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CTO/CIO

Explore insights and strategies for CTOs and CIOs in education. Discover tools and resources to support technology leadership and innovation.

TCEA Responds: Saving High School Seniors’ Digital Work

by Miguel Guhlin June 29, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Welcome to TCEA Responds #7. Submit your own question(s) online. Today’s topic is helping high school seniors take their digital work with them.

Dear TCEA Responds:

Our high school seniors are moving on soon. They have data stored in Microsoft OneNote. Do you know if students can easily print all their OneNote tabs at one time to create a hard copy of a notebook to take with them after graduation?

-Gina

Dear Gina:

It’s amazing, isn’t it? The young men and women who arrived just a few short years ago are leaving. But what to do with all their digital files, some of which would help them at their next stop at the university? Some of the old options include:

Print all the documents (not very eco-friendly)
Saving all files/folders to a USB flash drive (but what if it gets lost or the media is corrupted?)

Let’s explore some possible responses.

Option #1 – Copy Files with Multcloud

While you could print an entire OneNote notebook, another approach would be to have students create a OneDrive account, then use an online utility (free) to copy their OneNote notebook from their school account to their personal OneDrive account. The online utility that they would use is Multcloud.com.

CloudHQ.net and CloudGopher are two other utilities (available at cost) that work great. Note that these approaches work well with any cloud storage solution, including Google Drive and Dropbox. Read more about it here.

TCEA responds

Option #2 – OneNote Export

If copying to OneDrive cloud storage is not an option, then you could export the entire OneNote notebook containing student work as a Word or PDF file. This would allow the student to have a version of the document they can edit. They could then take the Word file(s) and open them in Google Docs or with their free Office 365 account.

Below, you will see the various export windows depending on what you want to export. Note the different output formats available.

Export Page	Export Section	Export Notebook

Choose the Best Option

With all the available tools, there really isn’t a need to print or save work to temporary media that may get corrupted or lost. Cloud storage provides a much better option than copying work in unusable formats. And with tools like Multcloud or CloudHQ, your students can back up data to any location, not just the one where they created it.

June 29, 2017 0 comments

CTO/CIO Microsoft

TCEA Responds: Microsoft Classroom Assignments

by Miguel Guhlin June 22, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Welcome to TCEA Responds #6. Submit your own question(s) online. Today’s topic is how to deal with new students and assignments scheduled prior to their arrival in Microsoft Classroom.

Dear TCEA Responds:

Hello! Thank you very much for your excellent videos! We are about to begin with MS Classroom for all our classes at the school where I work and I have a question, maybe you can help me. Suppose I prepare all the homeworks and classwork in MS Classroom before the year begins and subscribe the students so that I activate the class until the first school day but at middle of the bimester a new student arrives, how can I assign all the homeworks and classwork to him/her? Thanks, Paco!

Note: On May 2, 2017, Microsoft announced that the MS Classroom would be merged into MS Teams. Here is an excerpt from their announcement:
Microsoft Classroom Preview will continue with current functionality until July 31, 2017. – Teachers will not be able to create new notebooks or assignments after the July 31, 2017. Current classes and associated content will continue to be available as Office 365 Groups. Teachers can access assignment resources, files, calendars, and conversations, through tools such as Microsoft Outlook and SharePoint Online. If necessary, they can copy Class Notebook content to their personal workspace (e.g. OneDrive for Business). When the new class experiences become available in Teams, School Data Sync will start creating the new classes for Microsoft Teams. SDS will continue to sync existing Microsoft Classroom Preview classes through July 31, 2017.

Dear Paco:

Great question, Paco. When I attempted this, I noticed that assignments scheduled in the future, but prior to the arrival of the new student, do not appear in the Assignments list. The Assignment list for a new student looks like this:

The screenshot above reflects the MS Classroom Assignment view, which typically reflects upcoming assignments for students. This is a new student’s Assignment window, which does NOT show upcoming assignments.

The new student’s calendar, though, DOES reflect the Assignments scheduled. This means that the new student, to see what other students see when they look for future assignments, would have to look at their calendar as shown below:

TCEA responds

Unfortunately, I don’t know how you would get those assignments scheduled PRIOR to the arrival of a student to appear in their Assignments list. Also, the calendar event shows up on the calendar as not assigned. This is certainly great feedback to offer Microsoft Classroom developers via the Feedback button.

Recommendation

One recommendation involves coaching all students to rely on their Outlook calendar. The Group Calendar will reflect all assignments, even those that were scheduled prior to being enrolled. A second suggestion is that you rely on OneNote Class Notebook, which is integrated into MS Classroom, to house all your assignments, along with a list of due dates. That way, new students–and old ones–would have access to the information. Remember, the student will see the assignments you scheduled in the past via the Outlook calendar built-into MS Classroom.

June 22, 2017 0 comments

CTO/CIO Google Tips and Tricks iOS Tips and Tricks

TCEA Responds: Podcasting Resources

by Miguel Guhlin June 15, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Welcome to TCEA Responds #4. Submit your own question(s) online. Today’s topic is podcasting resources.

