https://vimeo.com/207698879
Education technology – it’s all about the timing.
By Mind Rocket Media Group
Dr. Benny Lile, Superintendent of Metcalfe County Schools in Edmonton, Kentucky believed in personalized learning well before the concept became a popular phrase. According to Lile, the notion has been there all along, but differentiation was the challenge. In the last three to four years, technology has finally caught up to help with the management side of personalized learning making it a process that can succeed in teaching.
1:1 learning is no longer kids playing around on iPads, it’s a deliverable with instructions and management systems. Even the concept of lesson plans has changed to the point where parents, teachers, and administrators can view full lessons and track the progress of student achievement on a daily basis.
As a former technology director, Dr. Benny Lile is proud to support advancements through the AASA Personalized Learning cohort. The program has helped evaluate education technologies that deliver content and interaction platforms for different segments of grade school. Lile points to advancements in K-8 that have greatly benefited from technology catching up to the lower grade learning environments.
Education technology – it’s all about the timing.
Interview
Dr. Berger: Benny, I think we’re in an interesting time in school leadership around the country because we’re finding that resources can be scarce and/or the ways in which we try to best manage the funding that we have. A lot of districts are looking for alternative means to support the needs of the students and the teachers and their buildings.
In Kentucky, have you had conversations around the proper timing in the way to engage corporate America or corporations or entities in the private sector within Kentucky to help interface with public schools? If so, how do you view that?
Dr. Benny Lile: That’s an ongoing issue, and I think we have different levels. We’re fortunate to have a UPS hub in Louisville, Kentucky, and I know there’s been a lot of cooperation through larger districts as in Jefferson County.
I’m in a much smaller district in very rural Kentucky so that presents its own challenges.
Most any district will have some number of manufacturers or some entity within the district that you can work through. The issue there becomes sustainability and then how to build it into the long haul.
Kingsford Charcoal manufacturing, for instance, is in our district. They’re a wonderful partner and they’re wonderful for a specific project. But to build that into any type of long-term sustainability for a district presents more of a challenge.
Hence, we tend to have to go outside. We have a grant writer and we’re constantly looking for those partnerships or even relationships that we can do that will be more long term in nature.
DB: Let’s talk a little bit about technology and the way in which we go from resources to then providing into the classroom. I think we’re maturing as an industry. Do you agree with me that when we first see technology sort of hit a district, it’s just K-12.
But I’m starting to see more thoughtful discussions not only from technology providers but also from districts in saying that K-8 is a little bit different than 8-12. How do you separate that out and what kinds of conversations?
I know that you spent years as a technology director. I would imagine this is sort of personal to you in the way in which you can also personalize the experience for both students and teachers at K-8 versus K-12.
BL: One of the conversations we’re having right now is that most districts are trying to work through personalized learning. I’ve been fortunate to be a part for the past year of the AASA Personalized Learning Cohort. And so, we’re making connections with my colleagues from across the nation talking about what we’re doing.
And you are correct. One of the challenges, specifically, is lower primary. So when we’re looking at K-2, K-3, we’re having our own struggles and debate in that right now. We have some major projects going on in Grade 4-12. we’re having that conversation ─ how does it work in K-3?
There are some models out there. We had some of our school personnel visit Wisconsin just two weeks ago and see some of that in action, and they came back with some ideas.
So I think you’re going to see more movement in ─ I’ll call it ─ K3 sector in that arena and it’s more than just a child having a good time with an iPad swiping back and forth. It’s going to be actual content and interaction. And I think our students can handle that. I think they’re prepared for it.
DB: I’m glad you brought that point up because I’m happy to see that there’s a shift from students being consumers to creators.
BL: Absolutely.
DB: And that really, then, speaks to the younger generation. Do you find that you need to provide more supports for your own staff so that you can be looking at it through that lens?
When we think of technology, we think it’s just sort of icing on the cake. But, there are technologies not only that we can apply to different subjects that we originally thought were only isolated to one, and there are so many different impacts that they can have.
BL: I think back to my time in the classroom and the colleagues who were teaching at that time that I still have communication with. Today’s emphasis on personalized learning ─ as I look back I think we had that concept all along. We had that desire and we had that dream and so many of our national authorities in education kept speaking of differentiation.
