Paper Trail

Folder Builder

Have you ever needed to create a lot of folders, but didn’t want to spend all that time creating and naming them? I’ve had the occasional need. The most recent was when I was working with a group of students and wanted them to each save what they were working on in their own folders. It turned out that their teacher hadn’t established individual folders for each student within the classroom folder. This added a considerable amount of time to what I was trying to do with the class.

It occurred to me that if I had a list of the folders I’d like to create, I could feed the list to a program and have it automatically create the folders. A list of student names is easy to obtain, and once fed to a program, it would take less than a second to create a folder for every name on the list.

I wrote a program I call Folder Builder, which does just what I’ve described. Drag and drop a file onto it that contains a list of folders to be created, select a destination for the folders, and viola! The list can be anything you want, not necessarily a bunch of student names. If you’d like to try out Folder Builder, you can download it at http://papertrailsoftware.com/foldermaker/index.htm.

A couple weeks before Christmas I received an e-mail from our networking department advising me that the data volume on our server was getting awfully full. Admittedly I’d been a little lax lately in keeping close tabs on it. (Hey, I’ve been busy with other distractions!) It turns out that a couple of users were syncing their iPods to the server, and there was an incredibly large amount of music filling up the data volume. (This might be a good time to consider reinstituting space limitations. )

Disc Size

I got it all cleaned up and began thinking about a better way to keep track of the amount of space being used without having to remember to go check it periodically. I decided to write a little program that would automatically give me a report whenever I logged in. The result is Disc Size. Whenever it runs, it has a look at each drive on the system and reports (among other things) the amount of space used and available. To run it automatically, I just placed a shortcut in my startup folder. If you’d like to give the program a try, you can download it at http://papertrailsoftware.com/discsize/.

Recently a new version of Shockwave was automatically updated on a large number of computers in my district. Probably it happened all over the country. I don’t know, I’ve been too busy to notice. One of the results of this update was to break the eTools (virtual manipulatives) piece of Pearson Success Net. The problem was referred to our district’s user support division. We were hoping for an automated fix. After spending a considerable amount of time trying to find a way to automatically push a fix onto all affected machines over the network, the technicians concluded that they just couldn’t find a way.

To understand the scope of the problem, you must realize that Success Net is part of a district-wide adopted elementary math program, and there are 208 elementary schools in our district, each with between 100 and 200 machines. The majority of these are used by students and teachers, hopefully for curriculum-related endeavors such as reinforcing math concepts using the aforementioned software. The technicians concluded that someone at each school would have to go to each affected machine, temporarily disable the anti-virus program, and reinstall the older version of Shockwave.

For the past 12 years, the someone who will be doing that at my two schools has been me–an ECS. That’s fine. I’m an Educational Computing Strategist, and that falls within my abilities and my job description. ECS is the label our district has given me and about 220 others who do my job. We have two jobs, really: to provide instructional technology to teachers and students, and to serve as level 1 technical support at our schools.

So, okay, I’ll get that done. I think the folks at user support do a pretty good job, and if they say they can’t find a way, then they can’t find a way, and I’ll just spend the time and do it. It’s only about 265 machines between my two schools that I’ll have to go around and perform those steps on. No, not quite that many. A few, maybe 30, are used by administrators and office staff, and I’m not going to worry about them. At least not for the current problem.

It should only take, um let me see, a huge chunk of my time! Time I won’t be spending on my other responsibilities, but, still, okay. I’m the one with the necessary rights to do the job, and I understand what I need to do without anyone having to talk me through it, provide me a handout, or send me to a training. Imagine if we asked the teachers to fix this problem on their own classroom machines and the ones in the common learning areas, as well! Imagine if the Shockwave update has also broken some other program that might be used in our 102 middle and high schools, or our 27 other facilities that provide special services to students who aren’t placed in “regular” settings.

But what about next year? When problems like this come up, who will be there for the teachers and students next year? You see, like many other parts of the country, we’re undergoing a budget crisis. The ECS position is being seriously looked at as one of many positions to cut in order to save money. The district believes it will save $18 million by sending ECSs back to the classroom. I have to wonder if, in the long run, it will cost them more than that by eliminating us.

