TRANSFORMING EDUCATION

THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

GAMING TO
thejournal.com

This form of game playing

challenges students to
use critical thinking and
collaboration as they seek
clues that will help them
June/July 2017 | Volume 44, No. 4

break through multiple

locks and get at the secrets
inside a box.

ALSO INSIDE
•H
 ow 3 School Systems
are Moving to OER

• Promoting STEM Through Robotics

• School Districts Continue to

Grapple with Web Accessibility

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 thejournal.com June/July 2017 | Volume 44, No. 4

COLUMNS
4 Editor’s Note
Full STEAM ahead with steamuniverse.
com.
12 Keynote
The director of technology for Tampa
Preparatory School has reimagined
and transformed classrooms with
technology.
26 Viewpoint
Making the commitment to student data
privacy.
33 Index
34 Ed Tech Insights
Photo: Kristin Mulder, Sioux Falls Christian Schools

First-year teachers are more confident

in tech but use it less than experienced
teachers.

FEATURES
14 Schools Moving to OER

6
Educators and administrators from
three K–12 school systems discuss
how they’re using online educational
resources to transform teaching and
learning.
24 Teaching Gifted Students
6 GAMING TO LEARN with Real and Virtual Robots
Educators are borrowing from escape rooms and are using breakout How one district is deploying robots
boxes to encourage students to collaborate, use what they’ve learned in to embody concepts in science, math,
class and break into a box secured by multiple locks. ELA and social studies.
By Dian Schaffhauser
28 School Districts Grapple with
Web Accessibility
20 PROMOTING STEM THROUGH ROBOTICS More are adopting policies that make
Robots are playing a bigger role in the classroom, making lessons more sites more available to those with
active, kinesthetic and play-based. disabilities; however, the future is
By Joshua Bolkan uncertain under a new administration.

JUNE/JULY 2017 | 3

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 Editor’sNote
David Nagel, Editor-in-Chief
Full STEAM Ahead
T
THIS MONTH WE’RE
INTRODUCING a new publication
from the staff of THE Journal and
Campus Technology: STEAM Universe
(steamuniverse.com).
This is a natural outgrowth from our
flagship education publications for both
K–12 and higher education and a reflection
of the positive direction in which we think
education is heading.
Education policy has as been on a
roller coaster ride through the last three
administrations, with both
Democrats and Republicans
pushing “reforms” on
educators without a whole
lot of consistency or
predictability (or regard for
the mission of education, for
that matter).
But through it all, there have
been some positives within
these turbulent reform years.
Chief among those in my mind is the
growing push for STEM and STEAM
education — a push that transcends party
affiliation and that brings with it a chance
for educators to get creative with teaching
and learning without being hampered by
the constraints imposed by other reforms.
Now, STEM is nothing new as far as
national educational priorities go. For
decades, STEM (science, technology,
engineering and math) has been
proclaimed a critical component for
increasing global economic (and political)
competitiveness.
But the addition of the arts to create
STEAM (science, technology, engineering,
arts and mathematics) takes it to a new
level. STEAM is more than just a set of
arbitrary requirements to teach certain
4 | JUNE/JULY 2017
0617the_EditorsNote-cm1-dn1-cm2-rc1-FINAL.indd 4
thejournal.com
June/July 2017 : Volume 44, No. 4
standards or cram a set of facts into Editorial Advisory Board
students’ heads in preparation for a test. Elisa Carlson
It’s an approach to teaching and learning Director of Instruction, Curriculum and
that takes the best aspects of STEM#—2 9 6 e 9 2 Innovation, Surrey Schools (British
r : 4 1
scientific inquiry, project-based learning,
g : 1 1 0 Columbia, Canada)
b : 1 4 6
real-world applications of technology — Julie Evans
and fuses them together with the creativity Chief Executive Officer, Project Tomorrow
of the arts, which can include visual and Geoffrey H. Fletcher
performing arts, textiles, fashion and Private Consultant
much more. Ann Flynn
And the benefits are far-reaching. Director of Education Technology & State
STEAM, with its heavy emphasis Association Services, National School
Boards Association
on integration across
disciplines, introduces Phil Hardin
students to subjects they Director of Project IMPACT,
Iredell-Statesville School System (NC)
might not otherwise have
exposure to — such as Christopher Harris
Coordinator, School Library System,
coding and design — and
Genesee Valley Educational
gives them the immediacy Partnership (NY)
that is inherent with
Cathy Hutchins
hands-on activities. It spans Principal, South Woods Elementary
economic, ethnic and gender School, St. John’s County School
boundaries, and it has District (FL)
application for all students. Thomas C. Murray
But STEAM is still new, and educators Director of Innovation, Future Ready
need know-how to make it work. That’s Schools, Alliance for Excellent Education
where STEAM Universe comes in. STEAM Erin Wilkey Oh
Universe highlights the technologies, Executive Editor, Education Marketing,
curriculum tools, trends and best practices Common Sense Education
that power education in STEAM and Mark Stevens
spotlights exceptional projects and General Manager, NEA Academy
programs taking place in schools, colleges Donna Teuber
and universities across the nation. It also Team Leader for Technology Integration,
aims to connect educators with the critical Richland School District Two (SC)
funding and other resources they need to
make STEAM Education work.
We hope you will become a part of our
new community. Join us at steamuniverse.
com and on Twitter at @steam_universe.
To continue the conversation, e-mail me
at dnagel@1105media.com.
6/1/17 2:03 PM
 Real-time collaboration. Orchestrated by CDW•G.
Today, classrooms aren’t limited to a physical space or the students right in front of you.
Intel Unite software is a wireless technology that connects immediately to new or existing
displays and allows students to learn and ask questions in real time, no matter where they
are. Let Intel Unite securely power your classroom so students can connect and contribute
seamlessly from anywhere. That’s IT Orchestration by CDW™.
CDWG.com/Intel

©2017 CDW® , CDW•G ® and PEOPLE WHO GET IT® are registered trademarks of CDW LLC.
Intel, the Intel logo and Intel Unite are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Untitled-1 3 3/23/17 11:33 AM

 Aleksei Derin/Shutterstock/THE Journal Staff

6 | JUNE/JULY 2017

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 FEATURE | GAMING

GAMING TO

This form of game playing challenges

students to use critical thinking and
collaboration as they seek clues that
will help them break through multiple
locks and get at the secrets inside
a box. BY DIAN SCHAFFHAUSER
JUNE/JULY 2017 | 7

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 FEATURE | GAMING

ESCAPE ROOMS ARE breaking out all over. The figure out the combination to a lock, locate
a key or something else to move them
latest tally by Room Escape Artist counts more than 1,700 through the game.
in the United States alone. It only makes sense that teachers The games aren’t simply a pause
from worksheets. From the outset, they
would want to find a way to bring the concept of a locked encourage teamwork and critical thinking.
room into education as well. After all, who doesn’t want to As teachers become more conversant
with the concept, breakout boxes can
escape from the classroom at some point during the year? But also provide opportunities for informal
since the idea of locking up students wouldn’t translate well assessments and help educators better
understand how students’ thinking works.
to most parents, some inspired teachers have figured out a Breakout EDU’s boxes assemble the
better way to bring the challenge of the escape room to their accessories — the lock box itself, various
kinds of locks, an “invisible ink” light,
instruction — with the use of breakout boxes. hint cards, and other components — that
teachers can use to run the game in their
Locked Room, Locked Box players need to figure out why those objects classrooms. It also provides free access to
Escape rooms, if you haven’t heard of them, are there, what their function is, how they a library of digital resources such as games
are physical locations where you and your help explain why you’re locked up in the that teachers can use to run a breakout.
teammates enter a “magical world that first place and how they can work as clues For example, in the game, “Dr. Johnson’s
has its own purpose,” as Sherry Jones, a to help you escape before the room “blows Lab Zombie Apocalypse,” the crazy
philosophy and game studies subject matter up” or the participants inside “freeze” or doctor plans to unleash a deadly airborne
expert and lecturer at Rocky Mountain some other metaphorical demise occurs. virus that will transform anyone who
College of Art + Design, explained. Breakout boxes, such as those introduced comes in contact into a zombie. To save
“There’s some reason you’re trapped in by Breakout EDU, turn that formula on the world, students must find and use
there. When you play the game, you’re its head. Instead of escaping from a room, clues to break into the box containing the
trying to figure out how to get out.” students must break into a box secured antidote. Other games in the prodigious
The room has clues in the form of with multiple locks. They do this by collection include, “All School Sliming,”
objects and gadgets, and the whole activity drawing on what they’re learning in class “Digestion Detectives,” and “Lost Phone
is timed. As the clock ticks down, the to untangle clues that may help them at the Zoo.”

