What we must never forget, no matter what circumstances are forced upon us, is that without failure, there is no success. We learn when we fail. We grow when we fall. Science is all about learning from failure, and failure is a key component of innovation, without which nothing would ever be tried. 

This is especially true when it comes to technology. While we may pretend that there is truly such a thing as a "digital native", the reality is that kids are not more familiar with or better with technology as a result of their proximity to it. What they possess is a complete lack of fear, a willingness to try, fail, and try again - to innovate, explore, and discover. Often they achieve their goals, sometimes, they don't, but that's OK because the value of the exercise is in the process, not the result. There is more critical thinking and problem solving in one failed experiment than a thousand standardized tests. As Arthur Ashe once said:

Success is a journey not a destination. The doing is usually more important than the outcome. Not everyone can be Number 1.  --Arthur Ashe

Which is why I always enjoy videos like this one. They remind us of how important failure is in our lives, and why we should be creating environments where failure is always an option.

This, of course, got me thinking about exactly what part of "that" was actually part of the curriculum. And perhaps more importantly, what is "that" and how can we make it so that it does not interfere with or become the curriculum, so that the focus can be on what students do with it, rather than on the technology itself. In that sense, I think we are at a tipping point at which the fundamental components of a real technology infusion in the learning environment has the potential to become a practical reality for all of us, much more so than it ever has in the past. More ...

To understand where I am coming from on this, one must first recognize that the primary reason technology has not reached its potential in the past is largely due to its complexity. I'm sure we all agree that every student should have a personal device, yet we understand that complex implementation requirements combined with expensive equipment running complicated, unreliable, and insecure operating systems creates an environment in which things are always broken and failure is inevitable. Massive support infrastructures larger than most school districts can ever hope to afford are a requirement for such an environment to be effective, which, when left unfulfilled, leads to ultimate abandonment in the classroom, with only the most hardy souls sticking to it, trying to make it work. Tolerance for failure among teachers is generally low.

On the flip side we have the students, who are not so "native" as some would purport, yet also not afraid to try new things. They don't generally need to be taught how to use technology, primarily because they are more than willing to try, fail, try again, ask others, and generally figure things out. What is their number one technology? Cell phones. Why? Because they are inexpensive enough that all can have one, have the battery life to make it through an entire day, and are easy to use, doing just what they need, when they need it. They rarely (if ever) fail and none need to be trained to figure out how to use them. And they bring their own - we don't provide them.

So knowing this, how do we create an environment with technology as simple, affordable, and reliable as the cell phone, yet with the power to bring truly transformative change to the classroom? I believe through the fusion of three powerful technologies: netbooks, open-source software, and web 2.0. 

Netbooks overcome nearly all of the hardware obstacles to students bringing technology into the classroom. They are low cost, typically less than half that of a traditional laptop. They provide incredible battery life which enables them to easily be on a students desk all day, ready to be used at a moment's notice, with no complex systems of spare batteries, charging stations, etc. to get in the way. They are also extremely durable, especially if one uses the flash-based models which have no moving parts. Cell phone durability and battery life can make the difference between seamless use and constant disruption in the classroom.

Open-source software is the obvious answer to achieving cell phone reliability and ease of use on a device. With Linux and open-source software on netbooks, all the complexities of typical proprietary operating systems can be stripped away, leaving elegant, cell-phone like interfaces of simple icons, with reliable and secure underpinnings that are not prone to failure, malware, or general instability. All the tools you would expect are there, along with dozens more that you wouldn't. Quick restore features can be used to empower users to reset their systems in seconds, should something go awry, leaving devices no longer needing to be "managed" to "save users from themselves," as many tech directors might put it. In short, you achieve interfaces that do not impede the use of the system, rather they enable it by empowering users through simplicity of design and freedom to explore without risk.

With the hardware and software in place, the final piece of the puzzle is this: leveraging our students' natural drive to create, share, and connect - to be social - through the use of web 2.0 tools. The use web 2.0 tools in the classroom creates a powerful, participatory learning environment. Not only does the mere production of content for an audience bring about a certain authenticity to common tasks, it also breaks down barriers, makes the classroom porous, and creates a sense of community among students, teachers, and parents. What does it mean when 2nd grade students can see the work of fourth grade students and decide to take on that task themselves in a self-directed, online activity? What happens to learning when students create content with the express intent of helping other students understand key concepts? What is the impact of teachers being able to connect with students at any hour, regardless of whether they are in their class or not? Concepts such as these shake the very foundations of 19th century learning models and bring powerful new ideas about teaching and learning in the 21st century.

