2 Years of Insite in Upper Canada2 Years of Insite in Upper Canada

Looking back and looking forward to Insite 3Looking back and looking forward to Insite 3

Presented by Jeremy HobbsPresented by Jeremy HobbsMicrosoft CLCMicrosoft CLC

April 7, 2008April 7, 2008..

AgendaAgenda

• When I Last Spoke…• The Flat World: Catching Up with Change• Putting it Together In Insite 3

When I Last Spoke…When I Last Spoke…Viewed Through The Lens of Some Hard Knocks

A Bit of History:A Bit of History:

The IT Value Proposition in UCDSBThe IT Value Proposition in UCDSB

Operational EfficiencyOperational Efficiency

Improved Decision QualityImproved Decision Quality

A Quality Learning ExperienceA Quality Learning Experience

New Learning OpportunitiesNew Learning Opportunities

Collaboration & EngagementCollaboration & Engagement

Integrating the UCDSB Web WorldIntegrating the UCDSB Web World

SystemSystem

SchoolSchool

StaffStaff

InternalInternal ExternalExternal

Corporate PortalCorporate Portal Corporate WebsiteCorporate Website

Private Team SitePrivate Team Site School WebsiteSchool Website

MySiteMySite Teacher WebsiteTeacher Website

PrioritiesPriorities

• Control of content in hands of users • Get technology out of the way• Design for “commodity skills”• Provide local flexibility within a framework• Enhance service levels• Reduce management overhead for IT

TechnologiesTechnologies

• Exchange• Sharepoint Portal Server• Content Management Server• SQL Server• K2.net• Microsoft Identity Integration Server• Server 2003• Active Directory• SiteGovern & EventCast

External WebsitesExternal Websites

Insite as the Home PageInsite as the Home Page

The PostMortemThe PostMortem

• People– Provided basic training to almost 4000 staff in first six months of

rollout– Two more consecutive years of multi-channel training for all staff

• Technology– Invested heavily in multi-site clustering and redundancy– Eliminated competing / redundant systems– Desktop refresh was key to the process

• Processes– “Symbols, Signals and Systems”– 35% of teachers have “teacher pages”– All schools have common-branded websites– Deployed Self-Serve, Teacher-to-Teacher, Offence Declaration

Workflow– 2006 – first time all staff logged in within a period of 1 week

The Flat WorldThe Flat WorldCatching Up and Connecting with Change

3 Major Pressures3 Major Pressures

• Changing Generational Values and Expectations

• Changing Nature of “Work”• Globalization Demanding Agility in Learning

Our Education System risks being dangerously out of sync with the world around us.

Changing Generational ValuesChanging Generational Values

Baby Boomers Gen X Echo Boom

Formative Influences

•The “Atomic Age”•Large demographic cohort•Economic prosperity•Child-friendly culture•Civil rights movement•Communist threat •Birth Control Pill•Lunar Landing•Vietnam War•Rock and Roll

•Economic recessions•Anti-child society•Stagflation•AIDS•Nuclear threat•Environmental•Personal computing•Rap music

•Information technology•Child-focused society•Violence and terrorism•Gangsta rap

Work Values •Workaholic•Acceptance of stress•Team-oriented•Importance of title/status symbols•Demanding of respect and sacrifice from•sub-ordinates

•Sacrifice personal life for advancement•Dependent on close supervision•Dedicated to goal achievement•Desire for job security•Insecure•Desire to be recognized

?

Work Values for the Echo BoomWork Values for the Echo Boom

• Independence and autonomy• Challenge seeking• Variety seeking• Entrepreneurial• Distrust of hierarchy and authority• Continuous development of skills• Lack of loyalty/unwillingness to commit• Work-life balance• Fun and communal workplace• These aren’t just our students – they are our NEW

TEACHERS!

The Changing Nature of WorkThe Changing Nature of Work

Shifts in the WorkplaceShifts in the Workplace

1800-2000 2000 onward

Changes • Hierarchical, command-and-control

• Rules and compliance driven• Individual achievement &

role-oriented• Emphasis on loyalty, work

ethic

• Fewer organizational layers and boundaries

• Focus on goal and mission• Team as basic unit• A new psychological

contract

Rationale • Limited education of front-line workers

• Poor communication channels

• Generational values

• Better education, access to “knowledge”

• Excellent communication channels

• New generational expectations

In Other Words…CollaborationIn Other Words…Collaboration

• “The new promise of collaboration is that with peer production, we will harness human skill, ingenuity, and intelligence more efficiently and effectively than ever before…the ability to integrate the talents of dispersed individuals and organizations is becoming the defining competency for managers and firms”

The Effect of GlobalizationThe Effect of Globalization

• Number of scientific papers written by Americans has fallen 10% since 1992

• Percent of American papers in Physical Review has dropped from 61% to 29% since 1983

• U.S. share of world annual patent output has fallen from 60% to 52% since 1980

• China quadrupled its scientific publication rate between 1986 and 1999

The Problem…The Problem…

• Autonomy• Variety• Social networks as the

prime work unit• Distrust of hierarchy• Communal environment• Balance

• Collaborative teamwork• Diversity• Autonomy• Innovation and ideas• Speed and agility• Mass customization

• Hierarchical• Linear• Individualistic• Defined by time, subject

boundaries• Direction and

compliance orientation• “Mass market”

• What can IT do to push the kind of cultural and structural changes we need to remain prosperous?

