OETC Keynote 2/12/15

These are my notes from the keynote session:
are you trying to invent a new education system or adding new features to a system that doesn’t work
what kind of problems would disappear with a driverless car that we face on an everyday base?
when one problem disappears new problems appear
change creates a chain of reaction that solves one problem but can create new problems
what kind of new jobs would arise out of change while others would be replaced?
what can we imagine the implications would be for education when we embrace change?
technology redfines the value of knowledge and talents.
Out of basement readiness instead of college and career ready
A good education no matter what it is should help keep children out of their parents basement.
Boomerrang generation
@yongzhaouo
53% of college graduates in recent years are either under employed or not employed at all
Youth unemployment is a global issue
We have a talent mismatch.  Students may have been educated for the wrong economy.
We have students accquiring skills and knoweldge that have lost value in our society and economy today.  Our schools are following something that is outdated.
Traditional education is a sausage making process
We use the standards to prescribe what is valuable in our students.
If you are good at something you would be bad at something else.  No one can be talented in everything and no one can be bad at everything.
Time is a constant.  If you want to be good at something you still need to spend time practicing that skill.  This requires you to take time away from something else so you can become good at that something.
The education system was designed to make sure that our students were not different from the description we wanted.
The test scores in this system reflect how well we measure compared to the prescribed system.
The Second Machine Age by Brynjolksson and McAfee – Book.
Cogntive skills are being replaced by machines in todays society.
How many tax accountants have been replaced by software such as TurboTax or Tax Act?
The World is Flat – Thomas Friedman

