Coaches = Givers

Have you watched this recent TEDTalks by Adam Grant which defined Givers and Takers (and Matchers)?  As an educational technology coach, I watched this with great interest and reflected upon Grant's model as applied to my work as a coach.  If you haven't watched it yet, then here it is . . . definitely worth the 18 minutes of your time!



Here are the key moments that I picked out from his talk . . .

• 3:40 - Givers make organisations better . . . Schools need to recognise and acknowledge this.  My previous principal always said that I was a problem finder and would immediately start working on a solution without being asked - something that was greatly appreciated.  But the work of Givers is not always appreciated - please see a previous post about what I call "guilty by competence".
• 5:30 - Protect Givers from burnout . . . As a self-identified Giver, the environment and school culture that I work in has a profound effect on me.  The act of changing schools has forced me to reflect upon this a lot this year.  How school leadership values our role as coaches and change-agents within the school, makes all of the difference with how our day-to-day work progresses and how quickly (or slowly) we "feel the burn".
• 6:30 - Encourage help-seeking behaviours . . . Get more people to act as Givers by creating/building a culture of giving, providing help, and sharing.  Again, this is all about changing the culture of the school, which comes from top through leadership and from the grassroots movements which encourage collaboration, professional sharing and growth.  Without the support for such bottom-up shifts in culture, the Takers dominate the culture of the school and the Givers get burned out.
• 7:50 - Get the right people on the bus . . . To me, this speaks about hiring practices and considering people's Mindset (in my case, mindset towards educational technology).  One way school leadership can address and build a positive school culture is through effective management of hiring practices for faculty and staff.
• 8:50 - Weed out the Takers . . . This is an inherently difficult thing to do in schools, but entirely necessary and vital for school development.  As a teacher for almost 3 decades, I have seen the ineffective/disgruntled/unmotivated/coasting/bully teacher at every school that I have worked in across 3 continents.  Admit it, this is a problem at every school in the world no matter how big or small, how affluent or inner-city, how well resourced or under-funded.  School leadership needs to be able to move someone on who is detrimental to the organisation as a whole.  More easily said then done, I know . . . but just because it is difficult doesn't mean that it isn't necessary.
• 9:10 - Characteristic of Agreeableness . . . I only bring this part up because I am Canadian, eh?! ;-)  Sorry about that . . . 

My takeaways from this?  Coaches are generally Givers by nature (there are a few that I have met who I would classify more as a Matcher though) and they are not the only ones in the building.  As such, schools need to protect them and cultivate a culture of giving/helping which will benefit school growth and development through building a positive school culture.  Would you classify yourself as a Giver?  Have you ever worked in a school where the Takers stand out and dominate the school culture?  If so, how did you survive in that kind of environment?  Or did you hit burnout and move on, as changing the school culture is just too hard or too long of a process?

Taking the Long Way Home - Building a Google Lit Trip

When I joined the ranks of Google Certified Teachers over a year ago (GTA SWE 2013), part of my Google Project that I embarked upon was to build a Google Lit Trip . . . from scratch . . . to go with my father's award winning memoir "Things That Must Not Be Forgotten - A Childhood in Wartime China" by Michael David Kwan.  My deadline for completing this project actually passed by two months ago (as I gave myself a year to build it) but in a sense I did make my original deadline . . . kinda/sort of.   Let me explain . . . I began work on the GLT last spring and then put everything on hold until the summer so I could gather more information and old photos at home in Canada.  Then, in the fall, I came back to the project and inserted everything that my summer research had uncovered, and continued my research to try and find the locations of some important places in the book. I was able to just meet my Christmas deadline, but little did I know that I was not even close to being truly finished with the construction process.

What I had not accounted for in the entire process was the amount of work that was required to get it into a presentable state . . . I made a serious mistake here in underestimating the level of detail that was required and the amount of writing that had to be done!

I had met Jerome Burg (the father of Google Lit Trips) before at a Google Geo event, so I got in touch with him about getting my GLT published on his official Google Lit Trips website.  Jerome was very receptive to helping me develop my GLT, and was really excited about including historical non-fiction on his website, especially one set in China.  Jerome's editorial work and feedback was fantastic.  He combed through what I had produced and really pushed me to think about the overall experience of the reader and the fact that I was really telling two stories in the Lit Trip - both my father's story from the book and my own story of discovery as I researched and located different sites and information about my family.  With Jerome's extensive feedback in hand (and burning a hole in my brain with each passing day), I decided to tackle everything over the long winter holiday . . . which never happened (getting the work done, that is ;-).

Six weeks later, I have reworked most of what I had previously produced, formatting and organising everything according to Jerome's guidelines and suggestions, rewriting practically everything to tell my own story with links and ties to my father's story, and taking the time to build a supporting Google Site.  Now, I think I finally have a product that can be distributed and used by others which serves to tell my story of discovery, enhance the reading experience of "Things", and to provide the reader with visuals and background for the places in my father's book.  I really hope that Jerome likes what I have created and that it is now in a publishable state - I just sent it off to him to peruse, poke and prod . . . fingers crossed!

