Challenges Teachers see...

What the teachers of Hamilton view as the challenges facing them.
I was a little surprised by what they mentioned. Access to working technology still seems to be a challenge as does time. Have a quick look at the video to pick up the rest.

How Good is Good enough?

 
“A school or schools operating in isolation is no longer good enough in my mind.”
Why? this is the way things have always been done and it has worked.

The potential understanding of what is out there has changed we often apply this to our understanding of students learning.
At the school level we are now seeing this take place and I am happy to be part of groups that are trying to network develop and connect on behalf of their regions.
In New Zealand I think we are on the right track with regional capacity being developed by the key stakeholders. Regional groups extend pre-existing clusters and therefore connectivity. 
A fantastic example of this is

Manaiakalani an Auckland Community who are achieving multi dimensional improvements for their community.
The result is a ambitious project that is looking to bring 1:1 to a community without huge financial resources and includes wireless internet access to homes supported by Housing New Zealand.

This community is trying to transform itself led it seems by the Tamaki Transformation Programme Board. The complexity of successful change makes it vital that we look beyond ourselves and look to others while understanding that the sharing.

So what are the features of this project that we could look to for our preferred futures????

• Long term vision and community ownership of outcomes
• No constraining of dreams big expansive goals such as bringing connectivity to students in their homes
• Working with multiple agencies and supports
  • Housing New Zealand
  • Work and Income New Zealand
  • External consultancies eg Hapara putting interface layer over google docs that is purpose built for learners and schools.
  • 
  • Folksonomies by this I mean communities of goodwill eg software developers
• Focus on student achievement and well being
• Connected thinking and community

So what do we need to do?
At a regional level we can use presently operating networks such as principals associations and curriculum interest groups and add to them further collaborations with. Think LONG TERM 

• The willing
• Charitable Trusts
• Regional and local councils
• Multiple Govt agencies
• Libraries
• Tertiary institutions
• Community Educational Leaders

I like this video which tells a story about why collaborations are so powerful

 

Kia Kaha Manaiakalani

Google docs Ulearn

Some Ideas for Google apps integration and use of Google docs. These simple tools are so connected and so online that they are changing the way we work play and collaborate (or me any way ;—)  ).  You are able to edit and add to the slides below. There is a lot more to add to the story so please have a go and I will be able to reflect on how this can grow from a simple start. Connectivity is King, Queen, Matai and Keli’i

It's now and it's social if we let it

Missed the start of DK from mediasnackers workshop and came into with history of social interaction on the internet and then the Mobile/social learning onslaught.
Why are phones unwanted in schools? I am thinking especially camera in our school environment.
What about Kindy? See the 1 year old below

DK had an interesting digital story created by people writing on a4 and holding up their message and taking a picture
of it with the writer in the frame. .

My similar ideas for content

• What are the issues in our school?
• What helps you learn?
• I learn best when
• The book character was
• How does bullying effect people
• How does encouragement help you
• Also single frame digital story telling could come from these cameras
• sustainability messages
• Safety messages
• Poems
• Emotional responses
• Love more in comments below What do you think?

Milton Keynes youth service created the message below

This is simple but effective somehow knowing that the word was someone's makes it more powerful.

The second most popular reason youth use the web is Learning.
From the web makes me feel … This site collects and reflects on the results gathered from one ok DK's web interaction points.

I really liked this reflection on twitter

 

“Twitter not about contacting people about finding out about stuff”

DK was talking alot about the way things just are. You can use hash tags as a stream of information in twitter so why wouldn't you? it just is.
Very pragmatic I thought lets look at reality and what we can use around us. Simple tools and social networks.

As a 44 year old the infographic below made me feel so good I had won a competition that doesn't exist.
What do the baby boomers do in social media?

n 

Link to Media Snackers is found above. DK is very open and inviting
jumps straight to honorary kiwi status in my book.

Networking for 1 to 1

 

With future posts I will look at pedagogy but this post will consider networking and it’s implications. The reason being that often people don’t understand the implications of adding more devices onto their networks, where the bottlenecks are etc. I hope that this post will make some of it easier to understand and help those making decisions for 2010. Otherwise we may hear this type of talk…

“We have got a whole lot of netbooks and all of  sudden the network seems awfully slow.”
”We used to have good internet and now students are waiting a long time for simple things to happen.”

There are large implications to increasing client density on our school networks (these are not just about our internet connection but internal also). 
What do we need to understand, do to create and maintain a network suitable for 1:1 student use?