Managing Wifi Deployment

These are my notes from the Managing HiStakes WiFi session.  This was a 3 hr workshop on the first day of #oetc15
marc.e2p.org/portfolio – Slides
#oetc15 #HiStWiFi
J. Marc Hopkins – [email protected]
OETC 15 High Stakes Wifi.pptx
SWOCA Mnaaged Wireless Standards
Bluetooth and Wifi White Paper
Twitter: @jmarchopkins
High Stakes WiFi because of 1:1, BYOD, Blended Learning and Online Testing are now mission critical services in the education community.
3 Different models above require 3 different approaches to Wifi Management.  One size fits all DOES NOT FIT!
Review the SWOCA Wireless Standards document.  Looks at Traditional Classrooms, BYOD/Blended and Other Areas and the number of Access Points for each situation.
About 30 nodes per Access Point is idea.
Switches alleviated collissions (smarter than hubs)
###CD on Wifi###
802.11 is Half duplex with Tx and Rx using the same space
A radio can not transmit and receive at the same time.
This results in collission detechtion not being an option.
In Wifi we have Collission Avoidance where we wait for each frame to be ACKd.  No ACKd then collission assumed.
Simply put:  More devices > More Collisions > More Wait Time reducing throughput on the network
###RF Engineering###
LSM is unlicensed band and is the Wild West of RF.  Agreeing to accept any and all interference from any one in this band.
RF does not know any boundaries (i.e. Wall)
Distance Sensitive – Law of Inverse Square
It is regulated differently in each country
You are working in 3D space.  Review Power Output Levels Slide
The farther you move from the source…the same energy is now being spread further across a greater distance and assuming that you are loosing no energy in the air (interference etc.)
###Bands###
2.4 Ghz has lots of interference.  Various devices running in this range (microwave, bluetooth etc.).  Only 11 channels in the US for 2.4 GHz.
Channels overlap in use on the 2.4 Ghz spectrum.  No overlap between channels 1,6 and 11.
INSSIDER – Wifi Band Anaylzer
We are steeping over each other when using Wifi even on different networks because the spectrum is there for everyone.
Viusalwave, Air Magnet – Heat Mapping program.
5 Ghz is relatively unused currently and has less interference with more channels available for use.
Shorter wave length in 5 Ghz means there is about 1/2 the theoretical coverage.
5 Ghz bounces but does not go through things as well as 2.4 Ghz.
5 Ghz has 24 channels in the United States compared to 3 in the 2.4 Ghz band.
2.4 Ghz is absorbed by water, reflected by metal and refracted by glass.
5 Ghz is reflected by water, metal and glass. – It will bounce off of almost any thing.
Overlap can be 50% because of channel spearation but the minimum should be 15%
The most common mistake in Wifi deisgn:  Floors stack on top of each other and Wifi Doesn’t Care.
VisualWave Sight Survey Software.  Heatmapper.
5 Ghz allows us the ability to do channel bonding.  Instead of using 20 Mhz channel…you could combine two channels to make 40 Mhz.  You could do a 80 and 160 Mhz bond but you start running out of channels.  We reach the N standard by bonding multiple channels together to get 300 MB.
5 Ghz allows for more bandwidth, more channels, less interference and bonded channels.
The downside is that we have less coverage area and lower penetration.  These drawbacks though actually help K-12.
Check to see if you can replace the WiFi card in a device to take advantage of dual band or 5 Ghz versus using a device with a single band card.
802.11 Modes use different frequency hopping to pack more of the RF space.
The faster the network the more “attack surface” for interference it has.  The faster you go the more likely you are to have issues.
802.11a up to 54 Mbps in 5 Ghz Band
802.11b up to 11 Mbps in 2.4 Ghz Band
802.11g up to 54 Mbps in 2.4 Ghz Band – Gold Standard of Wifi Today.  Half of bandwidth at B and G gone to overhead.
802.11n up to 600 Mbps via MIMO
802.11ac up to MultiGbps via MU-MIMO supported in 5 Ghz Band
MIMO takes advantage of spatial multiplexing – Plays with time and space.
Multi0user MIMO – Multiple downlink Tx at same time.  More done in the same amount of time with 802.11 AC.
The sender/receiver currently must both be 802.11 AC devices.
802.11n
*20 Mhz Channels x 3 Streams = 300 MB
*40 Mhz Channels x 3 Streams = 300 MB
802.11ac
*80 Mhz Channels x 3 Streams = 1.3 GB
160 Mhz Channels x 8 Streams = 6.9 GB
The numbers above are all theoretical bandwidth amounts.
600 MB is probably going to be the ceiling in the current version of AC.
A standard coming fom California has schools saying 2 AP per classroom.  Watch this.
Would it be cheaper to put in 2 AP then 1 higher grade AP?  Run the numbers!
Any where a physical cable is feasable we should be using a hardwired connection.
Disable lower association rates which forces the client to pick the stronger AP.  Increase roaming aggressiveness on clients.
Strive fro uniform device radio types whenever possible.
In Wifi it is the clients decesion which AP ito select.
Bluetooth is the rudest of the rude house guests.  Can cause issues every where!
***Design Consideration in Wireless***
*Interference – What is already there?
*Building Construction – Brick Walls?
*Area to Cover
*Type of Service (VOIP/WIFI)
*Number of potential clients
*Total bandwidth required
District Supplied 1:1 is a good idea because it allows the techs to control the items we talked about.
In BYOD state preferred devices with abgn support.  Encourage ac standard.
Cacti for Management.

