Technology Strategy for Las Virgenes Unified School District

Synopsis

In June 2008, Las Virgenes Unified School District determined that it needed a comprehensive Technology Strategy. Primarily funded by the Las Virgenes Educational Foundation, combined with donated services, this project is now complete.

The process included hundreds of hours of interviews with teachers, staff, administrators, parents, students and community members. Unlike most reports the District receives, the goal and methodology of the project was to assist the District in creating a strategy, rather than just make recommendations.

The result is a 198-page document giving the background, status, and strategy that is available for public viewing. The Board of Education held a Study Session on October 14th, 2009 to review the document. The 5 main points of the strategy are outlined in the executive summary.

Links:

• Executive Summary
  
• Complete Document, PDF Download
  
• Testimonials and Comments on Work
  
• Letters from Community, Staff Reaction
  

Executive Summary

The full document is at:
http://www.xplain.com/lvusdproject/TechStrategy-090918.pdf
-or-
http://corp.lvusd.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=...

Las Virgenes Unified School District’s leadership and Board of Education have clearly identified that technology needs to be thoroughly integrated into students’ education, the District’s operations, and that the technology needs to engage the community at large. With that in mind, the District asked Xplain Corp. to help the District create a new Technology Strategy to guide the District over the next few years.

First, it’s important to recognize that while there are a variety of specific constructive comments in this analysis and recommendations to do certain things differently, this is the identification of issues, not criticisms. The District has done a solid job to date, especially when resource constraints are taken into consideration (including implementing some of the 2007 FCMAT report recommendations). There have been some significant successes, including the rollout of teacher laptop systems (aka “Elmos”) and a new web site platform that is already showing strong use. While there are always mistakes, the District has made a number of very important, very correct decisions in moving forward with technology. Included in these decisions is when, in Spring 2008, the District’s leadership recognized, and acted, to fill the need for a new strategy and plan to move forward. Hence, this project.

Looking Back to Look Forward

Over the years, the District has had committees and consultants create strategies, recommendations and plans. In nearly all cases, at least some of each were implemented and some projects have enjoyed great success (such as the aforementioned “Elmo” setups, and teacher use of the new web sites).

The District’s Technology Committee developed 7 goals (see full text later in this document) that can be summarized as:

1. All students will be personally proficient with technology tools.
2. All teachers and support staff will be personally proficient with technology tools.
3. Site administrators will model proficiency and help staff integrate technology into curriculum.
4. Parents, and community will partner with the District in supporting the Districts technology vision.
5. Each school site will have a diverse technology committee that develops and implements an annual technology plan.
6. The District will have a system for providing funds for infusion of technology.
7. A rubrics-based method for measuring the effectiveness of the District technology plan.

This strategy was created 14 years ago (1995). While some of these have seen minor progress, only the 6th point has been substantially implemented (through Measure G) to date. Other strategies and plans have had similar results, and these experiences give LVUSD the advantage of understanding what can work, and what has not, with historical perspective.

And, while some of the toughest and most costly items have been implemented (e.g., laptops to almost all the teachers, high speed Internet connectivity, etc.), the District’s “traditional” organizational structure is dated and causes communication issues and lacks modern collaboration tools.

Main Strategy Points

A new strategy needs to understand the successes of the past, as well as why prior goals were difficult or impossible to meet. This document journals the collective knowledge resulting from hundreds of hours of interviews with District staff, teachers, parents and students, alongside research into best practices resulting in a comprehensive strategy proposal for LVUSD. With that in mind, there are five main strategic points that are tightly integrated and reliant upon one another for a new LVUSD Technology Strategy.

• CTO: Without touching any General funds, using technology-only funding sources that cannot be used elsewhere, the District needs a Chief Media and Technology Officer (aka CTO) reporting directly to the Superintendent, and be a member of the District’s “cabinet”. This position would manage a newly created department called Media and Technology to bring the District’s organizational structure into the Information Age.


• wiki: This is the principle tool to grow a district-wide knowledgebase (collective knowledge and information source), create an accessible entry point, and to use for collaboration between teachers, students, staff, parents and community. This is the key technology platform for much of the strategy.


