You're right that Baltimore County is really taking the lead on wiki use system-wide. Last Friday, I saw a presentation on Chesapeake High School's excellent use of wikis in their technology ed. program.

Here in Baltimore City, at Patterson High School, we are also building up a series of wikis that students in our engineering program can use as online portfolios of the work of which they are most proud. That way, they can provide a college interviewer or potential employer with a link that will showcase the engineering they have learned and the work they have already accomplished. Our plan is for students to continue to add to their wiki portfolios as they progress through the engineering program, from tenth to twelfth grades. Here is a sample of their work so far: https://pattersonpltw2010.wikispaces.com/

Best,
Nick Yates

In Baltimore City, the entire district has the ability to create Wikis, blogs and podcasts in their course space on the TSS. Learning Objects is a plug-in application that is added to all of the course spaces on our system. We have many teachers who have taken advantage of the opportunity. I encourage all City Schools teachers and principals to take advantage of the tools available to enhance the instruction of their students.

Post by Bertross @ "Wiki fever"

If in Baltimore City Public School System the ability to create Wikis, blogs and podcasts in their course space on the TSS exist teachers and principals created personal fear of change for using new technology play apart? For the other many more TSS network untrained teachers and principals is the district incentivizing teachers and principals to seek training in order to eliminate any systemic barriers with teachers and principals not signing up for voluntary professional development (PD) training with TSS in the BCPSS???

“Global participation and engaging teachers and principals to participate in TSS professional development in network technology literacy PD participation opportunities is a major Baltimore City district school systemic hurdle.” What is it about, may be a schools principal’s budget resources expense issue to train both teachers and principals?

Is it as simple as just a selection of priorities level by most teachers and principals not to take advantage of the TSS network opportunity? When TSS systemically encourages all teachers and principals to participate in the created network TSS professional development network technology literacy training programs and the manpower development time, budget expenses, and technology resources offering is ignored by most of the other untrained school system teachers and principals. Increase academic achievements outcomes for all primary/secondary Baltimore City students suffer!!

If the school system leadership own quote is true: “It’s Outcomes That Matter Most”

Is it as simple as just a selection of and/or blowing off priorities level by most teachers and principals not to take advantage of the TSS network opportunity? Announcements released by TSS encourages school system teachers and principals to participate in all the network TSS professional development, network technology literacy training programs and when the resources offering is ignored by most of the other untrained school system teachers and principals increase academic achievements for students suffer. Also repeat systemic question by parents arise, as to why in school profiles percentages remain low in our district for highly qualified classroom teachers?

If school system leadership quote on results-driven actions is true: “It’s outcomes that matter” Then the TSS network PD success accountability is not being applied to teachers and principals training participation. All respect to the TSS department for doing your part, but you can’t lead a horse to the water and make it drink if it does not want too.

Hi Bert,

Yes, TSS has a number of good features for online learning. I regularly use the discussion forums to encourage class debate over current events articles, post video lessons, create online surveys/quizzes, as well as the basics of posting course documents and entering student grades.

One reason I prefer wikispaces for the students' engineering portfolios is that it is public, with an easy-to-remember url. That way, as I mentioned, students can share their digital portfolios and their best work with potential colleges and employers beyond the high school level.

Best,
Nick Yates

@ Interested & Engaged, I find your point a little hard to follow so forgive me if I respond incorrectly. What seems to bother you is that teachers and principals are systemically and intentionally avoiding using TSS and refusing to go to TSS voluntary PD, and that by doing so they are limiting their students' potential.

I can't speak for all teachers and principals, but I can share a less "this is the teachers' fault" approach with you. Technology is a wonderful thing to incorporate into the classroom for all subject matter, but in the past few years it has been pushed heavily from all sides from the central office, TFA/BCTR training, and the fantastical idea that if something is NEW it must be BETTER. While it is great to use technology, it isn't great to use it as a crutch. I have worked with several teachers who were so used to using LED projectors and power point presentations from system-gifted laptops that when these items became unavailable halfway through the year they literally broke down and couldn't figure out how to put a lesson on the blackboard.