8 | JUNE/JULY 2017

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 Taking Off in Sioux Falls
The idea of using a breakout box took off
at Sioux Falls Christian Schools in South
Dakota, after Kristin Mulder, the director
of digital education, learned about them
during an education technology conference
hosted by the school. Working with a
middle school math teacher, Mulder tried
out a breakout box game in a sixth-grade
math class. “They took off. The excitement
was crazy,” she said. Since then, that
grade level has “really embraced the whole
concept of how breakouts challenge their
brains and make them problem solve.”
Some of the students were so captivated
by that first experience, they expressed
a desire to get more involved. One boy
came to the adults afterwards and asked if
he could make his own breakout box. As
Mulder recalled, “He made the entire thing
based on a math curriculum topic, because
his math teacher said, ‘If you build that, I
will look at it. If I feel it’s going to work out
for us, we will run your breakout in class.’”
He did, so she did.
Two girls in the same class (both named
Madelyn) came to Mulder and asked if they
could help her run other breakouts. She
agreed to mentor them, and now both are in
seventh grade and work on breakouts every
0617the_GamingtoLearn-Feature-cm1-dn1-rc1-cm2-dn2-cm3-rc2-FINAL.indd 9
chance they get. “They build most of these,
and then I vet them out,” Mulder said. “We
meet over lunches and after school and
walk through to make sure their questions
work well in teacher language and that
they’re age-appropriate.”
She continued: “The part that they do
so well is the creativity. They understand
what the kids would like on the story end
of it: ‘You’re in a burning building and
you need to get the key to escape .…’ Or,
‘Something in our environment is killing
plants; the antidote is in the box ....’” Since
that partnership began, the girls have
built breakouts for grades 1, 4, 5 and 7.
Now, watching their success, two seventh
grade science teachers have each recently
assigned their class to create a breakout
challenge to run for the other class.
Each breakout session, which lasts
about 45 minutes, begins with a video that
lays out the story for students. Then the
breakout leader shares the ground rules:
The teacher’s desk is off-limits;
If you pull a poster or artwork off the
wall in your hunt for a clue, you must
put it back too; and
Once a lock has been opened and
pulled off the box, it’s handed over
immediately to the breakout leader (to
Students at Sioux Falls Christian Schools attempt to unlock the clues that will help
them get into their breakout box.
prevent it from being reset).
From there, the game is afoot.
Creating Clues
Mulder works with teachers to make
sure the challenge fits with his or her
instructional goals. Sometimes, teachers
use the breakout to review before a test.
Others use it as a wrap-up. And some
use it as an introduction to find out
what the students already understand
about a concept.
Then about two weeks out, she and
her helpers start building the game. That
involves using content that the students
have covered in class to create the clues.
The greater the number of students who
weigh in on the clue, the more inclusive the
game becomes, she said. Also, the greater
the variety of clues, the better, “in order to
tap into a variety of kids.”
In some cases, the clue might involve
them filling out a crossword puzzle or a
diagram that uses the terminology they’ve
learned. Then the puzzle might have a few
letters or numbers circled with invisible ink
that can only be read with a UV flashlight.
That flashlight itself might be hidden away
in a locked box as well, which has its own
set of clues.
JUNE/JULY 2017 | 9
6/1/17 1:42 PM
 FEATURE | GAMING
Students at Sioux Falls Christian Schools work collaboratively to unlock clues that
will help them get into their breakout box and solve a math problem.
Sometimes the organizers will bag up
small colored disks (like those from a bingo
game) to help students figure out scientific
formulas that will lead to a clue. Or a set
of clues could be from presentations given
by individual students. That means every
student can contribute a “little piece” to the
solving of that part of the challenge.
Other times, the clue might have two
levels, for example, turning up in the
form of a colorful graph on display; the
students need to interpret the data to
figure out the right numbers to open a
lock with colored barrels.
Where the Clues are Hidden
At Sioux Falls, clues may get stuck to the
bottom of chairs or desks or tables. They
may be tucked up into the old pull-down AV
screens or hidden in the rolled portion of
the classroom’s flags. They’re anywhere and
everywhere within the space, aside from the
areas that have been deemed off-limits.
The students who have been through the
breakout experience once or twice know
to keep their eyes open for something out
of the ordinary. For example, in one game
with a lock that had a letter combination
that could be used to form words, the clue
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was hidden on a sticky note tucked into
a flip phone. “We were wondering if the
kids even knew how to use that type of a
keyboard,” Mulder said. That was tucked
up next to an old television that had a VCR
built into it. “Those are the things where
the kids have to ask, ‘Is that supposed to be
there?’ They start to notice what’s out of
place,” she added.
In another situation two science class
teachers a room apart from each other wanted
to run a simultaneous challenge, each with
its own locked box and seven locks. In that
case, it took a while for the students to realize
they weren’t competing but collaborating and
that each class had some of the clues needed
by the other. Communication was handled
through a live feed on a display with Google
Hangouts. “It was advanced and chaotic, and
yet it worked,” Mulder mused. “It was really
fun to see how we could advance the
level a little and add in some communi-
cation skills while using some of our
tech skills.”
Breakouts for Better
Understanding
Breakouts in the classroom aren’t there
just for the fun of it, Mulder insisted.
They’re also opportunities for the teachers
to gain better understanding about how
their students think. Kids who may not be
good with abstract concepts may be great
at ferreting out clues around the room.
Others may excel in asking the questions
that lead to discoveries, such as why
objects are laid out in a pattern or what’s
different in the environment. “School is
all about the answers. Teaching students
to ask questions, to get to that answer can
be a new concept for them,” Mulder said.
“I’m hoping that that will transfer into
something the next time they don’t know
an answer — that if they can start asking
a few questions, they can get closer and
Photos: Kristin Mulder, Sioux Falls Christian Schools
closer to the answer and in that time gain a
little bit of insight into the real background
of the question.”
In one two-day marathon, Mulder
and her team ran seven math section
breakouts. “To me, it was one of the
greatest studies in psychology ever,” she
marveled. “I watched the makeup of
each class, and it was interesting how
each class approached the finding of
the clues differently. Some divided and
conquered. Some just scattered.” One
of the classes that was particularly high
6/1/17 1:42 PM
 achieving “according to tests on paper” came in with the slowest time of
all among the sections, while one of the “squirreliest” classes won it. “As
we watched it, we started asking ourselves why. We realized it’s because
the class that is so high functioning is also very good at independently
working out their math problems on paper. They’re not used to needing
to go and get half the answers from someone else. But in this type of
situation you have to talk to each other and share and rely on each other.”
The next time the same group went through a breakout, the high achievers
won it. “They had figured out that they had to talk to each other. They even
said, ‘We found out last time that each of us taking one problem by ourselves
did not work. We didn’t get it done fast enough.’”
In another situation one student became caught up in one specific
clue “and just drove it home until he had it figured out,” she said. “You
could see and hear his processing. It really gave us some insight into
why his math worksheets are not very good but his problem-solving was
fabulous. We don’t have those breakthrough moments with every kid, but
it’s fun to see what they can bring to the table.”

Two student helpers named Madelyn helped coordinate

breakout box activities at Sioux Falls Christian Schools. Dian Schaffhauser is senior contributing editor for
THE Journal and Campus Technology magazines.

