Don’t boil your family while trying to change the world.
Dave Wakerley (Source)

I believe educational technology state-wide volunteer organizations–and bloggers–should do 3 things about education:

1. Provide mentoring and leadership support to campus and district leaders (the “L-word” includes teachers, librarians, administrators, parents and students, not just those in positions of “authority”)
2. Work to disseminate information and facilitate as many conversations about what is happening in their State as possible
3. Serve as guardian organizations that, while collaborating with state education agencies, make every effort to hold legislators accountable for what they’re doing–or not doing. They do this by enlisting their memberships.

Why waste time with state education agencies? Those poor folks are UNDER-PAID, OVER-WORKED, and get targets painted on them by the folks that give them the marching orders. State Education Agencies–like the Texas Education Agency (TEA)–have little power to do anything except implement what they’re told. One mis-step, and they find themselves kicked out. Better to go after State Boards of Education…just get in line, huh?

Alan Hodson writes this comment:

How about you Miguel leading a campaign to have TEA accept Linux as a viable (and more reliable) operating system for the testing? I am sure a Firefox app could be written to support TestNav’s requirements… Go for it!

Of course, Alan is a die-hard GNU/Linux nut (I say that affectionately). On our first meeting, he handed me a book he’d prepared on GNU/Linux in schools (yes, I still have it somewhere). Periodically, he drops in to leave comments linking back to his blog collection of GNU/Linux education-related software. And, that’s all commendable, if not a bit creepy…I’m starting to get those creepy looks myself as I advocate for state organizations (like TCEA) to shed its penchant for top-down authority and command-n-control of its web site to a more Read/Write Web approach. It’s taken few years to see significant change of any kind.

When Alan writes this comments, he doesn’t realize that I just sent this message (an excerpt below) to the TEC-SIG list on Friday:

Let’s discuss online testing for a moment…and I’m going to admit that every word beyond this point may be completely wrong and is definitely open to correction, if someone will be so kind as to do so. Online testing appears to be an area of concern for us all. While I am not directly responsible for TestNav, I do have a ringside seat on implementation.

Some questions I have, most stirred up by a conversation I had the good fortune to listen to in Boerne ISD for San Antonio area Tech Directors (if you’re in the area, you might consider joining up…drop an email):
1) Does TestNav work on GNU/Linux or Windows Fundamentals? If not, does Pearson understand that thin client solutions might not work well?
2) Does TestNav work on NComputing solutions? Who’s tried that out? (I missed that presentation at TEC-SIG)

As I re-read this message excerpt, I realize that I’m not encouraging folks enough. We need to do more to bring LOW-COST tools to use in schools. Sure, we all like our Macs and Windows machines, but how many of us can eschew these operating systems and use GNU/Linux machines? Well, on Friday, I attended a meeting carrying a Dell Latitude X1 running UbuntuLinux Hardy Heron (v8.04). It worked great in every other environment, but not in a clearly Windows/Mac centric network environment. The tech worked valiantly to connect, but eventually, an hour later, he admitted defeat. But, that’s because of the excessive controls in place…everywhere I’ve taken the X1 running UbuntuLinux, it’s connected flawlessly. Isn’t flawless good enough?

Of course not. Like those TEA implementers of law and tradition, we’re mired in amber, slow-changing environments…and companies recognize that. They use it against us. They cater to our stomachs with their high-priced meals and our fears.

TestNav–Pearson’s component for online testing–needs to run on the least expensive machines, including Asus Eee, thin clients running GNU/Linux, or old desktops pressed back into service as Windows client stations. In the near future, Texas schools will be expected to do online testing. As a colleague pointed out at my friday meeting, this will only work in a one to one environment.

Hold these companies accountable for failing to produce…failing to produce solutions that work on the hardware we have rather than the hardware they want us to buy, we must go further than the people who deliver the message. Do these companies have partnerships with one another? Is Dell partnered with Microsoft who’s partnered with Pearson? What backroom deals may have been made that we have no idea about? Or, on the other hand, if no deals have been made to ensure the status quo that is detrimental to schools, why hasn’t there been better planning to ensure that TestNav just works on the solutions out there?

So, Alan, the campaign isn’t to have TEA to accept GNU/Linux as a viable operating system for testing, but rather, to sock it to Dell, Microsoft, Pearson and other education vendors. Instead of words and fancy lunches at NECC, let’s start a blogging campaign that to let them know that Texas schools need a TestNav client that will work on anything that computes.

Ok, who’s with Alan?

;->

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure