Tech Boot Camp -- here we go!

After a month of preparation and anticipation, we begin our training with staff this week. We have nearly 200 staff registered to attend this week and it is going to be excellent!

We have conducted a couple of "practice" trainings over the past couple of weeks to try and work out the agenda and pacing of the introductory three hour workshop. This proved worthwhile as we learned some things that will be very helpful as we move into training sessions with as many as 60 teachers involved.

Many thanks to Northfield High School Media Specialist Rebecca Glassing and Technology Specialist Cindy Samuelson for their work to inventory and prepare our iPads for distribution. Network Manager Nate Knutson has done a fantastic job of installing our new wireless solution and we are excited to see it handle these devices this week.

As I was preparing for the sessions this week, I came across former Tech Boot Camp schedules and documents. This will be the 17th Tech Boot Camp that I have had the fortune of leading across three school districts during my career. It is always a great week and it is clear proof that Northfield educators are life-long learners. This is such an important thing to model for students -- that learning is a continuous effort that should never end.

In addition to our iPad sessions, we are also offering workshops about using SMART Boards, Google Apps, personal learning networks, and others. You can see the entire list of offerings by clicking here. These workshops are all taught by our own teachers. Over the years, I have found colleagues teaching colleagues to be one of the most powerful professional development tools we have as a district. I am sure there will be challenges this week, but we will learn from them and move on.

So -- here we go!

Update 6.29.12

We've made some significant progress this week in our implementation planning! Our iPads arrived on Monday, which is awesome since we could get to work right away on developing our "intake" strategy. Special thanks to Northfield High School Media Specialist Rebecca Glassing and Technology Specialist Cindy Samuelson for their work on creating the inventory strategy we'll be using. Their careful planning is already paying off!

I have contacted our Transformational Technology Task Force members and am beginning to set up meetings for early August. In addition, this week we have had more than 70 teachers and other staff register for Tech Boot Camp and almost everyone of those for the iPad I and/or II training.

Keep those Tech Boot Camp registrations coming in!

Update 6.22.12

We received confirmation yesterday that our iPads have shipped and will hopefully arrive sometime next week. Once they arrive, staff will be tagging the devices and entering them into our inventory system. Thanks to our Rebecca Glassing, our awesome Northfield High School Media Specialist, the iPads will be entered into our Destiny management system so we can check them out to staff just like a book!

We also have scheduled our Tech Boot Camp sessions - this was sent to District staff today. The iPad sessions offered initially will be focused on the general use and operation of the iPad. We'll continue throughout the year with additional professional development - focusing more on teaching with the iPad rather than operating the iPad itself.

We've had 22 staff sign up for our task forces and will begin to set those meeting schedules next week.

One of the projects taking place this summer to support the transformational technology initiative is the improvement of our wireless networks. This week, we have some data cabling being installed to prepare for the addition of several higher density wireless devices at the Middle School and High School. This is an important component of this project that we hope to have completed in early August.

As always, let me know if you have any questions about the project. You can contact me by phone at (507) 645-3458 or by email at matt.hillmann@nfld.k12.mn.us.

Recent media coverage

Over the past week, there have been two newspaper articles and a radio interview that have covered our transformational technology project. I've shared them below:

• 6.12.2012 KYMN Radio with Jeff Johnson
• 6.9.2012 Northfield News article
• 6.6.2012 Northfield News article

Board approves Phase I

The School Board approved Phase I of our transformational technology project last evening. We now begin the process of ordering the equipment for staff and preparing training sessions for them. We'll also be setting up six task forces to get into even more detailed planning for our potential Phase II student implementation.

You can watch the Board meeting, shown below. The transformational technology discussion begins at 8:05.




There have been many people involved in getting this project going -- literally hundreds! This project started with 35 teachers and then involved more than three dozen community members. It included presentations and feedback at each school and several Board presentations. Thanks to all who have assisted in formulating our approach to this project.

We will use this blog to continue to provide updates throughout the summer, approximately once per week.

As always, please feel free to contact me by phone at (507) 645-3458 or by email at matt.hillmann@nfld.k12.mn.us.

Public Information Meeting Review

We had between 15 and 20 people attend this evening's public information meeting at Northfield High School this evening. The highlight of the evening for most attendees were the excellent questions and comments offered by a rising Freshmen.

The presentation we used this evening is embedded below.




Thanks to the folks who attended!

Public information meeting scheduled for June 7

This message will be sent to parents in the District today:


The Northfield School District will hold a public information session regarding the progress of the District's transformational technology proposal on Thursday, June 7 at 6 pm in the Northfield High School auditorium. The District's transformational technology proposal  considers the use of tablet computers by teachers and students. The agenda will include presentations about the vision of the use of tablet computers by students and teachers, the potential implementation process, the cost of the project, and the method being considered to fund the implementation district-wide. The public will also be able to ask questions about the proposal. Please view the District's Transformational Technology blog for more information at:

 http://northfieldtechtransformation.blogspot.com/

Please contact Matt Hillmann with any questions by email at matt.hillmann@nfld.k12.mn.us or by phone at (507) 645-3458.


In addition, we plan to send it to the Northfield News, KYMN radio, and Northfield Patch.


The purpose of this informational meeting will be to give district residents another opportunity to hear about our ideas regarding the transformational technology project.  Unlike our previous community meetings, this will be a presentation and a question/answer period.


We hope to see you there!