My first stop was boot camp. Great idea but dual booting is old news on PCs. I’ve been dual booting to Linux since I started seriously using computers. I gave this a try and setup was quite easy. You create a disk in the boot camp wizard and then load the Windows OS. After it loads you use that same disk to get the Mac drivers working on Windows. This is a solution, kind of, but it still does not make it easy. In fact, going this method I still had two laptops open on my desk so I could support our network. I don’t know about you but when you are in the middle of something it is not easy to shut everything down and reboot.

My next stop was VirtualBox. I like Virtualbox a lot and best of all it is free. VirtualBox was not all that straightforward and I’m pretty sure someone without my tinkering abilities would struggle a little bit to get things going. It isn’t THAT hard but it isn’t seamless either. I did get Windows 7 running just fine on the Mac and I would be able to support the network without having to reboot.

At this point I was pretty set but I happened to see a web ad for a free 14 day trial of Parallels for Mac and thought “what the heck!” The $80 price tag is not so much that I would say no, but it is enough that it better be darn good. It is better than that. Coherence is what they call the integration mode that basically integrates Windows 7 into your Mac like “Unity” integrates for VMWare. I love that! I need to use Windows for three things. To be able to launch them without launching a whole virtual machine window is worth more than the $80 I’ll be shelling out for this software.

Parallels is my choice but VirtualBox would have worked too. In my opinion, the $80 is a worthwhile investment. It makes my job easier and makes me more efficient.

Read the rest of my post on Edudemic!

We do not have a policy for BYOD and I started to research what type of policies we should implement. We are in a school district. EVERYTHING needs a policy. As I researched the subject I discovered it is also a polarizing subject. At first blush, Gary Stager’s “BYOD – Worst Idea of the 21st Century” stands opposed to BYOD. Stager explains how it “enshrines inequity”:

“The only way to guarantee equitable educational experiences is for each student to have access to the same materials and learning opportunities. BYOD leaves this to chance with more affluent students continuing to have an unfair advantage over their classmates.”

Lisa Nielsen took Stager on directly in her post “7 Myths About BYOD Debunked”.

“The digital divide exists whether we allow students to bring the devices they own to school or not. It is illogical to prohibit those students who have devices from using them in a desire to achieve a sense of equity rather than to provide devices for those who need them.”

Nielsen is actually in agreement with Stager on this but I’ll get to that in a minute. I still need Stager to play the villain. Stager uses his next two sections to discuss what defines a device and the “false equivalencies” of different devices.

“BYOD simplistically creates false equivalencies between any object that happens to use electricity”

I’d like to say that this does not happen but I do have my share of students that bring in subpar devices. This year I’ve seen a sharp rise in students bringing in budget “Android” devices that their parents got for a steal at Kohl’s. These devices do not meet Google’s criteria and thus do not have the Android market or other Google apps that are needed for the device to be useful in a learning environment. However, I think that Stager missed the mark on cell phones,

“Repeat after me! Cell phones are not computers! They may both contain microprocessors and batteries, but as of today, their functionality is quite different.”

My phone is the one device that I would choose if I had to choose one. The iPhone and Android phones not only allow you to be a content consumer they allow you to be a content creator. Nielsen made an excellent point about today’s student,

“Clearly, students are bridging the connectivity divide with portable devices like cell phones and MP3 players. Kids with computers at home are taught how to use them in school. Kids who connect to the internet on phones because they can’t afford computers are not.”

Stager claims that it is “miseducative to make important educational decisions based on price” and this gets closer to his main point. By making BYOD a policy, schools are forgoing the investment in technology and later claims that it “diminishes the otherwise enormous potential of educational computing to the weakest “device” in the room”. Nielsen says that Stager is wrong,

“While teachers may know that cell phones can be used as tools to read a book, write an article, or serve as a free student response system, they may not realize they can be used as tools that enable students to create podcasts or digital books.”

Stager claims that BYOD will increase teacher anxiety but Nielsen uses an example from Tim Clark of Forsyth County Schools,

“ If teachers are introducing an activity with school software or hardware, then they are expected to know how everything works. Because of this learning curve, teachers resort to focusing on one process and one product. When the students bring in their own devices, then they are now the experts on the technology, and they can help each other. The teacher is then able to focus on the educational uses of the technology.”

I know from experience that any change can cause teacher anxiety. Teachers want to use new technology but don’t like to be caught off-guard by it. In the #edchat on Twitter last night we discussed failure and the importance of letting students see you fail. I have experience with this in the Web Design class that I assist with at Addison. I was nervous when I started helping with the class because I was the “expert” in the room and I didn’t want to look like an idiot. The truth is I don’t know everything but I do whatever it takes to solve the problems that are presented to me. My approach rubbed off on students and we had students taking chances with their web design that they would not have taken before.

Stager is not against students bringing their own devices. It is easy to browse his article and make the assumption that he is just cynical about BYOD. He waits until the end to prove this wrong:

“Of course teachers should welcome any object, device, book or idea a student brings to class that contributes to the learning process. Every thing a child brings to school in her heart, head or backpack is a potential gift to the learning environment.”