As for TSS PD, I have used TSS to sign up for various PD sessions in the past. On my last attempt I signed up for a city wide PD session that began at 9:30 AM. I arrived at the PDC (Professional Development Center) at 9:00, and the session wasn't even organized with a sign in sheet until 10:45. The materials needed for the PD weren't copied and bound until 11:30, and we didn't begin until 12:00 when the session was scheduled to break. Teachers are apprehensive about voluntary PD because this is the system we usually encounter.

@ the topic at hand: I consider myself an "old school" teacher. I like chalk instead of dry erase, I like discussion and vibrant read aloud sessions over charts and scaffolds, but I (like MANY teachers in BCPSS) also like trying something new.

I'm currently revising my Shakespeare unit to incorporate some new technology thanks to this post so if there are any English teachers out there with some cool ways to tie old school Shakespeare to new school tools, please post.

Post by Brandon @ "Wiki fever"

I hope you adjust your “old school" teacher view point, Brandon your quote: “I’m currently revising my Shakespeare unit to incorporate some new technology thanks to this post so if there are any English teachers out there with some cool ways to tie old school Shakespeare to new school tools, please post" and get over one unsatisfactory experience with TSS. If teachers and principals are not challenged enough to adjust and adapt their stone and chisel classroom teaching and learning approaches you will be cheating the students by not meeting the challenge for changes in NEW teaching and learning skills to incorporate 21st century Information Technology tools and access to global web sites and resources links to increase academic achievement success for all students.

You can dismiss TSS training offers to provide PD to principals and teachers with unsatisfactory training experiences from TSS but what did you do about it? Your complaint is not legitimate if you did not report the unsatisfactory PD training event to the TSS Manager to fix and improve PD training satisfaction experience.

Contact and use the Baltimore City school system TSS Manager Mr. Bert Ross for your Shakespeare unit classroom core course content assistance. Good luck to you.

Web 2.0 tools are indeed a powerful tool for instruction. They also hold tremendous potential for teachers and collaboration. The problem is, the current BCPSS web filter blocks access to many sites, including a whole host of collaborative tools, including wikis, blogs, and social networks. The evidence, however, keeps rolling in that these tools are beneficial for students and their teachers. The blocked tools could be used to excite and educate students as well as to promote collaboration system-wide and even state-wide.

While ITD is quick to point out that TSS, the current BCPSS network, does provide access to similar tools in its Blackboard system, those tools are limited. They are not user-friendly and they are not available between schools or even classes. For instance, this summer I used free internet tools (ning.com) to create a website that would facilitate easy collaboration not only between my department, but between all English teachers in the city. It took five minutes. But the BCPSS web filter won't give us access to the site. The tech desk won't unblock it. They tell me to use Blackboard. But I can’t even begin to figure that out with Blackboard. Because you can’t do it. You cannot set up a discussion board to be accessed by all those teachers across schools. And even if you could, these Blackboards do not offer the same opportunities, easy access, and features that free tools online provide.

I've been fighting the battle to open the internet for years. We need to be allowed to use technology. Especially when it's free and proven effective. The ITD desk, though, repeatedly denies my requests by pointing out that access to “social networking sites,” as they consider wikis, blogs, and nings, is currently prohibited by NCLB law. However, other districts are using these tools and they’re being promoted far and wide by such esteemed educational bodies as the College Board and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Why are they not for us? Why are they not for our students whose own opportunities and experiences with technology are often already limited by a lack of resources at home? How can we teach kids to use the Web 2.0 internet tools productively and responsibly if all we can access is Blackboard? Indeed, if we don’t teach our kids how to use these tools in school, many of them will never have the opportunity to learn. Then, aren’t we limiting their opportunities in life even further? Isn’t this, really, an equity issue, too?

Here’s another example. I attempted to link an AP literature course and its students to a similar course offered at a university, just so students could get a feel for the college-level rigor and expectations for students there. The blog I wanted to set up was blocked. Students were thus robbed of an opportunity the internet provides freely and easily, and one that too many of our students lack: real interaction with real college students and their professors.