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 KEYNOTE
Chad Lewis, Director of Technology for Tampa Preparatory
School, Has Reimagined and Transformed Classrooms
THE ‘TECHNOLOGIST OF THE YEAR’ HAS HELPED IMMERSE STUDENTS AND TEACHERS IN ACTIVE,
TECH-DRIVEN LEARNING. BY RICHARD CHANG
Chad Lewis and his school, Tampa
Preparatory School, have received a fair
amount of attention lately.
Lewis, the director of technology at the
Florida private school, has transformed
classrooms throughout his 670-student
institution, which starts with sixth graders
and goes up through 12th grade.
All the kids are 1-to-1 with iPads. Lessons
and student work are projected onto three
interactive projectors per class, and all the
walls are “writeable,” meaning the students
can use special markers or their fingers to
write on erasable, interactive whiteboards.
The classes are furnished with mobile
desks, so students can move their desks
anywhere. The classroom configurations are
different every day.
All teachers are equipped with Redcat
wireless microphones, which means they’re
not tethered to the front of the classroom. In
fact, they can be anywhere in the class and
students can hear them clearly from a speaker
— upending the very notion of front and back
of the class.
12 | JUNE/JULY 2017
0617THE_Keynote-cm1-rc1-dn1-rc2-FINAL.indd 12
Ninety percent of books are digital on the
students’ iPads, meaning the kids don’t have
to lug around heavy texts and they even wind
up saving money. Updates to texts can easily
be downloaded onto the iPads.
In 2014 and 2016, Tampa Preparatory
was selected as an Apple Distinguished
School, recognized as “an exemplary learning
environment for innovation, leadership and
educational excellence.”
We explored what kind of functionality we
needed: We wanted to create multimedia
projects, videos, use green screens, record
lectures, have our books on our devices.
Lewis has implemented what he calls an
“active learning environment,” with project-
based learning, flipped classrooms and
students doing podcasts, learning code and
filming movies — all facilitated by technology.
For his efforts, Lewis, a member of the
FETC executive board, has received local
media attention and was named nonprofit
CIO of the year in 2016 by the Tampa Bay
Business Journal. Also last year, the Tampa
Bay Technology Forum selected him as
technologist of the year.
THE Journal: When did your students
go 1-to-1?
Chad Lewis: We’ve been that way for four
years. This will be our fifth year.
THE Journal: Did you consider the
Chromebook? It’s been gaining in popularity
in the schools.
Lewis: We did. Five years ago, we started
the conversation — we knew we wanted to
be a 1-to-1 school. We explored what kind
of functionality we needed: We wanted to
create multimedia projects, videos, use
green screens, record lectures, have our
books on our devices. We wanted a long
battery life. We looked at Chromebooks,
Windows-compatible laptops — Dell and
Lenovo. The iPad really fit the bill because
it hit all those criteria. You can create
videos really easily in that device. Since
90 percent of our books are digital
textbooks, that was the device that
was chosen.
THE Journal: Do you have a policy regarding
cellphones on campus or in class?
5/31/17 12:35 PM
 Lewis: Generally cellphones aren’t an issue
because all the kids have iPads and use
it every day and in every class. iPads do
everything a cellphone would do.
We have a really good solution for that —
that’s our learning environment; respect it.
We have an acceptable use policy — you will
not text in the classroom. Teachers have the
right to inspect your device.
THE Journal: What are the advantages of
Redcat and Flexcat audio devices?
Lewis: When you have an active learning
environment, it can get kind of noisy. You can
use the volume control on the microphone
and be the voice of God, and be really loud.
Or you can put it on normal, which is almost
unnoticeable [amplification]. When teachers
are facing a wall or not facing an audience,
[students] are still able to hear.
I had parents of a student a couple years
ago come to me and say, “My child, my son
came to me and said, ‘For the first time I’ve
been in school, I’m able to hear the teacher.’”
It was not identified as a medical issue. He
was not at the back of the class. He just
couldn’t really hear.
The really neat part, too, is for music and
chorus teachers — vocal and music — we put
[out] the Flexcat pods and let the kids take
those to the practice rooms. The teacher can
listen in, see if the kids are on task and in
tune. The student can buzz the teacher — it
keeps them monitored and engaged.
It’s a huge change. It’s experiential, and
students say, “I’m more engaged in learning
than I’ve ever been.” It’s like learning in an
IMAX theater. We’re preparing students to
be lifelong learners and to take ownership
of their learning. We have so many
resources available for students curricularly
— engineering, aeronautics, virtual reality,
everything.
THE Journal: With every student using a
separate device, how does the teacher control
what they’re looking at in class?
0617THE_Keynote-cm1-rc1-dn1-rc2-FINAL.indd 13
Lewis: We started using Apple Classroom —
it’s an app for the teacher, with just a turn-on
function. There are times when you do want
to take over the classroom. It works in a
BYOD [bring your own device] environment
— you can create a class with the app. The
teacher can say, “Everybody connect to my
class.” When they connect to it, they type in
the code that the teacher has given them.
Teachers see the displays on their iPads
— if you have 20 kids in class, you’ll see 20
icons. You can push them all to one URL, or
lock them in to a certain application.
We also have different classroom
management controls. The teacher can lock
their screen. You can lock them in whatever
you want, wherever you want.
THE Journal: There are so many new ed tech
products out there. How do you keep up with
what’s going on without breaking the bank?
Lewis: I try to keep involved. It does change
a lot. But it’s an exciting job. There’s always
something new. There’s the whole flash in
the pan — just because something’s new, that
doesn’t mean we have to buy it. We always
look at pedagogy first. Our technology budget
isn’t that large.
But the benefit we do have is experience.
I have to deal with a completely different
culture at school than in the IT world.
THE Journal: Are there teachers or students
who resist all the technology that’s being
implemented in the classroom?
Lewis: Kids easily adapt to new things,
but it’s not that kids are inherently so
much more brilliant with technology. We
have a teacher who is older than I am who
absolutely rocks technology. It has to do with
lifelong learning and a willingness to learn
new things.
We don’t have a problem with kids being
off-task. Most of the teachers have really
embraced all the new technology.
THE Journal: What about the argument
that physical textbooks are better for learning
than e-books?
Lewis: Digital books are great for
transporting, and you are not having kids
with 80 pounds of books in their backpacks.
We’re transforming what a textbook is. With
a digital text, you can have interactive quizzes
and videos and adaptive quizzes that you
can’t get from a textbook. I don’t buy into the
[notion] that a physical book has any more
value than a screen has.
THE Journal: What are some other products,
devices or platforms that you’re using at
your school?
Lewis: We use a myriad of different apps
and things. Teachers have Ergotron sit-stand
desks, which allows them to sit or stand
behind them. What I am excited about now
is virtual reality and we’re piloting that a
lot. We’ve had a large number of Google
Expeditions and that kind of immersion.
It’s interesting and cool to see the difference
between watching a video and watching a
Google Expedition.
If I’m watching a [flat screen] video, I
can still be distracted. But with immersion
through virtual reality, you can’t be distracted.
And with Google Expeditions, it’s not kids
solely wandering around through VR. The
teacher is still guiding the class around.
There’s also student-created VR — virtual
reality environments and apps created
through Unity, which is a coding-free app.
That’s pretty amazing to me, the student-
created aspect. We’re working on VR
applications that will teach chemistry. Virtual
reality is so good at helping explain things
that are difficult to explain in the 2D space.
Richard Chang is associate
editor of THE Journal. Contact him
at rchang@1105media.com.
JUNE/JULY 2017 | 13
5/31/17 12:35 PM
 Educators and administrators from three K–12
school systems discuss how they have taken on
these challenges and are using OER to transform
teaching and learning. BY DENNIS PIERCE
sliplee/Shutterstock

14 | JUNE/JULY 2017

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 FEATURE | OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

THE RISE OF open educational resources (OER) presents an

opportunity for educators to untether instruction from textbooks, mixing
and matching various digital materials to engage students with up-to-the-
minute resources and personalize instruction in a cost-effective way.
But orchestrating the use of OER in classrooms can be challenging.
How can educators find, curate and use high-quality instructional materials
that meet rigorous curriculum standards? How can school leaders support
their teachers in these efforts?