When we combine these three, I believe we have the ingredients of transformation at our fingertips. Does it work? Absolutely yes, we've seen this success in the SWATTEC program. We've done nearly zero training on the laptops themselves, yet the students are using them for amazing things on a daily basis, and teachers have embraced them to the degree that they are regularly used all day, every day in the learning environment. 

So what's the magic? How do we make these into school supplies? My thoughts are as follows:

1. Set up a purchase program for parents who wish to buy a computer for their students, with the incentive being that the students would own the laptops and be able to take them home, as well as carry the same laptop through grade level changes and the like. Their low cost places them well within reach of a typical family (most have expensive cell phones, after all.)
2. Make as many laptops available at school as possible for those who are unable/unwilling to purchase one.
3. Install all of the same programs that the laptops have on them on every machine on campus, and give the software to parents to install on their home computers.  All of the software can be installed on any machine running any operating system, be they classroom computers or those in a student's home, without restriction or expense, creating an environment of ubiquitous technology access.

The trick, of course, will be achieving critical mass of parent supplied netbooks. 60% probably isn't enough, unless the district has the wherewithal to provide enough backup equipment to accommodate the other 40%. But, if the parents provide 70-80%, and those who don't are provided with equipment to use at school and all the software for use at home, have we achieved our goal? When do the laptops become school supplies? If we no longer have to teach students how to use the laptops themselves, no longer have the burden of providing significant support for them or training on how to use them, and we make sure all of the tools are free and easily accessible no matter what device the student uses, does the laptop suddenly become like a calculator? One of many means to an end? Thoughts?

No written word, no spoken plea, can teach our youth what they should be; Nor all the books on all the shelves, it's what the teachers are themselves. -- Given to John Wooden by his Father upon Graduation

I am a firm believer in partaking regularly of the wisdom of others, most especially our elder statesmen. John Wooden's TED talk, "Coaching for People, Not Points" touched me on so many levels, because it's fundamentally about education and what it means to be successful in life. Too often, we place such value on the destination (test results) rather than the journey (learning), that I think we lose sight of what it truly means to bring up a child.

Through poetry and wit, John reminds us that it's not our reputation, our awards, or trophies that define us, it's who we are - our character. As Coach Wooden says in the talk:

Success... is peace of mind, attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable. -- John Wooden

Don't get me wrong, I believe we've been heading in the right direction with ed tech, albeit slowly. In fact, I have witnessed a number of programs that suggest the beginnings of what I believe will be an important shift in the use of education technology. More ...My only question is, is it too late? When budget cuts come, that which is viewed as neither strategic or essential generally finds itself on the cut list.

So how do education technologists make the right choices and demonstrate a measurable effect on teaching and learning in the classroom? The solution requires no less than an organization-wide cultural shift with regard to technology in schools - from the technology directors to integration specialists to principals and teachers. A few thoughts:

Change the decision making process. When selecting technologies for implementation, we must ask ALL the right questions. Deciding for a technology based on emotion, a great sales pitch, word of mouth, or even because we think it will work is not enough. Before any technology implementation is begun, we need to answer four key questions:

1. What is our vision for this technology - ie, what do we believe it will do to meet our educational goals?
2. What are the skills necessary to use and support this technology?
3. What are the resources we will commit to ensure the success of the implementation, from staff development to release time to support to infrastructure?
   
4. How will we measure the results to ensure that the technology is having the desired impact?
   

Too often, one or more of these are overlooked or glossed over, particularly number 4. If you can't demonstrate the effectiveness of the technology in the educational environment, then you can't establish its value with stakeholders.

Loosen our filtering policies. The Children's Internet Protection Act was never intended to be used as an excuse to remove responsibility from the classroom, yet our response to it has had just that effect. In an effort to “protect” our children from “inappropriate” content, we have created an environment where noone takes responsibility for their activities, instead choosing to “blame it on the technology.” In an ever escalating effort to restrict, ban, and block anything that might have the remotest potential to be misused, we have denied our staff and students access to some of the most powerful tools for creativity, collaboration, and learning on the web, and eliminated every opportunity to teach children to use these tools wisely and safely. When you consider that recent studies have show web filters to only be about 90% effective (which translates into 1 in 10 attempts to access “banned” sites or content is successful) and couple that with all the lost educational potential, it becomes clear that something has got to change. Staff and students need to be held responsible for their activities on the Internet, just as they are for the content of any other media they might bring to school (ie magazines, music, video, etc.) Internet use in the classroom should be executed with purpose or not at all. Computer time should not be a free-for-all, but an opportunity to take part in learning activities of educational value, and teachers need to take an active role in supervising their students' activities, taking advantage of teachable moments at every opportunity. And finally, intentional inappropriate behavior should be treated for what it is: a behavior issue, not a technology issue.