Dear TCEA Responds:

Do you have any resources you love on podcasting? I’m interested in playing with the idea of starting one!

Thanks in advance,
Dina
🙂

Dear Dina:

Podcasting is one of my favorite ways of sharing ideas with others. The maxim of “begin with the end in mind” makes your tool selection appropriate. Over the years, I have narrowed my tools and apps down to a few situations. Let’s take a look at these situations.

Audio Snapshots

Podcasting on the go, or audio snapshots, is one of my favorite approaches. Since “make thinking visible” is a personal goal, I love interviewing people at conferences and workshops in their own setting, taking an audio snapshot of their thinking as it is happening. Your audio capture tool has to be ready to go fast since you are trying to capture people’s thinking as it is happening. Two tools you can use include Voxer (free for iOS and Android) and Voice Record Pro (free for iOS only) or HiQ MP3 Recorder Pro ($3.49 for Android only).

With my mobile phone (since I have it with me), I record using one of these apps and then share the link. Voxer’s My Notes (a.k.a. Notes to Self) features audio-recording for less than fifteen minutes. This is ideal for conferences and workshops (whether you are facilitating or just attending) because you can tap and share the link to a voxercast (what I call it) to the world via Twitter.

For Voice Record Pro or HiQ MP3 Recorder, you can save the MP3 audio file to your favorite cloud storage and then share the link. Both apps have WiFi drive capability, which allows you to connect to your mobile phone on the same WiFi network and save the audio files to your computer (e.g. laptop, Chromebook). It’s worth mentioning that Voice Record Pro has simple audio editing features (e.g. slicing audio wave down) that make it easy to remove a long pause at the start or end of an audio recording.

Photo credit: www.nicolassolop.com

Conversation Casts

A conversation-based podcast features a long-form interview or conversation. These conversations usually involve at least two people, taking advantage of Skype, Google Hangouts/YouTube Live, AppearIn, or some other technology. In fact, I’ve had chats over a phone speaker and recorded the resulting audio using my computer with a USB microphone placed in a strategic location.

Although there are many tools for recording a conversation between two or more people, my favorite is Skype on a computer. That may be because I invested in Skype recording software for both platforms, so I rely on those tools (MP3 Skype Recorder for <$10 on Windows, Call Recorder for $30 on Mac) to capture audio.

This particular type of podcast usually benefits from a script of some sort that identifies questions. You are usually producing the audio and putting it online via your own host. As such, they are great for in-house shows.

Radio Casts

If you’re ready to reach a much wider audience, and you’re prepared to make a long-time commitment rather than the once-in-awhile podcast, then take a look at the BAM Radio Network (get started here).

Reflection Casts

A reflection podcast is just that, a reflection on previously discussed or shared content. My favorite one, #edchat, is the one featuring Tom Whitby. I have learned quite a bit just listening to these ten-minute edchat radio reflections on the week’s previous Twitter chat (which I usually miss). I can certainly imagine this for a school district’s twitter chat (e.g. #nisdchat). Wow, what a great conversation if you were to have school leadership reflect on a previous week’s twitterchat.

Vidcasts (a.k.a. Enhanced Podcasts)

Enhanced podcasts combine videos or pictures and sound, ending up as MP4 video files online that you can share on YouTube. What’s neat about these is that you can publish them as videos and/or audio-only versions sans pictures. Combine PowerPoint and Office Mix to make these, or use simple video editing tools like WeVideo, Shotcut, or Techsmith’s Camtasia to record content. You can also use Google Slides and Screencastify. If you like working with video, then this may be the way to go for the future. A nice alternative is Microsoft Sway for podcasting.

Listen to Podcasts

Want to publish in a magazine? Read every issue to get a feel for what they publish. Do the same for podcasting. One way to listen to many podcasts involves getting apps like Overcast (my all-time favorite app on iOS).

Some Tips To Keep in Mind

Ready to get started with a podcast of your own? Remember that podcasts are like pets. They’re cute and cuddly when little, but they require money (e.g. microphones for podcasting and other stuff), constant attention (schedule them with regularity and consistency to build your audience), and an inexhaustible guest list. Here are my tips from over ten years of podcasting:

Have fun learning while you record and share.
Keep your podcast topic focused on something open-ended. You get the benefit of being focused while not locked into a dead-end subject.
Create a shared document (e.g. Google Doc, Word Online, OneNote) that you has all your rules and sample scripts that you can pass onto guests.
Invite guests to sign up on their favorite date using a shared spreadsheet.
Audacity is a great audio editor, and you can use it with copyright-friendly audio.
Figure out where you are going to host your audio. Soundcloud works great, as does Google Drive (what I use), or make vidcasts that can be placed on YouTube.

Enjoy the journey, and try not to let this legal guide to podcasting scare you away!

June 15, 2017 0 comments

CTO/CIO Educational Trends Google Tips and Tricks iOS Tips and Tricks Professional Learning

TCEA Responds: Recording Speakers

by Miguel Guhlin June 8, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Welcome to TCEA Responds #3. Submit your own question(s) online. Today’s topic is recording speakers in conference settings and note-taking.

