Of the two biggest issues facing the use of bootleg technology on campus (1. Letting students do it. 2. Infrastructure), it is infrastructure that you need to really be concerned with. Specifically, as it deals with bandwidth.
It is recommended that by the 2014/2015 school year that a campus will need at least 100 megabits per second of connectivity to the external Internet for every 1,000 students and/or staff members, and 1 gigabit per second of connectivity for data transactions within a school-wide or district-wide network (SEDTA report). And that is just to get started. By 2017, multiply the amount of needed bandwidth by 10.
So what does that mean for your campus and/or district? Three things:
A. What you have now will not be adequate for the immediate future.
B. You need to have somebody who knows what they are doing to assess your campus (or campuses) and give you a prioritized action plan.
C. Start budgeting and securing funds to pay for these upgrades.
As funds get tighter, those who are proactive will continue to widen the gap between their campus and the campuses led by the reactive.
A number of you in the LYS Nation are now using your own bootleg technology devices to follow Twitter. If you haven’t done so yet, we want you to join us. To let you see what you are missing, here are the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of November 25, 2012.
1. The Athletic Director never calls a coaches’ meeting during game time. Yet central office thinks nothing of taking Principals off campus multiple times a week.
2. All students should be recognized but it does not need to be done equally. What matters is that it is done in a meaningful way. (By @TheJamesRowland)
3. The brains of poor kids process information differently than rich kids, working harder to ignore irrelevant stimuli. (By @anniemurphypaul)
4. There is almost zero correlation between staff evaluations and campus ranking.
5. I can make the case that an acceptable campus has an exceptional staff, if the campus outperforms its peers.
6. The problem with PDAS is it is a subjective system presented as objective. The Principal must define and communicate the standard of excellence.
7. U.S. birth rate has dipped to lowest ever recorded, falling 8% from 2007 to 2010. (That means fewer students in the future) (By @FareedZakaria)
8. I’m always flabbergasted by presenters who utilize lousy instructional pedagogy as they present about effective pedagogy. (By @tlonganecker)
9. Teacher quality is not about what we teach; quality is all about how we teach! (By @tra_hall)
10. Payoff the first day! Added the “end cookie” (FF: closing product) on my posted objective. Kids worked in a whole new way. And had more fun doing it. (By @NikaMaples)
Think. Work. Achieve. Your turn…
- Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com! http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5
- Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com! http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook
- Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool)
- Upcoming Presentations: North Dakota Principals Association Conference (Keynote Speaker), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
- Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