Choose the right technologies. If there is one thing that nearly everyone agrees on, it is that the educational process must change to meet the growing demands of a 21st century economy. But when we consider the role of technology in the classroom, we have a tendency to mold it to our habits, to fit it to they way we've always done things. So we upgrade our whiteboards to super whiteboards, and our overheads to super overheads (ie doc cams) because we think the reason kids aren't learning is because we aren't interesting enough. Then we pretend that “engagement” equals achievement, even though the achievement gains come in anywhere from modest to non-existent. Any honest look reveals the obvious: that we've spent thousands of dollars on classroom technologies that are most used by teachers, rather than kids. If we really want to transform the classroom into a place where student learn and put to use real 21st century skills, then we need to spend scarce technology dollars on technologies that do more than merely enhance delivery while reinforcing 19th century classroom practices. We need to invest in technologies that empower students to learn, create, and discover in exciting new ways. In short, we need to invest less in instructional technology, and more in educational technology. A good rule of thumb is this: if the teacher touches the technology more often than the students, then the technology has no hope of transforming the learning environment.

If we as education technology leaders will consider just these three, we will not only establish technology's strategic value within our schools, but also effect transformative change in the learning environment. My greatest fear, however, is that we have failed to do so for so long that technology will continue to be viewed as an add-on, an expendable extension of the classroom that is easily jettisoned in times of  crisis, as have been so many art, music, and science programs over the years. A setback such as that could take years to recover from – years our students simply do not have to lose.

To understand why I ask this, one simply needs to look at the vast majority of technology departments in school districts across the country, and their relationships with the instructional staff. More ...When I have the opportunity, particularly at conferences, I often try to take an informal poll of educators, asking, “how would you describe your relationship with your IT department?” On nearly every occasion, their faces contort, their heads shake, and the adversarial relationship comes forth in their description of security restrictions, filters, blocks, bans, and controls. Speak to the technology leaders, and they will stress the need for an efficient and reliable computing infrastructure, speak of the need for “standards” (you know, those specifications that are used as clubs to beat back any idea that doesn't match a set of pre-selected technologies, especially those that they know nothing and/or are unwilling to learn about), and describe how providing these helps to enable technology use. When pressed on what impact technology has had on the district's mission (ie educational goals), confusion often ensues, typically followed by a series of unsubstantiated anecdotes about something that happened once in some classroom at some school, or one of my favorites, “because our technology is so reliable, teachers can be confident that it will work when they need it, which naturally means they will be more likely to use it.” Quite a leap of faith, if you ask me.

CIOs in the corporate world experienced a similar trend five or six years ago, and realized that their failure to align their goals with those of the organization created an environment in which their value was in question, much as is the case with education technology today. What they discovered was that merely maintaining “five nines of uptime” was not enough, that they needed to become a strategic part of their organization's efforts to achieve its goals and to find new ways to measure their effectiveness, beyond those “five nines.” Those that were successful in such alignments flourished. Those that focused on maintenance found their staff continually at risk of layoffs, their budgets cut, and often themselves outsourced.

So how do we avoid finding our departments on the cut list? As technology leaders, we must change our perspective with regard to our role within our organizations. If we truly want to establish value beyond mere “break/fix” maintenance and have a measurable impact on teaching and learning, we must:

1. Be willing to step outside of our comfort zones and engage with teachers in the process of developing authentic, measurable educational technology implementations and goals. Too often, technology department heads do not participate in the discussion, choosing instead to serve a judiciary role from afar with little direct contact or involvement. This common practice has lead to the perception that department heads just don't “get it” and served to divide the IT staff from the educators. This must change if we are to align our efforts with those of the classroom. We must endeavor to take an active role in the education process, and to seek ways in which we can provide the tools and resources to facilitate new learning opportunities in the classroom.

2. Consider the mission of our organizations first when making technology decisions. It's human nature to grant undue weight to the impact of decisions on our technology department. In an effort to maximize efficiency and minimize problems, we build walls around our infrastructure (and call them “standards”) and develop complex integration frameworks with little room for discovery and exploration. This “preventive” mentality, however, is completely at odds with the environment in which we place the technology. The classroom is, at its core, a creative space, where failure is always an option and, in my humble opinion, should be celebrated for the learning opportunity that it is. I do not intend to suggest that the needs of the technology department should be ignored, simply that, while important, they should never be the primary reason for denying students and teachers access to technology or the flexibility to use it in new and creative ways.