For even more evidence in just one recent article, check out this link: http://www.teachermagazine.org/tsb/articles/2009/10/01/01ning.h03.html Just glance at it. It's all about how Web 2.0 tools are GOOD FOR TEACHERS and PD!

Why are we left behind on this? North Ave and the powers that be must open these tools up. We can’t keep denying the future of education and, indeed, the reality in our country. If we are to truly grow as a system at the rate necessary for real change, we need to be allowed to use the tools that could be at our fingertips. Let us use the tools that are there, for free.

This technology, like the light bulb, is a game-changer. Sadly, we're stuck in the dark.

How much money has been invested in TSS? How many times do the clearly technically savvy teachers and parents in Baltimore City (ones with blogs, wiki experienced etc) need to post about how difficult TSS is to use before a change is made so that FREE web based tools that are used in private schools and other public school systems are made available to our kids? It seems to me that having the people who are interested in forcing the use of TSS be the same people who get to block sites is about as clear of a conflict of interest as can be imagined.

Are my kids going to have to wait for college to have web 2.0 experiences? This is another time where it is hard to defend sending a kid to City Schools; not because the kids or the teachers don't try or don't care, but because they are not given the resources to put them on par with other school districts. What is more troubling about this situation is that the City School administration is perpetuating this disparity by continuing to push TSS.

Sean, I agree with most of what you say. I too have sent request after request to unblock sites to North Avenue, only to have each request denied.

Most recently I requested that Google Docs be unblocked (really, what could possibly be objectionable about Google Docs?). This was denied because they said I could just use TSS. But no, TSS does not allow you to collaborate on a document with multiple people at once, and no, TSS does not allow sharing of documents with teachers and folks who are not in City Schools. So if a teacher in another state or even in another MD county posted a great math quiz she created with Google Forms, I cannot access it and use it to aid/improve my instruction. Or if our engineering advisory board's industry and higher education members want to collaborate with us teachers on a spreadsheet of action items via Google Docs, that is also not possible. (Both these situations recently came up for me). I don't understand this inflexibility.

One workaround that you may have noticed I used with our wikispaces account is secure access (https). http://pattersonpltw2010.wikispaces.com/ is blocked in Baltimore schools, but students and teachers can access https://pattersonpltw2010.wikispaces.com/ . The same works for pbworks as well as wikispaces wikis, like those cited in the article, in case you'd like to start one.

a parent, TSS does have a number of great features. I, my students, and a number of colleagues with whom I collaborate use it daily. Because of this, I wouldn't want them to stop pushing TSS downtown, but instead I would ask that they recognize that there is value to the other free web-based tools out there: publicness, collaboration, user-friendly interfaces, easy integration of multimedia content, etc. And to recognize that while TSS is a useful tool, it can't and shouldn't do everything that other tools are already built to do. I think there is room in the city for both TSS and other types of Web 2.0.

Best,
Nick

I 100% agree with everything Sean says, though I can’t be nearly as eloquent. And I’ll bet that there are a lot of parent/teachers/community members who agree but are too tired of the lack of change – and what’s more, the absolute lack of a coherent response (besides TSS can do it too) that we’ve received from “North Ave” -- to post a comment here.

As Sean says, TSS is not as easy to use as the many, many free and intuitive programs that teachers and students should be able to access. A Parent makes an extremely good point – if Internet savvy teachers complain about TSS, how well will those who are not so adept fare? In addition, why should any Internet-literate teacher have to attend PD on how to use TSS when the Internet as a whole is available as PD on how to use the Web 2.0 tools that are being used across the country? I can just google “create wiki” and have thousands of straightforward directions at my fingertips (many of which are written on blogs!)

However, that’s not even my biggest issue with the “use TSS” response.