5 Big ideas

• The Network is now the most important part of Schools learning technologies infrastructure
• Network contains 4 main components – Internet connection – Backbone – Network Layering (segmentation) – Wireless Access
• These components have to match with client (device) density if the users experience is to be a good/successful/meaningful one
• Wireless access is the only suitable way to deliver ubiquitous/natural learning technologies
• "the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system" Metcalfe's law ie the more people connected the more learning the more opportunities.

A closer look at these

The Network is the most important part of the Schools learning infrastructure

It used to be that schools spent their money preparing servers to host mail, files and programmes. Now much of this functionality is moving to places outside the school. Schools are pooling forces to consolidate these like Nayland College who share a server with Nelson Girls. Network connectivity is the key to this. For a school to host the increasing number of devices that are being plugged in; or to enjoy wireless networking attention to this is important. In our school over 250 more devices are connected this year than last. Next Year and additional 230 are predicted. It could be  a bit like trying to fit a cities traffic down a normal road if we don’t take a few crucial steps.

 

The Four Main Components

Internet
As shown above High speed internet to maintain service levels if we connect more devices to our network. Jetstream is not able to put information from our schools onto the internet nearly as fast as it can bring it down so when more of us want to use web 2.0 tools we will struggle to do so.

Backbone
The connections between buildings and switches (think old telephone exchanges) is our backbone. Fibre optic cables and fast switching are needed if we want to avoid bottle necks and teacher frustration.

Network Layering
When a computer or other device on a network wants to talk to another one it can happen in number of ways. In most school networks traditionally the device would ask all of the others if they were the right one ie send its message everywhere in a hit and hope type exercise. This was not such a problem when there were a small number of devices involved but now there are hundreds it can make things noisy and slow. To speed things up we can segment a network (make it layer 3) and send the traffic directly to where it needs to go. The important message here is to use layer three capable switches in our networks.

Wireless Access
The most difficult to get right but the most important in many ways because this is the where connections to the network for 1:1 devices will start. Schools need enterprise level wireless to manage 1 to 1 devices. A good system will be characterised by a central wireless management unit. What this does is ensure that access points are not competing with each other and that clients are handed on seamlessly from one to another.

The match to Client density
More devices = more bandwidth required for the same experience. Work using local software if the network can’t support multiple online users.

The value of 1:1 has come from the value of the network ie the value of connectivity.
We need to get our network environment right for the value of connectivity to show through. My next post will be a reflection on the realities of pedagogical (teacher readiness) for 1:1

For a look at the ideal world of a 1:1 implementation read this on Wesley Fryer’s Blog and then read the comments which allude to a hardware environment being funded but teacher readiness not. To get teachers ready is a more complex process than getting the students and their devices connected. In my mind we jump across and action research our way to individual teaching success. See easy isn’t it?

The Dog Woke Me, The Blog called Me

It’s 2.59 and the dog has come around to the front of the house and woken me. There have been a lot of thoughts in my head about blogging its relationship to learning and now am in front of the computer putting them down.

 

A New Zealand teacher posted some pictures of students running a cross country. The purpose of this was for parents to be able to see their children and the children to see themselves online. What followed was a series of opinions criticising the use images and names and implying the teacher should not be blogging because of lack of understanding of net safety and protocol. What a post on whaleoil's blog shows in my mind the need to prepare for comment or controversy where we least expect it.

Can we just grow up in public?

We engage in blogging to change our personal or community worlds. A post is out in the global domain may  be seen as a statement even if we don’t intend it to be. A process is taking place where we are often adjusting our thinking, forming opinions and learning.

• What happens if we don’t follow protocol?
• We say something that our schools for example don’t believe in?
• What happens if we make a mistake?, Have a bad moment?
• What happens if someone takes issue with what we have to say?
• What are the risks if we are blogging at school as a classroom community?

Firstly I do not believe the greatest risks are from Stalkers or paedophiles as some would have us think. A photo and a student’s first name is a responsible risk. In New Zealand the ministry of education guidelines for inclusion of images is here. With parents permission there is no issue here.  The teacher posted some pictures of students running a cross country. The purpose of this was for parents to be able to see their children.The greatest risk I see with blogging are pedants and nitpickers.