If we’re all back in classrooms and User Support says,

“You’ll have to have your ECS …. no, wait! …. I forgot …. you don’t have an ECS anymore, do you? … um … sorry, we can’t help you. We don’t have any people left, either. Budget cuts. Well, actually we have a couple, but you’ll have to wait a few weeks until they can make it to your side of town. Try to find a computer in your building that’s still working and just use that one.”

Substitute any software title in the above for one of your choice. They all seem to break sooner or later and require timely human intervention: Fast ForWord, Lexia, AIMS Web, Accelerated Reader, Accelerated Math, Star Math, Dibels, Destination Math, Fastt Math, Study Island, eWalk, and several other titles in use that I can’t think of at the moment. Even the operating itself, whether Windows or Mac, is subject to damage when an update goes wrong. (Sometimes that requires that a machine be reimaged, a process where the machine’s hard drive is wiped out and then receives a fresh, uncorrupted load of the operating system and other software. That’s part of my job, too.)

My district has a huge investment in these programs and the machines that run them, and many have become important components of plans to meet AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress). I hope the administration dwelling in the stratosphere know what we’ll be in for when stuff starts falling apart. Further, I hope our building administrators understand that a former ECS who has again become a classroom teacher has a full-time job planning, reflecting on his/her teaching, doing reports, grading, conferencing, meeting individual instructional needs, maintaining discipline, pulling duty, going to meetings, doing the bulletin boards, and probably a hundred other things I don’t remember that happen in an elementary classroom on a recurring basis.

I know my building administrators may not have a lot of power to affect the upcoming decisions about who is in which job next year, and I’m sure they’ve begun to ponder what they’ll have to do to try and keep as many of their instructional programs intact as possible. I know they have many other possible scenarios that should be bothering them by now, for example, “How will I get all the stuff done if my Literacy Specialist is cut”, or “Who will service my ELL (English Language Learner) students if I lose my ELL specialist?” But the e-tools problem is just such a nice example of how quickly an innocent automatic upgrade can quickly affect every machine in the district that uses a particular program, rendering it useless for a given task or program, or even useless, period!

A few weeks ago it was Fast ForWord on the Macs, requiring every Mac to be reconfigured by human hands in order to use the program again.  Again, victims of an automatic update. Now, it’s e-Tools. What an impossible job it would be for user support to send technicians out to all these schools and touch all the machines that use this program. It will also be impossible for a bunch of former ECS’s, now classroom teachers, to deal with problems of this magnitude and do justice to their students.

Let’s hope our leaders decide not to save $18 million, only to have to spend much more to recover from a foolish decision!

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) publishes two web sites that address the conditions necessary to integrate technology into the curriculum. One site addresses essential conditions for students http://cnets.iste.org/students/s_esscond.html, and the other addresses essential conditions for teachers http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/t_esscond.html. Both are similar in stating the conditions required to accomplish this. Conditions mentioned on both sites include a shared vision with support by administration; access to newest technology; knowledge of content standards and resources; technical support; teachers with technology skills; student-centered teaching; on-going assessment to determine if technology is making a difference in learning; support by community partners; and adequate, on-going funding. In addition, the teacher site lists professional development that supports technology integration.

I can’t argue with any of the conditions on this list. I believe they are all important. If we pick and choose the ones we are comfortable addressing, then we will probably not accomplish our goal of creating an effective learning environment that prepares students to face the challenges and decisions of the future. In the next sections, I will offer my opinion of where my district (the nation’s 5^th largest) stands on each condition listed above, and where applicable, what should be done about it.

Shared Vision with Support by Administration

By reading the district’s mission statement, it is difficult to know whether its vision truly includes technology integration at the highest levels. The district’s vision/mission statement is “… students will have the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and ethics necessary to succeed academically and will practice responsible citizenship.” It doesn’t mention preparing students for the future, nor does it even mention technology. To “succeed academically” can be interpreted so many ways. Lately it seems to mean pass the test to achieve AYP. The mission statement should be rewritten to include mention of preparing students to live in a future that will be dominated by technology. Even the district’s technology vision statement is weak: “It is the vision of the … District that information and communication technologies are essential for improving student achievement.”