Dear TCEA Responds:

Are there apps that you could recommend that work best in TCEA convention environments? I have looked at some of these. Ideally, I would like to be able to record the speakers’ voices, have their voices converted into texts, type notes, and be able to paste pictures I take of graphic presentations into the apps. Anything you could recommend will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jerry

Dear Jerry:

Recording speakers at conferences and workshops has never been easier. Before we explore various solutions that address your question, let’s get one thing out of the way.

Get Permission

If you are going to record someone to share with others via a blog, ask for permission prior to the session, or as soon as possible thereafter. I often carry a business card with some information about myself and that I work for a nonprofit. I share that with the speaker so they will know what I am up to.

Recording a Speaker’s Voice

Recording a speaker’s voice can be done easily. You may want to read this blog entry that goes into iOS (and Android) microphone solutions, as well software to use. My go-to solution these days is the iRig Mic Cast for iOS/Android ($35) and iRig Recorder software. You can then save the audio recording to your favorite cloud storage or note-taking app (e.g. OneNote).

Need an audio editor? Use the free, open source Audacity sound editor (e.g. Mac/Windows/Linux) or Beautiful Audio Editor Chrome add-on. For hosting your audio to share with others, use Google Drive, The Internet Archive’s Open Source Audio, or SoundCloud.

Voice to Text

If you have an iOS device, you can use Apple’s Notes app to convert speech to text as it happens. The transcription will not be perfect, but it gives you an awesome starting point. Another approach on Windows 10 computers or tablets can include using Cortana (“Hey Cortana” to activate) to do voice to text. If you do this in a conference presentation, Cortana will transcribe your speaker’s speech to text (find out more). You can do the same with Google Docs’ Voice Typing feature. Aren’t these cool solutions that work with your Windows tablet, iOS/Android device? For more text to speech and speech to text solutions, read this blog entry, Transform Learning with Text to Speech. Some great apps to investigate include OneNote, Evernote, and Google Keep.

Paste Pictures

If you don’t know about the free Microsoft Office Lens app (available for Android, iOS, and Windows), then you are missing out. Not only can you take pictures at an angle (which Office Lens then flattens out to make it readable as if you were standing in front of it), you can also scan documents and then have Office Lens read them to you. You can drop pictures into your Camera Roll (iOS) or Gallery (Android). And, if you have a slide full of text, you can grab text from that slide and save it to your notes.

Final Tip: Avoid Media Capture Frenzy

Image Source: Peggy Reimers Sketchnoting Session

“I like the slowness of writing by hand,” says Susan Sontag (as cited here). Avoid media capture frenzy. You may find yourself at the end of a stimulating presentation, only to find yourself uninspired. Allow yourself the opportunity to experience the speaker’s enthusiasm with handwritten note-taking or sketchnoting.

June 8, 2017 0 comments

CTO/CIO Cybersecurity

Keys to the Kingdom: OneLogin Data Breach

by Miguel Guhlin June 1, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Do you use a single-sign-on (SSO) solution to get your students and staff logged into multiple systems? If so, you will want to read this blog entry. On Wednesday, May 31, 2017, OneLogin notified its 12 million customers (BBC, 2013) that their SSO solution had been breached:

OneLogin, a company that provides customers with a single sign on for logging into multiple sites and apps, appears to have compromised customer data, including the ability to decrypt encrypted files. The company notified customers via email Wednesday that the incident stemmed from unauthorized access to one of its U.S. data centers. (Source: Threatpost)

“The service says all of its data centers in the US have been hacked, with customer data ‘potentially compromised.'” (Source: C-NET)

Before we explore the implications of the breach, let’s revisit why SSO solutions are so important.

SSO Makes Learning Possible

Only the smallest school districts can manually maintain usernames and passwords for all students and staff using online teaching and learning systems. Each requires staff and students to maintain a unique login and password. For all tasked with memorizing and tracking these login credentials, it requires a Herculean effort.

SSO simplifies keeping track of forty or more usernames and passwords for digital textbooks, online systems, and more. Popular SSO solutions include Classlink, Encore*, Identity Automation, Lenovo/Stoneware, OneLogin, and Tools4Ever. Solution providers deliver services such as Single Sign-On (SSO), Self Service Password Reset, and User Provisioning/De-Provisioning. Other services include IT Productivity, Applicant/Parent Self-Registration, Cloud Security, Multi-Factor Authentication, and more. These are essential services. A data breach of your school district’s SSO solution can mean the exposure of sensitive data for students and staff.

*Please note the statement Encore makes at the end of this blog entry about their recommendations. Statements from other SSO solution providers are being sought.

