Principal Cindy Agopian and teacher Brandee Ramirez (standing) from Tustin

By the end of next week just before winter break begins, 95 LA Unified schools will have been issued computer devices for the year — one for every student, according to Bill Wherritt, the district’s Distribution Project Manager for the Instructional Technology Initiative Task Force.

The remainder of the 103 schools in a pilot program for one-to-one computer technology will get their devices when students return to school in January, he said.

The delay to some schools was caused by extra requirements imposed by the district before distributing the Chromebooks, iPads or laptops.

“We are asking for more planning that the schools have to do before we bring the devices to the school,” Wherritt said at an ITI Task Force meeting yesterday. Schools have to get agreements signed by students and parents and have a tech coordinator in charge of the devices at each school.

So far, three schools opted out of the device distribution: One charter school and one magnet school are planning their own one-to-one computer program, and another charter school decided that technology was not part of its vision, Wherritt said.

The task force is made up of nearly 50 teachers, students, principals and district staff, charged with devising a district-wide technology strategy for improving the use of computers in classroom instructions. It’s run by Frances Gipson, who was recently named as the district’s chief academic officer.

“It is important for us to share best practices and learn from each other and other districts,” said Gipson, who invited technology experts from the Pomona and Tustin school districts to attend yesterday’s meeting.

“I’m not a techie person, but I have the vision,” said principal Cindy Agopian of Hicks Canyon Elementary in Tustin, a school of 950 students who speak 25 different languages. “Principals can’t use the excuse that they are not good at technology, because I am able to do it, and I’m not.”

Agopian credits her success to having 13 tech coaches for the teachers and being very clear about tech plans for integration into the school curriculum.

In LA Unified, meanwhile, technicians will be upgrading about 130,000 Apple devices to the new iOs 9.2 system. Also, more teachers will soon be in Schoology, which Is approved for  a two-year run in the district. Already, more than 1,000 teachers are trained on the new shared digital site and will be helping with training of others.

The task force meetings are held every two weeks and are open to the public.

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Wrong, wrong, and well, sorta wrong.

That’s the word that LAUSD wants to get out. The computer technology program at LAUSD gets a bad rap. Of course, the botched $1.3 billion iPad implementation and all the bad publicity that came from that could have contributed to the reputation. But, now they’re out to change the image.

First thing’s first. The Instructional Technology Initiative Task Force had to learn the myths from reality before starting to figure how to best add devices into the classroom instruction. More than half of the 50 members raised hands, saying they didn’t know information on a fact sheet handed out by Sophia Mendoza, the interim director of the Instructional Technology Initiative at LAUSD.

“We want to answer all your questions,and get you the answers,” Mendoza said at the group’s first meeting on Sept. 10.

As the district plans to expand computer devices to every school, the task force wants the public to know that it’s not just concentrating on the test schools that have one device per student, the so-called “one-to-one” schools. The district trains teachers, students and on the proper use of the devices being sent home with students

Here are excerpts of the “myths,” according to the district — and reality.

MYTH: There has been widespread student “hacking” of tablets, security breaches and wireless failures.

FACTS: That’s true in the only a literal sense. At the start of the iPad program, as The Los Angeles Times reported, about 300 students at Roosevelt High School figured out how to surf the web by deleting their school profile. The district tech teams were able to figure out a fix.

In its defense, the district pointed out that “less than 1 percent of the 31,000 students involved in Phase 1 (of the device implementation plan).” But no student has hacked into any device; no serious security compromises have occurred, and no wireless systems have failed.

MYTH: This is an Apple iPad program

FACTS: That’s how it started. But one superintendent resignation and FBI investigation later . . .

Now, the program does not center on any particular type of device or brand name. In fact, current phases involve use of Google Chrome Books and Windows laptops in addition to the Apple iPads (of approximately 70,000 devices deployed to one-to-one schools thus far, about one-third are non-Apple devices).

MYTH: There is no district-wide policy stating who is responsible if a tablet is lost or stolen.

FACTS: California law holds families responsible for loss or damage to school property; LAUSD will only enforce this in cases of willful negligence.

Accidents will happen, and the district says it has safeguards to ensure that students can continue to learn without disruption when they occur.