Access to Newest Technology

I feel that the district does do a good job of trying to provide access to new technology. It would be an impossible task (although a nice standard to aim for) to continually provide all students and teachers access to the newest technology. Equipment and infrastructures are extremely expensive and time-consuming to purchase, maintain, and train people to use. In order to afford a reasonable degree of high technology, balanced against the cost of new technology, the district sometimes keeps its equipment in use past the point where it might be considered technically obsolete. When schools are updated though, it is with equipment that is state of the art at the time it is purchased.

Knowledge of Content Standards and Resources

Many teachers have limited knowledge of technology content standards and resources. At one time, technology integration and meeting technology standards were stressed much more than they are today. Since the No Child Left Behind act was passed, administrators have been under intense pressure to meet test score standards for basic skills. This has left little time and energy to consider technology integration into the curriculum. It has also shifted the focus of technology use from research and self-directed learning to computer assisted drills and diagnostic-prescriptive testing. Until there is less pressure on administrators to deliver high test scores, the focus probably will not change.

Technical Support

The district does a good job of providing technical support, especially for such a large enterprise. There are several technical departments, including Technology Deployment Services, Networking Services, and User Support Services, all of which provide support either directly or indirectly to end users. In addition, almost all schools have access to an on-site educational computing strategist (ECS) who is usually able to provide timely support for common user errors and minor technical problems. In addition, the ECS is tasked with facilitating technology integration into instruction. Probably the biggest impact to facilitate integration of technology into the curriculum though, would be to give all schools a full time ECS. Presently ECS’s cover two to three schools each.

Teachers with Technology Skills

The collective degree of technology skills in the district is slowly increasing. Most of the improvement is not a result of staff development efforts. Rather, it is a result of older teachers retiring and younger, more tech-savvy teachers taking their places. Many young teachers use technology to accomplish their tasks without a second thought because they have been exposed to it since they were young. As the teaching force continues to turn over, teacher technology skills will not be as big an issue as it once was.

Student-Centered Teaching

From what I see in elementary schools, there is not much student-centered teaching occurring. There is a great deal of drill and diagnostic-prescriptive teaching of the skills that will be on the test. As mentioned above, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can take credit for this situation. Also stated above, this probably will not change until the test score pressure is relieved.

Ongoing Assessment of Technology’s Effectiveness

It is not good style to sound like a broken record (nor to use such a cliché perhaps), but most teachers and administrators have been burdened with so many tests that measure whether students are meeting “key” academic standards, and with so much pressure to demonstrate achievement, that little is going on that measures the effectiveness of integrating technology. At the moment, there may be little point in such a measure. As explained above, a disproportionate amount of technology resources has been diverted from high-level learning to computer assisted instruction and diagnosis.

Support by Community Partners

Many schools have corporate partners that help fund projects and purchases. An outstanding example of a district-wide community partner is the foundation that helps fund and administer the district’s e-mail system. This affords all employees the ability to communicate electronically with anyone else, both within and outside the district. At the site level, probably the biggest community support schools receive is from parent-teacher organizations. These organizations hold fund raisers and attempt to help schools fund a variety of needs, including minor technology needs.

Adequate, On-going Funding

Schools in the district, with the exception of Title I schools, perhaps,  rely mainly on district funding to provide upgrades and major equipment purchases. One could argue that the amount of funding will never be “adequate.”  Schools supplement the software and hardware issued by the district with whatever funds they can scrape together. Schools work hard to find the money to buy the extras: digital cameras, printers, software, etc.

Professional Development that Supports Technology Integration

In the past, the district used to allow teachers to be released during the instructional day for training. Substitutes were provided to cover their classes. Because of funding problems and a substitute shortage, this arrangement is no longer allowed. Coupled with the pressures of NCLB mentioned above, little wide-spread attention has been given to professional development that supports technology integration. Most technology-related training that now occurs is concerned with productivity–for example, accessing test scores and using electronic grade books. Training times before school and during teacher preparation periods are now consumed with meetings and trainings that focus on how to improve test scores. Until the rules about teacher training during the instructional day are changed, it will continue to be difficult to find sufficient time blocks to do meaningful technology integration training.

Conclusion

The district does a few things on the list of conditions well, especially technical support and attempting to provide access to new technologies. However, there are so many conditions that are not mastered, I feel that we are not even close to truly achieving meaningful technology integration into the curriculum on a large scale. Thus, with a few exceptions we are far from creating an effective learning environment that prepares students to face the challenges and decisions of a future driven by technology.