Columbus, Mississippi
When Philip Hickman became superintendent of Mississippi’s Columbus
Municipal School District in July 2014, the school system had just
received its eighth straight “D” rating from the state. Its graduation rate
hovered around 60 percent, and 70 percent of students were performing
at least two grade levels below average.
Nearly three years later, the district’s graduation rate is above 80
percent; attendance is up to 95 percent; and students are much more
engaged in their learning. Hickman attributes this improvement in
large part to the district’s focus on creating personalized learning
environments for every student — and Columbus is using OER to help
accomplish this goal.
One of Hickman’s first acts as superintendent was to send nearly $1
million worth of new textbooks that his predecessor had ordered back to
their publishers. “The community was in an uproar,” he said. “Parents
were saying: What do you mean our kids aren’t coming home with a
backpack full of textbooks?”
Hickman held town hall meetings and traveled around the community
to share his vision for instruction. “We were able to take the $1 million
that was going to be used for textbooks and roll out a technology plan
instead,” he said.
The district’s first task was training teachers how to adopt a new 21st-
century instructional model, beginning with whole group instruction to
introduce new material and proceeding to shared and then independent
work. With help from Bailey Education Group, teachers learned how to
use technology effectively to guide students’ understanding at each of
these stages of instruction.
To support this model, district leaders developed a curriculum based
on OER and grounded in next-generation learning standards. “Instead of
a static textbook, our curriculum became a dynamic set of resources to
help personalize learning for every child,” Hickman said.
Columbus also bought MacBooks for every high school student to take
home and HP devices and iPads for its middle and elementary schools.
The district set up WiFi networks on school buses, within city parks and
in other public places to ensure that students could access information
any time, anywhere.
To make it easy for teachers to find high-quality OER without having
to spend time curating content for themselves, Columbus is using a
commercial OER platform called Fishtree. The platform not only helps
teachers find resources to weave into lessons; it also delivers customized
resources for students.

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 FEATURE | OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

“If students encounter a problem while they’re working

on a lesson, Fishtree generates resources to help them learn
that particular skill,” Hickman said. What’s more, the system
reportedly adapts to how each students learns best using artificial
intelligence. If a student performs well after watching a video
clip, for instance, Fishtree will deliver more video resources for
that student.
“That’s a game changer,” Hickman said.

Lawrence, Kansas
Columbus was one of six original Ambassador Districts for the
U.S. Department of Education’s #GoOpen campaign, which
encourages schools to use open resources where possible. Jerri
Kemble, assistant superintendent for the Lawrence Public
Schools in Kansas, heard about that campaign in fall 2015 and
thought: “We could do this, too.”
Using OER meshed well with the district’s blended learning
initiative, in which teacher volunteers receive training in how
to lead a blended environment. In turn, their classrooms are
equipped with laptops, tablets and collaboration stations
featuring flat-panel displays.
Kemble asked seventh grade English language arts teacher
Kelly Hart, one of the district’s blended learning instructors, if
she would be interested in developing lessons using OER for her
classes, and Hart said yes. Hart, who teaches at South Middle Teacher Kristl Taylor of Lawrence Public Schools in Kansas creates a video
School, teamed up with a teacher on special assignment, Kristl to share with the Office of Educational Technology. Photo by Kelly Hart.
Taylor, and librarian Jennifer Scotten to create OER-based
lessons, and Lawrence became a #GoOpen participant.
District leaders attended #GoOpen events and held conference
calls with other participants, where they had a chance to learn
from colleagues. “That helped us get jump-started,” Kemble said.
Hart and her team spent six or seven professional development
release days during the 2015–2016 school year to find and curate
high-quality ELA resources, using sources such as the Learning
Registry, OER Commons, EngageNY, Amazon Inspire and iTunes
U. “We stumbled on a set of rubrics from Achieve.org for evaluating
the quality of open resources,” she said, “and that was helpful.”
Last summer, Hart finished developing a full-year ELA
curriculum based on open resources, and she has been teaching
all five of her classes this year using OER almost exclusively.
“Students don’t care where the content comes from,” she said.
“When I can take engaging, timely content, add to it, remix it and
then give it to others, that levels the playing field.”
Although schools can use openly licensed materials free of
Photos: Lawrence Public Schools

charge, they’ll still need to invest money in an OER initiative.

Quoting an Education Department official, Kemble said open
resources are “free like a puppy.” The Lawrence Public Schools
supplied substitutes to cover for Hart and Scotten during their
release days, and the district paid Hart for the 25 to 30 extra
hours she spent finishing her curriculum over the summer. A seventh grader from South Mildde School in Lawrence, KS working
on putting together an argument for a Superhero Smackdown, a unit
Kemble said she believes having a librarian involved has been
remixed by ELA teacher Kelly Hart from CPALMS.
critical because of the need to evaluate resources. Now, the

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0617the_OER-Feature-cm1-rc1-cm2-dn1-FINAL.indd 16 5/31/17 12:36 PM

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 FEATURE | LEARNING CONTENT

district is looking to scale up its OER by
getting more educators involved.
“As we move forward, we want to train
our teachers on how to vet open resources,”
she said. “We’re going to use the librarians
in each building to help with that.”
Loudoun County, Virginia
In Virginia’s Loudoun County, Superin-
tendent Eric Williams has led a sweeping
initiative to use technology for empowering
students to make meaningful contributions
One of Hickman’s first acts as superintendent
was to send nearly $1 million worth of new
textbooks that his predecessor had ordered
back to their publishers.
to the world. Using OER fits in nicely
with this initiative, which is called “One to
the World,” said Ashley Ellis, director of
instructional programs.
“Our teachers were finding rich
instructional resources on their own to
supplement their use of textbooks,”
she said. “It seemed natural for us to
help them.”
Building off the Education Department’s
#GoOpen campaign, Virginia launched
an OER program of its own, called
GoOpenVA. Loudoun County became one
of six Virginia school divisions involved in
the program.
Loudoun County decided to find,
curate and develop OER in three subject
areas to begin with, said Adina Popa,
supervisor for educational technology:
Algebra I, World History I and Virginia
Studies. “We contacted the supervisors
for these departments and asked them to
recommend the names of teachers who
could lead this work,” Popa said.
These teacher leaders are assembling
OER collections for their respective
subject areas for use beginning in the fall.
To support them in this task, the school
system has created a customized rubric for
evaluating OER, based on the Achieve.org
rubrics.
One challenge that Loudoun County is
still trying to solve is finding a platform
for teachers to publish and share the open
resources they discover and create for their
classes. “We’re currently looking for such
a platform,” Popa said, “but that’s not
stopping our work.”
Using open resources enhances the
spirit of collaboration among staff, Ellis
said. She added: “The experience of
finding, curating and creating online is
something we’re asking our teachers to
help our students do. It’s important that
teachers are able to model that experience
as well.”
Dennis Pierce is a freelance writer with
20 years of experience covering educa-
tion and technology. He can be reached
at denniswpierce@gmail.com.

Three Tips for USING OER Successfully

As more school systems look to integrate open educational resources (OER) into
instruction, here are three tips on how to make this transition successful.
 ead with the “why.” When teachers understand the benefits of using OER in
L
their classrooms, they are more likely to embrace this change. For instance,
Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools explained how using OER fit in with the
school system’s One to the World initiative, which uses technology for empowering
students to make meaningful connections to the world. “We were pleasantly
surprised to discover that our teachers didn’t see this as just one more thing to do,”
said Adina Popa, supervisor for educational technology, “but as something they
always needed.”
 tart small. Begin with a single subject area, lesson or unit, recommends Kelly
S
Hart, an ELA teacher for the Lawrence Public Schools in Kansas. “That helps make
believers out of teachers,” she said, “one lesson at a time.”
lonely/Shutterstock

 now the difference between free and openly licensed content. Not all
K
content that is freely available is openly licensed, Hart said. Openly licensed content
can be shared, enhanced, built upon and customized. Look for content with a
Creative Commons license.

