I was overjoyed to discover that one of my SAISD's teachers--Paul Gates--has apparently been featured or mentioned in a book (page 261) entitled, Podcasting for Teachers by Kathy P. King and Mark Gura. Paul's work with blogging/podcasting second graders has been celebrated in a variety of ways. In my writings, I've mentioned him several times:

• TCEA Presentation - 5 Steps to District Blogging
• Writing and Publishing Using Blogs
• Danny Maas, Founder/Productor of TILT-TV, featured Paul Gates and his students in TILT

The power of the Read/Write Web is striking because it taps into the power of the human voice. I still am moved to tears when I hear a choir of children singing a touching song on the radio. . .it's happened to me ever since I watched my first child come into the world. Often, though, we seek to quiet those voices of our children, hoping to silence the canary in the hopes of protecting it from predators. Yet, new technologies are powerful because they help us be more human.

Human nature doesn't change, but social and technological progress tends to amplify its effects. Simply put, the more ways we have to do what comes naturally, the more we do it. One of the things that comes most naturally to humans is the desire to communicate; the internet amplifies our ability to do so. Research is showing people how to "incorporate the internet into their social 'toolkit' and use it...to deal with personal and interpersonal issues in their lives."
Read "Free internet as an Agent of Community Transformation" from The Journal of Community Informatics

Isn't finding your voice one of the most powerful acts you can achieve? That's the power of children who blog and podcast. I wrote about Paul in several blog entries, and shared the following in The Role of Educational Leaders which will some day appear in Coming of Age 2.0 (when that will be, I don't know! <smile>).

You know the power of a child's voice can galvanize a room of educators and parents...Paul's students have consistently written about the garden that they keep, and everything they are learning about plants. You can find audio blog entries (a.k.a. podcasts) from individual students sharing what they have learned, written about, and drawn by hand. It is Paul's class blog that has taught me the definition of a blog--an electronic notebook that facilitates conversations between those who blog there, as well visitors.

I'm delighted to see that Paul's work--and that of his students--has been acknowledged and published in a book! I'll have to agree with Mark Gura, one of the authors, when he writes on his blog:

...a new body of essential 21st Century skills has come into being since the advent of personal computing and digital technology. These skills represent a crucial body of learning for today’s students if they are to graduate as effective citizens and participants in the economy. 21st C skills are not solely technology skills, but involve the ways that learning, knowing, communicating, and solving problems have changed through the application of technology. They must be learned through the continual and ongoing use of technology.
Source: Mark Gura, The Powers that be have been informed

I'm delighted to see that Paul's work--and that of his students--has been acknowledged and published in a book! Please let us know at Instructional Technology Services how you are sharing your students' voices with a global audience!

Providing sustained professional learning opportunities to teachers can be difficult. Fortunately, Read/Write Web technologies make it a lot easier. PBS TeacherLine appears to be moving in this direction. I wrote about my PBS TeacherLine facilitator experience some time back and some of my criticisms, but...for folks new to eLearning, it's great to have the structured environment supported by a large organization. It's not the ONLY way to get the job done, but it sure makes it easier to say, "Our district is partnered with PBS Teacherline of Texas," rather than with a loose confederation of global educators.

This past month, Bruce Ellis (Dallas ISD) and I were interviewed by Chris Lucas (PBS TeacherLine of Texas). It was a lot of fun being interviewed and then having them do all the editing. Last year when my team and I were looking for solutions for sustained professional learning for our teachers, one of my team suggested PBS TeacherLine as one of the possible options. Other options included Walden University Master's Program and Intel Teach to the Future.

After some reflection, we decided to go with the PBS TeacherLine - Capstone courses. So, we incorporated the PBS TeacherLine Capstone courses into our Technology Integration Lead Teacher (TILT) initiative. Here's a little from the memo that went out:

The initiative builds on the concept of establishing technology integration lead teachers at every campus over the next few years. Since technology integration is the expectation for all K-12 teachers, the TILT initiative is initially restricting its scope to classroom, core-content teachers in fourth through tenth grades. Teachers selected to participate—and who enjoy campus administrator support—will provide ongoing professional learning opportunities at the campus level. They will also be expected to model technology use aligned to the State Technology Applications:TEKS curriculum, and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Education Technology Standards (NETS).

