Open Badges Report
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Reflect on how information (data) plays a role in decision making, and why understanding data and sources of data are important.This week’s readings gave me a lot to think about because in my district and school site we are always chasing data. Data plays a huge role because we are not really a “neighborhood” school or district that retains many of the same kids and shares information, like SDUSD for example. Our students come from dozens of districts around the county, the state, and sometimes other states. We are constantly hunting elusive transcripts and trying to assess what our kids know with very little data about them, or inconsistent data. Aside from collecting and sharing student personal and academic records, we have also tried various systems of assessment to judge how far along students are academically, such as the MAP(Measures of Academic Progress) testing platform. We also use a platform called Compass Odyssey as a way for students to take pre-designed, accredited courses online (that our teachers can manually adjust or add to), in an effort to become more individualized as far as course schedules go, but not to the degree of adaptive technology that adjusts to the student’s learning and progress.
These systems definitely help provide more reliable data, but then we faced issues with interpreting data as well as whose role that actually is. For example, traditionally it is the counselor that reviews transcripts and places students into appropriate courses. After the budget crisis a few years ago, nearly all of our counseling staff were laid off, severely reducing our support. Teachers were then tasked with reviewing student’s transcripts as the entered class and deciding what courses were best for them, which became a nightmare as different teachers chose different subjects from site to site. Our students often transfer from one hall to another for various reasons, so it became a huge mess. Gradually scheduling returned to student support specialists and counselors, away from teachers, but it was evident that although the data was flowing it was not always interpreted the same, nor were teachers given training or guidelines before being tasked with this new responsibility. Big data is on such a massive scale, that measures need to be in place within the enterprise architecture to ensure the proper people are responsible and capable of handling the data. After the readings this week I am hopeful that technology definitely exists that has potential to make big data work for us rather than against us, and I can see how Enterprise Architecture can lead to managing this information more efficiently. EA is finally starting to (sort of) come together in my mind! I found this infograph about Big Data kind of interesting, as it goes into more detail about the 4 major challenges of Big Data (in a general sense, not necessarily education): Based on the lesson, reflect on the need to develop a current and future state business architecture. You cannot begin to create architecture without describing your current state, which can be incredibly multi-faceted in education. This year I helped to prepare the "Organization" category of my district's WASC report, and I couldn't believe how detailed we could get about our departments, roles and responsibilities, as well as relating that to our mission statement and goals. Business Architecture goes even deeper, even more detailed. This base information alone causes you to reflect on what is happening and how some things could be adjusted. Even though we live it every day, sometimes we just go through the motions. It was enlightening to have to describe what our organization was about, and once that is down on paper you have a starting point.
The future state is important because, to borrow from our EDL 610 class, it keeps the end in mind. Every successful person has goals, and so do organizations. Creating a future state allows organizations to plan for changes that they want to make, and ideal situations that may not be possible in the short term. Future states also set up systems that guide you toward your ideal state, and address potential changes or problems. There is no way to foresee every problem, but with input from various stakeholders you can at least catch some of the potential pitfalls, or potential changes that are on the horizon that you can prepare for. I can also see how it helps keep the overall vision consistent through administrative changes, which happen quite often for principals and superintendents. The state of the organization adheres closer to the mission and vision, rather than the whim of new management. What have you discovered about systems or processes in your current organization that would help define the Business Architecture? WHAT ARE THEY AND HOW WOULD THEY HELP WITH YOUR DEVELOPMENT OF A BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE?Although I am focusing on SDUSD for my assignments, I'd like to reflect on my own district this week, because that lens really helped me relate to these readings.