#why765 – NKP 765

This post is in response to a campaign being ran by the Fort Wayne RailRoad Historical Society (FWRHS).
I was born and raised in Lima, Ohio in 1986 just a few blocks away from the birthplace of the engine that would later be numbered 765 and serve the Nickel Plate Road from 1944-1958.  This is a train that has now had an impact on four generations of our family.  My great grandpa who is now 90 years old did grunt work around the locomotive shop as a teenager and that is where the connection with 765 started.  My first experience with 765 came in 1991 as she and her sister Pere Maqueete 1225 came through Lima, just feet from their birth place as a double headed position as they travelled South to Cincinnati and then on to Huntington, West Virginia for the National RailRoad Convention.  At the time I would have been four years old and don’t remember much from that trip.  We gathered at the train yard in Lima, Ohio with my grandpa and then proceeded to chase the train over to Huntington.
After that experience my interest in trains declined but with the advent of the Internet, an interest in trains was reborn.  It was that finding of the interest again that led me to the pictures I have included in this post.  It was in August 2013 that my dad and I travelled to New Haven, IN for the FWRHS open house.  It was there at the open house that a picture of me sitting in the cab of 765 with a smile a mile wide was captured (below).
A few weeks later, my dad and I made the trek up from Columbus to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad for Steam in the Valley.  It would be the first time in many years that I had rode on a steam train.  It is also something that no matter how old you are, you can’t help but have a smile as you see the engine come into focus as it approaches the station.  Once in the station you hear the brakes being set and then the sound of the whistle as the engine communicates with those around it.  It was also during this time that I was able to capture a picture with my camera that for me is one of my favorite shots of all time.
When I got home and started sorting through my pictures, I realized I had captured something unique.  I had this picture printed up in a 20 x 30 format and took it to my great grandpa.  He was amazed at the clarity of the picture and the detail surrounding it.  I offered him one of the prints and he selected a black and white copy but not before taking it around the nursing home and showing it off to people.  As any great grandpa does he also told a story of how he worked in the shop doing grunt work and how the trains used to travel the tracks not far from the house he grew up in as a kid.  He has trouble remembering the present but he is as sharp as a tack when it comes to the past.  This was evident when he heard a video being played on my iPhone which contained the sound of the train and the whistle.  Right off the bat he asked is that a Berkshire and it sounds like a Nickel Plate whistle.
In July 2014, my grandpa who took us to the train yard in Lima in 1991 was home from California for a visit.  As my grandpa and his brother along with their sisters husband was sitting around I brought out the picture.  I told them that I had something to show them that I thought they would enjoy.  As I took the picture out of the protective cover and turned it around, they became quiet and just stared at the picture.  They were impressed with the picture and proclaimed that it was a great shot taken by a professional.  It was then that I revealed to them that I took the picture.  They each now have a copy of the picture hanging in their houses.  My grandpa took the picture and had it framed but also has taken it around, showing it off to people.  He is sharing the history of Lima, the Lima Locomotive Works, the Nickel Plate Road, 765 and the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society
My dad and I made the trip to Owosso, MI for Train Expo 2014 where we saw 765 along with her sister 1225.  My mom joined us in Cuyahoga Valley in Sept. 2014 for another edition of Steam in the Valley.  My dad and I jumped off the train to take pictures as they did a photo runby but my mom stayed on.  During this time, she called her dad (my grandpa) in California and he heard the whistle of 765 just a mere 2,457 miles away.

