Roxanne Pompilio
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Enterprise
ARchitecture

Exploration of methods and strategies for maximizing the effectiveness of technology in an educational setting.

Enterprise Architecture

Reflecting on SBAC Technical Readiness—Module 10

3/29/2015

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Reflect on the work you did to collect information for the SBAC testing requirements. What stood out to you as key discoveries?

The Smarter Balanced Technology Strategy Framework and Testing Device Requirements are useful to determine technical readiness for the SBAC. I am not certain whether the framework was considered during the pilot last year or whether site administrators are aware of it. In terms of my own district, most school sites waited for instructions from the district. These instructions were rolled out at the last minute, resulting in many issues. This was particularly the case with the iPads. Our site followed the instructions we were given and were able to install the AIR Secure Test App and lock the App for the test. However, we were unable to unlock the App. As a result, all of the iPads used for the SBAC pilot had to be reimaged. This took a lot of time and prevented the devices from being used for instruction.

Given the importance of the SBAC and some of the issues SCPA experienced last year during the pilot, using a framework such as the one provided by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is important. I can only hope that site administrators consider such standards important. Often times, decisions are made without understanding the importance of the technology piece. Using the framework will definitely help school sites plan for and be better prepared technologically for the SBAC.

The preliminary research I conducted I hope with help troubleshoot and prevent technical issues during the online SBAC testing scheduled for May 2015. It definitely helped in terms of planning and what the next steps might be for SCPA in preparing for the SBAC. I sent a copy of my report to my site administrators and to our IT director.

Overall, it was comforting to know that SCPA meets the technical readiness requirements and standards for the upcoming SBAC event in terms of operating systems and devices. This was initially a concern at the beginning of the school year when there were delays with the Lenovo Yoga 11e tablets being deployed. Without the Lenovo’s, SCPA may have been short devices that met SBAC technical requirements. A key discovery for me in this process was realizing the importance of having an updated inventory of devices, and operating systems the devices are running, as well as potential maintenance concerns. When I first presented the SBAC technical readiness framework to our IT director and asked about getting an inventory of devices, he mentioned this was going to take a lot of research and work to put together. Although he was able to quickly printout a spreadsheet of the number of and type of devices assigned to each classroom, it was unclear whether all devices were running the most recent operating systems. With the newer devices it was obvious, but with the iPad 2s, some were still running iOS 7, others were running iOS 8.1.1, and a few teachers had updated to the iOS 8.2 even though they were told not to do so. It was also difficult to get an exact count of keyboards and headphones. Also, when I mentioned concerns about the AIR Secure Test App and whether there might be issues this year, I was told it is supposed to work. I’m curious if anyone has tested it out? This is one of the reasons I included this in my recommendations. Another key discovery for me was the networks ability to meet the current number of users. I do not think site administrators consider this to be important or to be a potential issue, or that the recommended number might exist for a reason. I hope this is something the site coordinator takes into consideration when planning for this year’s exam. Our site IT director and I work well together, so I know he will take the recommendations seriously. 


Reference:

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium: The Smarter Balanced Technology Strategy Framework and Testing Requirements. August 1, 2014. Retrieved March 18, 2015 from http://www.smarterbalanced.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Tech_Framework_Device_Requirements_11-1-13.pdf

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REflecting on an Application Rationale Approach—Module 9

3/21/2015

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To be successful in meeting the needs of stakeholders, reduce redundancy in applications and costs, and achieve required outcomes for student achievement, it is important for leaders in education to use a criteria to determine priority and to assess the applications being deployed, determine readiness, or whether the application is to be retired. This involves an application strategy that provides consistency in analyzing applications across an organization, a strategy similar to what is being used to achieve business outcomes. Although such strategies are commonplace in the business environment, it appears somewhat delayed in education. Rather than using a criteria, a strategy or a rationalization educational leaders often discuss and evaluate applications without fully understanding the long-range planning risk or lack the needed information to make critical decisions. This results in applications that duplicate functions, additional maintenance costs, and maintaining older systems that should be retired. Scott Nelson (2010) in his piece on Application Overhaul, recommends an application overhaul for businesses applications to be included as part of the application strategy. A similar strategy should be used in education to improve educational programs, reduce costs, and meet achievement goals.

