RETHINKING CLOUD for EDU

Many people see (and often misunderstand) Hybrid-Cloud environments, Commercial-grade Mobility & Desktops, Azure-Stack, O365, Windows 10 as a mix of technology products. However, these technologies, combined with new-methodologies supported by new education-intelligence, are the demonstrable, key enablers to unlocking the value, power and potential of shifting education.

When used to change the performance driver of education, this refers to shifting education from the prevailing Single-Loop-Education-Paradigm [SLEP] to Triple-Loop forms of education – fundamentally enabling schools to change posture, build talent-development drivers (rather than ever reducing-bar assessments), allowing the reengineering of every curriculum-student-engagement-assessment process, transforming practice – all by utilising and combining every feature of these technologies in ways only dreamt of by the original product-creators.

Applied in a holistic and deliberate manner, the regenerative effects on national and talent development, of this combination, are significant – examples include:

• Student-engagement in all students at 35 x, in software-enabled immersion learning, over direct-teaching practices (where 80% learners disengage).

• Higher-order learning proven with professional digital-outputs, from 680 students, developed upon Microsoft, Autodesk, Adobe at 16,612 hours pa compared to 957.67 pa as the output from facts remembered or written in tests (the only measure available) in SLEP.

• Doubling normal NCEA-Credits (29+) in 1 year, 1 subject (with integrated standards) by increasing the performance driver from fact-remembering to higher-order levels validating solutions;

  • with 406 embedded Microsoft, Autodesk, Adobe and Certiport Industry-qualifications (from pure-personalised learning; not sequential or instructive delivery).

  • While reducing 56% of admin within in education role to just 32% (and improving).

In scaling the environment, driven by Software-defined-networking and Aruba Mobility; increasing capability using W10 Operating systems, 365, Azure and real-application use - the outcomes included education:

Reengineered with digital processes through W10, 365, other, sharing and productivity gains – transforming the working lives of practitioners.

• Knowledge creation approaches with / of 24/7 accessibility into education content, tools, resources, projects and support: resulting in achievement of 4300 industry certifications in 4 years to over 1100 participants.

• 36,000+ access instances totalling 21,067 hours of learning management system training utilisation as undertaken by staff and students (36% of use over 45 minutes per use)

• Student engagement translating to programme growth from 23 to 680+ students (all learning on real-applications and real-technologies).

The transformation was such that students able to “hit the ground running” in industry with a portfolio, backed by proven expertise and internationally verified credentials, in building industrial standard projects; from design, information management, media, commerce, software development, architectural practice and, in many cases-combined;

• Simple integration and implementation of 42 new, cutting edge, international industry-qualifications, provided as a service; into core academic and staff programmes.

• 140 staff gaining 480 industry certifications through interest-based professional development (not prescribed) using 365, and digital and “as-a-service” content and “tools” provision.

Using software smarts to automate, diagnose and or predict ICT management; redeploying cloud and normally costly personnel and or break-fix spend to the front line.

Thus, where many education institutions have been, understandably, cautious over an "all-cloud"* approach (or walked back from the same*) and where education "transformation" (an often overused and misused word) continues to be a "hot" topic - it is important to understand implications of bad-technology drivers and decisions.

Indeed, the sector is awash with "race to the bottom" price-focused for "easy digital access" which are applied or substituted upon on the existing performance driver [system] (and you would be correct to state - little or no actual transformation can actually occur under such a misnomer).

That being - BYOD, Chrome-books, iPad’s and tablets driving all-Cloud, limited functionality, application approaches (aka race to the bottom technologies) continue to be heavily peddled to schools and education institutions, often with a debt-bearing burden, under the false guise of a digital-outcomes drive technology choices by exploitive and unscrupulous vendors.

This mix has served only to reinforce the single-loop education paradigm made up of direct-teaching and fact-based learning performance drivers (which has remained unchanged since 500bc origins). School's become enticed into the Google-trap where, with these technologies and once hooked in, find it very difficult to climb out of the hole to foster authentic transformation. This is because the inherent belief is the digital-end point has been obtained.

