District Administration - September 2012 - (Page 82)

cio District Chief Information Officer, Miami-Dade County Public Schools Debbie Karcher Shaping a Digital Decade For M-DCPS Debbie Karcher has worked in IT with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools for 27 years. After seventeen years with the district, she worked in the private sector for Amadeus and Motorola, returning in 2001 as CIO. She manages 500 people; 250 technicians are assigned to schools to support students and staff, and the rest are in development, training and security. District Administration often references M-DCPS, one of the nation’s largest districts. We felt it was time to talk with the CIO. H ow closely do you work with Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, and how involved is he in making technology decisions? Karcher: Mr. Carvalho drives major innovations; however we work closely together on technology decisions. The areas I support include Computer & Facility Operations, Assessment & Data Analysis, Data Security, Program Management, Systems & Programming, Network & Infrastructure, Field Support & Telecommunications, Accountability & Research Services, and Federal & State Compliance. We branch out into all areas and work with the superintendent as well as his curriculum group and IT curriculum group. So in that sense, we all march together in technology. What do you see as the most important tech trends for education over the next few years? Karcher: I think first and foremost is the capacity of school districts to be able to manage the content, testing and virtual initiatives that are taking place. Currently for every 1,000 students, you need 10 MB of bandwidth. And by 2014 or 2015, it will have increased tremendously. We have to figure out how we’re going to do that and how we will pay for these increases. That’s number one. The next most important tech trend is having devices for all our students. If we’re moving to digital content and away from textbooks, how are we going to manage that, especially in large urban districts? When they implement textbook replacements in a district that has 10 schools, it’s a lot easier than trying to do it in a district that has 360 schools. There are a lot of the same issues, but it doesn’t scale quite the same way. To what degree is M-DCPS currently involved with online learning, and preparing for the 2014 Online Common Core assessments? How will this change in the next three to five years? Karcher: We are totally immersed. As we enter the fall, we have an initiative that all students who are entering 9th grade take at least one course as an online virtual course that meets state graduation requirements. This was our way of harnessing virtual learning. In the district’s model, there are facilitators in the class who actually help the students as they progress through the course—if they have machine problems or even questions about the course itself—although they have their virtual teacher available. As for computer-based testing, by next year we’ll have more computer-based testing than paper testing. In M-DCPS right now, most of our textbooks are available through the student portal. We intend for that to grow even more. Students can enroll in virtual classes through Florida Virtual School, and they can take classes outside the normal school day. They just have to get approval from their guidance counselor. M-DCPS also has its own virtual classes, which students can take full-time or part-time. What was the latest tech innovation you implemented? Karcher: I don’t really get excited about products because we see so many of them, but one particular product, Guide K-12, is now giving us a geo-dimension to student data. It presents our data in ways that we’ve never been able to look at it before. What does it enable you to do that you weren’t able to do before? Karcher: Each year we redraw our boundaries based on demographics, the number of students in the schools, and how the community population shifts. This product allows us to do that much quicker. It also allows us to see—when we change a boundary—which we’re changDistrict Administration 82 September 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - September 2012

District Administration - September/October 2012
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Product Focus
Resistance to High-Stakes Testing Spreads
Postgraduation for Special Needs Students
Rick & Becky DuFour
CIo News
Getting the Best ROI in Technology
Shaping a Digital Decade
Professional Opinion
Professional Opinion
Online Edge
Going Mobile
New Products
New Directions

District Administration - September 2012