Applying this strategy with the educational application, Naviance assisted me to better understand the need for an Application Rationale Analysis and how this process provides a consistent strategy to make more informed decisions.


In moving forward with an Application Rationalization Process, I would recommend the following steps:
  1. Inventory applications and determine which applications should be included.
  2. Explain why an application rationale process is necessary and the ways it will benefit the school site or district.
  3. Communicate with all stakeholders and gain "buy-in".
  4. Provide a cost/benefit analysis of maintaining existing application, deploying new ones, and retiring old ones.
Reference:
Nelson, Scott D., (2010). Application Overhaul. Gartner, Inc. Retrieved on March 19, 2015 from
http://www.gartner.com/it/initiatives/pdf/KeyInitiativeOverview_ApplicationOverhaul.pdf

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Reflecting on the pros and cons of a "Single Sign-On" approach in education—Module 8

3/15/2015

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Brief Introduction to Single Sign-On (SSO)
Single Sign-On (SSO) allows a single user access control of multiple related, but independent software systems. After the user logs in and is authenticated, the user has access to all of the related systems without being prompted again for re-authenticating for each system. Although a Single Sign-On has become an important part of the business world and many companies use either full sign-on, reduced sign-on, federated, or Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) for user authentication, what are the pros and cons of a “Single Sign-On” approach for a school district?[1]


Pro and Cons for a Single Sign-On (SSO) for a school district
As a user in an educational environment, I find having to use multiple logins or even having to re-enter passcodes frustrating. Not only do I have to allow additional time just to get up and running on my computer at work, I often find myself having to build-in class time to trouble-shoot anticipated technology issues. This has become less of the case with the capability of systems to remember passcodes, but can still be a frustrating experience. My current pet peeve involves having to constantly override the district firewall to access secured videos in My Big Campus (MBC). I realize this is a temporary problem that the district is working on and has mostly been the case this year, but it has reduced the use of MBC videos across the district because of the additional time required to get through the security filter. Another pet peeve is how quickly the user is timed out and has to re-authenticate. With attendance on PowerSchool, this occurs every class period.

From a student point of view, students have expressed frustration with password issues and logins for iPAD Apps. Most prefer to use their own mobile devices just in terms of saving time, particularly when it comes to uploading work. Some of the frustration has been reduced with students being able to use the same ID and password to log into the majority of software applications and Apps.

In terms of backoffice systems, district use of Oracle requires a single sign-on passcode that grants users to a basic user session. Once authenticated, the user has access to resources on the same domain, while access to a different domain will require cross-domain single sign-on to add additional protections.

As an educational technology leader, I understand the cons of a Single Sign-On in an educational environment, but at the same time I am excited about some of the alternatives being piloted in K-12 schools. For example, the Clever is currently being piloted in a few schools in San Francisco and appears to offer future opportunities for use of SSO. It is FERPA compliant and SOPIPA compliant, which is a concern in terms of using an SSO in K-12 education. So far it allows students and teachers to connect to more than 20 popular educational apps used in schools with just one login, including My Big Campus (MBC). It will be interesting to see where this goes in terms of security and privacy issues.


[1] The difference between full sign-on, reduced sign-on, federated, and SAML: Full sign-on allows a single user access to all associated systems without having to re-authenticate. If reduced sign-on is implemented, the user will be able to access all associated systems with the same username and password, but will have to re-enter their user name and password to re-authenticate for each system. Federated works the similar to full sign-on, at least at the front end, but is different on the backend in that if one authentication system fails, to user will be denied access to all systems. SAML is an XML standard that allows a secure web domain to exchange user authentication and data authorization and allows users access to a host of web-based applications such as Google Apps.