OneLogin Breach Opens the Door, Again

An established solution, OneLogin’s breach opens the door to 5,000+ valued services (e.g. Blackboard, Moodle, Google, Office365) for those affected school districts. Here are some relevant quotes:

“…the company gave more details about the breach, and revealed that all customers served by our US data center are affected; customer data was compromised, including the ability to decrypt encrypted data.…That’s kind of a big deal.” (Source: Solutions Review)

“Gartner Inc. financial fraud analyst Avivah Litan said she has long discouraged companies from using cloud-based single sign-on services, arguing that they (cloud-based SSO providers) are the digital equivalent to an organization putting all of its eggs in one basket. “It’s just such a massive single point of failure,” Litan said. “And this breach shows that other [cloud-based single sign-on] services are vulnerable, too. This is a big deal and it’s disruptive for victim customers, because they have to now change the inner guts of their authentication systems and there’s a lot of employee inconvenience while that’s going on.” (Source: Krebs On Security)

“The breach is the biggest security hiccup for the company since last August, when it admitted an attacker managed to take advantage of a bug in its system to read notes thought to be private in its Secure Notes feature. That incident was two-pronged. A bug in the system the company used for log storage and analytics caused all notes in Secure Notes to be stored in cleartext for one month. During that period, in an unrelated incident, an attacker successfully compromised the password of a OneLogin employee, something that allowed them access to the logging system where the notes were being saved.” (Source: Threatpost)

OneLogin’s Recommendation for the Affected

If you are an education or business customer, OneLogin is quoted as offering the following steps:

Force a OneLogin directory password reset for your users;
Generate new certificates for any apps that use SAML SSO;
Generate new API credentials and OAuth tokens;
Generate and apply new directory tokens for Active Directory Connectors and LDAP Directory Connectors;
Update the API or OAuth credentials you use to authenticate to third-party directories like G Suite (Google), Workday, Namely, and UltiPro;
Generate and apply new Desktop SSO tokens;
Recycle any secrets stored in Secure Notes;
Update the credentials you use to authenticate to third party apps for provisioning;
Update the admin-configured login credentials for apps that use form-based authentication;
Have your end-users update their passwords for the form-based authentication apps that they can edit, including personal apps;
Replace your RADIUS shared secrets.

As The Register points out, this is quite a list. Imagine school districts struggling to get this done by themselves.

If your district is using an SSO solution, what can it do going forward?

Planning Ahead

Encore Technology Group’s President and CTO Michael Knight, a recent speaker at TCEA’s Technology Leadership Summit, was reached for comment. He said “This type of breach demonstrates our position that districts should operate an IAM, Rostering and SSO Platform that is completely within their borders and control so that the district can have complete logging, auditing, analytics, and visibility into the data, transmissions of the data, and data access. The log, auditing, and analytics data can then be fed into a central logging and monitoring platform (ex. SIEM – Security Information and Event Management) that will allow the district to detect and ultimately prevent data breaches.”

*Note: Enboard does not operate on a Central Cloud frame like the provider described in the breach.

Each customer has a completely separate platform with independent security contexts where all Identity Data, Federation Constructs and Metadata, Encryption Keys, Multi-factor Authentication Details, Logging, Auditing and Administrative Credentials/Access are stored separately and are completely unique. All end user SSO credentials are stored encrypted with a dual, unique key in the customer’s Active Directory.

Most importantly, the district has complete control of all data, controls, management, auditing, logging and can restrict all access from providers including access from Encore Support.

Safeguarding sensitive data goes beyond digital citizenship for an organization. When schools work in loco parentis, they have accepted care of our children. Yet districts, even large ones like those that use OneLogin’s solution (e.g. San Jose School District), find themselves outmatched. “Brace for impact!” may be the only advice you can give security-conscious school districts. In these cases, the keys to their respective kingdoms have been lost.

Statement from Identity Automation:

“RapidIdentity, from Identity Automation, is designed to make our customers more secure. And to do that, we’ve taken significant steps to ensure the security of our system itself, especially when hosted in the cloud.

Like OneLogin, RapidIdentity can be hosted on Amazon AWS. Unlike OneLogin, we’ve implemented strict security protocols enforced by RapidIdentity’s Privileged Access Management capabilities that ensure no individual has direct access to a hosted implementation, and there is no backdoor. Any access must be requested and approved by a separate Identity Automation Service Manager, meaning that no individual can breach the system alone. Furthermore, access is granted for a very limited time (the specific time withheld for security reasons), preventing breaches via accidental loss of credentials or access.

Beyond this, RapidIdentity has numerous built-in measures to ensure its security. In addition to requiring second party approval, privileged users are required to use multi-factor authentication when accessing any part of an installation and are limited to a single customer implementation. A combination of symmetric, asymmetric, and hashing cryptographic methods are also used to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of customer data and credentials.”

-Troy Moreland, Co-Founder & CTO, Identity Automation

New information was added as of 06/04/2017.

June 1, 2017 1 comment

CTO/CIO Google Tips and Tricks

TCEA Responds: Connect with Google Certified Administrators

by Miguel Guhlin June 1, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Welcome to TCEA Responds #2. Submit your own question(s) online. Today’s topic is Google Certified Administrator communities.

Dear TCEA Responds:

Would it be possible to get an email group together of the people who attended the Admin Domain bootcamp? I have questions and I would love to have them/y’all to bounce them off of. Thanks, Starling!

Dear Starling:

Absolutely, we can get a group together to support the Google Certified Administrator Bootcamp session, keeping you in touch with other session participants. In fact, TCEA Professional Development Director Diana Benner started a Google Plus Community to facilitate sharing among TCEA Certified Google Administrators (click the link to apply to join if you have already attended a Google Certified Administrator Bootcamp via TCEA).