My job as an educator, besides just teaching content, is to teach my students skills that are applicable in the “real world” – be that college or the work force. Teaching students how to navigate TSS is not teaching them a useful skill. So many of my students do not know how to successfully and efficiently find/interpret/evaluate/judge material on the Internet because they just don’t have access to it at school in a way that is educational and useful. Navigating TSS is not a transferable skill – navigating the Internet is. Our students are being left behind in ways that are so incredibly socially unjust that it has taken me days to calm down enough to write a response that is (hopefully) coherent.

A SMARTboard and an LCD projector aren’t enough – we have to be able to access real, meaningful content. Why even spend money on those tools if teachers and students can’t really use them?

Do you know how I do probably 50% of my planning? Twitter and blogs. As the only AP Statistics teacher at my school, I am an island – there’s no one down the hall to bounce ideas off of. However, there are tons of AP Stats teachers across the country who have brilliant ideas and lesson plans that they share on their blogs and personal websites. On Twitter I participate in conversations with teachers in Texas, New York, and North Carolina (to give a small sample) about best practices in mathematics and in teaching in general. Yet, I cannot access twitter or blogs at school.

I am not allowed to do my job, to the best of my ability, in the building in which I work. My students are not allowed to learn some of the skills they need in the building in which they go to school.

But it seems that if we were all just a few miles away, in a different county in Maryland, things would be very different.

@Nick I know how engaged you are with your students and the technology that makes your class enjoyable. I have to commend you on the wiki pages your students have produced. I will say that the portfolio feature on the TSS allows the students to create a URL that is short and easy, the students can even send a pass to anyone that gives the outside direct access to the portfolio they created. Speak to Mike when you get a chance and he will help you explore the power of the TSS portfolio. ACCE has every class and student in their school involved with developing portfolios so the students can begin to develop their best work to share with colleges and potential employers.
@Sean I do not remember receiving a request from you regarding training on doing a public blog or discussion board. We have many instances of people in multiple schools participating in blogs and wikis and sharing their knowledge with one another. Contact me if you would like to get some training on the proper use of the tools we provide. As for the blocking of websites and web based tools, I have been fighting the very same battles you describe for years with the people who control the network and what is allowed to be access. It is for those reasons that I have worked to provide the tools that make up the 21st century experience available in the format that I can provide. You will find the TSS filled with all of the tools you seek and available to be accessed in a secure environment or in a wide open format, the choice is yours. When the TIA program was cut, the ability to come to the individual schools to provide the training and support was removed from my team. We rely on the curiosity of teachers who want to provide high quality instructional opportunities for their students to spread the word about what we can do. I invite you to contact me so that we can provide you with the opportunity to explore what we have.
@a parent I do not think we’ve met ,so I am uncertain how you can say that the same people who are blocking the use of the FREE web 2.0 tools are the same ones who are forcing the use of the TSS. If you actually knew me, then you would know that is as far from the truth as it is possible to be. I would gladly provide more open access to the web but the policies regarding the access limitations are not made by me. I am willing to work with the teachers at any school to share with them how easy it is to use the Web 2.0 tools we provide in the TSS. Our district provides every single class (32,000+) with access to blogs, wikis, podcasts, screencasts, discussion boards, portfolios and personalized web based storage for any files of their choice. I happen to meet regularly with other districts and know that we have as many opportunities to access these tools as any district in the country. I believe the real issue is that the tech savvy teachers and parents have worked with blogs and the like are familiar with the tools that are on the blocked list. This causes pain to the staff and parents who would prefer to use what they are already comfortable using. What I can do is work with what we have and assure you that if given the opportunity to interact with the teachers at your school who are tech savvy, they will be able to use the tools correctly and successfully expose your children to 21st century tools. It is interesting that your comment about the costs of the TSS was made because I just finished an interview with an independent auditor that ended with their comment about the amount of money the TSS saves the district each year based upon the many ways it is used to communicate and share training and information with the entire district. I also invite you to contact me so that I can reach out to you and share what we have to offer parents and students.

