When disaster strikes…what happens to your school system’s information and records?

Recent years have included multiple natural disasters from tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, lightning strikes that burn schools to many, many more.  Just how safe are your records and other important information if such an occurrence happens in your district?  That’s where cloud technology comes into play.  Many of us have been talking about and implementing technology into the way we do our business in the education world.  And, now with cloud technology, the data is stored somewhere else and not in our facilities.  How comforting.

There are multitudes of reasons to use technology in governance.  Transparency.  Accountability.  Efficiency.  Responsibility.  Modeling of 21st century business practice.  But, one of the most critical reasons may just be for the protection of the district’s information.  With everything safely hosted in the clouds, at least there are no worries about losing data.

Now facilities are another thing if disaster strikes…

Here are some articles and resources you may find interesting when exploring cloud based data for your school system:

• National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities: Disaster Preparedness Resources
• Financial benefits of cloud computing in k-12 schools
• Study: Mobile, Cloud Computing Factoring Into Disaster Recovery
• Could the cloud be a silver lining for school leadership?

From: OnlineColleges.net

Have you heard about it and what the advantages might be?

As you know, new content is “typically” delivered to all students at the same time by their teacher. Some call this “sage on the stage”, presentations (with or without PowerPoint), or simply a lecture. Sometimes this type of instruction is very effective (depending on the teacher and student) and sometimes it is not.

After the content is presented, “typically” students are given homework assignments to practice, work out examples of the problem taught in class or other assignments to extend or add to the ideas and concepts presented in the classroom.

The flipped classroom makes the use of technology so that the main content concepts are delivered as homework via short recorded videos and then the classroom time is used for practice and extensions activities, the stuff traditionally done as homework.

There are many advantages to this practice and also many potholes to look for.

Pros to a Flipped Classroom

• Teachers have more time to work individually and in small groups with their students.
• Students can review, rewind, start and stop the recorded presentation at any time and at their own pace.

Cons to a Flipped Classroom

• This is new to some students and parents so teachers will probably need to at least send home an explanation!
• Some students may not have the technology at home to watch the videos (computer with internet access.)*

*There are ways to address access issues like giving them a few days to watch the assignment.  They could go to the library, the school’s computer lab, stay late or come in early.  Tell them to let you know confidentially if this would be a problem and perhaps you can work it out individually.  (This is really no different than assigning a research paper, no?)

I won’t go further into this concept because honestly there are so many great articles on the subject, I’d rather give you links to explore on your own.

Check out these great articles and resources:

USA Today: “Flipped” classrooms take advantage of technology

Promethean Planet: Can technology help us “flip” the classroom?

Shawlervision: Inverted or Flipped Classroom Resources (High school science teacher in Georgia)

TedTalks: Salman Khan: Let’s use video to reinvent education

The Flipped Classroom Model: A Full Picture

The Flipped Classroom: An Infographic (Check this one out for sure!)

Now I would like to pose these questions to you for self-reflection:

How can or should this flipped classroom concept apply to training for adults? (Teachers in your schools… board member training.)

What percentage of us hates sitting through professional development and listening to a lecture?

How often do you “miss out” because you were distracted or missed a point because you were taking notes (or taking a call!)!

Don’t most of us ask for more “hands-on” when we fill out those evaluation forms?

If we ask our teachers to effectively use technology, why do we not model this in the professional development for our staff and leadership teams?

Could watching assigned short videos as pre-assignments can give us a way to be more efficient with our time and more time collaborating, discussion and interacting in the classroom?

I’ve been fortunate to be a part of the planning team for GSBA’s new School Board U. Their new website will provide a learning platform for school board members to access all of the materials (videos, handouts, agendas…) for ALL courses for school board members whether these courses are face-to-face, completely web-based and self-paced, webinars or a “hybrid” course (blend of face to face and online). School Board U will allow you to access materials when you want, where you want and at your pace.

Would you like to learn in a flipped classroom? Please post why or why not!

(School Board U was officially rolled out at the GSBA Summer Conference in June 12.  Here’s a link to the website where you can watch the videos!

Over the last two decades I’ve worked with school systems (both administrators and teachers) helping them to more effectively use technology.

In most of these cases, this has been in the service of a technology company such as Apple, Promethean or eBOARDsolutions.

According to this Edupotia article “Shaping Tech for the Classroom” by Mark Prensky there is a four step process to the adoption of technology.