• Optimize MIS: To optimize support and technology management resources, get the technology foundation updated with modern network management and monitoring tools.


• Media Centers: Transition the libraries into Media Centers to focus on all types of media: books, audio/video, web, and become a natural focal point of technology. The goal for Media Specialists would be to help educate not only students, but also teachers, providing a quality platform to develop information skills.


• Engaged Learning: Prepare District resources, organization and staff to allow for “engaged learning” with teacher roles in the classroom able to move more fluidly from the role of “information giver” to that of “facilitator, guide and learner.”

The technology strategy defined here is fully integrated with balance and leverages off of itself throughout. Where past results have been primarily incremental, this comprehensive approach is designed not as a “cafeteria plan” which bits and pieces can be chosen from, but instead as a unified, consistent approach to using technology to affect significant benefits as quickly as possible.

While some portions of the plan have costs, they can be paid for through an updated and optimized “4 Cities” grant budget that can only be used to support technology. Most, if not all, of the other items have little or no cost beyond the staffing and resources already in place.

Organizational Benefits

The strategy is designed to benefit LVUSD in a variety of ways that directly or indirectly are intended to improve learning, engagement, and student preparation. These start with the underlying organization.

Organization Structure

LVUSD is structured much as any organization (companies, government, etc…) would have been in the 1970’s or earlier. This “traditional” structure is the leading cause of disjointed technology efforts. As a result, technology is generally “bolted on,” instead of “integrated into” education, communication, and operations. This is common among K12 public education, which often lags a decade behind the private sector when it comes to true technology usage and integration.

The creation of a new department is primarily implemented by bringing the positions from different parts of the organization that implement technology. The CTO would act as the District’s chief technologist continually on the lookout for ways to serve the LVUSD organization, students and parents.

Managing Technology

While LVUSD has made enormous strides in technology, this explosive growth has happened without the District having the proper network and post-deployment management systems in place. A simple example of this is when the District did not implement some of the key elements of the March, 2007 FCMAT Technology Review. Much of the most expensive portions of outfitting the District are complete, but there is still significant work to do.

This means that while the District is close to having a proper “foundation” or “infrastructure,” it needs significant (but not expensive) changes in order to ensure the necessary stability while further growing technology to serve the District. These changes also ensure optimized use of support staff.

In an analogy, imagine flying an airplane or driving a car without instrumentation, or a dashboard of gauges to tell you how fast you’re going. What would happen if anything went wrong or how would you know you needed fuel? The District needs proper “instrumentation” to run the network, just as a driver needs a dashboard for a car.

More Effective Spending

The District, like many in California, is suffering huge budget cuts. Technology, however, can provide two opportunities: cost efficiencies and revenue generation. While LVUSD is not likely to be able to find direct cost savings through technology, efficiencies will allow the District to not only do a better job, but also spent money more effectively. One example is that a course that normally would not be able to be offered because of too few students at a single campus, may be offered as an online course to multiple sites within the District. Another is through more time available to lower purchase costs.

Revenue Generation

On the revenue side, there are a number of possible ways that LVUSD can use technology to create revenue generation opportunities. While there are no guarantees that the District can generate revenue from technology, these opportunities show real promise and have already been implemented by other districts and organizations.

Possibilities include creating and packaging online courses, and technology offerings to other Districts. LVUSD may even be able to offer up courses to other Districts at a rate that would be less than offering the course in a traditional way. In addition, the District may be able to offer enrichment classes, vocational training, hobby training or even adult education classes that could actually not only serve the community better, but also generate tangible revenue. At this point in time, the education community is far enough behind that, if LVUSD acts quickly, the District can lead in this area.

Under most circumstances, these types of revenue streams would take 4 or more years to develop. But, if the District hires a CTO, makes revenue generation a priority for that position, and uses a rapid development cycle approach for developing and experimenting with classes, this may be done in as few as 3 years. If this happens, the District may be able to not only have technology be self-funding, but also help the general-fund budget as well.