Other Google Certified Admin Communities

TCEA Responds There are also many other communities for Google Certified Administrators on Google Plus. The benefit of joining several communities is that you get diverse perspectives and insights. For example, John Sowash asked in one Google Plus Community “What advice do you have for completing all the Google exams?”

Responses included some of the following points from Edward Dougherty and Amanda LeBlanc:

Remember that exams are “open book,” so organize your resources prior to the exam.
Complete the Fundamentals Training, especially if you are new to G Suite.
Review the Sample Questions provided by Google.
Find a study buddy who can ask questions and simulate scenarios for you.
Check out YouTube videos if you need assistance with one of the G Suite applications.
Take your time and double-check your work (especially with sharing rights).
Find a quiet space to take your exam with no distractions.
Reach out to other certified educators/trainers if you have questions (Twitter, Google+, email district members who may be certified).
Take time to practice with each of the tools as you go through Fundamentals training – take any “new to you” tools for a test drive so that you can see the connections in your day-to-day teaching and learning environment.

Participate in TCEA Bootcamps

Of course, completing the preparation course that TCEA Google Certified Administrators and trainers developed prepares you well, too! Why don’t you join us for a TCEA Google Suites for Education session? You will learn a lot more than just Google tips and how-to strategies. And you will connect to fellow Texans ready to learn and grow with you. Check the calendar to see when the next workshop is.

June 1, 2017 0 comments

CTO/CIO Google Tips and Tricks iOS Tips and Tricks Microsoft Technical Support

TCEA Responds: Grants and Tech Planning

by Miguel Guhlin May 26, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Dear TCEA Responds:

My name is Raquel. My principal has given two of us the job of trying to find and upgrade our school’s technology. I was hoping I could reach out and maybe find out where a great place where I may start this journey. I am a member of TCEA. So, I know that you all have great resources.

First – is there a school or classroom where we might can visit that is already technologically advanced? We are a primary school, kinder through second grade. I was hoping you all would be able to direct us to a school that we can see technology being really used.

Next – our principal has asked us to find grants for technology. Where do we need to go look for some of these? Do you all have any ideas? Any help that you all might give, we would really appreciate it.

Dear Raquel:

First of all, thank you for approaching TCEA Responds with your questions. Let me start responding with the grant question first.

Question #1 – Grant Writing Resources

The TCEA PD Team has pooled its resources to provide you access to information available online in the Grant Writing Tips section. You will find a host of resources relevant to grants, including collaborative grant writing and grant writing tips. Some of the tips include:

Celebrate people and gather stories. In order to be funded, a grant must make the reader feel a deep emotion.
Develop a powerful, data-rich narrative.
Build a writing team.
Get your budget straight.
Define success in measurable terms.

In addition to more information about these tips, you’ll find links to websites that provide lots of tips about grant writing and more. Also, be sure to check out this great blog post on Looking for Dollars in a Haystack. And keep checking the TCEA blog; when we hear about new grants being released, we always post them there.

Question #2 – Technologically-Advanced School

As to your first question about a model school for technology, I’d recommend reading this blog entry on Basic Tech Skills and how new expectations from Generation Z learners impact that list. Note that this blog entry is intended to focus on key ways we need to change our teaching to match Generation Z students (those students we have in our classrooms now). “New” basic tech skills teachers need to have can be accomplished with a wide variety of technology tools, whether they are (in alpha order) Apple, Google or Microsoft.

With these points in mind, the school you are looking for is probably using a combination of devices in schools. If you’re starting out as a technology director/CTO in a school district and wondering how to spend precious district funding, here’s how it might be done:

Device Choice

For the masses, the device of choice is probably an inexpensive, easily-managed touchscreen Chromebook or Windows 10 cloud laptop for students and mobile cart checkout. For high stakes testing labs, Windows is your best choice. For teachers/staff, one recommendation would be the Microsoft Surface tablet.

Scaffolding this multi-device environment is an embrace of no-cost Google Suites for Education to facilitate email, cloud storage, and productivity tools. (Although you have the freedom to rely on MS Office for staff, you can also give out LibreOffice free and compatible to MS Office) Again, if you are firmly entrenched in the Microsoft environment, you can definitely get Office 365 Pro Plus licensing.

If you have iPads, rather than raise costs by deploying them in a 1:1 configuration for students, disperse them two to three devices per classroom or grade level available for checkout. Apple iPad devices provide some great free apps for video editing, and those videos can be saved to Google Drive.

If you’re a Microsoft district, try this instead. For students, take a look at the Lenovo N23 Win10 laptops. For staff, SurfacePro tablets or SurfaceBooks can be a good choice.

Learning Management System

You will also need to nail down the learning management system (LMS) that will help to handle all of the amazing content your students and staff will be creating. You can use Google Classroom if you have adopted Google Suites for Education or Microsoft Classroom with OneNote Class Notebook. You may want to take a gander at this Classroom Smackdown blog entry.