JUNE/JULY 2017 | 18

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 ISTE booth 2453
ILA booth 408

Untitled-4 1 5/25/17 3:07 PM

 STEM Joshua Bolkan

Promoting STEM Those more accessible robots suggest a

simpler approach to integrating them in the

Through Robotics classroom, according to Patterson.

“I advocate that teachers don’t think
about things that are super complex initially
Robots are playing a bigger role in the classroom, with robots,” Patterson said, “but just ask,
making lessons more active, kinesthetic and play-based. ‘Is there a way I could use that robot to open
up an experience my students are already
having so I can reach more of my goals?’ ”
OBOTS ARE NOT just for manufacturing lines and science fiction Patterson says that robots are a natural
movies any more. These days they’re becoming a classroom staple that tool to making nearly any lesson more
teachers can leverage to foster and deepen interest in science, technology, active, kinesthetic and play-based.
engineering and math topics almost by their mere presence. These little “When I work with teachers I encourage
animated computers can help students see a purpose behind the lessons them to take whatever lesson they’re running
they’re learning, take a creative approach to coding and technology, take on their desktop to make it bigger, put it
an iterative approach to problem solving and more. on the floor and run a robot on top of it,”
Sam Patterson, makerspace and STEAM coordinator at Echo Horizon School in Culver Patterson said.
City, CA and author of Beyond the Hour of Code, said he thinks a lot of teachers are intimi- Making a robot lesson could be as simple
AlesiaKan/Shutterstock

dated by the idea of robots. as converting a worksheet that asks students

“I think a lot of teachers look at robots as incredibly complex because that’s what they to draw a line from math problems to
were,” Patterson said, “but now there’s such a large number and an ever-growing number their solutions to a floor-based exercise in
of very simple, consumer-level robots.” which teams program robots to race to the

20 | JUNE/JULY 2017

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Untitled-4 1 5/25/17 3:30 PM

 STEM
Students at Dolvin Elementary School in Georgia play with Dash & Dot robots and a xylophone
app. Courtesy of Megan Endicott.
correct answers. Doing so “opens up that
experience considerably,” according to
Patterson, as it takes the experience from
a solitary one to a group-based one that
requires collaboration and communication
and rotating roles in a “low-stakes, high-
interest” setting.
“They’re willing to do the hard work
of communication and sharing and willing
to be mindful as they do that because
they understand that’s the only way they’re
going to get to play with the robot,”
Patterson said.
Josh Burker, educational technologist
at The School at Columbia University in
New York City, invented the LogoTurtle, a
robot that produces art and that teachers
can make themselves using off-the-shelf
and 3D-printed parts or from a kit. The
LogoTurtle uses a pen to draw geometric
designs on paper. Because of the friction
of the pen on paper and other random
inputs to the robot, the images that are
produced have slight flaws and sometimes
require students to alter the programming
“They’re willing to do the hard work of communication and
sharing and willing to be mindful as they do that because
they understand that’s the only way they’re going to get to
play with the robot.”
–Sam Patterson, Echo Horizon School
22 | JUNE/JULY 2017
0617the_STEM-Robotics-cm1-rc1-dn1-cm2-rc2-FINAL.indd 22
to get the results they want.
This is a feature, rather than a bug,
according to Burker, who said he chose the
Logo programming language because it is
built for debugging rather than getting it
right the first time.
“The biggest thing that I’ve found in
using the LogoTurtle with students is the
willingness that they have to debug and to
work through five or six iterations to get the
design to where they want it to be,” Burker
said. “I think a lot of that has to do with
how the project’s grounded in aesthetic
choice. I think even more so than with the
computer, they’re willing to take the steps
to figure out, well, maybe it needs to turn
91 degrees versus 90, maybe we need to
go 367 degrees to make a full circle. So for
whatever reason — perhaps it’s the fact that
they get to boss something around, or the
aesthetic choice involved in the challenge
— they’re just really willing to take on the
challenge and to see it through to the end.”
Burker said that the combination of
crafting and technology that tools like the
LogoTurtle represent can make technology
more accessible by creating a hands-on
exercise and allowing for aesthetic choice.
That idea of choice is something Burker
comes back to again and again when talk-
ing about using robots and art to get kids
interested in STEM.
“Art is something that is inherently
attractive and approachable, and giving
people choice as to how they can express
themselves is a powerful opportunity for ev-
eryone, be it a teacher or a student,” Burker
said. “It’s fun to create art, so that helps
create buy-in for the participants. So that’s
why I emphasize it. It’s fun.”
Megan Endicott, music teacher at Dol-
vin Elementary School in Georgia, also
uses a combination of robots and art to
interest students in STEAM topics.
Endicott, who also serves as a fine arts
support teacher at the district level and
helps K–12 teachers to integrate technology
into their classrooms at the county level in
her role as a technology vanguard leader,
said she “fell in love” with Dash & Dot, the
classroom robots from Wonder Workshop.
Dolvin, which didn’t have room for a
dedicated makerspace, recently added
maker carts for each grade level and Endi-
cott pushed to have Dash & Dot included
in those carts, along with the optional
xylophone accessory pack.
The robots landed at Dolvin just in time
for the unit on melody, when most of the
grade levels are learning about solfège,
Endicott said.
“And so we discussed the connection
between steps and skips on the xylophone
with our solfège scale and had the students
talk about our pentatonic scale, which
is the standard in music for second and
third graders and the diatonic scale for
fourth and fifth graders, meaning the
whole scale,” Endicott explained. “So we
Photo: Megan Endicott
6/1/17 1:44 PM
 “It’s fun to create art, so that helps create buy-in for the
participants. So that’s why I emphasize it. It’s fun.”
–Josh Burker, The School at Columbia University
spent time having them compose through coding instead of
just writing their music or taking a test. They were able to take
their knowledge to the next level, so we’re kind of building in
that higher order thinking, and allowing the students to create a
composition with the robot and a performance, because you can
actually infuse movement as well with their xylo app. So the kids
took time to create.”
Endicott, who has also used Ozobots in her music classes,
said the exercise was “empowering” for her students, who still
“beg” her to bring the robots into the classroom. She said that
using robots in an art class, which has the opportunity to reach
every student in every grade level in a school, is a great chance
to interest students who may have been intimidated by technical
topics in STEM education.
“Having the opportunity to teach the entire school, K-5, and
expose them to this type of coding in a different kind of creative
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TODAY
—IT’S FREE!
Photo: Megan Endicott
THEJournal.com/subscribe
Untitled-2 1
0617the_STEM-Robotics-cm1-rc1-dn1-cm2-rc2-FINAL.indd 23
way was a very positive thing and definitely generated that inter-
est,” Endicott said, “because now instead of it being something
that seems really difficult or very strategic and technical, it was
more of a creative process. So I think it opened the doors to
those who were a little bit hesitant at first.”
Patterson, who used to teach high school English, compared
using robots to teach STEM topics to teaching older students
to write, noting that they produce better writing when they
understand their audience. In a similar way, robots naturally
help students connect STEM topics to the real world, and
“When students have a sense of why they’re doing something,
they have a much stronger connection to it.”
Joshua Bolkan is a contributing editor for THE Journal based
in Portland, OR.
JUNE/JULY 2017
5/31/17 12:07 PM| 23
6/1/17 1:44 PM
 Here’s how one district is deploying robots to embody concepts in science, math,
ELA and social studies. By Cheri DiMartino
THIS IS OUR FIRST year implementing a robot in our gifted activities will enable teachers to implement lessons with minimal
science and math classes in grades 7–8. Prior to purchasing setup and time, helping them integrate curriculum core concept
the NAO robot, we conducted a workshop for parents, lessons for all students throughout the school year. Teachers
students, and teachers for input. Overwhelmingly, everyone are excited about discovering the full potential of robot-based
was excited for this new 21st century technology to be used in lessons, which science instructor Katherine Silva-Sampaio said
our gifted magnet program. Parents told us giving their kids the “greatly incorporates 21st century learning and exploration by
opportunity to program a robot made them feel that we are “at using something tangible to apply and visualize concepts.”
the forefront of gifted education,” while at the same time giving
Why have a robot in the classroom? I think one of our
students “the outlet to be creative and imaginative.”
students put it best: “Coding the NAO robot helps us to become
During the first quarter, teachers were trained by RobotLab more technologically advanced, which is important, since our
on programming and lessons. The included curriculum can be world is getting more advanced as time goes on.”
leveled for beginning, intermediate and advanced questions.
Some lessons teach math concepts by using the robot
to visualize coordinate planes, degrees of movement and
limitations. Others teach the students how to complete basic Cheri DiMartino is the director of the Department of Gifted
programming tasks such as making the robot talk, or walk
from point A to point B, or even respond to specific questions and Talented Education Programs at Washoe County School
it is asked. District in Reno, NV.
The students started by programming the robot to introduce
itself and respond to a series of questions about the school and
the class that the students had chosen. Since then, lessons
have delved into other STEM topics and skills. Teachers have
used robots to embody physics concepts such as speed and
kinetic energy; the robots can record data to solve formulas
and prove the relationships of formulas. Students are exploring
technology by programing the robot and learning what a router
is, how computers and robots communicate and how to
connect the robot to the computer and download programs
onto various robots. They have also practiced engineering
by designing attachments that will allow robots to complete
specific tasks. According to math teacher Joseph Pazar, the
most impressive feature of the robot is the versatility of the
curriculum, which “not only incorporates math concepts, but
science, ELA and even social studies.”