My father David Kwan, with my grandfather John YL Kwan (circa 1938)

Lessons learned and take-aways from building a Google Lit Trip

• Completing the research and gathering all of the extra resources is only the beginning - the creation/writing process takes even more time
• Conducting real-life, hands-on research with primary sources is tough, challenging and frustrating - trying to piece together information from old family photographs, or coming to terms with place names which have changed over time or are written differently, is very time consuming
• Patience is a virtue - you will need a lot of it and you will be tested
• You never know what surprises your research will uncover - now I know that I am 1/4 Serbian?!?, whereas before I thought I was part "white Russian" or Swiss (see my accompanying GLT website for the details of how I came to this realisation)
• Brush up on your basic HTML coding skills - these will come in handy as you build information into Google Earth
• As a teacher, I think having students build Google Lit Trips is not a simple endeavour to be undertaken lightly - perhaps teams of students could collaboratively build a GLT, or it could be undertaken as a major research project, or a tool like Google Tour Builder could be used to create a simpler Lit-Trip-like experience
• Building a GLT will take far longer than you ever thought - double or triple your original time estimate
• Think about where you will store online extras like photos and documents which will be part of your GLT - I used a Google Site to house these items
• Working with historical sites which date back to before the satellite imagery contained in Google Earth takes some imagination and serious sleuthing powers
• If you can find historical maps (which are drawn reasonably close to scale) that you can use as overlays in Google Earth, this adds a very rich and interesting dimension to the Lit Trip experience - but you will need that abundance of patience to get them to sit right, on top of the satellite imagery!
• Creating a resource like this which is close to your heart is very rewarding in the end - building and sharing this kind of resource is one of the reasons we are teachers, right?  And I think this kind of thing is seriously related to your Computing Karma . . .

Have you ever created a Google Lit Trip or tried to build one?  What was your experience like?

Author - Michael David Kwan
Photo by Russel Kwan

This is for you Dad!
And for everyone reading, studying or who has been touched by your book.

Unprofessional Development

In thinking about and reflecting upon last year as a tech coach, it is hard not to dwell on the bad bits and negative stuff that happened over the year.  It's not that there wasn't anything good to think about . . . there were lots of victories and advancements big and small.  In fact, I would characterise last year as a series of really high-highs and low-lows.  Kind of a Karsh mountain-scape straight out of China.  Everyone always remembers the bad bits though - it's just human nature.  Last year, I had three events where people acted unprofessionally towards me, so I am going to devote my first posting of the school year to reflecting on some positive take-aways from those events.  First off though, I will not be getting into the who said/did what . . . no airing of dirty laundry here.  I have moved past all of that now - the perspective of time does wonders.

So here is my list of top-three take-aways from last year:

1. Perception can be everything - As the first tech coach in the HS here, how the people that I work with view and understand my position/role might not coincide with my day-to-day reality.  I am always there to help with anything tech-related, be it big or small, complex or simple, physical or digital, systems or tools based.  As a result, some people see me as being in charge of anything and everything that goes "bing", has a screen on it, or uses electricity (this is part of what I am talking about when I say "guilty by competence").  One of the incidents from last year revolved around what a faculty member thought was my job, as I was helping them with a number of issues and challenges.  But in fact, I was just trying to help mediate between Tech Services and the teacher, and support both sides of the equation.  This  ended up in a big mess and some heated talk when some decisions were made which were not in the teacher's favour.  My take-away . . . try to ensure that the people I work with understand my role, what I am in charge of and when I am merely a facilitator or mediator.  Being a teacher is so much simpler as everyone knows what your "job description" is . . . being a coach is a lot more fuzzy in many people's minds!
2. Sometimes you can't fix it and you just have to wait - Last year, I was put in a very uncomfortable position with an administrator where I had to sit on my hands and wait it out, no matter how illogical and irrational the "process" became.  I was unable to affect any positive change in the situation, nor could I inject any rational thought into the matter at hand.  Instead, I had to just wait for the year to end so that positive change could happen with the start of the new year.  My take-away . . . have faith that cooler/rational heads will prevail in the long run, and that things will be "put right" with time and patience.  Sometimes it is hard to give up that time, to have that patience, and to have confidence that things will get sorted out properly . . . this is one case that I will look back on that worked out in the long run.
3. You can't help everyone, and you can't make everyone happy - As a coach, my position means working with the entire HS faculty.  But what do you with a faculty member who is in a really bad place, and who is negative about everything concerning the school?  On a sports team, this would be like having the un-coachable player on the team . . . and there are no cuts and no trades.  Working with this faculty member became impossible as the year wore on, as they were prone to very unprofessional outbursts and rants directed at anyone nearby.  Unfortunately, I was on the end of one of those outbursts . . . but had no recourse other than to report it and move on.  Not a satisfactory conclusion by any means, but the person in question was leaving at the end of the year anyways so Admin thought it was best left alone.  My take-away . . . when working with faculty, they have to be in the right mindset in order to be receptive to coaching, must be internally motivated to learn and grow, and timing is everything (just-in-time learning rules).  If any one of these conditions is amiss for any reason (let alone all three of them), then the act of coaching may be poorly received or ignored altogether.  And sometimes, these conditions and the mindset of the faculty are completely out of your control.

Have you ever had negative incidents at school which were unprofessional in nature, that seemed to overshadow everything?  Did these incidents cause you to doubt yourself, or make you think that you somehow doing a poor job?  Was it hard to move past these kinds of incidents?  Reflecting upon them, and trying to pull some "lessons learned" from them is the best way to move on and take charge of things which you have no control over.  What stories do you have?