To help survive this risk

• find out about blogging from an experienced leader, doer and thinker such as Dorothy Burt
• try to make sure our words make sense (not always a strong point of mine)
• read other class blogs and online material
• realise that our audience may not be who we think they are
• care mostly about our preferred audience (the one we want to engage)
• develop a thick skin i.e. accept that we may fail at first but that is not a bad thing
• moderate comments if it is a class blog or students
• think about the content of other online presences we may have and how they are linked eg facebook

Also realise the benefits of blogging

We can see blogging changing peoples personal worlds and creating

 

Blogging should be innately positive because it is based on choice

With so many people choosing to express themselves there seems a good match to

William Glassers model of Survival. Are we blogging for Survival? I have used this model

a few times and acknowledge Joan Dalton and David Anderson who introduced me to it.

So keep up the blogging or start if you wish to.

For Me I am looking to Work out what it means for our school as a community this term.

There are some more thoughts here in a guide to educational blogging from Microsoft.

And a more comprehensive reflection http://learningweb2.wikispaces.com/Important+considerations

Tomorrow is a big day

Extracts from what I want to say about the need for open access fibre networks to connect learners, learning organisations the world over.

I was unable to attend the first planning meeting of the group who have organised this event but have since understood the brief given for this part of the day’s programme to be look at Wow technology .

I was somewhat uncomfortable about this at first because afterall we were to address school principals. People who have had technology pitched to them over along period of time. Often we have shown you the big picture, the future, nirvana, the promised land of technology. And the education landscape is littered with failed promises, the unused and the past its use by date. We all know there are some realities around education that have not always worked in well with life on bleeding edge of technology. 

So before we consider wow factor I think it is important to look to look at the future through rose tinted glasses, through binoculars and under the microscope. We will not be able to do this in the timeframe of one day or meeting but what we may be able to consider is relationship of network connectivity to what we are trying to achieve as learning organisations. This will add to our ability to move towards a preferred future rather than the default one.

Connectivity is at the heart of this meeting and we will briefly outline the different types of network connection people are using to be part of the internet.

In terms of wow technology we have chosen a video conference and matched its participants to further discussion the potential of learning over networks.

This we hope will give a working example of the capacity of fibre optic bandwidth unachievable without such a connection.

We will look at what one New Zealand Council believes about the need for open access fibre networks.

What is happening with infrastructure

A student starting school today if attending till year 13 will leave in 2022.

From Ian Jukes

 

In Broad Sweeping Generalisations

We are increasing the number of devices because of

• Weight
• Cost
• Battery life
• Reliability
• Connectivity
• Functionality
• Value of the network to which they connect

The implications are

• We need either greater simplicity/reliability of equipment or greater technical support
• Increased device density requires better internal networks especially wireless
• Learners create more as well as consume
• School/community partnerships and
• anytime anywhere anyhow learning grows
• Much of this relates our new curriculum whose vision is “for young people who are confident, connected, actively involved lifelong learners.”
• And this relates perfectly to networks and connections.

I hope it goes well tomorrow.

Are We connected ?

Well is being connected becoming increasingly important and contributing to learning. Here in New Zealand the vision of the new curriculum is

“for young people who are confident, connected, actively involved lifelong learners.”

What we get from connectivity is an opportunity to talk with others, participate and be heard in ways that weren’t possible. I was reading the newspaper the other day a story about a woman whose partner is working overseas. They have a Skype conversation every morning and night. They do not feel separated.

When learners connect something happens too.

We have a meeting this Thursday of local school Principals talking about the possibility of connecting up to a local fibre service. I hope this will bring about more understanding of connectivity. I would like to have some reflections from around the world about when they feel/have felt connected and whether this matters. Click on either of the pictures to add your thoughts to when and why we are connected. If you don’t feel like writing just a name and where you are from will be fine.

New Literacies revisited

Netbooks are go.

We are always looking for technologies that enable learning and engage learners. We have this year initiated a 1 to 1 netbook programme for year seven students. I have never been happier in my beliefs that connected students will learn better. A bold statement I know but the students learning is evident both in the classroom and out. We have had to extend access to our social networking site elgg with over 100 concurrent connections to the database. This is becoming the hub of literacy development (see Below) as the community kicks in. Here I see Metcalfe's law showing true in education only with a few subtle differences. Metcalfe's law states that "the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system" Well the same can be said for learning value as more people connect the more we can learn from each other. The students are also empowered by knowing the other people they see on their network. I will ask some of them questions about this next week but first need to get a list of network beliefs off my Chest. Please add to this via comments.

Network value and function depends on:

• Number of people connected
• A feeling of ownership
• A feeling of engagement
• Network having multiple links student-teacher, Teacher-teacher, student-student, student-parent etc
• The ability of the network to support multiple concurrent connections which requires:
  • High density Wireless provision
  • High Speed internet provision
  • Access to appropriate learning and social networks
  • Anytime anywhere anyhow

Ownership and personalisation

The personalisation of the device comes from its size, connectivity and obviously belonging to the user. The photos I have taken around the school as I came across students and netbooks. All after class out of school.