Practicing with a Virtual Robot

Since we have only one physical robot, students frequently use
the platform’s “virtual robot” feature to test their code without
actually connecting to the physical robot. The virtual robot is
a very accurate avatar that students can access in a browser-
based platform via any device with an internet connection.
With virtual robots, many students can test their hypotheses
on mathematical equations at the same time, in a risk-free
environment. They can see how their program will work by
watching the virtual robot act out their direction, make any
adjustments necessary for the robot to complete the required
tasks, and then connect to the physical robot later to present
DeymosHR/Shutterstock

their program to the teacher or the class.

As one student said, this sort of iterative approach to
programming “helps us problem-solve by being able to
understand the cause and effect of our actions and the root
of our problems, along with how to fix them. It also helps you
realize how specific you have to be with directions and coding
when it comes to robots and technology.”
This year, the robots are being used only in the gifted magnet
programs. Next year we plan on expanding to a robotics club
in specific middle schools that all students at the location
will have access to. While we are still in the beginning phase
of implementation, we are optimistic that the browser-based

24 | JUNE/JULY 2017

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 LAUNCHING
JUNE 16, 2017

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Untitled-1 1 5/24/17 4:55 PM

 VIEWPOINT Linnette Attai

Making the Commitment to

Student Data Privacy
Building a lasting trust will require actionable policies and practices that lay out the expectations
for bringing technology into a school system and the behavior around student data.

HE 21ST CENTURY, technology-enabled classroom offers both opportuni- The work starts with a deep under-
ties and a variety of challenges, including ensuring the privacy and security of standing of the legal requirements; of the
student data. The days of storing student information on paper files have shifted responsibilities that come with collecting,
to data management on the network, in the cloud and on devices. With that, commu- storing and handling student data; and of
nity stakeholders have raised concerns and questions have risen about where the the complexities that arise when the work
data goes, who has access to it, how it may be used, and how it can be protected is done through connected technologies.
from prying eyes. That knowledge needs to be translated into
32 Pixels/Shutterstock

These questions have led to the drafting of over 500 student data privacy bills across the enforceable, actionable policies and prac-
La1n/Shutterstock

states in the last three years. However, regulatory action alone will not move the needle on tices that guide all school system employees
the special relationship between schools and their communities. through their work, laying out the expecta-
Now, more than ever, every school system must be poised to adequately address these tions for bringing technology into a school
questions to build a lasting trust with the parents. system and the behavior around student

26 | JUNE/JULY 2017

0617the_CoSN-cm1-dn1-rc1-cm2-rc2-FINAL.indd 26 6/1/17 12:10 PM

 data. These policies and practices must reflect not just the federal
and state regulatory requirements, but also the expectations of the
district expectations and community norms.
Of course, policies need to be implemented with adequate
and effective training that not only explains the rules, but also
why they are in place. When employees understand the concepts
behind the policies, they are able to apply the rules more effective-
ly on a daily basis. In addition, school systems need to foster open
dialogue with community members about technology, the benefits
of the student data they collect, how that has or has not changed
with the modern classroom and the ways in which the school
system protects and maintains control over the data. There is a
good deal of fear — some real and some imagined — that needs
to be addressed in the open, in order to build the confidence of
the community.
To support these efforts, CoSN (the Consortium for School
Networking) developed the Trusted Learning Environment (TLE)
Seal Program for school systems. Developed with 28 school
system leaders, along with lead partners, the Association of
School Business Officials (ASBO), the School Superintendents
Association (AASA) and Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development (ASCD), the program helps school
systems understand the maturity level of their privacy and
security programs and identify the gaps for growth. The program
also recommends resources to help address those gaps.
School systems with a robust privacy and security model are
eligible to earn the TLE Seal, demonstrating to their communities
that they have taken tangible, measurable steps to properly man-
age the privacy and security of student data. To date, 12 school
systems, reflecting a diverse cross section of small, large, urban
and rural school districts, have earned the seal.
It is not an easy task, and the TLE program reflects the rigors
of the work that school systems need to undertake today. This
is also a task that is never done, as any such program runs on a
constant cycle of implementation, auditing, accountability and
improvement. However, engagement around these issues is a
critical part of the responsibility inherent in leveraging technology
in a school system, and putting the right practices in place serves
as the foundation for easing fears and building community trust.
For more information on the TLE program, visit
www.trustedlearning.org, and for more information on
CoSN’s privacy resources, visit cosn.org/privacy.
32 Pixels/Shutterstock
La1n/Shutterstock

Linnette Attai is is project director for the CoSN Protecting

Privacy in Connected Learning Initiative and the Trusted
Learning Environment Seal Program. She is also president of
PlayWell, LLC compliance consulting.

JUNE/JULY 2017 | 27

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 More are adopting policies that make sites more
available to people with disabilities; however, the
future is uncertain under a new administration.
BY DAVID RATHS

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 FEATURE | EQUITY & TECHNOLOGY

IN 2015 THE Seattle School Board entered into a consent decree to settle
a lawsuit brought by Noel Nightingale, a blind parent of a Seattle student.
Seattle Public Schools had changed website providers, and Nightingale found
she could no longer access the school calendar of events or find schedules
or lunch menus. Nor could she help her son with math homework. The online
math program wasn’t accessible to those who are blind.