Visible Benefits

While it is important to have proper management of technology, as well as the right organizational structure, the true importance of technology is the impact on the students, staff and community. In executing this plan, there are a variety of visibly beneficial projects that the District is capable of executing. Here are a few of those projects that are within near term reach. More details on each later.

LVUSD Wiki: The District Knowledgebase and Entry Point

The strategy includes the LVUSD wiki that is a simple tool to store freeform information and collaborate among large groups of people. The LVUSD wiki would include both private (for staff and teachers) and public sections (available to everyone). The wiki would be set up with proven technologies that ensure appropriate security and tracking for entries and edits made by anyone. Quality of entries could easily be indicated to avoid use of poor quality information.

The private wiki would be a simple, but powerful, collaboration tool to allow for teachers to best share lesson plans, test questions, and teaching concepts not only within a school, but across the District. The private wiki would also serve as the repository for resources to help teachers and staff with their positions, or to find out operational information in a consistent way.

The wiki’s public side would be used by teachers and staff as well as the students, parents, and community to provide learning and help resources. It would also give students a platform for collaboration that could extend across classes, grades, schools or even the District. And, it would give parents a centralized point to find information that applies district wide and not school specific on a wide variety of topics.

The collaboration tools in a wiki are tried and true methods used not only by large organizations like the U.S. Army and the U.S. State Department, but also schools throughout the country, universities, and corporate environments.
In the end, the LVUSD wiki would not only be a place to go for answers to any question, for staff, students, and parents, but it would also be the primary collaborative tool for everyone in the District.

Engaging Parents

One of the greatest benefits of technology is to reach out to the parents and engage them in their child’s education. This may mean information about assignments or class info. Or, it could mean access to the Student Information System (Aeries) with up-to-date information on assignment and test grades. Once the connection is made, there are a number of possibilities that are low effort, but engaging.

And, with the proper platform in place, parents could benefit and engage more easily through not only real time gradebooks in Aeries, but also proactive monitoring such as alerts to poor grades, missing assignments and more.

Transparency and Communication

The single greatest feature of technology is the ability to communicate. With a variety of entry points, from email, to the school web sites, to the District wiki, LVUSD will be set up for an entirely new level of communication. And with communication comes transparency, which benefits all.

Online discussion areas, wiki entries, collaborative information are all modern tools used by even the most control driven organizations. Apple Inc. is a good example. The key to success with open discussion tools is for the highest levels of the organization to encourage and embrace it. And, most successful organizations have created an environment where even when misuse happens, the community moderators and other users bring things back into line.

Student Pages, Integrated Information

In Summer 2010, the school web sites will get student pages which can be used for students to communicate about themselves (to the extent parents chose). These pages could ultimately have information drawn from each teacher page, as well as the media center, cafeteria, and more. It would become the “dashboard” for a student within the District.

Naviance and Registration

The District has begun to implement with Naviance (college information, planning and counseling tool), and some levels of online class registration. It is realistic for the District to fully implement Naviance and online registration for all sites by the 2010-11 school year.

Teacher Skills and Training

Through technology based learning, combined with traditional training, the District can help its staff and teachers with additional training resources to build technology skills. The District can use “bite sized” one-to-many resources that will be of particular help when it’s most convenient for teachers and staff (as well as students and parents) to learn.

Student Achievement

Technology can be used to directly increase student achievement through RTI, more targeted learning, engaged learning, and collaborative project based learning. Furthermore, technology use enhances learning on its own. A recent Stanford study indicates that society is in the midst of a “literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization.” Technology, primarily through “life writing” (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) is causing people to write more than ever before.

Conclusion

Organizational changes, such as the ones described above, including a technology leader whose sole purpose is to make technology serve the classroom, organization, and community, are key to ensuring that the District can successfully benefit by technology growth. Such measures are also important in order to maximize the resources of both the Measure G funds for technology and the “Four Cities” technology support funds, and to maintain the visible momentum built in the past 2-3 years.

There are a wide variety of additional strategies, tactics and directions that the District needs to implement which are described within this document, but without implementation of the five critical items above, they will either be difficult/impossible to implement, or will have limited success.