It’s a jump to the left…and a step to the right

Full Disclosure:  I am currently employed by The Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools which is the organization which hosted the conference I presented at in October 2014.  As part of our job each year, we are each asked to give a presentation at the conference.
Each year the organization I work for holds a conference that brings charter school teachers, administrators, sponsors and management companies together for two days of collaboration.  As part of the conference, I have a slot reserved for a presentation.  The original idea I had for my presentation didn’t materialize due to various conflicts so I took a jump to the left and came up with a presentation, that for me was not radical but would be a change of pace for the conference and it’s attendees.  As with most conferences, the standard procedure called for presentations to be submitted months in advanced, reviewed and approved for the conference.  A good number of these presentations follow the popular format of sit and get.  This is the same format that we see employed in classrooms where the teacher is seen as the gatekeeper of knowledge.
It was just over two years ago that I got my first taste of an unconference at the annual Ohio Educational Technology Conference and my first Edcamp experience.  These formats exemplified everything that I liked about conferences.  As I had become a veteran of conferences, I started making friends and building my professional learning network and I found that the most interesting parts of the conference were the conversations that happened in the walk between sessions or the late night sessions at local establishments where we would get beyond the sit and get stuff that was the conference.  We were talking philosophy and a different approach to learning.  It excited me!
The Edcamp setup is where the people attending come together at the start of the day to build the board which will be the sessions for that day.  It is also a model where you vote with your feet and find a session that excites you.  None of the ten attendees in my session had ever heard of Edcamp or had been a part of a session of this nature.  I provided them with a crash course of how Edcamp functions and advised them to check out the Edcamp website for an event near them.  I recall basically telling them that Edcamp was everything this conference was not and that the conference format we put on drove me nuts because of the structure.
As our conference guide had went to print, I didn’t have a chance to change my session description and I showed up hoping for the best.  I should also note here that I had been sick the previous week and had lost my voice the night before so my presentation was going to be quite the adventure.  As the ten attendees entered the room and the session started, it was time for me to take them on the same jump to the left that I had taken and move them from their comfort zone (Hey…Stacy…I borrowed the comfort zone analogy!).  This jump was the idea that they would be active participants in this session, there would be no slide presentation, this was not going to be a sit and get session.  I boldly stated to them that I was going to suggest things that I may not necessarily agree with but the whole idea is to start a discussion and see where it leads.
The next part though was a step to the right that brought them back sort of to their comfort zone.  I told them that I know this presentation was not going to be as described in the conference guide and they can leave now or at any time throughout but they all stayed.  This is where I broke from the Edcamp format in my opinion as I had created questions ahead of time.  I did this because I didn’t know how many people would be in attendance, who my audience would be or if they would be comfortable with the idea of being an active participant in the session.  The questions were complied with the help of Stacy Hawthorne (@stacyhaw).  The questions were as follows:
1.  What, in your opinion, is impeding the integration of core content in technology?
2.  What factors or fears are keeping people from becoming “tech people”?  How might we overcome these fears?
3.  Describe some of the technology integrations that you have seen.  What caused them to succeed or fail?
4.  How might teacher education programs better prepare pre-service teachers to be effective technology integrators during their first year of teaching?
5.  How might a student show mastery instead of a traditional paper or exam? What are the benefits/downfalls of allowing alternative forms of mastery?
6.  How might we better prepare a student to enter a world where the expectation is the use of technology to conduct problem solving, communicate and collaborate across not only departments within a company but with a global community using technology?
We were able to get through all the questions above and diverted into other questions as a result of the discussions.  I also shared with them in relation to question 5 the work of Sean Wheeler (@mrwheeler) and Ken Kozar of Teachinghumans.com because I think these two are onto something.  If you ever get the chance to sit down with Sean or Ken…take it!  The conversation with these two is amazing and my brain is always left trying to process what is discussed!  In summarizing the comments from the participants it was a bit disappointing for me to hear the same old argument being used.  The words money, mandates and lack of staff were the themes that kept creeping up in discussions.  I was hoping that we could come to something else (which I am not sure exactly what that is yet) where we didn’t beat the same dead horse.  We did make progress in other areas such as bringing the parents and students together for a class on resume writing for example or bringing the parents in to give real life examples of how they use the skills they learned in school in their everyday lives.  One item we arrived at was ensuring the students saw the light at the end of the tunnel and the importance of education.
There were two attendees who didn’t say a word the whole session but listened and took notes.  Were they engaged?  I’m not sure.  The session was the second to last session on a Friday and I felt that the attendees left the session not tired but excited and that was a major accomplishment for being the second to last session and a Friday.  As we ended the session I asked for feedback regarding the format and it was positive.  They enjoyed being an active participant, being part of the discussion.  I asked is this something you would take back and try in your school and the answer was yes.  The most satisfying part of the entire session and the conference for me was a question that came from the audience which was “How do we get you to come out to our school?”.
As I take a step to the right and rejoin the reality that is the real world I came to a few realizations.  The work I am doing now is work that I enjoy but is not the work that I want to be doing for the rest of my life. I find myself longing to be back in a school setting surrounded by teachers and students.  I had a conversation with a student at a school the other day who was building his own computer because he wanted to build a computer.  That conversation not only made my day but made my week and made me further realize that I miss being in that environment.  While I feel the work I am doing now is having an impact on student learning, I miss having those personal connections with students and teachers.  Helping them solve problems or letting them build something in an independent study class that is centered around technology.  It is not a question of if I will return to a school setting but when and when I do return to a school setting, I hope that I can bring the best of what I have learned over the last 3 years and what I will continue to learn to the environment and help move the school, administrators, teachers, students, parents and the community along the path.

