Keep Digging

My notes from tonight’s school board meeting.

About two months ago when I last spoke to the school board, I predicted that implementing this iPad project would probably result in headaches and trouble for not only your IT staff, but the school corporation as a whole.  This is not meant to be an “Ha Ha, the IT guy says ‘I told you so'” moment, because I feel the failings of this project show something far more troubling.  

 

This weekend, an email was sent out to the school corporation about the various technology projects.  As an IT professional, the points brought up are clearly self inflicted wounds from this iPad rollout.  And the suggestions made will not improve the overall problem.  

 

iPad usage

shutting down the schools internet access during lunch time

Proposed solution is to turn off internet access during this time to the middle schools

This will interfere and add unnecessary steps to students and will not improve the bandwidth situation.

Most of the bandwidth usage is to youtube and apple.com from the common area

My point is, instead of putting the blame/fix on your teachers, does anyone have a ladder and know how to unplug an access point?

 

Teachers unprepared to use the iPads in the classrooms

Student being told that notes he took on the iPad could not be used on open-note test.

no curriculum

Impossible demands placed on teachers and staff to implement something which they have simply been given tweets and links to somehow develop an education plan

 

Paid App Approval Process

4-6 weeks to approve an app to be used in the classroom, which means that if a teach finds an app they need to have things sorted out at least one quarter ahead of time in order to ensure delivery to their students.

 

The problem is not your digital citizens acting “uncitizen-like” or teachers not fulfilling mandates, the problem is poor leadership and poor planning on the part of this school corporation.  The problem is the school corporation came into the project unprepared both on the technology and education fronts, with a mandate that fails the basic points of education, network security, and “what to expect from a group of teenagers”.

 

You are not going to fix this by simply adding bandwidth and trying to reason with your students.  You either now have to take the steps of either becoming a cybercop on every user in your network (of which you do not have the time or funds to support) or you have to start unplugging things.  

 

There’s an app for that…even when you don’t make sense

We are now three weeks into iPad deployment into the #HCCSC2012 school year and now the big question is…well, what about all that stuff I said could happen with my 64 Days post.  

Thankfully, the worst case scenario has not happened.  The network has thankfully held up and so far (well, from my extremely limited vantage point) the network has not been hacked into oblivion.  However, that’s not too much of a surprise either since https is still unblocked and if you are into some pretty awful stuff..you can download it at 500Mbit/s speeds on the 10G network they run between schools (yes, 10G ring…don’t ask).

So my thoughts on this so far?  I still think this is an abject failure.  Why?  

The kids are using iPads either as glorified notebooks or digital cameras and constantly uploading to Facebook.  I’m guessing that a significant majority of traffic on the network is probably social media related….which is actually fine in my book.  It’s how that it’s being used is the problem.

But what does this mean for the schools?  Well, we still have ~$2million in iPads that have to be used over the next four years.  We still don’t have lesson plans other than “take notes on them” and I’m guessing the most abused access point in the entire network is the one in the commons area…and not in the classrooms.

See, there’s lots of postings in the #HCCSC2012 hashtag which mostly revolve around buzzwords.  In almost everything inside of the hashtag, you see someone posting about great ideas which involve ways create dialogue to synthesize interest in the paradigm of learning in the digital classroom.  Or in other words…a bunch of clever words covering up a bunch of BS.

We have this in the business world…they are called buzz words and if you get enough of your friends to play along, you can play buzz word bingo.  Every time your teacher facilitator demonstrates a way paradigm shifting method to teach enhance the educational experience….yeah, you have been there.  And yes, there is an app for that….

Now I have been pretty snarky about this process…and I think I have been pretty right on about the use of this (I still get questions on “how do I use this”?) so I am willing to make this offer.  I am willing to take time away over the next few weeks and help any teacher in the corporation to put together some ideas on how to really introduce the iPad into their classroom.  Beyond posting on a random blog or updating your Facebook status.  I’m not planning on making a buck on this or wanting to prove a point.  But I see the resources out there and I am also seeing teachers struggle in trying to incorporate this new mandate from above while trying to teach classes…and it appears to be quite a big hurdle.