In addition, the District should move from a traditional style of 3-year and 5-year planning to one that both employs a longer term strategy for platforms, while at the same time embracing regular and consistent change. In other words, in addition to longer term platform planning, every year should include both current implementation as well as planning for the next year.

Testimonials and Comments on Work Product

Xplain Corporation, led by Neil Ticktin, worked with a large number of people within and around the school district. Here are some of their comments on the experience.

In 2008 the Las Virgenes Unified School District contracted Xplain Corporation to assess the district's use of educational and operational technologies, and to recommend a strategy for implementation and exploitation of existing and future technology. Led by Xplain principal Neil Ticktin, this process was nearly a year in the making, and provided an in-depth analysis of operations and culture at two high schools, three middle schools, nine elementary schools, an alternative high school, and a multi-site preschool program, as well as the centralized support structure of the district.

Technology is ever-changing, and the approach by Xplain was to identify a strong, collaborative and cost-effective structure for integration and use of technology on an ongoing basis, toward the objectives described by the Technology Vision of the school district. Since any change in an organization such as this requires support from many stakeholders, the design of this strategy evolved from a study of workflows, needs, capabilities, and goals in both schools and the administrative service center.

The Technology Strategy created by Xplain went above and beyond expectations, providing a historical understanding of the district's current state, as well as a pathway to rapid and effective advancement. As the study progressed, many of its eventual recommendations became clear along the way, enabling positive changes in existing operations even prior to the delivery of the final strategy document. A number of such specific recommendations were included in the final Strategy, along with broad direction and a framework for sustainability - a dynamic approach to progress that would not become obsolete.

As a member of the Board of Education, I am aware of the critical point that schools are currently at - where technology can provide breakout change to move the education system forward and enable us to remain competitive in a global economy. I am extremely satisfied with the work done by Neil Ticktin and Xplain Corporation on behalf of our school district, and I believe it will provide a foundation for significant advancement for many years to come.

- Dave Moorman
President, Board of Education
Las Virgenes Unified School District

Xplain’s work on the Las Virgenes Unified School District Technology Plan went above and beyond expectations. Mr. Ticktin is thorough in all aspects of his work, from data collection, to research, to the final product. He is detailed oriented and responsive to his client’s changing needs. He is not only knowledgeable in his field, but he is skilled at explaining all aspects of technology so that even the layperson can understand.

Mr. Ticktin is never constrained by scope or time. He does whatever it takes to deliver a complete work. He is available to his clients, and it is always a pleasure to work with him.

- Jill Gaines
LVUSD Board Member
Board Technology Committee
Las Virgenes Unified School District

On behalf of the Board of Education and our entire community, I would like to thank you for all of your work in developing our District Technology Strategy. It will prove to be a valuable foundation as we build our educational programs in the coming years.

- Donald M. Zimring, Ph.D.
Superintendent
Las Virgenes Unified School District

Neil Ticktin was extremely thorough in his assessment of our technology usage and infrastructure. He literally 'imbedded' himself into the workings of the district in order to get a working knowledge of our strengths and areas of need. Neil became an instructor along with his role as a reviewer. My technology skills increased every time we met. The resulting document is chock full of suggested solutions and resources.

- Mary Schillinger
Assistant Superintendent, Education
Las Virgenes Unified School District

Using Xplain as an outside consultant to deliver a strategic technology plan, we were able to address the issue of "We don't know what we don't know." Neil's skill at embedding himself into the workplace to obtain a true assessment of how District employees perceived and used technology was a work of art. Employees embraced his questions as he demonstrated an interest in their concerns. This created an opportunity of understanding that resulted in some immediate improvements in workflow at fundamental levels. This success created broad support and confidence in the project which was specifically to develop a strategy to move forward, but resulted in a comprehensive and relevant assessment of past and present, tips for immediate improvements and a comprehensive understanding and pathway to future direction.

The work product provided by Xplain exceeded our expectations for its breadth and scope, thoroughness of understanding, and rational scalability for growth in the years to come. Our foundation operates to support the school district. We financed the project and are very pleased with the performance of Xplain to not only deliver a comprehensive document but to also build goodwill in the process. This makes implementing the strategy plan that much easier.

