This too shall pass - not

Long, long ago in a district far, far away (actually 5 years ago and about 75 miles away), I help kick off my first 1:1 program. Since that time, I have helped plan and implement two more 1:1 initiatives in my current district. And we are undertaking another ambitious project to dramatically increase the access to our elementary students to technology resources by adding significant numbers of Chromebooks and Chrome Tabs this fall.

I've learned a lot from these experiences, thanks mostly to the incredible technology staff who are far better organized and detail oriented than I am. I've learned that one cannot over communicate with parents and the community. I've learned that many teachers would prefer highly prescriptive direction in the use of devices. I've learned adults can't control, only guide, how kids use devices. I've learned that true equity in a district for all learners cannot be achieved without allowing kids to communicate and participate socially online, regardless of the discomfort it may cause adults. I learned that technology is not a silver bullet in improving education. Well, maybe I've always know that.

Anyway, I found the post in which I reflected on advice to teachers I wrote just before my first 1:1 launch. I think has stood the test of time...

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Over the next couple weeks our district will start its first 1:1 initiative. I don't think I've ever been as excited about a technology initiative in my 37 year career. Or as anxious. Our middle school teachers are being asked to undertake some seriously large learning experiences - new technologies, new teaching strategies, new resources, and new classroom management techniques. But we stand to also make some huge improvements in achievement, engagement, and climate.

This is a biggie.

The curriculum director and I have been tapped to give a short "keynote" to start off the first day of professional development next week. I think I get 5 minutes. Here is my pitch:

As a veteran classroom teacher I dreaded my administrator going to a conference. Invariably she would return with a new educational “silver bullet” for improving teaching and learning and expect us teachers to implement it. This usually meant a ton of additional work despite being already very, very busy actually teaching. And unfortunately, these new processes, techniques, and plans were abandoned when the next “silver bullet” rolled around. Yesterday it was Outcomes Based Education. Today it is probably Essential Learning Outcomes.

A survival strategy that many of us adopted was to keep doing what we’d always been doing but use the vocabulary of the new thing. We’d keep quiet during staff development sessions and quietly pray, “This too shall pass.” It was difficult not to become cynical about any change effort in school because we knew there would be another initiative coming before we could finish implementing the first one.

The use of information technologies in schools is a different matter. As we look at society in general, technology has had and continues to have a powerful impact on the way things are being done. To think that medical CAT scans, online banking and shopping, or computerized diagnostics of motor vehicles is a “passing fad” is erroneous. And to think that the use of technology in schools is a “passing fad” doesn’t make any sense either.

Classroom teachers have a finite amount of energy and time to devote to change. So why not invest in effective changes to our teaching practices that will stay with us, not until the next “silver bullet” comes along, but for the remainder of our careers?  (from The Classroom Teacher's Technology Suvival Guide)

Here are three guiding strategies I have found helpful:

• Keep in mind that technology does not increase student achievement. Technology used in supporting best practices increases student achievement. Think best practices, not best technology.
• Integrate technology in activities and units with which you are not satisfied, not your great lessons. Use technology to solve problems and meet challenges - not cause more.
• Use technology that personally empowers you as a individual and learner. If you don't use a technology, don't ask your students to use it. It's like trying to teach a novel you don't like.

Even if we try to ban or ignore or minimize student use of technology in our classrooms, it will still have an impact. Our children live in a technology-rich world and their habits, their learning styles, and their expectations are all being shaped by non-school environments. Do we stay relevant in kids lives?

OK, I am over my five minutes....

What would you say in five minutes to teachers embarking on a voyage to unknown places?

Back up - let's talk about backups

Among the saddest situations in technology support is being unable to recover a user's data when a file is corrupted, a drive fails, or a document is accidentally deleted - and no backup was made. Whether a study guide or a doctoral thesis or a treasured photograph, such a loss makes one doubt whether technology is a boon or bane to humanity.

