of them? Should we lease them? Or should we ask if students have their own treasure trove at home? All three of the answers to these questions begin to form etches and marks on the technology treasure map for schools and districts.

Content has to be a part of the booty right? Who’s content? Charters? Open education resources? The publishing pirates of the great North Seas? Not unlike a lot of treasure hunters, I’ve used a compelling map this week in Don McAdams book,What School Boards Can Do: Reform Governance for Urban Schools.

Although I’ve been reading the book in preparation for school board training I’m doing with CRSS out of Houston, I was ready to break out my gold pan after looking at his theories of action that can be applied to any technology treasure quest.

Let’s start with effective leadership and management. Great systems, states, networks, and districts scan the environment for technology options. They make decisions based on data as to what is and what's not working in their district. Kudos to Bambi Lockman this month from Volusia County Schools for assembling her whole staff to go through such an exercise.

Next, technology treasure hunters collaborate with experts. I’ve been involved with districts in Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire this month that have sought the counsel of design firms like2Revolutions to walk them through how to leverage their technologies more effectively on behalf of students. Congrats to these courageous treasure hunters.

The ability to empower a blended performance culture is probably the most direct route to the technology treasure map I’ve seen this month out on the high seas of reform.

Organizations like Wayne Huizenga backed VSCHOOLZ offer districts free technology devices and wireless to hop on their next generation platform. 

Yet, they don’t stop there. Instead, they engage in a partnership of consultancy, coaching, and strategy as to how to use the platform. If you want to run a common core aligned course with emerging technology capacity - you can. If you want to mix and match content from a multiple providers – you can change direction on the treasure map. If you want to draw your own map, you can author your own content. 

All of these options empower districts with thier own teachers and staff to create new customizable options for kids. Best of all, the treasure guides (administrators and parents) can look in on the different routes to the map at any time.

All of these hunters and technology pirates can be found on your 21^st Century looking glass (your mobile phone). Search for the links in this blog to begin your own map today.

Deliverables for Digital Learning in 2012

My friends tease me all the time in social conversation when I drop the word deliverable. It must be the old Baldrige trainer in me, but I am always curious as to who is responsible for what and when.  Moreover, I often ponder these days whether there is a digital option to how we learn, work, and play.


So, on this Digital Learning Day, I want us to think beyond text messaging during dinner. I want us to think beyond hours in front of Angry Birds. I want us to reflect on what a digital world has delivered us the last few years. How about a quick top ten list:

1. Online banking
2. Travel effectiveness
3. Shopping and comparing prices
4. On demand dining 
5. Ability to learn anytime, anywhere
6. Social change and activism
7. Paperwork efficiency
8. Connections with friends and relatives around the world
9. Collaboration on mobile phones with any business in the world
10. Skills to find the local park by asking a digital assistant

Today in Connecticut, I’ll be speaking to SERC regarding the recent Connecticut Report – Next Ed. My deck is included here and I’ll be focusing on the why, what, and how behind digital learning. In the how section, I encourage all readers of this blog to take four action steps in the coming year:

1. Listen to your stakeholders, the market, and your customers
2. Research solutions
3. Launch an effort this year starting with your school schedule for next year
4. Lead and gather data on what you are learning as well as outcomes

Remember, you are what you measure.  So get out there today and plant a stake in the ground in terms of the promise of digital learning. Our kids are counting on you to deliver.

The State Virtual Services Governor

by Bryan Setser - CEO of The Setser Group

Who will be the first Governor with the guts to turn their state virtual school into a virtual services provider?

The services could be virtual district/school incubation, professional development, light virtual services, and consulting (coaching and training). Work with the legislature could re-organize the funding streams to provide more local control with incentives to utilize new technologies and funding models.  Here’s a few steps to make it happen:

Step 1: Dismantle the statewide teacher compensation model that is crippling large state virtual schools both in terms of quality and in terms of unsustainable revenue.

Instead, return half of that money to districts and give a flat-capped line item to districts for virtual/blended learning. 

Since most virtual schools are paralyzed by faculty costs, this would give districts control over more resources and the ability to leverage them for state submitted innovation plan outcomes. In short, ½ of the money each year is provided or taken away based on baseline virtual/blended learning outcomes.