3. Loosen access restrictions in the interest of teaching and learning. The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was never intended to be used as an excuse to remove responsibility from the classroom, yet our response to it has had just that effect. In an effort to “protect” our children from “inappropriate” content, we have created an environment where noone takes responsibility for their activities, instead choosing to “blame it on the technology.” In an ever escalating effort to restrict, ban, and block anything that might have the remotest potential to be misused, we have denied our staff and students access to some of the most powerful tools for creativity, collaboration, and learning on the web, and eliminated every opportunity to teach children to use these tools wisely and safely which, in my opinion, puts them at even greater risk. We as technology leaders need to drive a paradigm shift within our organizations and help our staff and students learn to be responsible for their activities on the Internet, just as they are for the content of any other media they might bring to school (ie magazines, music, video, etc.) We need to encourage our teachers move away from unsupervised computer time and into Internet use that is executed with purpose, or not at all. And finally, we need to convince administrators and teachers that intentional inappropriate behavior should be treated for what it is: a behavior issue, not a technology issue.

These are not simple changes. They will certainly require courage, creativity, and “thinking outside the box.” In light of our current financial crisis, however, it is my sincere hope that technology leaders will seriously consider them. "Five nines" is not enough to establish technology as a strategic part of our organizations and, when money is scarce, district leadership might be willing to settle for fewer nines in exchange for dollars to spend on other priorities. My great fear is that many of us may well find our already thin technology departments on the cut list this year. Based on a number of emails on the ed tech listserves, I'm afraid many of us may already be there.

From the announcement:

If you are a student in Middle or High-School, there is a very real chance that one day you'll be working in a field that does not even exist today. For example, you might want to open a restaurant on the Moon, or work as a designer of a method to safely remove old satellites and other space junk from orbit. The possibilities are endless and as we continue to explore space, there will be literally hundreds of new career paths open for you – if you have the right skills.

The big challenge is that, since we don't know exactly what these new jobs will be, how can we define what skills will be needed to do them? Alan Kay, one of the original researchers who envisioned the creation of personal computers once said: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” He is right, and that is exactly what this project is going to let you do – invent a new job that might exist in the year 2020 that will be a career that will attract people like yourself. In defining this job, you need to explain what the job entails, and what skills you think are needed in order to do the job well. To make this activity even more fun, we've decided to create a contest, with a grand prize.

I can't wait to read about the exciting ideas the youth of the world come up with. Spread the word and get involved!

Enjoy this audio podcast from the session. Be sure to get the resources from my prior post.

Open Source.mp3 audio/mp3 

The first is a document I wrote about open technologies in general. This is a great resource to hand to administrators and other educational leaders to help them understand why these technologies are important.

Open Technologies In Education application/pdf

The second is what I call my "short list" of open source applications which I believe are worthy of your consideration.

Open Source Short List application/pdf 

And finally, a listing of the great open source applications on the Open Disc, which is a fantastic resource for teachers and students. 

OpenDisc Programs application/pdf

• 30 lbs of hazardous waste
• 77 lbs of solid waste
  
• 77 lbs of materials
  
• 147 lbs (17.5 gallons) of water from being polluted
  
• 32 tons of air from being polluted
  
• 1,333 lbs of CO2 from being emitted
  
• 7,719 kilowatts of energy 

This is roughly the equivalent of taking ½ of a car off the road and saving 68% of one US household's allotment of electricity for a year. These numbers are significant and certainly worthy of consideration.

Like every other school district, Saugus has a rapidly aging fleet of existing machines. Upgrades to the latest and greatest from Redmond would be costly and hardly worth the effort, yet these machines are completely viable as platforms for Linux. Even older Windows 98 machines are worthy clients for a K12 Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) setup. We have had great success working with these technologies for a number of years and, with this new data in-hand, plan to ramp up our efforts in this regard.

We are now in the process of formalizing and documenting our work into what we are calling our Green Computing Initiative. We intend to use this site to share information and best practices with the entire K12 community, in an effort to inform, educate, and inspire others to join us in this important endeavor.

K12 technology budgets are tightening while needs continue to increase, yet every year, schools simply discard valuable and viable equipment in the name of planned obsolescence and "minimum standards." These machines clog our landfills and pollute our water supplies when their useful life could easily be extended through the use of open solutions. Don't let fear stand in the way of opportunity in your district at the expense of the environment!