I believe that there are no cookie cutter methods for technology. However, Stager makes a great point that if you make it a policy you are asking for funding to be diverted. This is a concern. In the end, I think that the only policy that needs to be created for BYOD in our district is for liability purposes and that can be done inside the acceptable use policy. I believe that we need to continue to invest in technology while supporting students that bring devices into the district. This will help us bridge the digital divide quicker than doing so with the meager budgets that we are afforded.

I had a teacher ask me today if there was a way to restrict access to the email app on her iPad. Unfortunately there is not a way to individually restrict access to most apps. The exception would be those apps under General->Restrictions but the only setting for email is to restrict changing accounts.

I did some Googling and found the following post from “SandiC” on the Apple forums:

I have been having the same problem. I was looking at a suggestion which did not work for me then discovered a solution. It is not ideal but will work. When done with email go to settings, mail/contacts… Touch your mail account. Touch mail off. The next time you want to access email you will have to log in with your user info and password.

Later in the discussion another piece of good advice from “Raghuveer”:

This would work when used in combination with restrictions. In restrictions, you can disable changes to your accounts like email in restrictions->accounts settings. Disable changes to accounts and switch off mail when passing it around.

For now this work around is going to have to work. Maybe in iOS 6 there will be independent app security.

The “tech guy” is an educator too. Think about the vast amount of tools that we can put at the disposal of those that depend on us just to make their current tools work. I have taken on a new mission at Addison that I have dubbed “Tech Tuesdays”. I spend my entire day fixing and tweaking things in the district and have very little time to teach the staff anything. To change that, we will be holding after school technology sessions every Tuesday. The word “training” can be polarizing. Some people love to be trained and others loathe the experience so we are not calling this “training”. Instead these optional sessions will start with me showing everyone something new that they can use as an educator. For the month of January we are planning to tackle everything from Social Search to iPads. After the brief introduction we are going to work on anything that the attendees want to work on. If they are interested in starting a blog we will do that. Interested in building a classroom website? Great!

It is time that the “tech guy” becomes more than a Technological Handy Man. There is some purpose in this but it is not what I signed up for. The challenge for reader’s of this post is to find your “Tech Tuesdays”. What will make you stay after work to improve the people around you?

All of this got me thinking about digital music. When the iPod was introduced in 2001 digital music was not new. It had been around but had not been as accessible because MP3 players were still mysterious devices that were difficult to work with. Basically, I had one but my wife wouldn’t come near one. Why bother when her CD player still played the songs she wanted and she knew how to work it. The iPod introduced an easy to understand device that any user (my wife) could use. Plus it looked cool and held “1,000 songs in your pocket.” Content was still lacking until 2003 when Apple opened the iTunes store. Showing just how disruptive this technology was going to be they sold one million songs in the first week! Apple had provided the device and they had provided an outlet for the content that was easy to understand and is now an industry standard.

Apple is expected to release their TV in 2012 and it will no doubt be a great piece of hardware. If Apple wants to disrupt the television industry they won’t do it with hardware. Apple will disrupt with the software on the inside of those televisions and the content that is made available in a format that is easy to understand. I would love to see this with customized programming like what John Paczkowski talks about in his article. We went from buying entire CDs to cherry picking the songs we liked and paying for them individually so we could build on own playlists. I can’t wait for the opportunity to pick the 10 channels I prefer instead of having to pay for 250 channels just so I can get access to those 10. The similarities are there and this leads me to believe that Apple is on the verge of disrupting the television industry the way that they did the music industry.

I am one of the lucky ones that has a great business manager that puts a lot of grant money in my hands and a superintendent and school board that trust my judgement in using that money. Even with all of these perks I have nothing close to the money to implement a 1:1 program. That is I don’t have the resources for the program that was being pushed. When I started, 1:1 meant giving students a computer they could take home with them. We didn’t have enough computers in the district for our students to use in their technology classes. The first evolution of 1:1 for us was getting 1:1 inside the district.

When I started we had about a 7:1 student to computer ratio in the district and the computers that were being used were pitiful at best. Using a combination of Title Funds, Foundation funds, and some budgetary innovation we have lowered that number to abut 2:1. Even at that number things would be tight because online classes are now running every hour of the day. The next step in the evolutionary process was “bring your own device”.

Network Administrators are tight with security as it is and the idea of allowing foreign devices on your network is a risk that has to be measured. In school districts, you also have to take into consideration CIPA compliance if you want to hold on to your E-Rate funding. I am not your typical network admin. I began my tenure at Addison by giving all employees local admin access to their computers allowing them to install the software they needed when they needed it. The idea of BYOD was easy for me. The bottom line is that we need all the computers we can get. CIPA compliance is as easy as a good content filter that directs non-authenticated users to a login that allows us to track their usage. We have not publicized a BYOD program and yet students have started to bring their laptops into school in droves. I even have parents calling me to ask what is the best device for use in the district and to their shock I’m recommending the iPad. Tablets are not the future they are now. With wireless keyboards available and apps covering everything that a person would need, it is the best $500 you will spend. You are welcome Apple.

True 1:1 computing is not possible for a school district of our size without some huge outside grants. Sustaining that program is even harder to imagine. With many students receiving laptops and tablets as their big ticket Christmas and birthday gifts, it is essential that we take advantage of this so that we can devote what little funds we do have supporting the curriculum that these devices can take advantage of.