Give and Take by Adam Grant

I am a giver.  I just finished reading Give and Take by Adam Grant after learning about it through a Lifehacker.com article  in their ongoing “I’m ________ and this is how I work” series where Mark Arnodly, CEO of Possible was the subject.
Mark recommended the book Give and Take by Adam Grant stating that it was the most influential book he had read in the last year.  I went over to Amazon and in a few seconds it was sitting on my iPhone.
The book summarizes three different types of people givers, takers and marchers along with how they operate.  It was a great find at the time given several situations I am currently working through.  Givers by nature always look for ways to add value to others but run the risk of of ending up on the bottom of the success ladder.
It was through the book that I quickly started assigning labels to those around me both in my personal and professional lives.  In observing the people around me I realized that the majority were givers and the majority of them were in the education field.  It was those few people I identified as takers that stood out to me.  They stood out to me because they were also in the education field.
Takers are in my opinion the hardest to work with or for in a situation where you are primarily a giver.  They demand so much from you and will use you as a resource until you have no value to their ultimate end goal.  They contribute nothing back to the group providing no value.  They also tend to suck the life out of a giver and drive them to a point where they are ready to leave.
While reading the book, I observed multiple instances of where the people I had identified as takers did exactly the actions I had described above.  This frustratedly because I view education as a field that is truly made for and ran by givers.  How did these two people make it to the positions they have in education?
While education is a field populated heavily with givers it is a field that is regulated by professions that I would view as a marcher or taker.  Education is regulated by politicians.  Politicians who often come from business or a law background where results drive the outcome.  These two people have garnered results in their respective fields and in turn are viewed highly by the regulators who control the laws that govern the education field.
Does this mean that they are bad people or does it mean that they have mastered the game?  I would classify them as the latter of the two.  Did they start out as givers?  I don’t know.  What I do know is that I strongly disagree with the way they conduct business presently.
Education is a rough field and one that requires advanced degrees with compensatation that is no where adequate for the degrees.  We have created an environment where education is now a competition to see who can get the highest PI score, graduation rate, college acceptance rate or some other metric.  It frustrates me that we have people in education who are not willing to share their work or best practices because it would give their “competition” assistance.  We are in education to help students learn and succeed…why are we operating it like a business?
In this pursuit of performing well on the test we have lost focus on what really matters in education.  The children and the families are what really matter in education.  If as an educator I can help a student connect learning to a real life situation then I consider that a success.  If I can help a family with a challenge they are facing then I consider that a success.  If I can guide a student to a breakthrough on a challenge then I consider that a success.  Did you notice that none of the things I would consider a success have to do with reaching a PI score of 120 or scoring accelerated or advanced on a test.  When you focus only on the test are you focusing on what is best for that student or focusing instead on what is best in the eyes of the state?
The people I have described in this post frustrate me.  The frustrate me because they demand hard work, perfection and dedication but they don’t give any thing of value back to the cause without a price.  They may do a presentation here or there but in reality they are doing it in hopes of gaining a favor or an award.  How about we do it for the betterment of education and helping all students succeed without expecting something in return.

Annotation Summary – Skitch and Evernote

I am currently working on a research project and as part of that I am reviewing a number of existing research papers.  There is a good amount of highlighting going on within the documents and they are being stored within Evernote for easy access later.  I am also using Skitch in partnership with Evernote and came across a cool feature.  When you make an annotation (highlight, box etc.) there is a checkbox that appears at the bottom of the PDF window asking if you want to include an Annotation Summary.
The Annotation Summary creates a snippet of what you highlighted and places it at the top of the document.  This is a great feature because now I can easily find all of my annotations without having to go through the entire document.
What you will need:  Evernote and Skitch
How to do this:
  1. Create a note in Evernote
  2. Attach a PDF to the note
  3. Right click the PDF within the note and select Annotate this PDF
  4. Make an annotation
  5. Place the check mark in the box titled “Include Annotation Summary”
  6. Make your annotations and close the document

Who says you can’t go home?