Morphing from a Tech Coach into an Instructional Coach . . . is it worth it?

As the Technology Coach for the HS, everything that "plugs in or goes bing" (as my former principal used to say) falls into my domain.  But sometimes, the boundaries seem to get stretched, blurred, bent and twisted out of shape so that other non-tech things seem to end up on my plate, for better or for worse.  Case in point . . . over a year ago I was asked to lead a committee for examining how our school could move towards Standards-based assessment and reporting, and to eliminate some of the toxic grading practices of the traditional gradebook.  The committee that I was asked to lead was focussed on separating a student's Approaches to Learning (AtL) grade from their Achievement grade, and how to assess the AtLs by creating a rubric that the whole school could use and adapt.  I was chosen to lead this committee because I have a lot of experience in the classroom working in a Standards-based system, and I was already well-versed in separating the AtL behaviours from a student's Achievement.  The committee did its job and fulfilled these two huge goals successfully, but I think that this was the starting point for my transition from being a Tech Coach, into an Instructional Coach . . . it all started here.

Last year, the school started down the road of transitioning to a Standards-based system for assessment and reporting with the hope that we would get there in a year's time.  Ambitious for sure, and very challenging for the school community (teachers, students and parents alike) as predominantly, they were not familiar with this kind of system.  But even the best of plans sometimes fail or take unexpected turns, and this school goal did just that.  Our year-long implementation was forcefully changed into a 2 month implementation (but that is another story for another venue), which in turn forced the school to immediately implement a new online electronic gradebook which could handle Standards-based assessment and reporting.  So you can see where I come into the picture . . .

So I am put in charge of implementing and testing this new system (Easy Grade Pro Web), training the faculty to use the new electronic gradebook, and distribute the new system to the end consumers . . . our students and their parents.  All of this in the short span of a few weeks.  It was a monumental task, which I jumped on along with Tech Services who had to install the new system.  After getting the system up and running, I focussed on testing the system and nailing down how we were going to rollout, launch and train EGPWeb with the entire HS faculty.  

In conducting the gradebook set up and training with the faculty in small departmental groups and through individual workshops, most of my time was absorbed by discussions revolving around Standards-based assessment and reporting rather than "things that go bing".  We talked at length about the separation of the AtL Standards vs Achievement Standards, what the Achievement standards would be for each department or subject area, how these standards could be modelled in the gradebook, and the primary differences between a traditional gradebook and a Standards-based one.  Everyone's need to have their gradebook online and fully functional was driving the training with EGPWeb.  This in turn was forcing faculty to come to terms with Standards-based assessment, and I could not conduct the gradebook setup workshops unless departments knew what they wanted for their Standards of assessment.  And so the story goes . . . I was in charge of getting everyone up and running with their gradebooks, which quickly morphed into me being the main go-to person for anything and everything related to Standards-based assessment.

For me, the change was rapid and in many ways natural . . . I worked with the faculty to get to where we all needed to be, in a very short amount of time.  Looking back on that period of time, it was completely frenetic, full of energy (some positive and lots of negative) and brimming over with spite at times.  There was a lot of pressure - internally to get this done right, and externally to move the faculty forward when they did not want to move anywhere.  It was stressful - some teachers were simply not on board with the school-wide goal of moving to Standards-based assessment, so they resisted the training that I was trying to deliver.  My principal was very supportive with getting these individuals to step-on-board, as the ship was sailing and pulling away from the dock (so to speak).  We were all following directives that were coming from senior administration and the board, but some staff saw me as the frontman for everything Standards-based assessment, and took out their frustrations, anger and fear on me . . . not fun!

This is the part that I have been thinking about since last year . . . as the Tech Coach for the HS I have to work alongside and with all of my faculty.  Due to the volatile and contentious nature of this whole project, my changing role came as an unwelcome surprise to me, and in some ways, undermines the relationships that I have built with the faculty as a whole.  Many staff are now on-board with Standards-based assessment, but some others are still stuck in their familiar, traditional practices.  Some of these folks relate me to this whole change (which they fear and loath), rather than to educational technology.  This is where I lose.  This is where we all lose.  Something that has only loose connections with technology has negatively impacted my computing karma in the school.  As a Tech Coach, the relationships that you build with your faculty are equally as important as your NOWledge, skills and experience put together.  So is it really worth it?  I don't really know at this point.  Some faculty seem to be able to separate in their minds my role with tech and what I did for the school in terms of helping to bring in Standards-based assessment.  But others cannot.  And I am now being thrust into a similar role as the "guru" in the HS, as the MS follows our lead.  I have coined a phrase to describe this somewhat helpless feeling of being stuck in situations like this . . . "guilty by competence".  Which raises the question in my mind, do I really want to go through this again?

Have you ever been put into a role which has really changed how you work with faculty and how they perceive you?  How do you handle the negativity surrounding "the job" when it really has nothing to do with you and what you are doing?  How do keep your role compartmentalised and within the boundaries set out by your job description . . . and not be sucked into the vortex of work?

Building Your NOWledge and Understanding

What is NOWledge?