Key Question for k-12 CIOsKey Question for k-12 CIOs

• In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

~ Eric Hoffer

Putting It Together in Insite 3Putting It Together in Insite 3A Rolling Stone Gathers Some MOSS

1. Managing knowledge for a precise, personalized learning environment

2. Facilitating purposeful, embedded collaboration among stakeholders for professional learning

Two Major Pressures Driving ITTwo Major Pressures Driving IT

Precision

ProfessionalLearningPersonalization

Source: Breakthrough by Fullan, Hill, Crevola

Change 1: Net-Centric to Identity-DrivenChange 1: Net-Centric to Identity-Driven

• Driving services through network improves IT productivity, but personalization drives student and staff productivity

• Every user is unique and has an individualized experience

• Initiatives:– AD and MIIS deployment for all network accounts– Detailed business rules for staff and student accounts– AD integration or password synchronization at every

opportunity– Sponsored Guest

Change 2: Application to Data-CentricChange 2: Application to Data-Centric

• The true arrival of a web services approach

• Working with data used to be like jumping back and forth between stepping stones – now like a boat floating on a sea of data.

• We need to be figuring out how we can break down the old application silos

Change 3: IT Driving Strategy…Change 3: IT Driving Strategy…or elseor else

• "...As a business resource, information technology today looks a lot like electric power did at the start of the last century [when manufacturers built and maintained their own generators]. Companies go to vendors to purchase various components — computers, storage drives, and all sorts of software — and cobble them together into complex information-processing plants, or data centers, that they house within their own walls. They hire specialists to maintain the plants, and they often bring in outside consultants to solve particularly thorny problems. Their executives are routinely sidetracked from their real business — manufacturing automobiles, for instance, and selling them at a profit — by the need to keep their company’s private IT infrastructure running smoothly.

Change 4: Knowledge at the CenterChange 4: Knowledge at the Center

Knowledge of the Knowledge of the LearnerLearner

Knowledge of Knowledge of ResultsResults

Knowledge of Knowledge of InstructionInstruction

Knowledge of Knowledge of CurriculumCurriculum

Parents, Students, Staff, Community

Insight for Insite 3Insight for Insite 3

• A single environment for working and learning for all stakeholders:– Knowledge:

• Mediate the teacher’s workflow, making collaborative processes inseparable from independent processes

• Embed e-Learning tools for students and give parents visibility

• Capturing and disseminating tacit and explicit knowledge by ensuring more ‘capturable transactions’ happen in Insite.

– Collaboration• Collaborative, team based problem solving with all

stakeholders “in the tent”

Some Key GoalsSome Key Goals

• Improve on “pain points” in Insite 2!• Reduce learning lag due to student transitions• Shift culture:

– Make data relevant to teachers– Make collaboration more natural than acting alone– Make e-Learning tools a widespread supplement to

“regular” classrooms– Resilient School Websites– Ratchet up parent and student participation in learning

process

Teacher View of StudentTeacher View of Student

Teacher Profile PageTeacher Profile Page

Filing Cabinet & BinderFiling Cabinet & Binder

Course OverviewCourse Overview

My JournalMy Journal

Project to DateProject to Date

• 18 months of defining requirements:– Backward looking – improvements to Insite 2– Forward looking – what can we accomplish?

• Migration to MOSS occurring now• Remaining functionality to be delivered in series of

“packages” in fall of 2008.• Additional Steps:

– Skopus HR and Academic Modules– Migration from K2 to WWF– Build out Assessment Engine– Collapse Blackboard LMS– Deploy PerformancePoint Server and Planning Application

Learnings and RecommendationsLearnings and Recommendations

• Designing for commodity skills works• View a portal implementation as a series of iterations – start small• Invest heavily in identity before you start the portal• Going broad then deep makes it stick• Don’t talk technology for a long time• But Most Importantly…

• The Portal IS the strategy – if IT does matter than it must show educators how technology can enable open up “blue ocean” strategies.

Howard GardnerHoward Gardner

The future will not belong to those with the largest collections of facts but to those who understand how to use concepts, reasoning and imagination to spark novel insights and generate new knowledge.

And honor will be conferred on those teaching entities—both human and electronic—that are most successful in producing lifelong learners and contributors to knowledge.