Nicely done.

- Ned E. Davis
Vice President
Las Virgenes Educational Foundation

In a highly collaborative move three years ago, the Las Virgenes Unified School District and the four cities served by the District (Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills and Westlake Village) implemented a new and exciting Technology Partnership Program. This partnership reflected a commitment by the cities to provide financial support to the District to help support and upgrade its overall technology program. As part of this approach, the four cities asked the District to provide a strategy and plan, and in June 2008, the District contracted Xplain Corporation to do exactly that.

With this background, I am pleased to report that the cities welcomed and embraced the recently completed technology study undertaken by Xplain Corporation. Headed by Neil Ticktin, this work product was carefully designed and implemented over a multi-year period. Indeed, at key milestones during the course of the study, Mr. Ticktin provided several important updates on the progress of his work to the City Managers representing the four cities, as well as solicited our feedback.

Additionally, by all accounts from contacts I have had with District officials, teachers, Educational Foundation representatives, and fellow city colleagues, this study surpassed expectations on virtually all fronts in terms of its thoroughness, clarity, and objectivity. Most importantly, the study conclusions charted a clear and concise roadmap of the steps, actions and strategies needed to be taken by the District to successfully upgrade and then manage its technology services both in this decade and beyond.

If the District adopts the plan, the four cities providing funding to the District are assured that their dollars will be used wisely in advancing the overall District/Cities Technology Partnership Program launched several years ago. As the City Manager of one of the four cities served by the District, I offer my special thanks to Neil Ticktin and his team for their outstanding work on this challenging project and for keeping me and my colleagues informed of the progress of the study as it was being conducted and then completed this past year.

-Ray Taylor
City Manager
City of Westlake Village

Letters in Community, Reaction

The following are letters printed in the local paper, The Acorn in the weeks surrounding the reveal and primary discussion of the LVUSD technology strategy.

As educators, we are charged with preparing today’s children to enter into a world that few of us fully understand ourselves. The educational community needs to constantly be updating not only what it teaches, but how it teaches.

About a year ago, with funding provided by Las Virgenes Education Foundation and donations, the Las Virgenes school district contracted Neil Ticktin’s Westlake company, Xplain Corp., to create a comprehensive technology strategy. That document has now been released and is open to comment.

I am pleased to see content in the plan that will help elevate the abilities of teachers and create huge gains on how learning will take place, not just tomorrow, but today. If we implement the strategy outlined, I believe we’ll be at the forefront of the educational community. Teachers will have the tools to engage students as part of a modern learning environment.

The key to the plan is the chief technology officer. The CTO would lead a coordinated effort for technology to serve its users. Instead of the disjointed “bolted on” approach we have been using, we would have a more integrated system.

The CTO will provide leadership focused on technology to facilitate the acquisition and use of technology as well as ensuring a consistent approach to maintenance and replacement.

We are fortunate to have such generous support from our local cities. Through monies which can only be used for technology, the plan outlines how we can afford a CTO without having to pay for the position out of the school district’s general fund.

The plan is an exciting, comprehensive road map to what we need to do to prepare our students for today’s world. I’m thrilled to support a plan that moves forward with technology in spite of the budget issues that plague us.

- Sandra Pope
Pope is president, Las Virgenes Educators Association, the teachers union.

The new LVUSD technology strategy has been unveiled on the district’s website, and after reviewing it, I was inspired to draft this letter.

The technology strategy proposed to our district exceeds the needs of all stakeholders. As an educator, I appreciate the student centered approach that underscores the entire document. Every proposal is made for the educational benefit of our students.

The strategy outlines the creation of student pages on our schools’ websites. Students will be able to use these to incorporate all of their teachers’ information into a single page. Imagine the convenience for a student to be able to look on one page and see the homework from every class he or she has.

The creation of a new wiki for our staff, parents, and students has also been proposed. The wiki allows for tremendous new learning opportunities. Our students are already using these tools independently. How powerful is it, then, to relate content to our students by using the technology they are already comfortable with.