No, I didn't spell it wrong, and yes, I used a new "N" word when I was thinking about the meaning of the letters in the SNiCK acronym.  If you are wondering about "why SNiCK?" then have a read here.  I don't think that I am the first to coin or use "NOWledge" (I see there even a few websites and companies that use the word), but I might be the first to use it in the context of educational technology.

In the Ed Tech world, keeping up with all of the changes that are going on around us is more than a full time job in itself, but crucial nonetheless.  So what is NOWledge?  What do I mean by this?  I would describe NOWledge as what we know about a given topic right now, that we can use to make decisions or guide what we do or how we work.  Your NOWledge on any given topic might be current, or out of date by a few minutes/hours/days, but you have to use the tools that you have on hand at the time.

In an ideal situation, you would have the time and opportunity to do your homework and conduct some research, before making a decision or recommendation.  But we all know that this does not always happen, and that the rate of change with technology is just too fast to always keep pace.  More often than not, you have to use what you know right here and right now, to make a decision.  That's just the way it is sometimes.  So keeping as up-to-date as you can becomes even more important.


Building and Maintaining Your NOWledge

Keeping up-to-date is a constant struggle and takes up a lot of a tech coach's time every day.  Finding the right tools that work for you to keep abreast of changes in the ed tech world is the key.  I am not going to get up on a soapbox and evangelize on tweeting, or creating your own PLN through some social networking site, or lament about the demise of Google Reader . . . you have to find what works for you, that you will access and use regularly, and where you can build your NOWledge.  Personally, I use a variety of tools and resources from reading people's ed tech blogs, following educational journals and publications, subscribing to forums and groups through different social media, and engaging in online conversations on topics that interest me or where I have something to add/share.  This blog is a place where I share my experience and ideas, and I am glad that you are taking the time to read it.  So, find the tools that work for you and keep in touch by leaving a comment - contribute to the conversation.  It is virtually impossible to keep up with everything out there, so focus on what interests you and let your connections/colleagues/cohort give you the highlights on the other stuff.  So get connected and involved . . . it's the only way you can keep up-to-date.

I have never been one to jump on the bandwagon of something new, just because it is there.  I have never been one to use tech in the classroom just because someone thinks it is "cool".  And I have never been one to suggest that we use technology in the classroom just for the sake of using technology . . . it has to enhance teaching and learning in some way, otherwise it is merely substitution of a tool.  Maybe it is my high school mentality, where I have to see the "bang for my buck" up front before adapting a new piece of technology into the classroom.  Maybe it is just me being terribly practical in all things - a friend and colleague of mine once told me that the I am really good at "keeping it real" which I equate to being down to earth and really practical at all times.  That does not mean that I am not a risk taker, or don't like to test new technology tools.  On the contrary, whenever I see something new, my mind immediately starts racing and analyzing how/where/when/why this new tool might be used.  My computer science background comes into play then, as I always prescribe to test something new, test it again, and test it further.  Essentially, test, test, and test some more.  The combination and balance between these two approaches (looking/testing/trying while not jumping on the bandwagon) serves two purposes for me: to help build my NOWledge while keeping me grounded and not be pulled in too many directions at the same time (which is always a danger).

Many of us in the ed tech world have worked with faculty or even administration who were always jumping from bandwagon to bandwagon.  Can you think someone like this?  If they are the tech leadership in the school, then you never really know where you are going with educational technology, as you are constantly discarding one tech tool for the latest new thing.  Often in these situations, the faculty are constantly crying out for stability with tech tools, platform, systems, or machines.  Does your school have a pile of technology which was brought in but went unused, and was eventually either forgotten or put aside for something else?  If so, this is the accumulated evidence of jumping on and off various bandwagons, and not having a solid NOWledge base to fall back on.  In my mind, having a good balance between striking out in new directions based on a strong NOWledge base is key to moving forward and sparking innovation.  So how do you maintain or build your NOWledge?  Is your school led by someone who does not have a solid NOWledge base when it comes to educational technology?  How is that working for you and your students?

Six Months into a TechXcursion to the MacWorld - Part 2

The beginnings of our transition of the HS 1:1 Laptop Program from Tablet-PCs to MacBooks is documented in an earlier post here.  This post is continuing with the story of our journey of change, moving a few mountains along the way, and raising the dead a few times as well.  Looking back on the last 2 years it becomes clear to me that it was a huge roller coaster ride, complete with dips, turns, hills and valleys, and with a few undead zombies along the way.

Stops and Starts . . . and more Roadblocks

We began the 2011-12 school year with our recommendation to the Tech Director to shift the HS laptop program from PCs to MacBooks, after the Tech Collective's work from the previous spring.  After Bill approved of our recommendation for platform change, it was then taken to Admin for their approval.  And that's when we ran into the first major roadblock - it was discussed at Admin and was it was determined that the HS could not proceed with a change in platform without consulting the other school divisions first (which had not been done of course).  After many discussions in various venues and much tap-dancing on Bill's part, he was able to finally convince Admin that each school division would address their own needs and platform of choice individually when it was their turn to refresh their own laptop program.  This decision included some interesting discussions along the way, as many thought that a platform change in the HS would inevitably make it a fait accompli that the other school divisions would follow suit.  We were able to successfully argue that each division would make their own decisions in due course, and that it was Bill's job to ensure that this happens.  One hurdle negotiated.