@Brandon I am also an old school teacher (37 years in BCPSS) who happens to make use of technology to enhance classroom instruction. I would suggest that you log into the TSS go to RESOURCES tab and explore the SAS Curriculum Pathways link. (The username and password is there for you to use.) There is a complete section in the SAS Curriculum Pathways on Shakespeare. You will find that your students also have a FREE login to the SAS Curriculum Pathways and the same access that you have to the materials. Look them over to see if they are of any help to you. You may also wish to consider exploring the Discovery Learning site on the TSS to find video resources related to Shakespeare.

Hi Bert,

Thanks for the thoughtful response. I do appreciate the work you & your team do with TSS, and I shall e-mail Mike to learn more about the portfolio feature, then evaluate whether to use it or wikispaces for our next year of student portfolios.

The problem of blocked yet useful sites still remains, especially (in my mind) with regards to teacher collaboration. As Jackie points out, there is value in students learning to use multiple sites/platforms, and in teachers sharing curriculum, experiences, and ideas across city, state, and country lines. Who could we contact to help resolve network blocking issues if the form response is inadequate?

@bertross Can you point us to the person that we should be focus our complaints to then? Who are "the people who control the network"?
Maybe I'm crazy but I believe that if we can just rationalize with these unknown people, a lightbulb will go off for them and change will happen. We just need to know who these secret people are.

I do not think that the features on TSS are enough - and it's not about me being comfortable with using blogger or wordpress and not with TSS.

Websites like blogger, TSS, google docs, google image search, etc. are intuitive - I don't need to go to PD or talk to anyone outside my building to figure them out. Not only that but they are just plain better.

In addition, it's not just about accessing these sites for my students to create original work, it's also about being able to look at other school's work (like the Catonsville Middle Wiki which I CANNOT ACCESS AT SCHOOL). Therefore, my students cannot share in that knowledge.

@Brandon Another great resource might be http://bmoreteach.blogspot.com/ - a Baltimore teacher who is doing a unit on Much Ado About Nothing with his kids and who attended some amazing Shakespeare PD this summer.

Of course, don't check that blog when you're at school. You won't be able to access it.

I find TSS very difficult to navigate and don't use it. I've never known about a training for it and would have attended if I knew or could have. I would be interested in knowing when/where the next training is. I'm glad it seems like we have a receptive gentleman here who might be willing to help with it.

However, I'll just echo that the blocking of sites when there is so much great information and resources out there is an endless frustration to me. I would love to have a class blog accessible at school with various clips from YouTube, notes on the course, assignments, etc. However, I've asked our technology teacher about posting YouTube clips (particularly clips of Shakespeare scenes so students can compare different interpretations) onto TSS, and I discovered that it wasn't possible. Therefore, I just started a class blog for these clips (http://ibmore.blogspot.com) that cannot be accessed from school, so students (and me) have to access it from home computers. It's pretty disappointing. We have also utilized discussion boards that are not blocked (nicenet.org); perhaps we should move this to tss, but I'm not sure why we would; this site is way easier to use.

More frustrating of late is that I applied to have a site un-blocked (www.voxopop.com). It is a site that we used throughout our study of Shakespeare at the 2008 Teaching Shakespeare Institute in DC (NEA grant), and allows students to record themselves online and have "threaded" conversations. We used it as a way to practice presentations so classmates could hear during the institute, and it would be an excellent way to integrate the skills I am emphasizing in class with technology. However, after writing up the application and submitting, it was denied (no reason given - just said "see notes," which weren't accessible). As far as I know, I don't think TSS has any voice technology for threaded conversations like this website does. My colleagues from around the country couldn't believe all the sites that BCPSS blocks. (By the way, the site we all spent time creating for our respective students over the summer - mine is http://mr.miazga.googlepages.com/ - is blocked. Mine is the only site amongst those who received the NEA grant that is blocked by their school district.)

I'm thankful that wikispaces.com is no longer blocked, though. Last year, when I tried to build a site, it was blocked. That's a site I can figure out and will begin to build a wikispace soon.

Remember how, last year, during Sara's live interview of Dr. Alonso, that these nagging questions about technology access were going to be answered? They never have been. Frankly, I think it's a social justice issue. Our students deserve this free and open technology.