Next, I would incentivize the districts that met a set of standard state goals utilizing virtual learning. For example, students who were remediated and/or achieved certain competencies (exams, credit recovery mastery, college credit, AP metrics, etc.)

Step 2: Retain operations money for the state virtual school and increase blended support (travel, texting, webinars, virtual environments, applications, etc.) so the cult of expertise in current virtual schools could become change agents, thought leaders, research and development specialists, as well as professional development support to districts for virtual and blended learning.

Step 3: Create a prize environment for next generation algorithms, tutoring applications, cloud computing, etc. so that schools and districts can be incentivized to think outside of the box with technology integration, blended, and virtual learning. Most importantly, I’d have these start-up awards be evaluated by actual scale experts (not a majority of educators).

For instance, staff from Google, Linked in, Facebook, etc. form a majority of the prize panel along with other edupreneurs. Only a fraction of the panel would be represented by face-to-face educators for fidelity, legal, and compliance issues. Yet the primary focus would be on next generation business and financial models, new human resource models for extending learning, and scale from a focused state innovation fund.

Step 4: The current virtual school core staffs would be repurposed as consultants, coaches, and trainers. The current faculty could be rehired in the local districts. In addition, these experts could train the trainers for other virtual supports such as tutoring on mobile devices, virtual assessors, or virtual office hour support of free open source software. 

As the innovative districts scale their model, they could also compete for incentive funds to bring in teachers or supports from around the world as they become the STEM, Spanish, or Algebra district servicing other districts who have not had fidelity or results from similar models.

What to do about capacity? Solve for it with the current virtual school staffs providing intensive professional development with target districts. Have districts combine resources to serve and support regions. In these regions, they can also expand services by reaching across to another region, state, or nation to bring in augmented services that they collectively planned and funded together to solve their gaps.

Such approaches are not a “Race to the Middle”. Instead, we might actually evoke an entrepreneurial and competitive disposition for our kids’ futures among districts, schools, and educators. This would attract the interest and fuel of investor and business dollars and be an impressive education agenda.

Resolve to Read in 2012

by Bryan Setser

Great leaders read. It really is that simple. They do not allow the mundane and the stress of requirements to dominate all of their time. Find any great leader in any industry and ask them a simple question – What have you read in the last 12 months? Some common answers threads you’ll find include:

1. I read books written by people who are smarter than me.

2. I read stories about people who triumphed over adversity.

3. I read about ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things.

4. I read accounts of people that inspire me.

5. I read internet links that help me improve.

Now, number six I’m sure is I read for pleasure.  So, please do not take this blog as a condemnation of romance novels, mysteries, internet surfing, or gripping legal thrillers. We all have our vices.  But, I do think that reading is an intentional strategy for success. 

What should be on your shelf or in your download files as an education leader? Try any of these references in 2012:

1.   The Global Achievement Gap -Wagner, Tony

2.   Schools That Learn - Senge, Peter

3.   College and Career Ready - Conley, David

4.   The World Is Open - Bonk, Curt

5.   Education Nation - Chen, Milton

6.   Catching Up or Leading the Way - Zhao, Yong

7.   Getting Smart - Vander Ark, Tom

8.   Disrupting Class - Christensen, Clayton

9.   Lead and Learn - Ainsworth, Larry

10. School Scheduling Associates - Canady and Rettig

11. Liberating Learning - Chubb and Moe

12. Educational Research - Dagget, Bill

13. Core-Plus Mathematics - Fay, James

14. Multiple Intelligences - Gardner, Howard

15. Running All the Red Lights - Holliday, Terry

16. Education and Information Studies - Kellner, Doug UCLA

17. Multiple Publications - Kohn, Alfie

18. The Marzano  Research Laboratory - Marzano, Robert

19. Born Digital - Palphrey and Glasser

20. North Carolina New Schools Project - Habit, Tony

21. The Case Against Zero - Reeves, Doug

22. Solution Tree for PLCs  - Dufour, Rick and Becky

23. Schlechty Center Tools for Change - Schlechty, Phil

24. Practical PLC Tools and Documents - Schmoker, Michael

25. Differentiation - Tomlinson, Carol Ann

26. Authentic Education - Wiggins, Grant

27. Embedded Formative Assessment - William, Dylan