The next big question that was raised came from the Business Office - would a platform change be very expensive and cost prohibitive?  With this next big wall looming in front of us, Bill and I embarked on a thorough and exhaustive feasibility analysis of the costs involved.  This work had already been started, but it had to be extended to include the platform change impact on the school network, school systems, technical support, technical training and certification, cost of repairs, and cost of extended warranty in addition to the projected cost of the machines, software licenses, and faculty training.  This was a huge job which essentially boiled everything down to the simple answer that yes, in the end it would cost more to do a platform change (primarily due to changes and duplication of some software licenses, and training that would be needed for the technicians and network managers).  How could a platform change not incur some additional costs?  Once more, we were dead in the water . . .

This roadblock started a big discussion about how budgeting is done in the school and whether budgetary decisions were going to impede or prevent educational decisions.  We started this process of exploring our laptop program refresh with a simple question of whether our decision was going to be denied or changed by the business office, and we were told at the time a firm "no".  But here we were.  We argued that our recommendation for platform change was an educational decision and based on the needs of the high school programs.  We argued that the overall cost would be reduced over time as there would be fewer problems and repairs, and therefore reduced cost for servicing and work-time in tech services.  And we also argued that our recommendation for platform change was actually a 40-50% reduction in cost from our existing Tablet-PC program, simply because the outgoing machines would cost over $2000 per unit to replace.  We were literally comparing apples with onions here, and after a long and hard fought battle, we were finally permitted to move forward once again, and begin discussions with Apple and our local provider about contracts, servicing and pricing.

What Flavour of Apple to Get?

Our initial discussions were with the only premium reseller in Poland, in conjunction with Apple Poland.  Everything was progressing quite well, albeit slowly and methodically, as a contract and purchase of this size has never been done in Poland before.  We started discussions focusing on the old White MacBook and the MacBook Pro, for which we were receiving very aggressive pricing but they were still beyond our means.  But the White MacBook had been relegated to education sales only, and it was difficult at the time to get the information we needed on pricing and servicing for them.  Time passed with no firm numbers to work with and then everything came crashing down once again.  I was attending the November ECIS annual conference in Lisbon when I received the news that the school's budgetary deadline had passed and that our proposed platform change was once again completely dead - without a contract in place which was within our budget, we would have to scrap all of our work and proceed with a PC laptop along the lines of the HP machines that the MS had purchased earlier in the year.  Here I was at a huge tech pre-conference day with the other tech coaches, and I receive this depressing news to start my day.  But in the next 24 hours, the roller coaster would come back to the platform and we would get on board for another ride.

The fortuitous moment came when Bruce (one of our ES tech coaches) and I went to attend some of the Apple iPad workshops at the conference the next day.  For some reason the published schedule of Apple workshops had been completely changed so we were asking around to find out what the new schedule was going to be, when we started talking to Rowan Simms (who we found out is in charge of Apple Education for Europe).  One thing led to another and our discussion stretched out to over an hour and ended with a phone call to Bill our Tech Director.  Rowan was able to clarify a number of outstanding questions that we had (about European pricing of the White MacBooks for education, support and servicing for them, and policies revolving around their availability in the future) and we were again back from the dead.  I was beginning to feel a little sick with the roller coaster ride, but I was happy that we had a way forward.

We were able to reassure Finance that we would be able to stay within the target budget and continued to wait for a contract that we could sign.  In the new year, we received word from the reseller that they could not offer us a contract for the White MacBooks because the model had formally reached end-of-life and they could not give us a contract which could not be fulfilled.  This was becoming an episode of The Walking Dead - we just had to refuse to die!  Along with the public announcement of the demise of the White MacBook, came the elevation of the MacBook Air to being the new base-line Mac with new pricing.  The education only model was also introduced a short time after in North America, so we then turned our attention to getting a contract for the education Air model.  But the educational pricing had not been released in Europe yet, and there seemed to be no timeline for it either which placed us in a conundrum of either signing a contract or continuing to wait.

The American School of Warsaw hosted the CEESA annual conference in March, which led to another timely meeting with Rowan from Apple, who happened to be attending the conference.  I had an informal meeting with Rowan where we discussed how he was in the process of still deciding whether to release the MacBook Air for Education model in Europe, and that he was strongly leaning towards not releasing it at all.  Rowan and his team were concerned about the small storage capacity of the SSD (only 64 GB) combined with the small screen size (on the smaller 11" Air) were going to come back to bite them.  We had already considered the specifications of the Education Air and had determined that these features worked in our favour with our school owned laptop program.  With our program, we want our students to treat their school machine as their learning platform, and not as their general purpose entertainment and gaming centre.  By populating our laptop program with smaller, light-weight machines we are giving students a more ergonomic machine for moving to and from home, and around the school.  The smaller 11" screen is only a fraction of an inch smaller than their current Tablet-PC screens, and the smaller size also made it less of a gaming platform.  The 64 GB of storage was also seen as an advantage, as there would not be space on the machine for students to store all of their music, videos, movies and tv shows that they typically want to carry around at all times.  In short, students would have to manage what is stored on their machines.  This is not to say that they could not have a few shows to watch on an airplane, or some music to listen to on a long train or bus ride, but they would have to manage their files in order to do so.  Our student image was estimated to take up approximately 25 GB of storage, which would leave students with about 30 GB for their school work and other files - ample room for all of their work, some video projects, and anything else that they might be working on.  This was a win-win situation in our opinion.  Rowan took our position under consideration and in the end, notified me that our discussion convinced him to release the Education Air model in Europe.  Alas, it would not be in time for our contract and purchase of over 300 Airs though.  This development did lead to further negotiations however, and the newly reduced prices on the 11" Airs came in within our budget.  We were back on track!