64 Days

These are my notes from tonight’s school board meeting.  I hopefully will be given five minutes to talk, hence the brevity.  But I hope this will make sense to everyone.

Thank you for time tonight.  My name is Brian Wohlgemuth.  I am an engineer for CenturyLink, a 20 year IT consultant, and most of all, a dad with several children in the Huntington County School Corporation.  Tonight, I want to talk about projects that succeed and those that fail.  In most cases, projects fail due to a misunderstanding between ambition and reality.  In IT as in many disciplines, a good foundation means you can build almost anything.  In the case of IT Project Management, a clear understanding of the costs/risks/and roadblocks is your good foundation.  I’ll try to cover all of this in four minutes.

The current plan as proposed to the board is to deploy iPads to every student in the High School and Middle Schools this year.  This device will be replacing most if not all textbooks in the school environment.  While I find this exciting, I have to ask what will replace the textbooks when it comes to problems, examples, help, etc.  I am not an advocate for the textbook system, but they can and do serve a purpose.  How will that purpose be addressed in the iPad world?

This also means the existing data/management infrastructure will have almost 2,000 new clients added to the network, and this is just at three facilities.  The logistics of Procuring, Assigning, Accounting, Installing, Distributing, and Training 2,000 new devices to a network is quite a challenge.  In fact, most companies would take a year or two phase in this scope of project.  You have 64 days.  I am not saying this is impossible to do, but the accounting and distribution will be daunting especially in a school environment.

You tech support will be your greatest asset.  When things break (and they will), it will be your first line of defense.  As I said before, you are adding over 2,000 clients to your network.  Weird problems can and will show up, especially in what is an unmanaged client environment such as this.

Your new clients will demand a lot from you this first year.  The equivalent of a multi-million dollar supercomputer from just a decade ago is sitting in each students hands.  Current Department of Education specifications are a 100kbps connection per user.  You will have at the end of this project, almost 4,000 users.  That means you will need at minimum a 400Mbit protected connection to the Internet.  These are Department of Education standards, not numbers I came up with.

Your new clients will actively challenge your network on a daily basis.  In a corporate environment, doing anything outside of policy can get you fired.  In high school, it will probably make you popular.  Most High School IT Administrators treat the public infrastructure as hostile one.  Is this what you are planning on doing?  Why do I ask this?

Because of one recurring theme I hear from school administrators.  That “Apple=Safe”.  In this case, I simply point out the latest threat analysis from Kaspersky which expects the first iOS based malware to hit the world in 2013.  Right as you are ramping up for phase two of this project.

2,000+ clients.  Hitting your existing network in 64 days.  Which by next year will be subjected to malware by a group of (in the IT world) hostile users.

Which brings me back to my point tonight.  Earlier I said “In most cases, projects fail due to a misunderstanding between ambition and reality”.  64 Days.

An iPad in EVERY Backpack….

Most of you know I am a computer geek to the core.  If I don’t have an iPhone, iPad, or my much abused MacBook Air with me…I’m probably having convulsions.  Living on the dawn of the “digital citizenship” (something that was said tonight) has been a wonderful thing for me personally and professionally.

Tonight, I took a little trip to our school board meeting after band practice (more on that later….the whole band thing is really turning out well).  Tonight’s discussion revolved around the mundane (the interviewing process for a coach) to the discussion around moving to a “digital curriculum” with the iPad as the central device in this process.

HCCSC is currently in the process of deciding to move to a digital textbook/learning environment.  This will (as currently proposed) give an iPad to every student grades 6-12 this year, and then every student (including Kindergarten) next year.  Instead of textbook fees, parents would be charged $100 per year for access to the iPad.  The schools are purchasing these devices and will then maintain and monitor them closely.

And this is where things get weird….bad…..awful…..etc.