Single Sign-On

On the back end, single sign-on (SSO) needs to also be set up. I wouldn’t roll out a wide variety of devices unless you first nailed down Active Directory with some type of account management solution that makes single sign-on a reality. (Enboard, ClassLink, or EST Group/Identity Automation are three top solutions.) In fact, this is probably your most important consideration.

About The TCEA Responds series: Have a question? Don’t hesitate to submit your question via this online form and we’ll get our team of educators to research possible solutions for you.

May 26, 2017 0 comments

CTO/CIO Educational Trends Leadership

Digital Learning Trends

by Lori Gracey May 22, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

The Speak Up 2016 survey results are starting to come in, and they’re showing some interesting trends in digital learning. Below are the seven concepts that are bubbling up to the top right now.

Trend #1

No surprise here. Superintendents are reporting that funding, bridging the achievement gap, and staff morale are their top concerns. These are the same concerns that have topped their list for the past six years. However, the level of concern on these topics has increased this year.

With the attacks from the media recently on the teaching profession, it’s certainly understandable why staff morale is low. And with reduced funding at both the state and national levels, there is even more reason for teachers to be unhappy right now. The achievement gap, despite the best efforts of our educators, seems to be growing as the digital divide across our country grows.

Trend #2

There is some good news, however. Campus leaders are reporting that data-informed instruction, social media communications, and online assessments are making a difference with today’s students. Other technology enhancements that seem to have a positive ROI include videos, simulations and animations within instruction; cloud-based applications and tools; student access to mobile devices in school; and online professional development for teachers. These might be good trends to investigate for your district this next school year. (If you need help planning for and implementing any of these, TCEA can help. Just email Dr. Bruce Ellis to get started.)

Trend #3

Online videos and online games top the list of digital content being used in the classroom now, with online curriculum and online textbooks following closely behind. The key takeaway from this result is that school districts (and their technology staff) must be planning for and providing greater bandwidth and more WiFi access as the need for online learning continues to grow. This is a trend that will only continue to grow over time.

Trend #4

Student use of devices shows some interesting changes. 58 percent of high school students and 25 percent of middle school students are now bringing their own devices to school for classwork. But how they choose to use those devices on their own is different from how their teachers are directing them to use them. When teachers direct, students use them to:

Do Internet research (81%)
Play educational games (60%)
Take online tests (50%)
Read online articles (37%)
Use online textbooks (32%)
Watch teacher-created videos (29%)

But when self-directed, those same devices are used by the students to:

Check grades (74%)
Look up class information (54%)
Email teachers (41%)
Receive reminders (39%)
Take notes (39%)
Take photos of assignments (29%)

This seems to indicate that the learners are using the technology for more productivity uses on their own, which may mean that they have internalized and adopted them more completely than their teachers. This would be a good discussion topic for future educator inservices.

Trend #5

This is a continuation of the previous trend, which shows that the four main groups surveyed (teachers, administrators, parents, and students) all remain on different pages when technology use for learning is discussed. According to the report, “Few teachers say they regularly assign Internet-dependent homework, more principals think Internet-dependent homework is being assigned, but students say they regularly use the Internet to help with homework.”

Trend #6

The report shows that social media is playing a larger role in learning for all surveyed.

In 2011, 50 percent of students in grades 6-12 said they could not access social media tools at school. In 2016, only 38 percent of students had the same complaint.
Nearly half (45 percent) of teachers said that they pinned a lesson on Pinterest in the past year and 19 percent use Twitter to follow education experts or fellow educators.
Eight of ten school principals say they are using social media to communicate with parents and students – 61 percent said it has a positive impact.

There continues to be a divide between social media used by students (Instagram and Snapchat) and that used by adults (Facebook). But 44 percent of students do say that social media is a must-have for their learning.

Trend #7

Parents more than ever prefer receiving a personal email from their child’s school. Face-to-face meetings and text messages were a distant second, as you can see from the chart below.

From a report by Project Tomorrow

The results of this extensive survey with its longitudinal data should be shared and discussed at district leadership meetings and professional development sessions in every district. What are your students telling you?

May 22, 2017 0 comments

CTO/CIO Technical Support

TCEA Responds: Video Surveillance Solutions

by Miguel Guhlin May 11, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Welcome to TCEA Responds #10. Submit your own question(s) online. Today’s topic offers tips on video surveillance cameras in schools.

Dear TCEA Responds:

I’m new to the technology coordinator role and have to set up video surveillance cameras across my district. Could you give me some pointers on what to keep in mind as I roll video cameras out to schools?

-Tim

Dear Tim:

Thank you for your question! Video surveillance is a big part of any school district technology program. Although video surveillance typically falls under the purview of the school district police department, deploying video cameras can be challenging. Often, district leadership perceives video cameras as an appliance that can be placed anywhere. Little consideration is given to the maintenance of video cameras or the expertise needed to configure and connect them to the network. Here are some tips as you consider launching video surveillance in your district or at your campus.