With this inadequate, low-tech, low-performance technology mix, students are literally "being engineered out of their creative capacities". They are deprived the opportunity to be prepared for the real world through interdisciplinary learning offered through immersion-methodologies upon real-applications, on real-devices. For education curriculum development and assessment agencies, the peddling and entrenchment of low-tech peddling is a nightmare: only limited level curriculum and basic-post-learning-assessment can be developed or implemented.

As a result - the intergenerational implications of single-loop pedagogy, student-engagement methods and assessments often remain in place. Schools, by remaining with assessment-focused "school-management" systems - are unable to detect why and which of the 80% of students are disengaged with the prevailing model that offers just 10% of the cognitive development opportunity (compared to students being able to synthesis real issues, bring designs into digital-development and prove-outputs), even with “devices” - and have no ability to do anything about it.

The impact is cyclic and such that low-tech entrenchment of SLEP is counterpoint to NZ dropping to 17th in the world, in parallel for continued PISA declines (where 1 + 1 does not necessarily have to equal 2 in NCEA to “achieve”), for human capital development and knowledge diffusion; and declining to 58th in the Global Innovation Index for increasingly large classroom/teacher-student ratio’s (because schools still focus on roll development, not regional outcomes yet, preserve the implications of direct-teaching SLEP)

The challenge worsens because schools are lured into low-tech price offerings which translate into "going digital" that is often at odds with the existing SLEP methodologies; this creates massive cost impacts, support, technical, security, student-behaviour issues and or further administration loads. Tech-projects, invariably, become “IT” owned projects and lack the vision and objectivity to find a way out, based on delivering higher-order learning value and real outcomes for the betterment of the country.

In contrast - Hybrid-Cloud, 365/Azure, Commercial-grade mobility/desktop, anywhere/anytime: Windows-10 Productivity/Sharing, Azure, driving "as-a-service" personalised learning, as now proven offers, education means - for example real-time systems can drive outcomes through:

1. Quantified quality of planned school, programme, lesson and or teaching performance

2. Rich-content provided automatically, in a format tailored to the learning style and intelligences of the learner

3. Learning style and intelligence mapping: quantified critical, systems and design thinking development/performance

4. Instant or near instant grading: massive extrinsic and intrinsic motivators (no gaming or falsified tricks)

5. Measured outcome vis planned variance management (in Realtime)

These new forms of education intelligence, combined “as-a-service digital” content and process reengineering, particularly through the app-deployment agility of Azure, accelerates triple-loop education in public-sector education. This breaks down the perception of a lack of modernity and ill-fated responses such as online-assessment or “no-assessment” at all (which are poor quality digital renditions or ill-informed responses to SLEP).

More broadly, Hybrid-Cloud with all software-defined architecture, new-data maturity approaches (using appropriate and interoperable – pay – per use - combinations of public/private cloud capability), with IOT, means institutions are also able to enhance multi-pronged real-time intel with a demonstrable counter-anticipatory picture on how education spaces can be shaped (to further enhance the benefit of learning styles, behaviour and different intelligences – to reshape the performance driver). Furthermore Hybrid-Cloud, 365 and Azure with IOT, considered with a regional lens, enables schools to automate and add intelligence for better utilisation of education-grants; maximising how education-assets (such as land, sports facilities and or community-spaces) can be utilised by the community and or for commercially attractive initiatives.

Hence, from a regional technology development or regeneration perspective, the benefits of Hybrid-Cloud/Azure powered EAAS [education-as-a-service] environments, based on triple-loop, also offers schools choices:

• Broader access to race-to-top technologies that would ordinarily be prohibited by cost or expertise.

• Tailored and agile use of leadership and expertise to advance the maturity state of organisations.

• A regional focal point for ideas and ideals; better and targeted investment triangulated by talent development and incubation – a flow from primary, intermediate and secondary – rather than squandering regional development budgets.

• Injection of risk capital into targeted initiatives.

• Establishment of a champion and or role model culture.

• Civic enterprise and entrepreneurialism.

Forming a new education performance driver is the starting point. With Hybrid-enabled EAAS, stack-driven services, this can then be formed, with a race-to-top mental mode and highly-agile mix at the same time as delivering a regenerative EAAS education system that focuses on and resolves the talent crisis – with models to resolve remuneration issues.