The idea being proposed is students will use the iPad as their primary learning device, as opposed to textbooks.  This is a good thing overall (no more dead trees, incredibly large books carrying dead knowledge, etc).  However, the plan is to let teachers determine curriculum choices based on their own choices and guidelines.  This isn’t a bad thing either…but this is being implemented….now.  As in ordering/setting up/testing/deploying by August 15th.  Mind you, nothing has been ordered or even approved yet.  So now, instead of having a textbook/lesson plan figured out….teachers will need to wing it.  Not an impossible hurdle…unless of course you are terrified of the iPad which many of the teachers are.

So what about deploying the iPad to every student?  Each student will get their own iPad which they will be responsible to keep safe, charge every night, and ensure they take to school each morning.  For this year, it will be limited to middle and high school students….but next year each Kindergartener will have their very own shiny new iPad to cart around.  Every day.  This seems safe.

OK…so we get past the “teachers scared/kindergarteners using as kleenex” phases.  While these are not impossible hurdles…we now get to distribution and management.  2,000 brand new wireless clients on a school IT infrastructure that can’t/won’t stop https.  Where they can get on personal ads for Craigslist.  Or Facebook.  Or anything else on the planet.  But lets say this goes well and the handoff goes smashingly.  What about the back-half of the network piece. You know, where students will get their learning experience…otherwise known as “The Internet”.  Now that your primary work is taking place offsite…..do you have the network to back it up?  Wait…we’re still debating?  Again, August 15th looms….

But lets say you get the budget, the staff, the distribution, the network up to snuff by August 15th…..

What happens when all of that doesn’t work?

If the Internet goes down, your students are offline.  If they unleash an iOS virus, your students are offline.  If a nasty head cold works its way through the Kindergarten, your students are offline.  If….if….if.

There’s a way to get kids to be “digital citizens”.  This isn’t the way to do it.

Standing Desk: Week One

It’s not elegant, but it’s cheap and damn effective.

So why did I do this? Well I have always wanted something like this, but was too lazy to do something about it. Then there were a myriad of articles this last week about the health problems associated with sitting. And since I’ve started wearing my BodyMedia FIT band, I could see the hours per day where my metabolism crashed within a minute of me sitting down.

So I decided it was time for me to actually do something. And I have found that I am getting more “done” especially when it comes to multitasking. I still use my chair on occasion, but I think leaving the desk in the “standing” configuration works better overall.

More on this when I get to “Month One” on this whole thing.

Local Politics

So I’m taking the first steps into the local political pool, attending my friend Tony Hiles’ first political meeting (he’s running for mayor on the Democratic ticket). Local politics is always a funny thing, and it’s usually dominated by “life-long” residents who have various connections within the community.

I have none of those.

Huntington has been my home for the past 15 years (yeah, 15 so far….) and I am still stymied by what happens in this town. It’s in the center of a couple of major crossroads, but always seems to get passed by on the map. If it’s poor planning, poor location, poor anything….well, not too many people have figured out the exact formula for how to fix the problems in Huntington.

Unfortunately we are looking at an active political year. The current mayor had a well publicized meltdown (broadcast on the local news) and a myriad of lost jobs and sinking budgets have thrown enough political chum in the water to draw everyone into the fray.

Nw, the funny thing about this roll is the amount of money that goes into these local races. The local sheriff race last year had a candidate spend well over $50k of what was their own personal money into a winning campaign. Why someone would spend that much money is beyond my reasoning. Maybe there is a lifelong dream involved, but politics don’t usually keep dreamers in roles like this for very long.

So, the cynic in me wants to know more about how our tax dollars are spent. Because the billboards, the full color pictures, the myriad of placards and stickers and t-shirts make me ask….where is this money coming from? And as these people invest tens of thousands of dollars…what return are they hoping for?

Which brings me here. Maybe I will know more in the next few weeks.

“Russians Don’t Take A Dump Without a Plan..”

Saw this today on one of my RSS feeds….