Before discussing the effect of copyright piracy on teachers, a couple of definitions should be helpful. A useful, working definition of copyright found at SearchSecurity.com is, “… the copyright law provides that the owner of a (an intellectual) property has the exclusive right to print, distribute, and copy the work, and permission must be obtained by anyone else to reuse the work in these ways.” Piracy is the duplication of copyrighted material which is used, sold, or given to others to use without permission.

In these days of the Internet and high technology, it is easier than ever to violate copyright. Computer programs, files, and pictures can easily be duplicated and distributed electronically. Many technology users don’t even believe they are breaking the law by sharing others’ work or property in this way.

One of the worst effects of copyright piracy is that it takes away the incentive to create. If companies or authors know that their work will be stolen and distributed to others, they may not be motivated to produce the product, or they may settle on producing a product that is of lower quality than it could have been. Lakhan states, “The lack of education concerning intellectual property has lead to infringement, disrespect for other’s ideas, nearly ten billion dollars of U.S. financial loss, and worst of all, the hindrance of creativity and ingenuity.” This can result in a lack of quality products being produced that can be used in the classroom.

Another effect of copyright piracy is to drive up the price of software and other educational materials. As noted in the preceding paragraph, copyright infringement results in an incredible monetary loss. Software companies and distributors may raise their prices in an attempt to recover some of the loss. Many schools and teachers cannot afford materials as it is. The result of this is that many teachers end up being copyright pirates themselves as they attempt to provide their students with relevant materials. Rothman quotes Friedman, “… inadequate funding caused a dilemma for the teachers who, while sensitive to the ethical problem of copying, were also unwilling to compromise students’ education.”

Copyright piracy (infringement) is a huge problem, not only within educational institutions, but throughout most of the world. In spite of laws, penalties, and anti-piracy measures, the problem continues.

————————————-

“What is Copyright?” Search Security.com. 27 Jun 2005. <http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci211841,00.html>

Lackhan, Shaheen E. ” Stop Piracy with Edification: Intellectual Property Education in School.” Nov, 2002. < http://cogprints.org/2935/01/SchoolIPEdu.pdf >.

Rothman, David H. “Copyright and K through 12: Who Pays in the Network Era?” The Future of Networking Technologies for Learning. 19 Sept. 2001. <http://www.ed.gov/Technology/Futures/rothman.html>

Last year, when I was looking around for a good buy on a large external HD, I was amazed by how cheap external HD storage works out to be. When I calculated the cost per GB, the best price I found was 24 cents per GB. I haven’t bought a floppy disc in a very long time, but I priced a box of 1.44 mb floppies, and they worked out to about 29 cents a disc, or 20.139 cents per MB!

If you bought the equivalent of a 500 GB drive in floppies, you would need 355,555 discs, and it would cost you $103,111 ! ….. Plus shipping! Plus storage! … and a pallet jack!

(A GB is 1024 MB; a floppy is 1.44 MB. That’s about 711 floppies per GB, or about $206 worth of floppies per GB. Compare that to your $20 1 GB pen drive! )

With an 8 foot ceiling, I calculate it would take a storage closet about 6 x 7 feet to hold all 355,555 discs if you threw away all the packaging material.

(A stack of 10 floppies with labels attached is about 16.13 cubic inches. There are 1728 cubic inches in a cubic foot.)

Someone should check my math.

I’ve noticed that some students (and maybe their teachers) are not sure about when to use Save and when to use Save As. Here are some general rules that you might present if you discuss this topic:

Save As presents a dialog box that allows you to select where you want to save a document and what you want to name it. Save works behind the scenes because it already has that information.

Use Save or Save As if you create a new document and it has never been saved. No matter which you select in this case, if a document has never been saved, you’re going to get the Save As dialog box. I encourage students to routinely select Save unless they have a special reason to select Save As. (Read on.) This minimizes the chances that they will end up with several versions of the same document when they do multiple saves during a work session.

Use Save if you edit a document that has been saved before. In this case, Save will replace the older copy with the newer copy without bothering you about where to save it or what to name it.

Use Save As if you want to save a copy of a document in a different location or you want to save a copy of a document using a different name. My rule of thumb is to use Save unless this last case applies.