Mac 101 Basics - Initial Teacher Training

With a contract in hand which would include 13" Airs for faculty (almost 50x machines with larger screens for older eyes, plus more storage for school stuff), 11" Airs for students (280x machines), Apple applications training for faculty and Apple Certified Technicians training for our technicians, we were set to go.  Frustratingly, we received the teacher machines very late in the school year due to supply problems in Europe, but we had to make due with the little time we had.  Cramming in the basic training for the faculty new to Macs while creating differentiated training for the more experienced teachers all in the last two weeks of the school year (interspersed with graduation, final exams, awards ceremonies and packing up classrooms) is really not recommended or what I had hoped for.  Putting the new machines into the hands of the faculty a full year or even a semester in advance would have been ideal, but it simply did not happen or even come close.  As I only had a few weeks to work with to develop our teacher machine image and to conduct training before the summer holidays, I got cracking.

What I built was a differentiated training program for faculty (which was later adapted and used with students as well) which included:

1. Hands-on training sessions for faculty with no experience with Macs, individually or in small groups (whatever was more comfortable for each person)
2. Personalized, direct training for those faculty with some experience with Macs, directed at the school set up and applications that were being included on the image
3. Flipped-video resources delivered through Moodle, for those teachers with some experience with Macs and to act as a personalized asynchronous resource for the newbies (the videos followed everything that I did with the newbies in the hands-on training sessions); you can have a look at the resources that I created here (Mac 101 Basics) and here (Mac 202 Next Steps)
4. Links to other Apple training resources online, for faculty use and reference over the summer
5. Created a group of Mac savvy students called the Apple Corps who would lead the rollout in August and provide in-class first response help for staff and students
6. I also made it clear that faculty could contact me by email throughout the summer if they had any questions or problems with their new machines.

After a frantic couple of weeks of training sessions, we closed the school for the summer and the high school faculty took their new machines with them for the summer to get better acquainted with the new machine.  For some, it was as simple as getting used to the new machine and configuring it for themselves.  For others, it was just taking the time to reacquaint themselves with a Mac, understanding what has changed in OSX, and having the time to explore and use the machine.  The beginners group was the one that I was really concerned about.  We had the complete range of emotions during the training and going into the summer, from tears and trepidation, to exhilaration and anticipation.  We even had a few teachers who really wanted to keep their old PCs over the summer, but that could not happen as the old machines were being collected, re-imaged and cleaned up, and then re-distributed within the school.  Throughout the summer I monitored the Moodle class for activity and waited for emails asking for help, but everything went rather smoothly (a little too smoothly perhaps - time to board the coaster for another ride?).

Leading the Apple Corps & MacRollout Day

The Apple Corps was formed before the summer simply by polling the student body for returning students who are Mac experienced, who are interested in helping run workshops on MacRollout Day, and would be back in Warsaw and available to come into school a day early for training.  For their services they would receive their school machines a few days before everyone else, would get an Apple Corps shirt for MacRollout Day, and could use this as a CAS project if they were in G11 or G12.  I definitely wanted to brand this group of students, so I named them the Apple Corps and created a logo based on the school athletics logo that I designed a few years ago of the charging winged Polish Hussar - the students really liked this so the branding efforts paid off.  In the end, I had over 30 student volunteers of which 24 were available for the early training session.

I vetted the list of student volunteers and even had a special parent & student sign-off to ensure that they were available at the end of the summer holidays for the training session, and for them to receive their school laptop early (according to our Responsible Use Policy).  I polled these students to measure their experience with Macs, areas of strengths, and comfort levels for running workshops for beginners, intermediate users, or application workshops for experienced users and used this information to form them into pairings as workshop leaders.  I then developed detailed, step-by-step lesson plans for each of the 15 different workshops that were going to be delivered and matched up the leaders with their strengths and abilities.  I had to include a few teacher volunteers to lead workshops as well, to fill out all of the workshops on offer.  When I originally polled the student body to form the Apple Corps, I also had everyone self-assess their own familiarity with Macs and indicate the kind of training that they would prefer at the beginning of the school year.  As I had all of the student needs data and the workshops organized, it now became a simple (but lengthy) task of scheduling all of the students into workshops, along with teacher supervisors.  The workshops were all student-led by the Apple Corps, so I assigned faculty members to training sessions according to their readiness levels with Macs, where they could participate and learn alongside the students.  This worked out really well as it put the Apple Corps students into the driver seat.

In the end, we ran 5x complete Beginners hands-on workshops (2+ hours each with a break in the middle), 4x Intermediate video-based hands-on workshops (self-paced with support, lasting for 2+ hours each), plus 6x Apple Applications hands-on workshops (1 hour each where students signed up to attend two different trainings).  We began the day with an assembly and big launch event, which included a few commercial breaks such as our own "I'm a Mac" video which Bill and I put together (be  nice - it was done in one take).