Happily, I’ve found that many tech firms DO want their customers to make the most their products.

Why?

1. If you don’t use their technology well, it will make the company’s product look bad.
2. If you do use it well, the company will normally get repeat sales! Not to mention raving fans!
3. Happily I’ve found that many companies promote effective use because they truly want to affect change.

In fact eBOARDsolutions  (a subsidiary of the Georgia School Boards Association ) has three performance objectives in their strategic plan and the first one is to promote effective use.

You’ve probably seen tools that measure effective use of technology integration but most of these were designed for teachers integrating technology into the classroom.  How often do you see tools to effectively manage how school LEADERSHIP (board members and administrators) use technology?  (See ISTE NETS for Administrators.)

eBOARDsolutions started with a simple self-evaluation instrument that school districts can use to see if they are using eBOARD effectively.  While it’s a basic checklist of yes or no with a section and total score,  I’ve found it is a great discussion starter with school leadership and to be a true tool to stimulate improvement not just an number!

Recently I was part of a project funded by Georgia Power where school systems were awarded grants which would provide three services.

• A review of their eBOARD site in which it would give them a score on how well they are currently using the individual modules and suggestions for improvement.
• A meeting with the leadership team to discuss the review and agree upon which action steps were needed, who would take them and when they would be taken.
• Professional development for the staff in the areas of improvement in which they want to focus based on the results of the items above.

I really enjoyed participating in this process. I believe it was meaningful because the leadership team had a shared vision and was in agreement to the steps needed to be taken. They also communicated to the staff as to why they would getting training as well as the expectations of future use. Since the professional development was customized based on the needs of each school district, it was much more meaningful than traditional training programs where half of the staff could possibly think “Well, this doesn’t relate to me.”

But the most rewarding part for me was hearing the results from the participants!

At the end of this process, the districts involved got together as a group to discuss the outcomes and share with other school systems.

The four districts involved were:

• Barrow County Schools (charter district with about 12,000 students)
• City Schools of Decatur (small urban charter district with about 3,000 students)
• Jeff Davis County Schools (small rural district with about 3,000 students)
• Richmond County Schools (large urban system with about 32,000 students)

There were four main questions addressed in the panel discussion:

1. How do your districts now use eBOARD to manage their strategic planning process and the ongoing management of their plans at both the district and local level? How do they find this tool helpful for those who are undergoing district accreditation?
2. While eBOARD was originally developed as a tool narrowly focused on the needs of the school board, how is it being used “beyond the board?”  Can they share advice, challenges or resistance they may  have seen from the board or from the staff on using this tool OUTSIDE the traditional methods?
3. How did the review of your eBOARD site by the EBS team help you change or streamline processes within your district?
4. How are districts using this tool to manage leadership evaluations like superintendent evaluations, accreditation or board self-assessments?

Here is an excerpt of video of that panel discussion that was held this past December in Atlanta, Georgia.  To see the entire panel discussion (divided into clips) click here.



Georgia’s local school systems can ask their communities to pass a Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) for additional revenue.

Those pennies can really add up.

That’s how we paid for our high school’s auditorium.

To the school board, how do you get your community to support this initiative?

First, if you’ve passed a SPLOST in your community before, you have to do those projects that you indeed said you’d do. If you’ve never passed one, get the message out.

Be transparent about what you plan to do through your SPLOST. Locally, our last SPLOST ended up passing with 92% of our community voting “yes” for it. The community trusts our board of education and believed that we would use these pennies for our children in the ways promised on the ballot.

We talk about effective governance and the importance of communicating to our stakeholders. We talk about planning. Sharing the system’s plan and the way in which a SPLOST will be an integral part are the responsibility of the board. Boards of Education are stewards of the budget as a part of their roles and responsibilities. Their being committed advocates for both children and projects like SPLOSTs are part of their job descriptions.

It’s all about accountability. Every cent counts.

Once upon a time, a board member looked around after a board meeting at all of the packets of paper in the board room and exclaimed aloud,

“I wonder how many trees we’ve killed this year.  We should be using technology to go paperless!

They did and they all lived happily ever after.

Well, that’s not truly the end of the story.  It was only the beginning.  In this short video below, you will see how this district’s story started with the concept of going paperless but how the story continues to evolve on how this type of technology actually helps streamline and align processes.  Not to mention the side story of how their small technology staff has been freed from the drudgery of updating the website with each agenda change and minutes.  The story continues…