The possibilities are incredible. My students at LCMS will not only be able to collaborate with a class across campus but also with other classes across the district. By making collaboration with partners from different schools commonplace, LVUSD can be at the forefront of preparing our students for today’s business world.

I am truly excited for the future learning opportunities our students have awaiting them if the district approves this comprehensive plan.

- David Fazio
Fazio is a teacher at Lindero Canyon Middle School, in LVUSD

I’m writing to express my support for the newly released report for the Las Virgenes Unified School District. As a teacher in the district for the past 13 years, I’ve seen the starts, stops, and start again of technology integration in education. We’ve made some tremendous progress of utilizing technology tools such as emails and webpages for communication with our students, parents and community members.

But the work of integrating technology as seamlessly into education as it has been integrated into our lives and work outside of academia still needs to be further addressed.

- Jason Busby
Busby is the social science de partment chair of Agoura High School

Recently, my husband and I had the privilege of attending our son’s Back to School Night at Agoura High School. We were impressed with the caring natures of the teachers at Agoura High and were also blown away by the high quality of the curriculum and the teachers’ accessibility through websites and e-mail. The district’s newly released technology strategy has already enabled, and will continue to foster, more parent teacher communication than ever before and our students will clearly benefit from these increased interactions.

Everyone should take the time to peruse this new technology plan, available on the Las Virgenes Unified School District’s website at www.lvusd.org. This budget-conscious and forwardthinking plan will take Las Virgenes well into the 21st century as it seeks the establishment of a district chief technology officer to steer all existing and future plans onto the same road.

The plan also outlines a central LVUSD “wiki” site which will enable streamlined, seamless communication among district teachers, parents and students. The opportunities laid out by this plan have students’ and teachers’ goals intersecting in a way that’s sophisticated, yet easy-to-use and economical.

Kudos to LVUSD for achieving excellence, and continuing to strive for improvement.

- Rachel and Matt McKagan
Rachel McKagan is a Media Clerk at Yerba Buena Elementary in LVUSD
Matt McKagan heads the award winning music program at Lindero Canyon Middle School in LVUSD

I have recently read the executive summary for the Las Virgenes Unified School Districts Technology Strategy. I’m in favor of moving forward with this endeavor as quickly as possible.

It sounds to me like this is a well thought out plan that primarily uses existing sources of revenue and doesn’t require additional spending by the district or schools beyond what is already available through Measure G and the 4 Cities grant to the schools.

I’ve known Neil Ticktin, who led the creation of the plan, for 10 years or so. He’s about the most saavy technology guru I know. And Dave Moorman, LVUSD board president, is a long time friend as well. I’ll throw my support behind Neil and Dave, and I know they can be counted on to act intelligently and spend wisely.

If the Measure G and 4 Cities funds are there, then we ought to spend them to implement this plan. Let’s find the CTO (chief technology officer) and move ahead swiftly. Lead, follow or get the heck out of the way, and I’d rather the district take the lead on this one. I see this as an opportunity where the district has a chance to make up for lost time and get current, or even out in front of the technology curve.

- Rob Jordan
Parent, Agoura Hills

I understand that the LVUSD is in the process of determining how to manage their technology strategy for the future. Our entire community would benefit if they fully implement the five strategies recommended in the new technology strategy guide. Our students need to have technology integrated into their education. For example, students could take courses online when the courses are offered at other schools.

Teachers need to have technology available to improve their teaching. For example, with a district-wide technology system, teachers could share lesson plans, test preparation ideas and teaching concepts.

Parents need technology to be better informed about their student’s performance. How many of us ask our kids “How was school?” and get “fine” as the answer? With access to online information, we could get alerts about upcoming projects or about test results.

Schools need technology on site to help students learn in more creative and dynamic ways. For example, there is an opportunity to transition libraries into media centers where a wide variety of media is available in addition to books.

The community also will be able to take advantage of the school district’s technology by accessing classes, lectures, videos, etc. through the public component of the site. We will all benefit from the full and immediate implementation of this plan.

- Ann Sturman
Parent, Westlake Village