Teachers interested in participating will need to carefully review the expectations for the project, sign a letter of commitment, successfully complete online courses, as well as other specific objectives. The program will be rigorous and involve after-hours training commitments. In return, participants will receive a laptop computer, a wireless digital projector, paid professional development at a summer academy, and workshop project stipends for campus level training. Also, participating teachers will receive ISTE NETS Certification.

The budget is posted online for the first 3 cohorts, in case you're curious as to what this is costing. You can also watch a video featuring Adah Stock regarding her participation in the TILT Cohort 1.

A second initiative that we're collaborating with PBS on is taking one of their existing online courses and converting it to SCORM-compliant format for delivering via our learning management system, and embedding it in

In the meantime, may I encourage you to check out the video and leave a comment (please be nice)?

 View Video

Relevant Links:

• PBS TeacherLine
• PBS TeacherLine of Texas
• San Antonio ISD's Instructional Technology Services' Technology Integration Lead Teacher (TILT) Program
• Dallas ISD's Instructional Technology Department

The school district spends about $70 per computer for MS Office. It can spend about $3 or more per email account for licensing, servers to support this, calendaring features, etc. But, how much money could the District save it implemented Google's Gmail and Apps (word processing, presentation, spreadsheet)? It's an interesting idea that Lucie deLaBruere writes about in this blog post. Consider the following:

Capuchino High School has adopted Google Apps for your Domain as one of several tools used to implement a Global Communications program The program uses tools that expand the circle of influence these students have outside of their local community by helping them connect and collaborate. Google Apps for you Domain provides the school with several powerful Google tools, while allowing them to keep their own school domain name: http://www.capuchinohighschool.org/ and allowing them to keep control of the student accounts using a web based control panel.

“The kids have access to the Gmail function, with chat turned off, docs and spreadsheets and their own homepage (iGoogle) that they can customize. We also allow them to use the calendar function. The students also use this e-mail account to create their 'blogger' accounts. Every kid in the Global Communications classes has their own blog. The next step in the process for some of them is to start to use reader to subscribe to feeds. “

In another district in Vermont, substantial savings have been achieved.

The Google Apps for Your Domain free education access resulted in a substantial savings per yea. “Having a web based solution has offered our staff more flexibility than our previous client based solution. Docs and spreadsheets is widely used as are email and calendaring. All in all we have found Google apps to be user friendly and easily scalable to our needs."

“Google for Domains makes a wild amout of sense. Have a company offer a school free email, a management console, collaboration tools, integrated web 2.0 services and spam filtering...for free ? Using your own domain name ? This program saves schools money and also all configuration and maintenance time. Reclaiming that money and personnel time alone... Good problems to have in my book. Most schools are barely scratching the surface educating kids for the present day. Embracing opportunities and technologies like this in secondary education, discussing and modeling these technologies instead of limiting their experiences will bring us closer to educating students for the future - where they'll be working. “

As Texas school districts--like San Antonio ISD--feel the budget crunch, imagine saving $70 at minimum per new computer purchased. With 21,000 computers in the District, that would have yielded a savings of $1.4 million dollars. Wow...that's the same amount as our State Technology Allotment. If you keep existing licenses and multiply $70 by the annual 3-4K machines, the savings are still substantial ($210K). If you switch email services, what might the savings be?

With 41% of SAISD machines obsolete, and no increases in the state technology allotment or the Title II, Part D of No Child Left Behind funding for the District, isn't it time we reconsidered heavy duty investment in expensive software? It's a question many districts are asking.

References
The Infinite Thinking Machine

The November Campus Technology Representatives' (CTR) Meeting took place online. The Office of Instructional Technology Services used Moodle and DimDim to facilitate an online meeting, allowing IT staff to narrowcast video feed, share a powerpoint presentation over the SAISD network!

Miguel Guhlin (Director) gave a short introduction, then Sylvia Martinez jumped in to share critical information with campus tech reps regarding the electronic gradebook and attendance tracking system, as well as the School Technology and Readiness (STaR) Chart collection process.

All information shared in the CTR meeting is available online and an update sent to principals and CTRs who were unable to attend the meeting.

Recently, the District went through a curriculum audit. Audits present us with the opportunity to share the story of where we are at, why we think we arrived here, and what is being done--what could be done--to move forward. I know it offered me the opportunity to take a hard look at the past 5 years that I've been in the District, reflect on the obstacles, and what we've tried in Instructional Technology Services.

While I could focus on those obstacles, I'd like to share the data we have. The data alone paint a fascinating picture of SAISD. I've divided it up into 3 key areas: a) Hardware; b) Level of Technology Implementation; and c) STaR Chart.

