Day 115 - Burlington Public Schools EdTech Team

Upcoming Events in Burlington:


As the school year gets close to an end, Burlington is just getting started with events for educators. Burlington Public Schools and the BPS EdTech Team will be hosting several free events this spring and summer. Join us for great conversations about education and technology. We will provide professional development sessions and time to collaborate with educators from across the country. Our goal is to break down the isolation in education and help teachers work with each other to create powerful learning resources.

EdCampxEDU

Saturday, June 1
EdCampxEDU is Burlington’s first student organized and lead Edcamp event. Burlington students have been planning the event which will feature conversations about education and technology. Edcamps are an incredible response to poor educational professional development. Edcamps provide educators with the opportunity to learn from each other in comfortable environments using conversations and sharing of ideas.

EdCampxEDU is a free event but registration is required. Please see the event site for more details.

Third Annual Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaborative

Wednesday, June 26 – Friday, June 28
MADPC is our annual digital curriculum event. The BPS EdTech team helps provide a starting point for the curation of digital resources and materials. Through PD sessions and collaborative time for common curriculum area teachers, participants are able to develop ideas, lessons, and courses for digital classes and 1:1 environments. This event is great for anyone who uses technology in the classroom or wants to learn about how to better integrate technology.
Please note – participants do not need to attend all three days. Please attend for as much time as you can. Due to the extra snow days for many school districts this year we will feature similar PD sessions each day so that you don’t miss some of the opportunities.
The event is free but registration is required. Please visit the event site for more details.

BPS EdCamp Summer Tuesdays

Summer Tuesdays 9am-12pm
Each Tuesday in the summer Burlington Public Schools hosts Edcamp sessions. This year the sessions will be held at our newly remodeled middle school Library Learning Commons. Join members of our team for conversations about many educational topics.
These sessions are open and do not require registration. Please join us for any BPS Summer Edcamp that you can attend.
Stay tuned to this blog and follow our team on Twitter for updates and more information about the events.

Day 51 - Dennis Villano, BPS Director of Technology Integration

Gmail – Creating Student Contact Groups

Burlington Public Schools is a Google Apps for Education district. All students and staff have Google accounts. One of the most powerful aspects of this consistent integration is the ability to communicate and collaborate in an organized system.

The BPS EdTech Team recommends setting up class groups or blocks for better distribution of digital content and communication to students. This process is appropriate even for beginners but does take some time initially. The time saved throughout a semester or school year after completing the set up can be a great benefit to teachers. The best part is that these groups can be used to send emails and share documents from Google Drive.

The process can be completed in a few steps that is duplicated for each student in your class or block. Check out this walkthrough video guide from BHS Student HelpDesk member Sidd Chhayani to complete the process:


Once you create a group you can use it as a recipient for emails and shared documents.
In Gmail – simply click the Compose button and start typing the name of a group in the To box. Click on the group that you want to use:



In Google Drive – click on the Share button in a document and start typing the name of a group in the Add People box (make sure to change the sharing and editing options appropriate for the document you are sending):



Gmail Contact Groups are a powerful tool for distributing digital content to students, staff, and community members. Organized distribution methods like this are a critical part of a 1:1 classroom.
Please check out the BHS Student HelpDesk for more technology guides and support.

Day 10 - Andrew Marcinek, BHS Help Desk

This past Friday, the Burlington High School help desk had the opportunity to present at the ACTEM 2012 conference in Maine. Initially we had planned on attending in person, however; schedule conflicts prevented us from attending. Alice Barr, an Instructional Technology Coordinator from Yarmouth, ME, offered to help us setup a Google Hangout and present virtually.

Our session was in the form of a panel discussion with our student run help desk. We shared our story along with first hand accounts of the course from the students who make it up. The talk started at 11am and we presented an overview of our school and the course. We then took questions from the audience. Without any hesitation, the students on our panel, which consisted of Hannah Lienhard, Yash Kamani, Michael Lockney, and Andrew Abou-Rjaily, began to field and answer questions from the audience. One question asked students, “How do you deal with your peers if you find them breaking your AUP policy?” Michael and Andrew relayed how it presents an awkward situation to confront your peers, however; they stressed why it is important to follow our AUP and how if we don’t, it could affect the availability of technology resources and privileges in the future.

The next question asked the students, “What is it like to share something new with a teacher or administrator and how is your idea or suggestion received?” Hannah Lienhard shared her experience working at our three day Burlington Public Schools Professional Development Conference held the week before classes resume. She shared how most of her suggestions and ideas were “well received by faculty and administration who sought out her help”. And she added, “working with teachers in this capacity, outside of the normal structure of school, is like being at Disney when all the characters take off their masks and reveal themselves. It was great to see and experience first hand teachers and students learning together.”

The help desk students did a great job sharing their learning and experiences with the audience at the ACTEM conference and continue to share their expertise and talents through the BHS Student Help Desk website on a daily basis.

This course, to some, may seem thin on content and experiences, but I, along with my colleague Tim Calvin, see great things from the help desk students. We see an energy and passion to create, learn, take risks, and share what we are learning. We see students excited to learn new concepts and share it with a larger audience. We see students driven to innovate and invariably curious. It is a course where we don’t always know the right answers, but we know how and where to find them by asking the right questions. And above all, we are always ready to listen and share. 

Day 5 - Dennis Villano, BPS Director of Instructional Technology

Growing up I never looked forward to the beginning of the school year. When I was a child I hated how my mother always had a large calendar hanging in the kitchen. I remember turning the calendar back to July a few times once August came hoping somehow that would serve as a time machine to more summer. After beginning a career in education my friends were shocked. In fact, many of them still ask what I do everyday, refusing to believe that I work in education. What my friends failed to understand though is that I always loved to learn and I never wanted to miss an opportunity to experience something new. The problem was that I often felt that the my school environment didn't provide me the most supportive learning opportunities. Now, the beginning of the school year brings a very different feeling for me. I look forward to how every new year brings new opportunities and new experiences for Burlington learners.

Burlington has made a tremendous commitment to educational technology and we have begun to provide a truly immersive technology environment for our students. Our IT and EdTech Teams spend countless hours getting devices and applications ready for the school year. All the hours culminate at BPSCON with our opening professional development conference.

I must admit though that this year I learned something new during my experiences at BPSCON. I noticed that many of our teachers also feel some of the apprehension and concern that I once did during the days leading up to the beginning of school due to the explosion of educational technology and the growth of digital tools in their classrooms. These new tools are forming the the foundation for an incredibly exciting and at times overwhelming environment in which to teach. I now have a better understand of what we must do to provide supportive environments for our adult learners to ensure that we remove any anxiety for teaching in digital environments. 

One of the greatest qualities of educators is that many began their career because they enjoyed sharing learning experiences with others. This love of learning must be fostered within each school district and adult learning must constantly be supported especially now when so many of the adults are learning with the students when it come to digital skills.

Day 3 - Robert Cunha, Systems Administrator

Today in Burlington, I learned that technology does not always work the way you want it to. Sometimes, you have those great weeks when everything works like its supposed to, while other days you spend pulling out whatever hair you have left. I guess that is to be expected when you are trying to be on the forefront, and always have the latest and greatest. The new version of software X, doesn't seem to play well with your current system, so what do you do? 

Fortunately, I am surrounded by extremely smart and creative people, and have access to online resources and communities, all willing to share their knowledge. As with most things in life, it’s not about knowing everything, but understanding it enough to ask the right questions and not being afraid to make a mistake. You might be surprised that sometimes “2 wrongs do make a right.”