Thanks for those productive posts, I'll check those sites out when I get back home as a few of them are blocked by Bess. Those of you that are worried my horrid frigid classroom is barren and reminiscent of the 1930's can calm down. You have, in fact, reinforced my point. My classroom, if I do say so myself, is vibrant. It hums with potential energy in the first 5 minutes and once the show starts we are energy in motion! Having students learn Shakespearean Insults to replace their lewd language (Nothing like hearing "You're a Jacknaped Rapscallion, Jamal") during the drama unit. Using "snowball fights" to teach grammar. A veritable full cast of inflection for getting past the less enticing parts of "A Lesson Before Dying"... in short, my class is freakin' awesome. My students are learning how to think, and solve, and learn from these old antiquated technologies called books.

Now I understand the importance of incorporating technology into the classroom. Having students blog on English II topics is really enticing to me, and is something I plan on doing. Last year I had students make myspace pages for characters in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to reinforce characterization. But technology in the classroom isn't the end all. For every instance in life where Web 2.0 skills will be required of these minds, there will be an infinite amount of instances when problem solving or out of the box thinking without technology will come up. Maybe I'm wrong, but my students learn and enjoy English II without tweeting about it...

Hello
You have given nice information and its good to read this post.I think its too much to hope.Thank you very much for sharing this with us.

Weighing in on all BCPSS teachers with comments and input about the Baltimore City Public School System educators barriers experienced in school system network blocking access when using IT/TSS web 2.0 and web sites on-line programs.

In the age of the 21st century Internet in disappointment as a parent we only have limited "Observer" access features and resources in using the created TSS/Parent Portal. I’m saying in disappointment as a Baltimore City public school local district parent to hear the magnitude of unsatisfactory teachers wide spread network user access blocks complaints input about the IT/TSS web site access restrictions to limited on-line program in this way should raise "major concern at the school system policy/operations levels." If a school board commissioners current IT-committee exists and is accomplished, informed, and provides oversight over the ITD operations for our schools education primary/secondary course content, teachers PD levels. Upon searching the posted committee list I identified no current established school board IT committee listed?

In my opinion the problematic functional barriers IT base line evidence exposes a lack of accountability tracking for mandatory increase academic results-driven outcomes by both sides within Baltimore City local district public school system operations and school board commissioners has been ignored as a priority. The returned parents comments notices posted on the deliverable results for TSS/Parent Portal module many praised the portal creation but there many attached unsatisfactory and negative comments input from the parents surveys results about the module not being function because most classroom teachers do not post core courses grades, resources, class work/home work, activities announcements, assignments in the teachers class room to the on-line extended classroom for your child/children. Hint IT/TSS removed the parent’s survey comments input from the TSS/Parent Portal module face page.

I say the quelling of limited-access/non-access to critical on-line web sites and resources runs counter to the Maryland state department education primary/secondary schools comprehensive plan and plan for our higher education commission, which calls for expanding technology teacher literacy and access.

As a school system parent/stakeholder that uses frequently on-line technology I am "mystified" by the level of blocking access complaints feedback just echoing from teacher within the Baltimore City public school system local district. Teachers now that we know about the IT/TSS network blocking of sites occurrences frequency and access problems in a most secure environment or in a wide open format. We parents plan to do some thing about seeking improvement that increase technology use benefits at the policy/operations level in our local school district.

"This is not a challenge to redevelop the mission or future of IT/TSS ."

At whom does accountability rest with at promoting an open appeal level process to fix and improve parents, and teachers legitimate IT/TSS PD training participation and evaluate technology access barriers major concerns? Each one of us parents and teachers.

The harm done by not having expanded technology access from the IT/TSS network is so pervasive and compelling that we cannot afford to maintain silence.

Pure gold @ quote posted by Mark: “Remember how, last year, during Sara's live interview of Dr. Alonso that these nagging questions about technology access were going to be answered? They never have been. Frankly, I think it's a social justice issue. Our students deserve this free and open technology."