Leadership Matters December 2013

Technology in the classroom

an English teacher in Teutopolis and before computer geeks were cool. “I’m a teacher at heart; I got into it for teaching,” he recalled, adding that he secured a grant from the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan. A few years later, he partnered with the NCSA at the U of I on a teaching game called Good News Bears, where students got to invest a hypothetical $1 million and then tracked their investments, learning about the stock market and the importance of saving and investing. He said IlliniCloud now is working with schools like the University of Wisconsin, Boise State

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These collaborations resulted from the Illinois Shared Learning Environment (ISLE), which the IlliniCloud joined as the only K12 partner. “We wanted to make sure that we took part in ISLE so K12 had a voice in the decisions around data, identity and the middleware for a statewide P20 system. This will ultimately be very important to districts,” Peterson said. Because nearly all of the funded ISLE projects were scoped to be delivered to K12, they were able to design and manage the core information sharing elements of ISLE and they are

and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that developed games for teaching purposes, trying to reach students where they learn best. IlliniCloud is governed by a 15-person board of technology officers co- chaired by Vicki DeWitt, director of the Area 5 Learning Technology Center (LTC) in Edwardsville, and Mindy Fiscus, director of Murphysboro’s Area 6

dedicated to protecting the data that is collected. “We have created an environment that is safe, something parents and school administrators can trust. When it comes to collecting data, no one can see someone else’s data. We can’t even see the data we collect from a school district and we would never give that data up.”

LTC, two of the seven LTCs operated under the auspices of ISBE. Any district interested in becoming part of the IlliniCloud can get details and fill out an application form by going to the IlliniCloud website at www.illinicloud.org . Peterson said there are a couple of main reasons school districts don’t take advantage of what IlliniCloud offers: 1) many districts don’t know about it, and 2) the contractual cycle districts might be in with regard to IT services. Despite the high-tech nature of what IlliniCloud represents, Peterson said the group has not lost its focus: students in the classroom. “We want to provide services to school administrators that can get them out of the business of technology infrastructure so that they can focus on teachers and kids. We want to provide services and tools that augment their tools,” Peterson said. “We want to deliver information to teachers that they can use with individual students in the classroom. That’s where achievement happens.”

IlliniCloud was born out of an idea Peterson championed for school districts working together. More than eight years ago, the Bloomington and Springfield school districts collaborated by sharing offsite backups at their respective sites, but it simply was not cost effective for just two districts. Now there are multiple data centers located at Bloomington, Murphysboro, and DeKalb. Murphysboro and that district’s chief information officer, Steve Carrington, serve as the fiscal officer for IlliniCloud. Carrington described the simplicity – and success – of the joint effort by saying, “We’re not lawyers; we’re just a bunch of tech guys trying to help schools.” Carrington and Peterson both credit their supervisors and their superintendents, Dr. Barry Reilly of Bloomington District 87 and Christopher Grode of Murphysboro District 186, for supporting the IlliniCloud concept and allowing them to work on the project. Peterson’s interest and intrigue in technology for schools began all the way back in 1991 when he was

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