And it’s hard to argue differentiation. But when you’re in a classroom from 8 to 3 in maybe a 15-minute or an hour-long period, how do you manage that? That’s has been the challenge all the way along.
Finally, I think just probably in the last three to four years, technology has caught up with that. When I taught middle-grade science and social studies, I was wanting to do this and trying to do it but not having any resources to help manage. Now we have that. The technology is finally there to do it.
So when we see the one-to-one projects that are taking place now, it’s not just to say that you have a computer and I have a computer. No, it is the delivery of the instruction; and the mode of the instruction. What you’re able to do as a learner now is capable of being managed in a very efficient manner because of the technology we have available.
DB: Regarding the way we communicate the achievement and results of the students to the greater community, which includes parents and all sorts of stakeholders, how do you look at in the ways in which we are adding more and more and in which we are personalizing learning and documenting that experience? How does your district look at not only documenting it but also communicating that out?
BL: Let me talk first about the documenting because, I think, the conversation we’ve been having just recently goes back to lesson plans ─ the whole thing of teacher lessons plans that are due on Friday or due Monday morning or whatever it may be.
We’re having a conversation now. If we’re truly personalizing learning, we’ve got our content digitized and students are moving at their own pace. It is open for the school and I might even say that it should be open for parents as well.
From my administrator point of view, the old way of turning in a lesson plan in a little 3-inch block should be gone because, now, you don’t just have the lesson plan, you have the lesson.
If you’re the principal, if you’re the curriculum director, you should be able to go in at any time and see the lesson and the progression.
Now, talk about the parents. The majority of the tools that I’m aware of have what they call a “parent view.” So, at any given time, a parent can drop in and see exactly what their child is working on and exactly what they’re doing and see their grades. My phone may buzz at any moment in my pocket with my daughter’s grade today in her classes so I know exactly where she is and what she’s doing. That just continues to advance.
And for the larger community, I think, when we begin to accelerate student work and our community can see what’s taking place, I really think it begins not to de-emphasize our state results, whether it’s a number or a letter grade, but communities do not get so fixated on that but they fixated on what the students are doing not only in the classroom but in their community.
DB: Let’s look at your personal story. What have you learned along the way in being a superintendent? I think there are a lot of misconceptions about what it means to be a superintendent and what it takes to be a superintendent in the ever growing and changing industry.
What have you personally learned?
BL: I think I’ve learned that it’s important to listen ─ to always listen. The open-door policy kind of gets overused and, in some cases, is a misnomer. But I’ve tried to develop an environment, whether it’s in the parking lot, at the grocery store, in the stands at the ball game, or walking into my office, I’m there to have a conversation with anybody.
In my first few months on the job, I had several people ask me, “I bet you’re getting a lot of phone calls,” and I said, “No, not really. They just come see me.”
It was almost like when the word got out that “yes, this guy will talk to you,” they were just about lined up.
DB: For those who don’t know you personally, you’re part of a band, correct?
BL: Yes
DB: So I would imagine that you, then, can fill the seats pretty well if you’ve got an open-door policy.
BL: I think that helps. We do. There are eight of us ─ administrators, teachers, and students.
DB: And the name of the band?
BL: It’s the Hornets’ Nest Pickers and the Hornets being our mascot for Metcalfe County.
I think that when you put yourself in that environment and people see you out there, number one, they can have a good time; they can come and enjoy something and be a part of it.
That makes people a lot more open to approaching you as an individual and it just creates a more relaxed atmosphere. I think that’s not why we did that but it’s certainly been a nice byproduct.
About Dr. Benny Lile 
Dr. Benny Lile has been Superintendent of Metcalfe County Schools in Edmonton, KY since 2013. Before becoming superintendent, Dr. Benny Lile was Director of Instruction and Technology for Barren County Schools for 19 years. Lile received his Doctor of Education from Western Kentucky University and his BS from the University of Kentucky Dr. Benny Lile Twitter
This article was originally published on The Huffington Post by Dr. Berger
Author
education correspondent for MindRocket Media Group is an education correspondent and correspondent with articles in The Huffington Post and Forbes
- The Glasgow Daily Times – Benny Lile gets super review
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- eSchool News – How one district improved its personalized learning by failing forward
Last month, I had the good fortune to attend two educational conferences. From the inside looking out, everything looked and sounded pretty much the same: the same venders, the same sessions, the same ideas. For me, attending education conferences has become an affirmation of the adage that “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” My trip left me with the cold truth that, in education, there are truly no more original ideas—just the next iteration of the same thoughts and concepts that have defined us for decades, but wrapped in the latest educational catchphrase.