Frances Gipson takes over at ITI Task Force

LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines delivered a “jump start” to the newly-reformed Instructional Technology Initiative Task Force at its first meeting of the school year yesterday. He addressed such concerns as an already-aging supply of computers, a change in task force leadership and his renewed effort to get a device in the hands of every student in the district.

Made up of 50 committee members, the ITI Task Force is charged with devising a district-wide technology strategy for improving the use of computers in classroom instructions. Almost immediately, it appeared that word wasn’t getting out very well.

When Linda Del Cueto, chief of Professional Learning and Leadership Development, said all teachers now have access to the two carts of computer devices in their schools that were assigned last year for state testing, two principals on the task force said they knew nothing about that possibility. Another principal said she knew about it, but her teachers had not yet taken advantage of the offer.

“We obviously need to get the word out a bit better,” Del Cueto said.

About 75 people attended the meeting at the Miguel Contreras Learning Center. The audience included parents, school administrators, tech company representatives and resource experts from the Cotsen Foundation, Education Elements and others (including a former consultant from the Broad Foundation). There is also a former student member of the task force from last year who is doing a thesis paper on the task force for Indiana University.

“This is a large, large project,” Cortines told the gathering. “I needed to jump-start this important movement. It is an important time for us.”

So important that he explained why he replaced the chairperson he had named in April, Judy Burton, when the task force was created. “She had not made the progress I had hoped,” he said. “We needed to move on.” The district has previously said Burton had stepped down for “personal reasons.”

In her place, Cortines last week appointed new Local District East superintendent Frances Gipson, who said she said she looks forward to developing a technology plan that school board would approve.

Cortines pointed out that the task force should not be worried about developing a funding stream; that, he said, is the board’s problem. “It will be no different than how we fund text books,” he said. “I see this as a five-year program where devices must be accessible to all students, and we have to work out a funding stream as well as a repair and replacement program.”

Cortines added, “We face an ominous situation because of the age of the devices we already have. There is an appalling number of devices in offices that are over five to 10 years-plus old, and that has to be addressed. This is not something the task force addresses, but something that this task force has to ask the board to address.”

Bill Wherritt, a Facilities Division official on the task force who is overseeing the device deployment to the schools, said he is getting computer devices to 30 schools this year alone. He pointed out that there are 70,000 devices in the district approved by the board, but schools have purchased another 160,000 devices on their own.

“There is a passionate group of teachers using them,” he said. “It is amazing what is happening in the schools.”

The task force plans to meet again on Sept. 24 and every other Thursday after that through the Spring at Contreras.

Got it?

That’s an excerpt from a new document that parents and students were given last week for any plan of going online or using computers at LAUSD schools. While the abbreviations are spelled out elsewhere in the message, it shows the complex use of LA Unified’s obsessive and sometimes confusing use of acronyms.

In this case, it was a memo from Shahryar Khazei, the Chief Information Officer Information Technology Division for the district, issued as a new Responsible Use Policy (RUP) that will replace the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) that was required since 2002. The agreement confirms with a federal law affecting the educational use of digital media called the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA).

Didn’t get the memo?

Basically, it explains that LAUSD uses technology to block or filter access to “visual and written depictions that are obscene, pornographic, or harmful to minors over the network.” The district also reserves the right to “monitor users’ online activities and access, review, copy, and store or delete any communications or files and share them with adults as necessary. Users should have no expectation of privacy regarding their use of District equipment, network, and/or Internet access or files, including email.”

Students and parents are asked to initial and sign two pages, checking off boxes that they agree to not share passwords, use appropriate language, avoid harassing and discriminatory communications, avoid vandalism, follow copyright laws and “practice positive digital citizenship,” among other things.

Teachers are asked to follow a more extensive contract that includes security issues and gives links to copyright guidelines.

According to the memo, “Site administrators must annually distribute, collect, and keep on file the completed attached forms prior to authorizing access to the Internet or the District’s network.”

LASR is HTH, ICYWW. SRLSY, JSYK.

Translation: LA School Report is here to help, in case you were wondering. Seriously, just so you know.

TTYL (Talk to you later).