This is the title to a song that was written by Bon Jovi while also performed by Bon Jovi and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland back in 2006.  My favorite part of the song is the verse below:
Who says you can’t go home
There’s only one place they call me one of their own
Just a hometown boy, born a rolling stone, who says you can’t go home
Who says you can’t go back, been all around the world and as a matter of fact
There’s only one place left I want to go, who says you can’t go home
It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright, its alright
I titled this post after the song and included it’s lyrics in this post to reflect upon an opportunity I had on June 6th 2014 of speaking at the graduation for West Central Learning Academy II (WCLA) in Lima, Ohio.  WCLA is an online charter school that serves students in grades 7-12 who reside within a 50 mile radius of their office.  WCLA is also the school that I graduated from in 2005 and returned in 2007 as the technology coordinator.  When I left in 2011 for a different job I had spent eight years total involved with the school.  Leaving in 2011 also marked my leaving of the Lima community to which I had called home for the last 24 years and with it the friends, family and experiences.  I had been home countless times between 2011 and 2014 but this time felt different.  It was also an opportunity to travel back through my hometown and look at the places that were mainstays in my life growing up.  I drove past the hockey rink, my childhood home and many other places all which played a large role in my life.
I spoke to the graduates about my education experiences after I left WCLA and how those education experiences have led me to where I am today.  The main item I wanted to drive home to the students was the fact that it is easy to think you have a career or life path figured out but when you reflect upon the choices you made years later it doesn’t look like any thing you had planned.  Additionally I told them that while they will be graduating from high school tonight this is not the end of their learning.  Learning is a 24x7x365 process and you will learn until you die.  I told them that some day I will no longer be able to play hockey or ride roller coasters but I will never stop learning.  In 2005 when I graduated I would never have guessed that my focus and career was going to be based in the education field.  I shared with them that it is good to have a plan and know what you want to do but don’t believe that plan is set in stone.  Be willing to be flexible.
Enough about me.  The night was special because a graduate and former student was in the audience and the graduating class was comprised of two students who were some of the last that I worked with at WCLA before taking the job.  The graduate in the audience is finishing up her bachelors degree and she is certified in Missouri to be a sign language interpreter.  She plans to continue in the field of study.  I had last seen her when she graduated so it was a pleasant surprise and a chance to catch up.
A graduate that evening has a passion for racing and painting of race cars.  He has faced many challenges in his life but he graduated.  He came up to me and we started talking like it was 2011 and we hadn’t missed a beat.  His grandmother stopped me after the graduation ceremony to say Thank You.  I asked for what?  She said for believing in him, for being patient with him, for listening to him, for talking with him, for being an education option and helping him along the way to graduation.  I replied and said he did all the hard work and I didn’t have any major role in it.  She said you had a larger role that you realize and learn to take a compliment.
The interaction I had with her and the others throughout the night was a reminder to me of why I am in education.  When I worked in factory IT for the brief 3 months, I didn’t feel that my contribution was having an impact on any one.  It was a job that I couldn’t visualize doing for the next 30 – 35 years or more.  My work in education though has me seeing the impact on student lives.
So I ask the question again…Who says you can’t go home?

Anticipatory Customer Service

An article appeared in one of the sources I read a few days back and it involved an amusement park.  As I am a roller coaster junkie I was intrigued and started reading.  The article was about the customer service aspect of the amusement park industry.  The author mentioned that he had just secured an ice cream cone only to drop as he was walking away.  The team at Six Flags quickly sprung into action and had another ice cream cone ready for him before he even asked.
As we all know theme parks are typically seasonal operations and as a roller coaster junkie the words “Off Season” are dreaded because it means no more coaster riding for a while.  On the other side of that theme parks are seasonal operations and with that come traditions.  Families build traditions and theme parks are centered around those traditions so as a theme park operator you want the experiences those families have in the summer months to become memories during the off season so that when the new season rolls around they return to your park. He then stated the words in the article that stuck out to me and had me asking the question, how can we practice anticipatory customer service within a school so that the experiences of our students, staff and parents be a positive venture and one that makes them want to come back to us after the “off season” is over?  The words he typed were:
“Then you drop your cone: you do a total cone-plant on the midway. It’s such a simple, prosaic accident, but it can tarnish your whole day, or at least your memories of the day. And memories are all-important to a theme park operator like Six Flags. The mental snapshot stored in memory during the winter months needs to be a positive one, so that when the weather turns summery their customers will hurry back to the parks, bringing new generation after new generation with them.”
Where does the process start?  What does the process look like?  What are the common questions or problems that always come about?  How we can design our processes to be responsive before the student, parent or staff even have to say something about a situation?  How can we help develop those positive memories?