The district agreed to make its current
websites accessible, hire an accessibility
coordinator, conduct a wide-ranging
accessibility audit and create a website
portal to help faculty and staff communicate
effectively with people with disabilities,
according to a story in the Seattle Times.
Sheryl Burgstahler, who founded
and directs the DO-IT (Disabilities,
Opportunities, Internetworking and
Technology) Center at the University
of Washington, said the Seattle case
demonstrates the need to develop an active
approach to accessibility rather than waiting
to react to complaints from students and
parents.
“It used to be that an accommodation
after the fact was somewhat reasonable
because there wasn’t so much IT and visual
content being used,” she said. “Now it is not
Laura Fisher, an associate attorney in
the Hartford office of Shipman & Goodwin
LLP, said there were 350 complaints
in 2016 alone. “When I was working
on negotiating some of the resolution
agreements, OCR indicated this was a new
area of increased attention. Most resolution
agreements have required that the district
hire an independent auditor familiar with
accessibility and then address all the issues
found in the audit.”
Fisher said one challenge for districts is
that they are being held accountable even
though the federal government has not
developed specific guidelines around website
accessibility. There have been notices of
proposed rulemaking filed and withdrawn
several times, she added. “The rulemaking
is moving slower than the technology it
is trying to regulate. People have been
they are finding out that this doesn’t have
to break the bank. We encourage them to
embrace accessibility and understand it
doesn’t have to cost as much as the rumor
mill says it does.”
One consultant whose firm focuses
on website accessibility said most school
districts are completely ignorant about
the existence of students using assistive
technologies and trying to navigate around
the online content that schools provide. The
Paciello Group’s Brian Landrigan said the
OCR’s increased enforcement is definitely a
wakeup call to districts.
The OCR is insisting that districts make
a plan for new content, he said. That means
they pick a date in the future and say that
from that point forward, the district will
have an operating plan that assures that any
content posted online is accessible. “That

Iconic Bestiary; MIRARTI Illustrations/Shutterstock/THE Journal staff

reasonable.”
School districts are making resources
available on their websites 24x7, Burgstahler
noted, and some charter school classes are
conducted entirely online. “There is no way
to serve a student who is blind through the
accommodation model. It just isn’t possible
anymore.”
The Department of Education’s Office
for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
as they apply to public schools. In the last
few years, OCR has been very aggressive in
responding to complaints, and some district
leaders feel blind-sided by what they see as
an unfunded mandate when they get a letter
from OCR.
anticipating the regulation for years.”
Marcie Lipsitt, a Michigan-based special
education advocate, has helped file many
complaints with OCR against school
districts nationwide that receive federal
funds yet may be in violation of the ADA
and the Rehabilitation Act, said Joel
Gerring, in-house counsel for the Michigan
Association of School Boards.
With the increasing attention from
OCR and the fact that Lipsitt is based in
Michigan, Gerring started getting more
calls from district leaders last fall. “I get the
impression that most of them understand
their responsibilities. But they assumed it
would be incredibly expensive to correct,
and there is no extra money in Michigan
public education right now,” he said. “But
is a lofty goal, and a ton of work needs to
be done to meet that goal,” Landrigan said.
“Districts usually work with subject matter
experts to figure out what is the best way to
get there.”
They also do an accessibility audit of their
current web content. Landrigan said that in
performing an audit, his firm uses the same
assistive technology disabled people use
to navigate around the web-based material
and perform tasks such as registering for
a course or taking a test. “We report those
out to the district’s development team and
explain how to fix them. Most are easily
corrected once the team understands what
they need to do.”
Many district leaders are under the false
impression that all the third-party content

JUNE/JULY 2017 | 29

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 FEATURE | EQUITY &TECHNOLOGY
Universal design refers to the design
of products and environments so
that they are usable by everyone, to
the greatest extent possible.
they purchase has already been vetted for
accessibility. In fact, it is not yet the norm
for people to be thinking about building
accessibility into the content and delivery
systems for online learning, said Skip
Stahl, co-director of the National Center
on Accessible Educational Materials. “That
is starting to change,” he said. “We are
starting to see some products emerging
in the marketplace that are paying close
attention to accessibility features, but in
many cases there is a lot of awareness-
raising that needs to occur — both on the
consumer end and the producer end.”
Stahl said that when OCR comes in and
does an analysis based on a complaint, they
will look at everything, not just the district
website. “It is important in the procurement
process to address those issues right up
front, so they are not caught off guard
and have to retrofit or change learning
materials midstream.”
Universal Design for Learning
In 2015 DO-IT’s Burgstahler called
attention to the concept of universal
design in an article titled, “How can K–12
educators promote the use of accessible
technology in schools?”
“Universal design refers to the design of
products and environments so that they are
usable by everyone, to the greatest extent
possible,” she wrote. “A teacher is applying
universal design when he purchases
curriculum with built-in, multiple, and
30 | JUNE/JULY 2017
0617the_WebAccessibility-Feature-cm1-rc1-dn1-rc2-FINAL.indd 30
flexible methods of presentation, expression
and engagement. The manager of a
computer lab is applying universal design
when he purchases adjustable tables in
anticipation of students who are small or
large in stature or who use wheelchairs.”
In fact, legislation called the Every
Student Succeeds Act, signed by President
Obama in December 2015, guides states
and local agencies to incorporate universal
design concepts.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
has several core principles, said Stahl,
who also is project director for the Center
on Online Learning and Students with
Disabilities at the Center for Applied
Special Technology (CAST). One is
providing multiple representations of
information — not just paper-based
instructional materials, but as many ways
as material can be presented to students
as possible, such as video, audio, tactile-
manipulative, to give all students options
for what types of materials they access
to gain information. A good example
is making sure that videos have text
captions or that podcasts have transcripts
or simultaneous captions. It addresses
the accessibility issues but also provides
alternatives for every student, Stahl said.
The second principle, he explained, is
providing students with multiple ways of
expressing what they know and acting on
information. Instead of saying the way you
are going to document your knowledge of
this chapter is to take a multiple-choice
test, you can give students options: Put
together a portfolio, do a diorama, create a
PowerPoint or make a movie.
UDL helps not just in cases where
students have a sensory disability, but
also when they have different cognitive
limitations. “The idea is to build flexibility
into the environment and minimize as
many barriers to learning as possible, Stahl
said. UDL espouses a proactive approach.
Instead of saying I don’t need to make
any changes to my instructional materials
because I don’t have a blind student in
my classroom, it takes the approach that
I have 25 students in class with wide
variability in how they learn. I should build
an environment that is as responsive as
possible to all that variability. If I do that
well and then have a student with a physical
or sensory disability, I am all set because I
have already built it into the system.”
Putting UDL Into Practice
One district that has more than 10 years
of experience with UDL is Bartholomew
Consolidated School Corp. in Columbus,
IN, 45 miles south of Indianapolis.
“We started out looking at how we could
better serve students with disabilities and
zilkovec/Shutterstock
quickly realized that the options we were
creating for those students were good for all
students,” said George Van Horn, director
of special education. “Now there are
options available for how the information
6/1/17 12:33 PM
 is presented to students, how students are
engaged or interacting with the information
and how students get a chance to express
what they have learned.”
Part of any new resource adoption is
led by Bartholomew’s UDL coordinators
and facilitators to make sure the district is
looking at the material through the lens of
UDL, he said. “All our rubrics are based on
making sure we are looking at curriculum
that is going to support all of our learners.”
Bartholomew’s embrace of UDL has
coincided with an increase in the use of
digital content. “All our teachers look at
technology as a tool they can use to break
down barriers or offer more options to
students in terms of engagement,” said
Nick Williams, coordinator of instructional
technology. The district has adopted
a learning management system called
“itslearning” because it has different
language options as well as video,
audio and image options for students
and teachers.
“Anything we look at in instructional
technology has to support all students,”
Williams said. “We invest in Read&Write
for Google Chrome, which has a lot of
accessibility features for students. We put
closed captioning on videos. For dyslexia
zilkovec/Shutterstock
there are tools we teach all our teachers
to use consistently so that any learner can
have access to these tools.”
Van Horn said that Bartholomew
has seen encouraging results. “We have
0617the_WebAccessibility-Feature-cm1-rc1-dn1-rc2-FINAL.indd 31
87 percent of students with disabilities
spending 80 percent of their time in regular
ed classes. We have seen a decrease in
referrals to special ed, and, while that is
happening, we have seen an increase in the
percentage of our students passing our state
tests in every subgroup we’ve got.”
The Role of IT Leaders
Burgstahler, who has consulted with
several K–12 districts about accessibility
issues, says often it is unclear whose
responsibility they are. “It tends to be
distributed sort of like IT security,” she
said. “Everybody in IT or procuring IT
needs to think about it at some level, but
they have to think about it in different ways
depending on their role, so everyone is on
the hook a bit.”
There also is a role for state-level groups
to play. The National Center on Accessible
Educational Materials is working with the
State Educational Technology Directors
Association (SETDA), Stahl said. SETDA
has created an online database called
DMAPS (Digital Materials Acquisition
Policies, dmaps.setda.org), which identifies
acquisition policies state-by-state with links
to the state documents. “We have been
working with them to build accessibility
documentation into it,” said Stahl, who
added that 24 states have clear policies
on accessibility and guidance related to
the purchase of accessible materials. “Two
years ago it would have been 10 or 12
states,” he added. “We are starting to see
some traction in the community.”
IT leaders have a key role to play, Stahl
insisted. “Ten or 15 years ago the IT folks
were seen as an adjunct support system for
communication and record keeping,” he
said, “but now we are seeing such a flow
of digital content materials into
K–12 and postsecondary education that
IT folks become a key component and
contributor to the procurement process.
They need to be as aware of accessibility
issues as curriculum developers or
content area experts.”
With the changeover to the Trump
Administration, school boards are watching
to see if OCR remains as aggressive
about enforcing website accessibility. Joel
Gerring, the attorney with the Michigan
Association of School Boards, said that
at the recent National School Board
Association conference in Denver, the buzz
was that web accessibility was not going
to be a priority for the OCR in the new
administration. “So this whole thing may
go away,” he said. “They may put a full
stop on this enforcement thing and divert
attention elsewhere.”
David Raths is a Philadelphia-based
freelance writer focused on information
technology. He writes regularly for sev-
eral IT publications, including Healthcare
Informatics and Government Technology.
JUNE/JULY 2017 | 31
6/1/17 12:33 PM
 TRANSFORMING EDUCATION
THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