HARDWARE
In data gathered based on Fixed Assets data as of August 20, 2007 (October, 2007), 41% of District computers deployed for instructional purposes are obsolete (59% are measured as current, or 2003 or greater). The graph below displays the data for campuses, and the table beneath it provides specific information. The school membership data is true as of October 17, 2007.

(right click to view the image at a larger size)

Student to Computer Ratio

The average student to computer ratio is 1 computer to 5 students.

* At Elementary Schools, the average is 1 computer for 6.45 students.
* At Middle Schools, the average is 1 computer for every 3.8 students.
* At High Schools, the average is 1 computer for every 2.55 students.
* At Academies, the average is 1 computer for every 4.62 students.

(right click to view the image at a larger size)

LEVELS OF TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION (LOTI)
The District completed the Levels of Technology Implementation (LoTi) assessment in January, 2006. It conducted the LOTI assessment for 3 years in a row. The LoTi, unlike other assessments like the STaR Chart, provides us with an instrument that has been tested for reliability and validity. There is a clear connection between one of the 3 domains the LoTi assesses and student achievement; that domain is Current Instructional Practices. Also important, however, are the other two domains: the level of technology implementation (LoTi) and the personal computer use (PCU) domain. Each provides valuable information about SAISD campus administrators and teachers. More importantly, it provides a clear direction for professional development.

Comparison Results appear below...

STAR CHART DATA

Although you can find a list of campus STaR Charts online here, the overall District measurement is as follows (I rounded up):

• Teaching and Learning - 12 (Developing Tech)
• Educator Preparation - 12 (Developing Tech)
• Leadership - 14 (Developing Tech)
• Infrastructure - 15 (Advanced Tech)

If we compare SAISD to State of Texas expectations (a range of 21-24 in each area as the target technology level desired), then, a graph might look like this:

In this graph, I used 21 as the minimum required to achieve target technology level.

RECOMMENDATIONS
So, based on this data, how do we get ahead? Dr. Chris Moersch--creator of the LOTI--shared the following recommendations:

1. Require professional development—a minimum of 16 hours—for all teachers that addresses 21st Century Skills.

2. Provide monetary incentives for teachers and administrators to develop technology competencies along a learning path (e.g. English/Language Arts, Science, Math).

3. Merge the focus of both departments (C&I and Technology) concentrating on student achievement.

4. Summative evaluations for building principals demonstrating their staff accomplishments at LOTI Level 3.

5. Provide Technology Department access to the CICs.

6. Provide professional development to CICs to become “instructional” mentors of technology.

7. Train principals.

8. Launch a 1 to 1 computer initiative for teachers.

* Bold items in this list are taken from recommendations made and agreed to by Associate Area Superintendents in collaboration with Dr. Chris Moersch, author of the Levels of Technology Implementation (LOTI) framework.

The new version of eNews is about to be released! You can find the September, 2007 issue here, and the October 2007 issue is full of great ideas!

Yesterday, Sylvia Martinez, Sue Harris, and I had the chance to present to teachers from around the region. I was the primary speaker, but I decided to invite Sylvia and Sue to share their specific experiences from a San Antonio ISD perspective. After I spoke, what a delight for the audience to hear the specific ideas expressed by Sylvia and Sue. Sue shared her experiences with the Under the Sea Digital Storytelling Camp held simultaneously at 3 campuses in San Antonio ISD. Syvlia shared how digital storytelling technologies are applicable to a wide range of content areas and simple enough for grade 2 and up students to use.

Of course, the focus was on sharing on digital storytelling in general and what SAISD teachers and students are doing in particular.

You can see the presentation below...I customized a presentation I normally use to introduce folks to digital storytelling. You can download all the materials (handouts) from both of these sites:

• MGuhlin's Digital Storytelling wiki (off-site link)
• Instructional Technology's Digital Storytelling

Are you interested in the teaching of writing? You're invited to the San Antonio Writing Project's Visitors Day taking place on Friday, July 6 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM in the Main Building (MB) 0.208 at the UTSA (1604 location). According to the flyer:

Come and visit with our new San Antonio area Teacher Consultants, as teacher demonstrations and pieces of writing are shared! Visitor parking will be available on the top floor of the Parking Garage located on the 1604 side of campus...view the flyer and map.

Some of the images in the presentation below didn't come across. Let me know if you'd like a copy of the PPT.