1. Digital Content Strategy
Interoperability Standards to Personalize Instruction
HISD’s digital content and curriculum strategy; our journey for student personalized instruction via interoperability standards.
L. Beatriz Arnillas, Sr. Manager IT Instructional Technology
Houston isd Jan 2015

2. More than 90 languages spoken 80.4% economically disadvantaged
283 schools
215,000 students
More than 90 languages spoken
Houston ISD is very large and diverse.
169,856 students (80.6%) Free & Reduced Lunch
62,413 (29.6%) Limited English Proficient
62% Hispanic, 25% African American, 8% White, 4% Asian/Pacific Islander
4-yr graduation rate 81.6% (N=9,023)
Culture of our city and district to be innovative; (e.g. NASA)
80.4% economically disadvantaged 2

3. Very high achieving, “great” schools as well as very low performing schools. Because of this inconsistency our recent strategy is to be “Great All Over.” We believe our key drivers to being great not just in pockets but rather all over is achieved by focusing our efforts on rigorous standards, engaging our stakeholders and supporting the 21st century learner. We recognize we will not be able to achieve this vision without operating in a culture of excellence or without digital transformation.

4. What can we do to make sure every child reads, writes and does math at Grade Level?
What do the IMS Global open source interoperability standards bring to the “personalized” environment?
Chunking & meta-tagging content by object, lesson and unit (granular tagging and recall)
With the right LMS or platform, students, parents and teachers should have the option of choosing from an array of content by provider (multiple free, district-created and publisher sources,) type, level, etc. (to address each individual student learning preferences, needs, interests and levels
Personalize features include: objects linked to standards/topics
#GreatAllOver means college/career-ready
Options of AP, IB, Dual Credit for all students

5. Houston ISD’s Digital Landscape (Fall 2013)
Decentralized decision-making and campus innovation
Inconsistent implementation of district centralized curriculum
Multiple methods to procure instructional content
Central Office adopted materials
School purchased materials
Multiple (numerous) digital platforms (content, tools, etc.)
Digital “translation” not digital design
One of HISD’s innovations was to decentralize decision-making and thus financing which is a highly valued part of our culture today. Idea was to have Principals operate as CEOs with the goal to spurn innovation, competition and increase the quality of services from Central Office. While many great things have been developed as the result of decentralized decision-making the challenge is that that district’s centralized curriculum is implemented inconsistently with varying results.
Instructional content is procured and adopted centrally however schools may also purchase instructional materials. As a result, the district is current supporting a number of digital platforms offering their own content and tools. (expensive, complicated, etc.)

6. PowerUp - Jump Starting our Digital Transformation
A vision for digital learning is now in place. HISD is building digital curriculum capacity, which is now accessible to all in the HUB. The digital resources strategy, combined with a comprehensive 1:1 initiative will enable PowerUp to transform teaching and learning.
Starting last Fall, our strategy for changing the digital learning landscape is already underway; branded as PowerUp.
Three legs of a stool (1:1 student device effort, digital teaching and learning platform we call the HUB, and personalized instruction)

7. Personalization
What does technology and the IMS Global open source interoperability standards bring to the “personalized” environment?
Chunking & meta-tagging content by object, lesson and unit (granular tagging and recall)
Choice and Voice: With the right LMS or platform, students, parents and teachers should have the option of choosing from an array of content by provider (multiple free, district-created and publisher sources,) type, level, etc. (to address each individual student learning preferences, needs, interests and levels
Personalize features provided by technology include: objects linked to standards/topics; learner profiles, to include preferences, future plans and interests; multiple options for assignment products; recommendations engine (for diagnostic assessment and personalized re-learning options) access to performance data, and usage analytics

8. Digital Curriculum Goals
Students increasingly interact with technology as part of the learning experience, and will therefore be equipped with quality digital tools Teachers increased access to quality digital learning content HISD Central Administration laid the foundation for schools to acquire and use quality digital tools Principals determine school level content needs and make educated decisions about digital resources Parents will partner with students and their schools to access and interact with digital content for anytime, anywhere learning
Students
Teachers
HISD Central
Where we want to be on the other side of our digital transformation is:
Students using technology for anytime, anywhere learning
Teachers easily accessing targeted digital content
Principals will have many options from which to make decisions
Parents as partners can access and support their students in their learning
Principals
Parents