When you think about it, there are very few things that tie all Americans together. Education might be the only thing that most of us have done together. Whether you were homeschooled, public schooled, private schooled or schooled at sea, we all think we know what education looks like and how it works. We get upset when an idea comes along that challenges our mental model of education.
I am sorry, but I have to raise my hand at this point and state loudly, “This is not okay!” We are capable of so much more. We do not need to be what we have always been. I believe our answer to imagining a future that meets our ever-evolving needs as a society starts with our looking inward. Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Maybe our journey to a better place in education starts with acknowledging that our current system of teaching and learning is constrained by our jointly held mental model of education. When you think about it, we keep inventing the same things over and over again in education because that is what we collectively know the experience of education to be. We lack the ability to rethink the entire experience because doing so would require us to unstitch the concept of school from our lives. It would mean letting go of an experience that binds us together as Americans: a compulsory K–12 education.
So, for the next year, I am embarking on a journey to identify the things I would take with me to Mars to begin the process of ensuring that my fellow Martians were an informed citizenry that took care of all of its members; that, as Martians, we were educated to contribute to a larger good, but still had the skills and knowledge to follow our individual aspirations; that, as Martians, equity and equality were nurtured through the acquisition of knowledge and that the most valuable thing any Martian could own was his or her personal bank of knowledge.
Corporations, measured through their profit & loss (P&L) statement or stock value, always feel a sense of urgency to improve or they join the hundreds of thousands of others filing for bankruptcy. This urgency hasn’t existed in education. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2013-2014 fewer than 2 percent of schools in the United States closed their doors. However, today’s innovation-driven economy has created a significant shift, causing an unsettling demand to deliver a graduate with new skillsets; skillsets that educators may not have themselves. Tony Wagner, Expert in Residence at Harvard University’s Innovation Lab and Senior Research Fellow at the Learning Policy Institute, asserts that we need creative problem solvers, critical thinkers, questioners, and people willing to fail forward. Google, one of the world’s most innovative companies places more emphasis on an applicant’s ability to collaborate and to perform authentic job-related challenges than their academic prowess. In fact, 15 percent of Google employees don’t have a college degree.
Here’s how it works: Jonathan, the CIO, submits a grant to the Mason Schools Foundation which spans the entire academic year. Then, monthly, a theme with a funding cap (generally $1,500) is released focusing on topics such as makerspaces, personalized learning, innovative spaces, and global awareness and sustainability. Resources are provided allowing teachers to learn more about the theme and interested applicants can then pre-conference with an Innovative Learning Coach. The Innovative Learning Coach helps teachers refine their idea into an award-winning proposal. Whether a grant is awarded or not, the innovation coach works with the applicants to help them learn from the process, beginning to end.
Currently, proposals are being written for using the space to create authentic learning experiences for students. A few ideas are percolating: a coffee shop where students can call ahead and the drinks will be ready for them, a copy shop completely run by students across disciplines and a tech help desk. Teachers and students are working together to offer a new type of experience at Upper Arlington High School.
Most people think project work is just for older children. The words kindergarten and projects typically aren’t seen as words that “go together.” This could be because many think the transitional age and time from preschool to real school known as kindergarten is still baby stuff. Changing people’s perceptions about what young children can do as learners starts now. Here is our story showing that the words project work and kindergarten actually do belong together.