From there, we managed the rollout of machines to the students in groups according to the workshop they were attending.  We started out with the beginners groups, to maximize their workshop time for getting started, and managed to rollout 275 machines in under an hour and got just about everyone off to their workshop sessions - this was the biggest Mac rollout ever done in Poland!  Everything went a little crazy after that, as one of servers got hammered by all of the new machines trying to access their mobile accounts through the network for the first time, and slowly died.  Things got better after that server had a quick RAM upgrade and was restarted, and the Apple Corps got on with their workshops. Some of the students had to improvise their sessions while the server was down, but they did a fabulous job of not panicking under pressure.  With the MacRollout Day complete, we were off to the races!

Faculty Apple Training

Just a few last words about training the faculty over the year, and what we have had available.  Since the beginning of the school year we have worked through up-skilling the teachers with their Macs, as they have become more familiar and comfortable with their new machines.  Some of the teachers who were complete beginners jumped right in over the summer and were ready to run in August.  While others did not use their Mac very much over the summer, so were at various levels of experience ranging from near beginner to having some experience (albeit rusty).  This is what I expected to happen, given that we did not get the teacher machines until right before the summer, so we tried to individualize and differentiate the further training we had available, throughout the year.  The options that were on offer included:

1. Student-led workshops on MacRollout Day - teachers were assigned to supervise workshops which matched up with their current familiarity and ability level, so that they would learn alongside the students in the session
2. Ongoing, individual, "just-in-time" learning as needed through working with me as the HS Tech Coach, as teachers adapt previous projects or start new ones which take advantage of what the MacBook Airs have to offer
3. Group training through HS departments on specific applications
4. Outside Apple Trainer - as per our contract, an outside Apple Trainer was brought in for a week. Training sessions on specific applications were identified for each department and were delivered to departmental small groups, and the remainder of the trainer's time was organized into individual and small group differentiated training sessions on applications by request
5. The Tech Advocate in each department focussed their attention over the year on Mac specific tech tools and applications that would be applicable for teaching and learning in their discipline
6. Speed-Geeking Tech PD - the HS once again conducted our own Speed-Geeking mini-sessions on a variety of tech tools, which had a Mac focus
7. Apple Corps students have been available and supporting students and teachers directly in class (they are identified by an Apple Corps sticker on their lid)
8. Mac 202 Next Steps - another Moodle course was started as an extension/continuation of the Mac 101 Basics course, and as an online reference which teachers could use to further their learning with Macs, as they became more comfortable with the machines.

Apple Corps - Come join the "Air Corps"!

Final Thoughts on Leading a School through a Platform Change

It has been a long road to get where we are now, full of twists and turns, drops and rises, and walls to crash in to.  The roadblocks and check points along way have been many, but we have gotten to our destination nonetheless, and perhaps a little wiser as well.  My takeaways from these last two years are:

• There will always be a wide range of ability, experience and willingness to change amongst the staff and student body - anticipate this and think about their wants, needs and their perspective
• Look at every piece of software that people use and dig deep to verify that it is compatible with the new OS and version, or have a viable alternative to change to 
• Staff and students will need to be trained, retrained, and trained again - be patient and persistent
• It takes a lot of time - start discussions with staff, students, parents and admin early and keep the dialogue open throughout
• Some staff will be very resistant to changing platforms/machines - this often comes down to a fear of the unknown which can be remedied with hands-on training and lots of support
• There will always be costs involved even if you are changing to a cheaper machine - refocus the conversation on the teaching and learning, rather than the financials; it's really about the verbs (what you are going to do with and through the technology ), rather than the nouns (what piece of technology is being purchased)
• If you have a Technology Vision statement to work towards, then use it to guide the process of change
• Get the students involved - we had data from the student body supporting the platform change as we engaged with this process, and the student Apple Corps group has been fabulous in helping to move the entire school forward with our platform change (this would not have happened without them)
• Change is scary, time-consuming hard to do - a change in platform is not only a physical change in technology, but also a cultural and philosophical change for some people in the community which makes it even more difficult to achieve . . . make sure that the end result will be worth the time and effort, get people on board the roller coaster, and work from there . . . the others will come with time.  

You know how you have to stand in line forever before getting on a ride?  You know how a roller coaster takes a long time to work its way up the first hill before really getting started, and then it's all over before you know it?  This is the same ride . . . it will take forever before it really gets started and it will be over before you know it, so hang on tight as it will be a crazy ride along the way.

Just a Short Jaunt to the Dojo

This is just a Short Jaunt TechXcursion into the mysterious world of the ninja.  At the Learning 2.012 conference last year in Beijing (back at my old school, the Western Academy of Beijing, so I had to make the long trip from Europe ;-) Jeff Utecht demonstrated the Google Apps Ninja Program that he developed based on the official Google Apps Certification program.  I had met Jeff before, in my previous days working at WAB, and his presentation of the Ninja program intrigued me.  He originally developed the program at the International School of Bangkok and has since released it for any school to implement for free.