And it made me think “How ‘organic’ is this?” Are these legitimate uprisings by people who want freedom, or simply someone who can make a buck in the ensuing chaos? So far we have seen (perfectly needed) uprisings in countries like Morocco, Egypt, and Bahrain. Heck, even places like Jordan and Syria are seeing trouble as well. And Iran is still recovering from the brutal repression by its regime.

But the question still lies, is this a real democratic uprising (a’la Tiananmen Square) or something much less “freedom” oriented.

Moving On

With the demise of Derek’s MT, I’ve moved everything over to this WordPress site. Here’s to an entertaining 2011.

Bear Beat Down

It’s hard to call this game close. In fact, part of me was ready to leave at halftime. I know the whole thing about “being a real fan” and “supporting your team no matter what”, but the product that was given to us this Sunday is far below what they can do.
So, some happy thoughts to begin.

It was a clear day at Soldier Field. We had pretty decent seats. No “99!”‘ers like the last game. People were pleasant and actively discussed the game.
…..and that’s about it for the happy thoughts.
Cutler was flat, I do NOT question his toughness like many other people are willing to do. If you can’t plant your knee without it wobbling all over the damn place, you can’t play the position of QB. Urlacher busted his wrist last year and didn’t play the whole season. I don’t recall too many people questioning his toughness…. And if his teammates are saying he didn’t quit on them, I don’t think he did.
Now, defense. Horrible scheme to start. They did adjust and thankfully the Packers didn’t. Second half was some real Bear defense. Unfortunately we were down 14 at that point, with our 2nd QB (Todd Collins is NOT going to be the hero of the game….the tutu is safe) and thankfully after a couple of miserable series, Caleb Hanie came in.
And Caleb did a fantastic job, for being the 3rd QB and not getting a single rep this week. But at this point it was, too little, too late.
So where does the blame on this loss lie?
Lovie. Seriously. Poor play calling. Poor clock management. Poor preparation. Oh, and deferring the kickoff? Keep Aaron Rodgers on the bench getting cold, this isn’t brain surgery. Especially when you have the all time leading kickoff returner sitting on the bench.
Todd Collins should never have had a Bears uniform on. Lovie, that was your call once again and you blew it.
I could go on and on, but if I was a Green Bay fan I would be concerned. The Bears almost pulled this one out. One play (that pick six by #90) and this game is tied and in OT. The Packers couldn’t do CRAP offensively in the second half. They play calling by the Packers in the second half was almost as abysmal as the Bears. At one point it looked like Aaron Rodgers went to the “Rex Grossman School of Quarterbacking”.
But in the end, I’m OK with this. If Cutler is as injured as people say, he probably wouldn’t be ready for the Superbowl. And knowing this coaching staff, this would mean two weeks of “Todd Collins is our Quarterback”. I wouldn’t want that guy embarrassing us on an even larger national stage.
Part of me is glad this is over. And for the Green Bay fans out there, I wouldn’t be planning any parades down Holmgren Way anytime soon. Pittsburgh sounded much tougher than what you saw anytime this year…

Six Months

Six months ago I was driving down to Indy, getting ready to hop on a table so the doc could have some fun with my innards.
Six months ago I sat outside the operating room as they were getting ready, really wondering “what the hell was I thinking” and “I could just get up right now and walk out the door…”
Six months ago I woke up after surgery with the worst pain of my life and a post-op nurse telling me it will be ok (and in the kindest way to STFU). 🙂
Six months ago….where are we now?
Lost 120 lbs since surgery (188 since I started in 2008)
Lost 16″ of waist
Down from a 5XL to a XL shirt
The first six months are supposed to be the easiest to lose weight. And so far they are right. I am back to where I would consider “normal” as far as my lifestyle is concerned. There is still no “pop/soda/whatever you call it” in the Woogie diet. And while there are a few things back that shouldn’t be, there are many more things that will not come back for a long long time (hopefully).
I held on to two articles of clothing from those times (just like what you see in the commercials). When I reach my goal weight (and the revised goal weight afterwards) we will look to see where I was.
For comparison sake….a couple of pics from pre and post surgery.
Before

After

BEAR DOWN CHICAGO BEARS!