Here We can see weekend engagement of students in the social network at Southwell School.

The new decisions

The purpose of this post is to look at the reasons I see for the new and increasing importance for schools to have robust, open and protected wireless networks. It is also to compare two products (Ruckus and Bluesocket) looking to provide solutions in this area as a cognitive reflection on our own decision making in this area.

Why wireless development.
With most schools having robust network backbone in place we want to escape wires to create a more natural connection allowing us to be more flexible in where we are able to support the diverging devices that are able to connect wirelessly.
Wireless access is of course not new but as we scale the clients in a network the throughput of our wireless system has to develop to provide acceptable service to each client device. Netbooks and mobile devices are bringing the feasibility of 1 to 1 for more and more schools, and indeed home environments. The use of wireless gateway devices allow us to control wireless traffic and present easy access to the internet for guests and a wide variety of devices eg psp, phones etc.
What we are doing at our school
In our school we are introducing 200 new wireless device to one building within the school and will extend this to include another 125-150 in 2010.

Making a choice
This is not an insurmountable problem as there are some clever options available vendors using the 5Ghz spectrum can have more radio channels overlapping and therefore greater Access point density. Most of the solutions also provide for self managing access points. By this I mean once a controller is established additional access points are able to find it and set themselves up. We have looked at four solutions to this wireless problem. The vendors being Bluesocket, Ruckus, Xirrus and Trapeze.

Ruckus

Advantages Ruckus Equipment.

• The controller will not become a bottleneck for traffic as it is responsible for authentication, management rather than a router of traffic.
• This requirement makes Bluesocket more expensive long term as client density will outgrow controller throughput.
• The wireless access points work well in a noisy environment directing traffic to the clients that need it
• The 802.11n APs are priced at a point that means we can move to this standard now rather than redeploy within two years.
• We have also experienced the Ruckus Solution working at learning conferences here in New Zealand where many clients were able to connect and hold reasonable wireless service.
• The Ruckus APS can work as mesh in other words find each other and extend their range without wires.

Disadvantages

• Offers only 2.4 ghz radios which have only 3 channels available and may suffer if placed to close to each other.
• Even though they operate in the 802.11n the n clients will not benefit until they are the only ones present as the access point will drop to meet the needs of the weakest client eg operate in 802.11b if a b client is present.
• While the ruckus traffic is not directed through a router this means it will all take place on layer 2 of the network meaning that having a high density of clients is likely to degrade network performance for everyone.

We are still considering the verdict and at the moment we see ruckus as a terrific solution to medium density sites where meshing may be of benefit. In a higher density 1 to 1 environment we are starting to think it may struggle.

Will discuss other options in next post.

Set them free

How network dependent are we?

Well we have just about signed off on the development of a wireless gateway at the school where I work. A what?
A wireless gateway is a computer networking device that routes packets from a wireless LAN to another network, typically a wired WAN. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless gateway
or off the top of my head
"A mechanism for providing wireless access to a network and controlling the traffic on it."
We are using a bluesocket solution. This will mean that all kind of devices and visitors can use our network to access the web or other resources while we remain safe in our data and internet connection.
It is funny but it strikes me that both are necessary now. An organisation needs to be able to host others on its network as life without internet becomes informationally untenable. This is coupled with people's realisation that their devices are wireless capable if only the environment in which they find themselves can provide network access.
Devices like this psp or the eeepc above or dare I say it phones. I am just continuing this post having transferred my device from an expensive ibm x60 tablet running vista (a problem with fan noise is driving me to drink) to my daughter's $500 nz eeepc. The screen size is different but the application is the same ie the web and what it connects me to.



The network the network the network.
Friends, sounds, opinions, information, differentiation, images, diversity, provocation, articulation, video, passive activity, aggregation, automation etc etc.
Outside of this there are many other applications of course but I feel the involvement of others is what makes the network the place to be.

The New Zealand Curriculum identifies five key competencies:

• thinking
• using language, symbols, and texts
• managing self
• relating to others
• participating and contributing.

All of these are network related. Now I am not saying that
network infrastructure is all there is BUT I can't see us resolving
key competencies without it. This all makes " the kids pay price for cellphones on Weblogg-ed " a sad read.
Let's ensure our organisations have wireless networks that are secure but they
must be open and able to be utilised widely. What do you think??