References:
Arizona Education Learning and Accountability System (AELAS) Business Case. Retrieved on March13, 2015 from http://www.azed.gov/aelas/files/2013/10/aelas-business-case-v1.5.pdf

Clever Opens Up ‘Instant Login’ to Any and All K-12 Districts. Retrieved on March 15, 2015 from https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-08-26-clever-opens-up-instant-login-to-any-and-all-k-12-districts

Houston, Robert. Single Sign on programs. Enter Your Information Blog. Retrieved from http://www.enteryourinformation.com/2015/01/20/single-sign-programs/
SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) Service for Google Apps (2015). Retrieved from https://developers.google.com/google-apps/sso/saml_reference_implementation

Single Sign-on Solutions Helping K-12 Teachers. EdTech Focus On K-12. Retrieved from http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2014/05/single-sign-solutions-helping-k-12-teachers

Lee, Donald (2014). The Pros & Cons of Implementing Single Sign-On. Cyber Security Performance Blog. Neustar. Retrieved on March 15, 2015 from https://www.neustar.biz/blog/what-is-single-sign-on-deployment-pros-cons





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Reflecting on SOPIPA (Bill #1177)—Module 7

3/8/2015

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The recent legislation, Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA), which aims at restricting the use of student data by third party vendors, raises a complex set of issues.  SOPIPA was only enacted in 20 states. It is unclear what the consequences of non-compliance will be; that is, does responsibility for non-compliance fall on the school site, employees, or the district? SOPIPA seems far from clear on this point. Furthermore, SOPIPA does not appear to be attached to school funding such as LCFF or in all district LCAPs. Some of this might be due to the lack of awareness among district leaders of SOPIPA or uncertainty on how to respond. In addition, laws in place to compliment SOPIPA — such as the older law, FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) — are not adequately equipped to deal with the abundance of digital educational student data that exists today. What is required to address many of these issues are amendments to FERPA, a review of COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), and additional legislation requiring parent consent of all data sharing that includes identifiable student data to draw an unambiguous line in terms of data allowed or not allowed. Some of the requirements under COPPA that apply to children under the age of 13 might be extended to students until the age of 17.

As an educator in the digital age of cloud-based educational services, I am often frustrated that I am unable to embrace the free and easy to use tools that Google Apps for Education offers, or other cool educational software services because of fear of student privacy violations or non-compliance with district policies and procedures. However, as a leader in educational technology, I am interested in developing solutions that meet everyone’s needs—the solution includes awareness, responsible use, and adherence to laws such as SOPIPA.

Given the complexity of the above issues, steps that will need to be put in place in my school district require communication and transparency to all stakeholders. First, notification of recent SOPIPA requirements and FERPA guidelines for schools and districts for how to interpret and apply the law in this new digital age; second, district school-wide trainings for teachers, students, non-certificated school employees, and other stakeholders; third, revision of parent notification and consent forms to include children over the age of 13 to reduce potential SOPIPA violations, as COPPA is better defined. Finally, if a district does decide to embrace Google Apps for Education, Microsoft Office products, or other cloud-based educational services, a careful agreement needs to be worked out in advance to limit or eliminate SOPIPA, FERPA, COPPA, or CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) violations. For example, Google’s alleged practices of intercepting and data mining of student emails.

Until such time that amendments are made to FERPA or additional bills are enacted that reduce the ambiguity in student educational data privacy laws and likelihood of accidental violations of student-data privacy, schools sites and districts need to focus on awareness and be proactive in terms of potential student-data privacy and security violations. 


References:

Benjamin Herold (September 30, 2014). “‘Landmark’ Student-Data-Privacy Law Enacted in California” and “Google Under Fire for Data-Mining Student Email Messages”. (March 14, 2014). Education Week (Digital Education Week’s Blogs). March 8, 2015. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2014/09/_landmark_student-data-privacy.html and http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/03/13/26google.h33.html#

Ujifusa, Andrew (April 15, 2014). “State Lawmakers Ramp Up Attention to Data Privacy.” Education Week (Digital Education Week’s Blogs). March 8, 2015. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/04/16/28data.h33.html?qs=ujifusa+data+privacy#


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