Ways to pay for technology, as indicated by the task force.

After studying technology issues for more than a year, an LA Unified task force this week offered their ideas for the district after the botched iPad debacle that was supposed to result in one computer device in every student’s hands.

The price tag would be $311 million for “a 1:1 environment,” providing every student with a tablet or laptop, but the Instructional Technology Initiative Task Force also explained how much the district has already done in a year in their comprehensive report issued Tuesday and presented to the school board.

For example, 749 school sites have had full wireless infrastructure added this year, and 89 Early Educational Center sites will get it by the end of next school year, according to the report. Bandwidth in the district expanded to 119 gigabits, nearly double from a year ago.

More than 160,000 iPads, Chromebooks and Windows devices have been distributed to the schools since 2013.

“We are aware that as soon as we pressed the button to print this out, it is all out of date,” said Frances Gipson, who was put in charge of the task force last year by former Superintendent Ramon Cortines. “The world has changed by the time we do it.”

Superintendent Michelle King praised the more than 50 teachers, principals, parents, students, community computer experts, business people and administrators who were part of the task force and met every Thursday for the past year to work on the instructional technology issues facing the district.

“They met in small groups and large groups and even virtually to see how it can be done and have given us some principal-driven recommendations,” King said.

The task force in action during the Cortines administration.

The task force suggested ways of paying for the plan through bond funds, textbook funds, external partners and leasing devices, as well as having students bring their own devices to school to use for classwork. They also identified problems with the existing computer distribution devices, such as keeping track of them.

The recommendations involve the students being self-directed and the teachers being able to design their own instruction. They suggested avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach and emphasized flexible learning environments and a personalized approach. The recommendations include support for teachers and tools to identify effectiveness so there is consistent learning in all areas of the district.

“I would like to know what we would need to implement this,” said board member Monica Garcia. “What I see is us closing the digital divide that separates our families from others.”

Board President Steve Zimmer suggested the district look at how the devices could be used in the students’ homes. He said he would like to see all students being bilingual and also be able to write code for computers.

Board member Monica Ratliff said she thinks this should get to all the high schools as soon as possible and hopes the training for the teachers would not create too much of an extra burden for them.

The ideas and recommendations will continue to be collected on a free publishing platform called Scalar, said Sophia Mendoza from the task force.

“We knew the minute we printed it, it was out of date because of the rapid nature of technology,” Mendoza said. “This platform allows us to build out the recommendations as they change.”

The superintendent is now reviewing the recommendations and determining how to implement them.

It’s a slower, more methodical strategy than the approach taken by former Superintendent John Deasy, which led to the botched $1.3 billion iPad program, an FBI investigation, his resignation and an abrupt end to the program.

The 2015-2016 Strategic Execution Plan proposed by Shahryar Khazei, the district’s chief information officer, will “provide our schools with the infrastructure and equipment they need to teach all the students the skills they will need for success in the 21st century workforce,” he said.

Among the goals and expected accomplishments by the end of this school year are:

• Replacing deteriorated cables, switchers and routers and increasing bandwidth at 461 schools.
• Modernizing 95 percent of the existing school networks at 357 schools,
• Adding 37 technology aides to give direct support to schools.
• Providing greater network security at 92 percent of the schools, or 686 of 749.

The program doesn’t come without extra costs, paid for by local bond measures and a federal program. The budget increased by $14 million for the Instructional Technology Initiative, and the MiSiS budget increased by $100 million.

The goal is to ensure that at least 99 percent of the district schools have internet access and full support for tablets, printers, computers, smartphones, access points and more. The plan includes building a shared video solution for schools to store, view and load videos and use video conferencing. And, it will channel information through a secure and monitored server.

The IT division is piloting programs at a dozen schools that connect the public address system, telephones, audio visual equipment, intercommunication and notification services to the tech devices, using a single “pipe” that lowers costs to the district. It’s similar to how phone, television and internet access all comes through the same wiring at homes today.

The pilot program is at 11 elementary schools — 109th Street, 118th Street, Avalon Gardens, Dorris Place, Garvanza, Kim, Raymond Avenue, Ritter, San Gabriel, Strathern, Wilshire Park — and the Marlton School,.

The IT team is asking all schools for a written technology integration plan. It is also conducting a survey to determine the extent that existing infrastructure can be reutilized to reduce future projects’ costs. To date 59 percent of the school surveys are complete.

By April, the Instructional Technology Initiative Task Force plans to give recommendations for more district-wide technology programs for next year. The 40-person task force, comprised of principals, teachers, students, parents and tech staff as well as outside business representatives, was formed by former Superintendent Ramon Cortines and is meeting every Thursday to discuss ways to more easily mix technology and teaching.

Those meetings are open to the public.

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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Ray Cortines watches as the ITI Task Force discusses issues.

When 50,000 iPads, laptops and Chromebooks went out to LA Unified students last year, about 1,500 were unaccounted for.

So far this year about 1,000 were recovered and district computer techs now say they expect to recover the remaining 500 devices by sometime next week.

“We’ve been like Sherlock Holmes,” said Bill Wherritt, a Facilities Division official on the Instructional Technology Initiative Task Force who is overseeing the device deployment to the schools. “We can see them online and can deactivate them.”

By the end of next week, he explained, the missing computers will generate a message reading: “Go to see the principal if you want to reactivate your device.” Wherritt said he is confident the district will retrieve them all.

He admitted there was not good inventory taking last year and “a few things could be done better” to account for the distribution of the computer devices given out to the students and teachers. “We have learned, and we don’t want to recreate this situation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Wherritt said the district is “in the heat of distributing devices” to 103 pilot schools on schedule to get a device for every student. He said that at the beginning of the year 24 schools had their plans completed and approved to get their devices, and now that number is nearly double, at 47. He said 18 other schools have plans submitted and waiting for approval, and 23 other schools that have been approvaled are awaiting their devices.

It’s a complicated process to get the expected 70,000 computers out this year, but it’s a good sign that 88 of the schools are very close to getting them, Wherritt said.

Already, 11 schools have started the two-to-three days of training and distribution to the students, while 44 other schools will have computers distributed to each student in the next two weeks, Wherritt said. Some delays arise because principals have to be digitally certified, the entire school has to go through digital citizenship training, contracts with every student and parent have to be signed and all the forms have to be in before the devices get handed out.

Bill Wherritt

The tech services teams are aware of issues that occur when a school’s network gets a high traffic volume, especially when they are all downloading applications at the same time and when the wireless system goes down. Sophia Mendoza, the interim director of the Instructional Technology Initiative at LAUSD, said about 80 schools have requested support, and that shows widespread enthusiasm among the principals.

“We have some big, big changes going on with schools in the district,” Mendoza said. Some schools are collaborating with neighboring schools to get their devices faster. Also, Mendoza said the district is accelerating the process for schools to use the iPads at schools that students are already using for state tests.

Schools have to answer two questions to use their devices in the schools, Mendoza said. One is how the school will use the tech tools, and a second asks about the school’s vision for use of the devices.

Linda Del Cueto, chief of Professional Learning and Leadership Development, told the parents, teachers, principals and community experts on the task force that she has compiled some feedback from teachers and students so far about the math books. The schools are working with five publishers who all have online computer components to their materials.

“Teachers want more PD (professional development), and that is a good thing,” Del Cueto said. “And students and teachers both love not having to drag around their textbooks.”

The task force meetings are open to the public, and led by Local District East superintendent Frances Gipson. She outlined a loose agenda for the task force to present district-wide tech proposals to the School Board for approval by May.

The next ITI Task Force meeting is planned for Oct. 8 at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex.

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.