Education Data in Today's K-12 Schools - Education Datapalooza

please welcome the superintendent of Clark County Schools virginia Eric Williams
Good morning
everyday
i come to work
thinking about
how we can increase student engagement
and ownership of learning
because i think that the lack of student engagement, the lack of student ownership
of learning
is the biggest challenge that we face in education today
across this nation
but i think the way to address this is the status students
you to change the world
you have unique gifts and talents
that the world needs
and as educators
we're going to help you
make a difference
when we give students opportunities
to do meaningful work
and by that i mean work it makes a difference locally nationally
and globally then we see an incredible increases student engagement
and ownership
of their learning
and that's the resultant students learning more both in terms of content
and
skills
and so in york county
we're engaging elementary students middle school students and high school
students
in transforming
the world
around them
and so for example we have students who are identifying and tackling problems
such as water quality
child obesity
and also identifying in seizing entrepreneurial opportunities
such as selling gently used toys and designing the mobile apps to support
students
with special needs
and i want to tell you a little bit about
third-grade students in our district. Last year we had over a hundred of them
who worked to improve the soil quality in agricultural village into developing
nation
and
we had a group of
parents who said okay we're gonna make a charitable donation
but the challenge for students was
okay we are going to collaboratively work to decide how we're going to invest
this donation
so students did
research because what they were looking at is two different approaches the
fertilizing soil
one fertilizing the soil with manure into fertilizing soil
with worms
so what they did is conducted research they even conducted some original
experiments on this topic
and then the Skyped with their peers throughout the division too
advocate for their particular
fertilizing strategy
the results were amazing because what we saw a students who were incredibly
engaged
with the work that they were doing they wanted to stay in it recess they wanted
to stay after school because they knew that the work that they were
doing mattered
and what was the result of that
students
did great job of mastering the 3rd gradecurriculum standards
relating
to soil quality and also making pursuits making persuasive arguments
now one of the challenges
that our teachers
face
in doing projects like this is finding the learning resources that they need and
their students need to be successful
in doing the work
you heard earlier today about the learning registry
and so in the case of our third grade teachers they want to hook their
students up
learning resources relating to soil quality
and so
the learning registry offers opportunities then
for teachers to say okay i wanna find content
that's associated with particular learning standards particular grade
levels because that's what's going to be helpful from my students and teachers
so last spring
at the invitation of Aneesh Chopra, former chief technology officer of the U.S.
government and with the support of the digital promise League of Innovative
Schools
I issued in accelerants
to in and it was in the setting at uh... it was a start norfolk with which is
basically a gathering of entrepreneurs
and it's our flies
let's create
apts
help teachers access
content
access learning resources that are part of the learning registry
dividname enterprises rose to the challenge
by convening
teens of
of programmers designers and product developers
to work out that situation related acts
to access information in
demanding registry
the advent this um...
this event asked me do you have to tom was all just a few weeks ago it was
forty eight hours
it was amazing
the results of these eight teams
uh... had over those forty eight hours cuz they got a great start
in creating acts
at to access the learning registry
the appa that was selected as the winner of the best overall design category
isn't i don't
is entitled mister out and so what do you sure does with mr alok
is they posed that question your topic they are looking for
they commitment refine the search by authors or organizations providing that
content
they also can save their favorite searches
in area of the apt
that's known as my collection
and they can also share their search results
uh... via social midi social media uh... such as
such as twitter
and wearing that he's a great is
all all of this is on open open platform is suppose that decode has been posted
on get hub
bump for folks who want a bill
bond their efforts
by in pulp for that the people in this uh... not only gonna work on initiatives
such as
the learning registry
but also will help us
create up policy
and technology infrastructure that will support students
uh... making a difference in the world and thereby mastering the continent
skills
of the curriculum
and because really it's about say hey how can we support students
who are in the process of preparing themselves to change the world not just
preparing themselves but they get into it by saying it's make a difference now
in terms of policy infrastructure
we need to have a policy infrastructure
that helps students become digital citizens who use response who
use technology in positive responsible ways
all too often
districts adopt a lockdown mentality symbolized here by the padlock
which they say hey let's
control the situation by restricting student access to digital tools
well in york county were successfully replacing that mentality within the
mentality that puts students in the driver's seat
with technology
responsibly using it
with our guidance
and the results are amazing so for example we have on students who are
using social media at school for learning
whether it's twitter
Facebook using other tools like YouTube and Skype
so not blocking
those tools but saying to studentshey let's use those tools
also instead of saying to students leave your cell phone at home or power off
telling students we want you to bring your cell phone to school we
want you to

bring up any technology of your choice
to school
in order to learn
now, along with a
policy infrastructure
we need a strong technology
infrastructure
because of bringing your own technology part of it is having a robust
wireless network
that students can access
another part though is
investment in bandwidth
we had a six-fold increase in bandwidth
in august and that's going to help us get to where we need to be we've also
created virtual desktop infrastructure
which is a private cloud
that allows our students
twenty four seven three sixty five access to the resources
of our network
so what i want to close
in saying is that each of you have unique skills
and passions
that brought you here today
and just like
the pitch to students is hey we want you to change the world, you all really
are changing the world so i commend you
because you're gonna help us engage students in work
that makes the difference and therefore they're going to learn a heck of a lot more
content and skills so i command you and encourage you to keep up
the great work