These are the preliminary instructions for a CFF Board Member to join CFF Communities. Because of access control that limits who can view CFF Board materials, there are two steps, first join CFF Communities and second notify the administrator to add you to the CFF Board Member list.

First, Join CFF Communities:

• Go to the CFF Communities web site at http://cs.classroomofthefuture.org/  (of course, if you are reading it on the InnovationWizard blog, you are already here!)
• Locate and click on the Join link near the top right corner of the window
• Choose a username that will identify any of your discussion posts, blog comments, or uploaded content.
• Choose a password that you will use to login
• Provide an email address to be used by CFF Communities to authenticate your login information and later to inform you about updated information
• Click Join
• Wait for the email to arrive
• Open the email and click on the link provided by CFF Communities, which will enable your account for login 
  

You now are a Registered User of CFF Communities, but not yet a CFF Board Member, so you may visit all of the public information; one more step to gain access to the protected information limited to CFF Board Members only.

Authenticate Your Login as a CFF Board Member

• Compose an email to Rick Beach and include your username so that we can add you to the CFF Board Member list.
• Wait for a reply email to confirm that you have been added to the CFF Board Member list.

Your login will now be able to access all of the public content as well as the protected information accessible by members of the CFF Board list

Subscribe to CFF Discussion Groups

Because you may not visit the CFF Communities web site as often as new material is posted, you can subscribe to discussion groups (and enable an RSS feed, if you know what that means!).

• Go to the CFF Communities web site
• Click on the Forums button
• Locate and click on the link for Forum Subscriptions in the Shortcuts box in the right column
• For each discussion forum that interests you, check the Subscribe status and click on the No to turn it to Yes (or to unsubscribe then click on the Yes to turn it to No)

Now when new content is added to the discussion forum, CFF Communities will send to your email address a notice of the new material with a link to review it.  If you click on that link, you'll now be presented with the new material and with a bit of exploration, you can find ways to Reply and if you click on the name of the discussion forum you can write a new post.

Have fun!  Be bold!

 

Cheers
Rick

Each half-year, we will provide the CFF board of directors with a summary of what was accomplished in those six months.  Generally, the Innovation Office focuses on the priority programs of CFF with occasional support given to the Executive Director and other commitees of the foundation.

One-to-One and Project-Based Learning Environments

This project is the top priority for CFF and has expanded from work with 1-1 technologies at Lemon Grove and Emerald Middle School to include work with the project-based learning initiative at the Santee District.

• Facilitate on-going project planning and implementation at both Lemon Grove and Emerald Middle School, working with Darryl LaGace, Mary Kraus, Terrie Perez, and Superintendent Ernie Anastos.
• Research assessment tools for evaluating twenty-first century skills developed by students within 1-1 programs. Despite many initiatives to promote such skills, few assessments exist and those are located in Britain using technology standards that do not apply to California.
• Conduct and report on teacher focus groups for Santee District on the lessons learned and implementation challenges of applying the project-based learning ideas from the UCLA SEEDS program.
• Prepare inventories of software and instructional applications used within 1-1 learning environments for use by SDCOE.
• Participate in planning and development of a CFF Broadband Access Initiative to enable student access to high-speed Internet at home and in the community beyond school sites.

Teacher Innovation Space

The Teacher Innovation Space project has shifted from work focused on revitalizing the Joe Rindone Regional Technology Center to providing teacher requirements for SDCOE instructional services to districts.

• Facilitate continued use by TIME2Innovate teachers of the CFF Communities web site, and prepare a software upgrade to the latest version of software.
• Initiate an Innovation Wizard blog on the CFF Communities web site
• Collect teacher priorities for instructional applications recommended to satisfy the 44 priority TIME requirements.

Data Intensive Science

• Collaborated with Nancy Taylor for presentation to the SDCOE Board of Education in recognition of the contribution of equipment by Amylin Pharmaceuticals and General Atomics and of the impact on students in middle school from this innovative instructional approach.
• Secured the interest at Santee School District for data intensive science, and support use of DIS equipment by the summer institute of MSSELI, a science teacher-leadership institute funded by The San Diego Foundation.

Innovation in Education Awards

• Updated the CFF web site with program activities from 2008 and with information for the 2009 event, as directed by the Executive Director.

Model Classrooms

The Model Classrooms project shifted to a major focus on the Midway University aboard the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum.  At their request, CFF provides expertise in classrooms of the future under contract with the Midway museum.  These experiences provide models for learning environments for other informal math and science education facilities, like museums, research centers and technology centers.

• Convened and facilitated an on-going series of collaborative explorations of instructional strategies for Midway educators with select teachers from the TIME2Innovate cohort.
• Participated in on-going design team meetings with Midway educators, Midway facilities and IT staff, shipboard services contractors, educational and studio design architects, and Promethean technology suppliers.
• Prepared specifications and cost estimates for instructional technology for Midway model classrooms.
• Prepared report on the CFF Midway Model Classroom initiative.

Broadband Access for Students

CFF continues to explore ways to use the Educational Broadband Services capabilities to benefit students in San Diego.  Under the leadership of Steve Clemons and Bruce Braciszewski, a new initiative is emerging to expand high-speed Internet access to students beyond the classroom at home and in the community.

• Participate in initial convening with SDCOE, CFF, and broadband service suppliers, such as Cox, Time Warner, AT&T, Qualcomm, Sprint.

Cheers
Rick

The Innovation Office of the Classroom of the Future Foundation welcomes you to a blog about innovation in education in San Diego County.

The CFF mission promotes inspiring business leaders and educators to embrace new learning technologies and innovative practices to improve our children's academic achievement.

The concept of an Innovation Wizard seeks to unlock the wizardry in all of us.

By working with teachers and administrators in our school districts, they can bring innovations to the classrooms and their students.  By exciting our children about learning in the twenty-first century, they can explore and understand important concepts at a deeper level.  By demonstrating results for our business partners, they can unleash extra resources to feed the engine of innovation.

A Bit of Wizard History

Once upon a time, long ago, CFF created a big, hairy, audacious goal, a BHAG, called the TIME Initiative: Teacher Innovations Maximizing Education.  A team of TIME teachers created the requirements for an innovative learning environment captured in the blue diagram below.


CFF used systems thinking to develop the TIME Initiative in phases:
I.    Requirements from the teachers
II.    Design specifications for a reference implementation
III.    Implementation of a pilot system
IV.    Rollout to all districts in San Diego County

The team of 50 TIME teachers created and published the requirements study with 287 items in five major categories.  Unfortunately, the budget crisis of 2002-2003 in California stalled our progress during phase II.  We possessed a great idea but no means to build it ourselves.

We knew of several innovative projects underway in a few school districts and classrooms.  So, we shifted from building it ourselves to a viral model of innovation, infecting projects with our innovative ideas.  An innovation wizard could do that.

The Lemon Grove LemonLINK project determined that they fulfilled about 70% of the TIME requirements.  The National Elementary District use of student achievement data excelled at that portion of the TIME requirements.  The Poway District data warehouse initiative demonstrated excellent capabilities.  Capitalizing on these innovative projects, we had the gene pool to expand innovation in San Diego region.

Recognizing innovation became a significant way to create awareness of successful projects in classrooms, schools and districts.  The Innovation in Education Awards Program at the annual CFF event highlights teachers, administrators, organizations that demonstrate results in four categories: inspire, innovate, achieve and impact.

This Innovation Wizard Blog furthers that outreach by sharing stories of the innovations that CFF nurtures among our collaborations.  Stay tuned for more . . .