Backups are a tired old topic, I will readily admit. Since the days of saving data on cassette tapes and 5 1/4 floppy disks, I have been admonishing others to:

• Accept that the responsibility for having additional copies of digital materials is one's own. Period.
• Remember to store the second copy on separate media - a second hard drive, online, even on a flash drive. Two copies on a single storage medium (a computer hard drive for instance), doesn't do much good.
• Try to automate backups when possible. I like both Apple OS's Time Machine and/or using DropBox which syncs files on both your computer hard drive and on the DropBox site. And there are plenty of other solutions as well. With GSuite, I personally have not felt the need for a second copy, but maybe I am playing with fire.

Technology departments have long been tasked with keeping backups of institutional data. Thankfully, much of this responsibility has moved to external companies or organizations that host the applications that create/use the data. Our student information system, learning management system, and HR/Finance/Payroll systems are all hosted and backing up data is a part of the contract we have with these vendors. I believe companies can do this more effectively than we can with our limited financial and technical in-house resources. Our staff is more likely to use GSuite to store self-created documents than our old U and K drives on in-house servers. Increasingly schools are moving to online file storage products like Azure rather than replying on physical servers. Yes!

A relatively new responsibility for technology department is having disaster recovery resources and processes in place. Should there be a major failure of a computer systems due to fire, mechanical breakdown, or cyber attack, we now consider not just whether data can be recovered, but whether we have the resources to bring the full functionality of critical systems back online in a short period of time. Again, hosting companies deal with many major applications with contractual expectations for availability, but some of our smaller, but still important, applications run inhouse - security, food service, transportation, active directory, print servers, etc.. The tricky question becomes how to balance the cost of full redundancy with the loss of productivity experienced while acquiring new hardware, rebuilding servers, and restoring applications. Were money no object, we'd have two of everything with automatic failovers. But, I am afraid, money will always be an object.

Finally, the most important backup a school may need is human, rather than digital. Should a manager or technician or administrator in the technology department be out sick, go on vacation, quit, or be abducted by aliens, is there other warmware in place who can do the mission-critical tasks performed by this person? Our department has identified primary technology support responsibilities, lists primary and secondary people who own those responsibilities, and records information about outside companies/support services who can be called on in a pinch when needed. For a whole raft of reasons (people being what they are), this may be the most challenging backup plan to create.

This kind of planning is not the favorite part of my job. Library school in the 70's did not cover disaster recovery plans. The importance of technology in people getting their jobs done - including educating small children - grows increasingly important each year. It may not be fun, but it's important.

Oh, one last backup plan - if you are in charge of system that cannot be restored in a timely manner if there is a disaster, it's best to have a career backup plan as well.

Tech being the last to know is hurts everyone

Far too often the tech department is the last to know.

Last to know about a new program. Last to know about a change in or addition to a management system. Last to know about a change in a process or procedure or policy. Since technology now plays a critical role in about 99.9% of all work in a school system, this oversight can lead to unhappy results.

For my entire career, I have worked toward having a technology representative on planning and leadership committees. For one simple reason: I want to make sure the decisions made that involve technology will help make the project successful. I have had mixed success.

Implementations that involve technology are often complex. Questions that often need to be asked in the selection and planning processes include:

• Is this new system compatible with our legacy systems?
• Do we have the infrastructure to support the new product (bandwidth, server and storage capacity, technical support etc.)?
• How do we get the new system to import and export data from our other systems when necessary?
• Are there any security/privacy issues surrounding this new program?

I can understand how such questions, if not carefully and thoughtfully asked, can appear to be more obstructionist than helpful. And I suspect there are technologists in schools that purposefully throw up roadblocks to any new initiative. 

All of us in technology must work to be viewed as problem-solvers, not problem presenters. If we can change our image, we might just invitied to more planning meetings.

The technology department being the last to know is frustrating not just to the tech department, but to those who wish to use the technology to improve their own effectiveness as well.

It's win-win or lose-lose.