Our reptile project started thanks to us getting a class pet, “Echo the gecko” and an alligator head that we had in our science area. Strangely enough we learned that they were both reptiles and that opened the floodgate for questions about reptiles. Initially in phase one our questions focused mainly on geckos then it shifted into all things reptile. Our questions ranged from “Can geckos stick to walls?” to “How do snakes slither?”, “Why do mommy turtles leave their babies?”, “How big is the biggest alligator?” and “What predators do Komodo dragons have?” Throughout the course of the project our class asked over one hundred different questions about reptiles. Their question asking ability improved greatly throughout the course of the project and they learned where to get information, which is huge because at the beginning of the project they had no idea. We also started early with parental involvement opportunities by surveying our families about reptiles. Our project started in October and ended in January with us spending a minimum of 3 days per week working on the project during project time.
In phase two we invited in guest experts. We had the older brother of one of the students in our class, who breeds geckos, visit. The awesome story behind him as an expert is that he was a student who really struggled in school until his parents found something he was truly interested in and they used reptiles to motivate him and help him do better in school. He made a PowerPoint presentation for our class to answer all of our questions. When he shared it with our class their mother cried; she did not even know he knew how to make a PowerPoint slideshow. Not to mention how proud his little brother was that he was our guest expert. We had the Missouri Department of Conservation come and teach us about snakes and turtles. We skyped The Oregon Zoo to learn about and see a blue tongued skink. After that we skyped with two cast members from the History Channel’s hit show “SWAMP PEOPLE.” Mr. Justin and Ms. Liz the “Gator Queen” answered our questions about alligators! You never know who you can get as guest experts. All you have to do is ask and the worst someone might say is no. More times than not people do want to help and are willing to, in whatever way they can. We also went to see the Kansas City Reptile Show on a Sunday with our families to get exposure to more exotic reptiles.
To make our “movie memorabilia” for the movie we paired with our art teacher and made clay reptile representations. Each child made a reptile that matched the one they chose to teach others about in the movie. After the movie showed, the children then shared their clay representations with their parents and the parents circled the room to hear from every child so they could learn about different reptiles. We also worked with our music teacher to learn a song about lizards to sing at our reptile show movie premier. During this project we worked hard to incorporate technology in a big way. We used iPads to do basic reptile research, video chatting applications to talk with people in different states about reptiles and we even made a movie! We completely rocked out a project and we incorporated lots of technology. A common misconception is that project work is not “real school work”, that no standards are being met. On the contrary, during the reptile project our class met twenty-eight Missouri Learning Standards in 6 different subject areas. And not only did we meet them, the children were afforded subject integrated learning opportunities that spanned multiple developmental domains.
When you say the word “risk” different things come to mind. One of the riskiest things I can imagine would be running with the bulls in Pamplona Spain. This annual event pits a group of racers against a herd of crazed bulls and was originally designed to move the bulls quickly through the town using a mixture of fear and excitement for both the bulls and the participants.
Now fast forward to the big changes happening in the world of federal grants with the advent of the new 
Being “grant-ready” is more important for federal grants than ever before. That is because the new grant regulations require funding agencies to complete a risk and integrity assessment before awarding federal funds. Wondering what that looks like? While the new regulations stop short of laying out a checklist for potential grant recipients, the guidance gives you a framework for the risk and integrity assessment with several focus areas. Here are some of the main considerations:
Smart grant writers and administrators will start addressing the areas of risk and integrity as they contemplate applying for federal awards. As the grant narrative is developed, organizations should explicitly address these areas that make up the risk framework.
Effective January 1, 2016, the new risk assessment requires federal agencies to report applicants who are deemed “not-qualified” for a federal award to the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS). Once an organization is on the federal “naughty” list, that status is retained in FAPIIS for a period of five years. In addition, the updated regulations require funding agencies to review FAPIIS as part of a risk assessment prior to awarding grants greater than $150,000 and must consider the “non-qualified” applicant status in making decisions about future awards.
The statement must be included in the annual and final fiscal reports or vouchers requesting payment under the federal agreements. Don’t be lulled to a false feeling that nothing changed from the previous version of the grant regulations. The regulations were beefed up to require an “official who is authorized to legally bind the non-Federal entity” rather than the old vague requirement of a “responsible” official. The crime of omission was also added to the new language, where if you know something significant has gone haywire and you don’t come forward and tell your funding agency, you could be prosecuted. So now it’s even more important that federal funds flow to the purpose for which they are intended and grant recipients actively work to reduce the risk of mismanagement of grants.