As I worked through the readings this week, Enterprise Architecture began to make sense. This year I have served on a WASC committee with 5 other teachers from my district, working to prepare the report to be given to the WASC inspectors. My section has been "Organization", which essentially is an overview of much of the business architecture. There were many components that WASC asked about that I had to dig for, and almost every section asked "how is this contributing to student learning". Having that background, I was able to understand the work flows that the readings talked about, except this goes much deeper than WASC, into the actual business that goes on far from the classroom. This has given me a lot of appreciation to what a machine the education system really is. There are so many people behind the scenes, working to make sure buses follow schedules, food makes it on time, facilities are maintained, information is being entered and available, it is really incredible. It reminded me that my grandmother worked at a school district office as her part time career in the 70s and 80s. She was actually a payroll clerk, in the days of carbon copy paper and continuous form paper. The BIBOK reading made an interesting point that Business Architecture needs do not change much. The four components that comprise the foundation of Business Architecture (organization, capability, value, and information), "are relatively stable compared to other aspects of the business. For example, a one hundred year old insurance company would have had similar capabilities as it does today"(BIZBOK, pg2). A Guide to the Business Architecture Body of Knowledge™ (BIZBOK™ Guide) Version 3.5. (2013, January 1). Retrieved February 15, 2015, from http://www2.mitre.org/public/eabok/pdf/BIZBOK-V3.5-Part1-Introduction.pdf Upon filling out my KWL chart for this module, it is no surprise that the "Learned" column is the most crowded.
Going into this module I was still trying to wrap my head around what Enterprise Architecture meant exactly. I knew that EA is a process of mapping out IT needs according to the organization's mission and vision, and planning for future growth or future needs. What I have learned in the past 3 modules includes the history of EAFs, summaries of major EAFs and more clarification about the purpose of Enterprise Architecture. Many Enterprise Architecture Frameworks have roots in government and military organizations. Those are still used today and have inspired new EAFs and also hybrid models. I have learned the major components and "views" included in the various EAFs. I discovered that part of the process of a EAF is creating "artifacts" to act as references for the future conditions an organization may face. According to our readings, the most widely used primary EAF is The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF). More common are hybrid models of multiple frameworks. What I still would like to know is what an actual EA looks like. Specifically I would like to see an example of a school or district's Enterprise Architecture plans. I'd also like to know who is responsible for creating such a plan in a school setting. Reflect upon your learnings this week by describing ways in which Enterprise Architecture relates to your current role or organization.In my role as a classroom teacher, I am at the staff level and affected by the EA that is set up to service my (and my students') needs. I did provide some input in past years as to needs of my classroom, which came in the form of surveys and questions similar to those presented at the end of Chapter 1.
I am not in any kind of management or leadership position, but as my district goes through what we are calling a "re-imagining" of JCCS, the leadership has sought our input on many of the questions from the "Goals and Initiatives Level". It is because of their questions that much of the technology rolled out to classrooms in the last 2 years has been very much aligned with our vision and purpose, as well as the students we interact with and the security issues that can arise. In An Introduction to Enterprise Architecture by Scott A. Bernard, he suggests asking the following questions in the very beginning phase of create an Enterprise Architecture: 1. What is your organization's mission statement/purpose? 2. What is your vision? What do you intend to be? 3. What are your strategic goals? 4. What strategic initiatives have you implemented? 5. How will you know success? These are all questions that our leadership involved us in, and looking at it after the roll out of Chromebooks and installation of nearly open internet access in juvenile institutions, it is clear that leadership and IT worked together to create a plan (perhaps an EA) that reflected our goals and initiatives. The other phases/areas of questions I have had little involvement with and am less clear about. Looking ahead in the book, however, it seems they approach all these areas in more depth eventually. What do you know, if anything? What do you hope to learn?Coming into this class I did not know anything about Enterprise Architecture, but when I saw the title of the class it seemed really exciting and interesting. I assumed it meant something about setting up the foundation for an IT system, much like an architect designs buildings, and I was somewhat right. Honestly I'm still trying to grasp exactly what it is, but the resources in this module were helpful in explaining some things and also creating even more questions.
From what I gather so far, Education Enterprise Architecture (EEA) aims to create an IT system that best serves it's users (teachers, admin, and students) and allows for easy changes and updates. How exactly people go about creating that type of structure is something I still have questions about, but I think this class will definitely answer them. The readings this week give us some examples, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around what it all means in practice and not just on paper. I will definitely read this week's reading again and I look forward to a whole semester of digging into this subject. |
AuthorJessica Billeci is an educator for Juvenile Court and Community Schools, and a student in SDSU's M.A. of Ed Leadership w/ Technology Emphasis. This is a blog for EDL680- Intro to Enterprise Architecture. Archive
May 2015
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