Editor-in-Chief David Nagel

Associate Editor Richard Chang
Vice President, Art and Brand Design Scott Shultz # 2 9 6 e 9 2
r : 4 1
g : 1 1 0
SALES CONTACT
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b : 1 4 6

INFORMATION
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32 | JUNE/JULY 2017

0617the_mast-index-cm1-rc1-dn1-cm2-FINAL.indd 32 6/2/17 9:28 AM

 index

ADVERTISER/URL PAGE COMPANY INDEX

CDW-G.................................................................. 5 Achieve.......................................................... 16, 18

www.CDWG.com/intel
FrontRow............................................................ 17
www.gofrontrow.com/the-ezroom
NetSupport, Inc.................................................... 2
www.netsupportdna.com
Spectrum Industries.......................................... 36
www.spectrumfurniture.com/VR
THE Journal Newsletters.................................. 11
www.THEjournal.com/newsletters
THE Journal Platforms...................................... 35
www.THEjournal.com
THE Journal STEAM Universe.......................... 25
THE Journal Subscription................................. 23
www.THEjournal.com/subscribe
Aldebaran Robotics............................................. 24
Amazon............................................................... 16
Apple................................................. 12, 13, 15, 16
Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development....................................................... 27
Association of School Business Officials............ 27
Bailey Education Group....................................... 15
Breakout EDU........................................................ 8
Center for Applied Special Technology............... 30
Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) ....... 27
Creative Commons.............................................. 18
Dell...................................................................... 12
EngageNY........................................................... 16
Ergotron............................................................... 13
Fishtree................................................................ 15

VEX Robotics, Inc.............................................. 21 Google......................................... 10, 12, 13, 31, 34

www.vexiq.com
Vocabulary Spelling City................................... 19
www.vocabularyspellingcity.com
SCHOOL INDEX
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.(IN). 30-31
Columbus Municipal School District (MS)........... 15
Dolvin Elementary School (GA)........................... 22
Bottom: DGLimages; Middle: Ermolaev Alexander; Top: Dmytro Zinkevych/Shutterstock
HP........................................................................ 15
Learning Registry................................................ 15
Lenovo................................................................. 12
Lightspeed Technologies............................... 12, 13
Microsoft....................................................... 12, 30
OER Commons................................................... 16
Ozobot................................................................. 23
National Center on Accessible Educational

Echo Horizon School (CA)............................. 20, 22
Lawrence Public Schools (KS)...................... 15, 18
Michigan Association of School Boards (MI)...... 34
Loudoun County Public Schools (VA)................. 18
Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design (CO)...... 8
The School at Columbia University (NY)....... 22, 23
Seattle Public Schools........................................ 29
Sioux Falls Christian Schools (SC)...................9-11
South Middle School (KS)................................... 16
Tampa Preparatory School (FL)................. 3, 12, 30
University of Washington..................................... 29
Washoe County School District (NV)..............20-21
Materials.............................................................. 29
National School Board Association..................... 34
The Paciello Group.............................................. 29
Playwell LLC........................................................ 27
Project Tomorrow................................................ 34
RobotLAB............................................................ 24
Room Escape Artist............................................... 8
School Superintendents Association.................. 27
Shipman & Goodwin LLP.................................... 29
State Educational Technology Directors Assoc.. 31
Texthelp............................................................... 31
Unity.................................................................... 13
Wonder Workshop............................................... 22

This index is provided as a service. The publisher

assumes no liability for errors or omissions.

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JUNE/JULY 2017 | 33

0617the_mast-index-cm1-rc1-dn1-cm2-FINAL.indd 33 6/2/17 9:28 AM

 EDTECHInsider By David Nagel & Project Tomorrow

First-Year Teachers More Confident in Tech

but Use It Less Than Experienced Teachers
New data from a survey of more than 37,000 educators revealed
that first-year teachers aren’t using tech in the classroom as much as
their more experienced colleagues even though they have a higher
opinion of their own technological abilities.
The data, released by Project Tomorrow as part of its annual
Speak Up survey, showed that compared with teachers who have
been working 11 or more years in the field, first-year educators are
less likely to:
Use gaming in the classroom (56 percent of first years versus
60 percent of more experienced teachers);
“Review data reports on student achievement and perfor-
mance” (51 percent versus 59 percent);
“Facilitate student collaborative projects using online tools”
(35 percent versus 45 percent);
“Use an online curriculum with my students” (26 percent
versus 33 percent);
“ Create investigations for my students using digital tools or
scientific instrumentation” (24 percent versus 31 percent);
“Create videos of my lectures or lessons for students to watch”
(16 percent versus 18 percent); and
“Engage in online professional communities” (14 percent
versus 24 percent).
The one category where first years outdid more experienced
teachers was “Customize digital content I find online to meet my
class needs” (50 percent versus 47 percent).
Thirty-four percent of first-year teachers rate their tech skills as
“advanced” versus 27 percent of educators who have been working
in the field for 11 or more years.
The new data, along with an infographic, can be accessed on
Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up site: tomorrow.org/speakup/.
David Nagel is editor-in-chief of THE Journal.

Teachers in both groups shared similar interests in their Classroom Models

top choices for professional development topics.
Which of these topics are on your wish list for professional
development this year? (Top five choices of first-year teachers) 1ST YEAR 11+ YEARS

Using education games within instruction 58% 47%

Using technology to differentiate instruction 56% 52% 78%
Using technology tools for formative assessment 40% 33%
Using mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops,
Chromebooks) within instruction
39% 37%
16%
Understanding how to use student data to improve
teaching practices and student learning experiences
33% 24%
6%

Compared to their more experienced peers, first-

year teachers reported greater confidence in their 78% were in traditional classroom settings
own technology skills. 16% were in a blended class environment
How would you rate your technology skills? 1ST YEAR 11+ YEARS
6% were in other classroom models
Advanced - My skills are more advanced than most
adults I know
34% 27%
Source: Speak Up Research Project for Digital
Average - My skills are similar to those of the adults I know 63% 69% Learning, 2016 Findings - the results of the au-
thentic, unfiltered views of 514,351 K–12 students,
Beginner - I’m just learning to use technology tools 3% 5% parents, and educators from around the world

34 | JUNE/JULY 2017

0617the_EdTech-cm1-dn1-rc1-FINAL.indd 34 6/1/17 12:30 PM

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