As you can tell by the name of the program, Jeff has branded it and made it for student consumption.  There are online quizzes and ninja belt levels to work through, as students (and faculty) work through the different belts on their way to becoming a Ninja Master.  I have implemented and launched the program here at ASW, but I have to say that it was no small feat.  It is a huge job!  As another blogger mentions here, it has taken me numerous hours to take the Ninja materials and fashion it into a workable program at my school.  Updating and checking all of the quizzes was a big job, and I took my cues from the materials and logos to make it a little campy as well.  Do you understand, Grasshopper?  In building the program for my school, I also took the opportunity to reorganize the program into 5 Disciplines corresponding to the different quizzes that are available - Search, Communication (Gmail), Organization (Calendar), Collaboration (Docs/Drive) and Contribution (Sites).

I took a slightly different path for my implementation, as my school uses both Google Apps and Moodle as our primary learning platforms, so I built our Ninja Dojo in Moodle along with placing all of the associated materials in Google Apps.  This particular Moodle course is not currently setup for Guests, so I cannot provide you with a link into it here. So you will just have to be content with the screenshot above and the other links at the top of this post.  However, I will say that I have put myself through the entire program (which makes me Grand Master Kwan) as a test of all of the materials, belt tests and processes for grading the quizzes through Flubaroo . . . it is challenging and fun, and there is a lot to learn for staff and students alike.  I have pushed this out directly to a few faculty members who wanted to learn more about Google Apps this year, and have done a soft-launch with the HS student body . . . a few have signed up already so it's gaining some traction.  The other angle that I am playing with this is to turn it into a CAS service project for students, where the idea is to become a Google Apps Ninja Master Sensei after completing all of the belts . . . sounds cheesy, but it might just work.  I have already created a student tech help group in the HS which I have named the AppleCorps to help with in class support for our new Mac 1:1 laptop program, so why not try to build a similar student program for Google Apps?  Have a look at the Ninja Program, and if your school uses Google Apps for Education then you might want to start a dojo of your own.

Do you think becoming a Google Apps Ninja Master can change your Computing Karma?  Have you started a dojo in your school?  What have been the challenges and successes?

On Computing Karma

Have you ever thought about your karma with respect to technology? The CK part of SNiCK stands for Computing Karma. Just what was I thinking?! If you think about all of the computer/tech using people that you know (and there should be a lot of them), you can probably pick out a few who fall into 2 special categories: those who can break/freeze/crash a computer just by looking at it sideways, and those who seemingly can fix a problem just by their mere presence in the room. You know this second kind of person - they are the one that you call or go to when you have that problem that just will not go away, and the problems disappears as soon as you show it to them (often without even touching the machine ;-). You might also know of someone who always has a problem with their machine, no matter the time or place (and for a special few, the problems are not only confined to computers but spread to the tv, mobile phone and the gps in the car - anything that has lights and goes "bing"). A select few of these people seem to have a powerful "field of disruption" around them which can mess with various technologies from a distance. Do you know who I'm talking about?

Is your Computing Karma more Yin or Yang?
On/Off?  0/1?

To me, these two small groups of people represent the far ends of the Computing Karma spectrum. Most people fall somewhere in between, but most people know someone who falls into one of these groups. These two groups often have some almost magical qualities about them. I think the word karma aptly describes the magical/mystical aura that surrounds these people. As a tech coach, some people place me firmly on the "fixing/healing" end of the spectrum. I have often encountered situations where the tech problem at hand gets solved or fixed or just plain disappears, just by walking into a room. I quite like the challenge of these kind of problems, as trying to debug what is actually going on without any evidence makes it fun, but that's just the programmer geek part of me speaking.

Furthermore, as a tech coach, I often encounter faculty members who fall closer to the other end of the spectrum, in the break/freeze/crash technology group. Yes, they really do exist, sometimes in large numbers within schools. Working with these staff members is also challenging and fun, as the problems that they bring to me are always unique and complex. Contrary to popular belief, I do not resent working with these kind of people - I embrace it. As the person in charge of our 1:1 laptop program, learning systems and faculty tech PD, the people who have a knack for breaking things often inadvertently find major issues with systems or hardware that were previously undiscovered, or they magically get to the root of an underlying systems problem without even knowing it. In the programming world, they try to make systems and computer programs "bullet-proof" and hire people to test and break software before releasing it. So I have a built in testing group like this, who have an inherent knack for breaking things, to rely on to find the bugs and problems with any new system that we rollout.


Can you change your computing karma? Is it set for life? Personally, I think you can, or else your karma changes from device to device as you try new technologies. I have worked with who could never understand one device (say a particular brand or type of mobile phone), but once they found one that clicks with them, it transformed how they used and interacted with the device. So maybe their Computing Karma changed with the device. Maybe the device has its own Computing Karma and it all depends on how well the two intersect/collide/enmesh with one another like the polarities of two magnets placed alongside each other - attraction vs repulsion.

So what does this have to do with tech coaching? The faculty that I work with all have varying levels of attraction and repulsion with the technology tools and systems that are in their classroom, in their hands, and used within the school. When I am working with a faculty member, whether it is in some kind of prescribed tech training or in a more collaborative coaching role, getting a read on the staff member's comfort levels and affinity with the tech tool is an important clue in how to approach the training session, at what level to offers the training, and what the end goal of the session should be. Getting a quick measure of someone's current Computing Karma with respect to the tech tool or system on hand, can make a real difference in the success of a training session. Sometimes, it's more about finding the right tool for the job which matches the person, then it is about fitting the person to the tool.

Where do you think your Computing Karma falls on the spectrum? What tech tools/systems do you have an affinity for?