Tip #1 – Consider what vendor solutions are available

The answer many Texas districts will give is Video Insight. This vendor provides excellent, almost turn-key solutions to video camera setup and deployment. This solution also allows integration into Active Directory so that groups can be created to give users access to only their campus cameras. Not only do they provide onsite support, they also provide remote support using their software. Having experienced a video camera failure at a high school, I can attest to their customer service. They resolved the issue, working after hours into the early evening to get video surveillance back up and working before a busy weekend. Another solution that is more do-it-yourself is Guardian Security (video cameras in use are from GeoVision). Both vendors feature no recurring annual costs unless you need more support.

I’m often asked, should we be using IP or analog cameras? To optimize management, you will need to get an IP camera. Video Insight provides IP cameras, and you can replace your analog cameras as they fail. Although Video Insight will sell you cameras, you can also get Advidia video cameras. The Advidia cameras are compatible with the Video Insight management software.

Left to right: Woodrow Thomas (Mt. Vernon ISD), Miguel Guhlin (TCEA)

Meet Woodrow Thomas of Mt. Vernon ISD. Rather than server-based storage, Woodrow is using video camera based storage. Listen to a conversation I had with him at the TCEA Technology Leadership Summit.

Tip #2 – Remote management and viewing of video cameras

If taking advantage of Video Insight, then it comes with a solution that’s available and ready to go. For the price you pay, you get camera and the software it comes with.

Be aware that a hidden cost of video surveillance often involves providing key personnel at each campus, as well as at the district level, with the ability to view video from any video camera on their campus (or elsewhere, if they are district staff). Unfortunately, clerical staff tasked with watching video feeds during the day usually lack the computers with the necessary processors and upgraded video card needed. For that reason, some districts purchase a second machine with dedicated components. This second computer enjoys enhanced features and is placed in close proximity to the receptionist’s location. Some data you need to collect includes:

How many internal video cameras are in place?
How many external video cameras are in place?
What is the age of the receptionist’s desktop computer?
How much RAM does the computer have?
Are dual monitors in use?
Is a dual monitor card needed?

Finally, you can issue tablets to police and administrators, enabling them to monitor activities via video feed to that device while on the go.

Tip #3 – Placement of video camera server(s)

Depending on how much video you want to retain (two to three days isn’t unusual), you will need a Windows desktop computer (with terabytes of storage space) to serve as your campus video server. The cost of these machines is fairly low, although you can get a low-end server instead to house content. Again, your storage capacity on this machine should allow you to retain several days of footage, especially for long weekends or vacations. For high traffic areas, a more robust server may be needed with ample storage. As you might imagine, since you can access servers remotely, having a server on campus may be more convenient, but you can centralize your server. Avoid using a virtualized server due to performance hits that a virtual machine will endure.

As to where to place the servers, it is typically recommended that the server be placed onsite to minimize bandwidth used through the transfer of video over the wide area network. This may be less of a concern in districts who own their fiber network.

Tip #4 – In-district support of equipment

“Should we TCEA Responds send the network engineer up that big ladder to clean the video camera lens?” That’s the question that comes up when a fuzzy picture appears or there’s a network connectivity problem. Providing in-district support can lower costs, depending on the total number of cameras you have in your district. You may want to either hire a media technician or re-task a portion of an existing technician’s time. Here is a description of what they need to be able to do, along with a chart to use as a starting point.

The primary purpose of a media technician involves installing and maintaining computer equipment and multi-site video cameras throughout the district. This person will need to respond promptly to work order requests and work collaboratively with multiple departments (e.g. police department, technology, and administration) to ensure minimal disruption of service. Some additional duties include the following:

Install/upgrade video surveillance cameras, as well as perform monthly inspection of surveillance cameras to retrieve and record backup video logs as needed
Assist district staff with video monitoring, troubleshooting, and repairs
Install/maintain cables, terminals, and connectors for all video equipment
Compile and maintain accurate inventory of tools, video equipment, servers, and equipment as directed by supervisor
Keep records of repairs, maintenance, and other service costs
Serve as a liaison with the vendor
Schedule backups of SQL server used for video surveillance camera

Additional questions to consider when deciding on placement of camera servers include: a) What will be the impact of video traffic?; b) Will you be storing video from special education cameras (that’s a completely different blog post) and for how long?

Tip #5 – Several miscellaneous points

Do you have special locations where there might not be a network drop? Some examples of remote locations include the bus barn, press box, or barn where livestock are kept. To take care of this, you can rely on long range wireless access bridges.

Another point to keep in mind is to turn off the skip video setting. The problem with the skip video recording setting is that you may inadvertently miss recording during a hallway situation. While turning off this setting will consume more space, you will at least have video recording of events.

May 11, 2017 0 comments

CTO/CIO Digital Literacy

Teaching Kids (and Adults) about Clickbait

by Lori Gracey May 7, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

I noticed something happening on my Facebook the other day. Suddenly, I was getting a lot of “sponsored stories” (ie. ads) with salacious headlines. Things like “Stop eating chicken breasts immediately!” and “You won’t believe what this famous star has become.” Then I noticed them showing up on my news websites: “Enter your name, wait 12 seconds, and brace yourself.” (Really? Why 12 seconds? Isn’t 10 standard?) And once I started seeing them, suddenly they were everywhere. Welcome to 2017, the year that clickbait becomes the norm.

What Is Clickbait?

According to Wikipedia, clickbait is a term for “web content that is aimed at generating online advertising revenue, especially at the expense of quality or accuracy, relying on sensationalist headlines or eye-catching thumbnail pictures to attract click-throughs and to encourage forwarding of the material over online social networks.”

There are several parts of that definition that jumped out at me. First, it’s all about the bottom line of selling stuff to unsuspecting internet browsers (like your students). Second, the people who create clickbait are very okay with sacrificing quality and accuracy. And third, they really want us to forward this garbage on to our unsuspecting friends and family and maybe help it go viral.

Why Clickbait Is So Dangerous

What makes clickbait so insidious is that, according to the latest research, American adults are fooled by their headlines 75 percent of the time and believe that the headline is true and factual. This is very scary and explains, to a large degree, the great divide we see in our country today.

A recent study on how well students can research conducted by the Stamford Historian Education Group (SHEG) titled Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning was released in November 2016. The study of 7,804 student responses was conducted between January 2015 and June 2016 for students in middle school through college across 12 states. In summary, SHEG described students’ research ability as “bleak” based on the following:

More than 80 percent of middle school students believed that an advertisement, clearly identified by the words “sponsored content,” was a real news story.
Less than 20 percent of high school students used key details to notice that an unreliable source for a photograph was presented as evidence that nuclear radiation caused unusual growth.

I think all of us can agree that clickbait is something that we wish didn’t exist. It’s annoying and distracting. Even I, who consider myself a well-informed individual, find it hard to pull my eyes away from some of their headlines. And that’s why they are so powerful. They are created to appeal to our sense of curiosity, which makes them a natural for children and teens to click on.

The other thing that makes clickbait so dangerous, especially to students, is that it appears the most on social media sites. Since today’s youth practically live on social media, this means that they must be taught how to avoid clickbait and the problems it can cause. And because clickbait works, its use will only continue to grow.

What You Can Do

Here are some tips that something you are thinking about reading is not worth your time. If you follow them, you will easily be able to recognize clickbait when you see it.

The headline or title tells you nothing at all about the content of the article. For example “This Teacher Liked a Facebook Post; What Happened Next Is Awful.” Notice that the headline really doesn’t convey much about the story. What it does do is put a question into your brain: What happened to the teacher? They are counting on you wanting to know enough to click the link. Don’t!

The headline is too good to be true. I think my favorite example in this category is “17 Cats Who Should Be Running for President.” Really? Cats for president? What’s the point of this article? If it’s too ridiculous to be true, it’s too ridiculous to be true and isn’t worth your time.

The headline is in poor taste. Examples include “The Party Is Titanic!” and “10 Things Only People with Dysentery Will Understand.” Good journalists will not stoop to this type of headline. Enough said.

The headline is too funny, too positive, too terrifying, too exploitative, or too anything else. Headlines should simply tell what the story will be about. It is not their job to engender strong emotions. They are supposed to be simply stating the facts.

The headline follows a standard formula.

[?] tries to [?]. The reason why will make you [?]
[?] tries to [?]. You won’t BELIEVE what happened next!
This video will prove that [?]
10 [?] you should never [?] to [?]
X was Y. First you’ll be shocked, then you’ll be inspired
10 [?] that look like [?]
10 [?] that you won’t believe [?]

Teaching Students About Clickbait

Share the tips above with your students and have an honest discussion with them about the fallacies and dangers of clickbait. Then try some of the activities below to help them learn to recognize clickbait.

Have them take a familiar story, like The Three Little Pigs, and create some obviously clickbait headlines for the story, the stranger the better!
Provide them with two headlines for the same story and ask them to decide which one is the clickbait. My favorite example is this one: Headline #1: “You Won’t Believe What This 13-Year-Old Did on His Holidays!” Headline #2: “The Kid Who Climbed Mount Everest”
Have students use a headline generator, like the Link Bait Title Generator. Simply enter a topic, like “cats” and the generator will create numerous useless headlines. Discuss why it is so easy for a website to create so many headlines on one topic and what this says about the quality of the headlines being created.
Discuss with them why clickbait can be bad. Have them create a PSA using video, audio, drawings, or writing to warn others.
Take a historical event and write clickbait headlines for it. Then ask the students how these might color our view of the actual event if they were the only thing we knew.
Ask students to write clickbait headlines for common teaching moments. An example is “You have a test today. You won’t believe #17!”
Assign a different topic that you have studied in the past to each student and have them create a clickbait headline for it. Then have other students try to guess what the topic is.
With older students, have an honest discussion about what problems fake news stories, such as clickbait, can cause. Make sure to have examples handy.
Have students play the Factitious online game. a way to test their news sense.
Your high school students can try their hand at “spreading” fake news in this ten-minute online game from Cambridge social psychology professor Sander van der Linden. The goal of the game is to teach people how disinformation is made and spread.

All of us can become better and more informed purveyors of the news stories being provided to us, but it will take a little work on our part. How will you help your students become better at this?

This blog was updated with additional content on February 22, 2018.

May 7, 2017 0 comments

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