9. Digital Content Strategy
Purchased DTLP and developed interoperability standards
All students can be on grade level by personalizing instruction
Learning accessible and easy for all teachers, students and parents by accessing in one platform
Linked to various sets of standards
Guided by HISD curriculum materials
Provide accurate and consistent data to teachers, Principals and district leaders for decision-making
The strategic reason why we have purchased a Digital Teaching and Learning Platform (DTLP) and developed digital content interoperability standards is that we believe that we can bring every child to reading and math grade levels, no matter their background or family conditions, by personalizing instruction.
The main tactical reason is because (a) we want to make learning accessible and easy to use for all teachers, students and parents by making all content accessible in one platform, linked to various sets of standards and guided by HISD’s curriculum materials, and (b) providing accurate and constant data to teachers, schools leaders and administrators, so we can make informed decisions

10. Personalization = Student voice and choice
Creating Personalized Learning Environments
Personalization = Student voice and choice
Personalization is not differentiation or individualization
Student personal profile with learner preferences
Meta tagging enables content search by standards, topic, grade level, Lexile level, type of file, etc.
Content creation capabilities (html, wikis, blogs, others)
Ability to rate content quality
Link individual assessment questions to specific standards
Recommendations engine produces optional list of resources to support student choice
HISD uses “personalization” to mean the learner has VOICE and CHOICE.
Different from differentiation (what teacher does) and individualization (Spec. Ed.)
In personalized learning environments the teachers guide the learning, and students participate in the decisions about how they are going to acquire the knowledge. (what this looks like in classroom; butterflies)
We recognize there will be situations when the model of choice may be to differentiate and individualize learning environments. A personalized learning environment requires all the conditions that differentiated and individualized environments have, plus more. For this reason, our buildings and technology must make accommodations for Personalized environments, as this will be inclusive of all three options.

11. Requirements for a new platform
A content-agnostic Digital Teaching and Learning Platform
IMS Global Interoperability Standards
Common Cartridge Integration (CC)
Thin Common Cartridge (TCC)
LTI v. 1.2 – Bi-directional Integration
ItsLearning (Houston ISD’s “PowerUp HUB”) is a K-12, content agnostic, digital teaching and learning platform and IMS Global Certified for digital content interoperability (open source) standards.
All HISD leaders, staff, students and parents will be able to collaborate, personalize, access curriculum, provide instruction, create/post content, communicate and provide feedback.
The hub is (for now) the only default location to store teacher and student-generated content

12. Applications/Systems: Enterprise Level Dashboards:
Houston ISD Teaching & Learning Eco-System
TEA
Applications/Systems:
College Board
EVAAS
Career Platform
Formative Assessment
SIS
Board
Enterprise Level Dashboards:
Superintendent
CSOs/SSOs
Teachers
Principals
Students/Parents
Statistical and predictive analysis
College readiness
Intervention recommendations
Past performance
Integrated Data Warehouse
Teachers
User types:
Students/parents
Admin
Principals
Designers
DTLP
LOR
CMS
LMS
Performance Feedback
Formative Assessment
Recommendations Engine and other Personalized Features
User’s DTLP Dashboard:
(Animation triggered by 2 clicks clicks to explain how data system(s) and Digital Teaching and Learning Platform provide a complete picture of data to inform learning:
We are creating an integrated multi-system platform with the potential to create a number of customizable user roles, such as central office leadership and admins, platform administrators, school administrators, principals, designers, teachers, assistant instructors, auditors, students, parents, etc. - and a learning environment with the tools to create adaptive and personalized learning plans.
CMS: a flexible database with the capacity to store several sets of standards and the tools to develop planning guides, lesson plans, sequence scope and calendar
LOR, Library or Resources Center: Public and private storage area with the potential to create designer communities and the capacity to search learning objects by key word, standard and rating tool
LMS: The teaching and learning space where courses are created, to include a variety of teaching and learning tools, including but not limited to: content in a variety of media, discussion boards, , announcements, calendar, chats, wikis, blogs, groups, assessments, drop boxes, online meeting rooms, etc.
The three systems are linked, and connected to other learning and management systems (digital content and assessments providers, SIS and Business systems so that administrators, teachers and students can search, reuse, assess, rate, modify an update content, as needed.

13. http://www.imsglobal.org/ LTI Integration Common Cartridge
End User
Launch
Enrollments
Saved Data
Grades
LTI Integration
Content resides in Vendor’s Server
Common Cartridge
Digital Teaching and Learning Platform
How do we do this?
* From IMS Global What exactly does Common Cartridge specify?
A format for exchange of content between systems so that there is a common way to interpret what the digital learning content is and how it is organized. The content is described in a manifest and the components that make up the manifest may be in the exchanged package or external to the package (referenced by URL).
An authorization standard (access rules) for each component of the package. This allows "protected" content or applications (those requiring a license) to be contained in a cartridge in a flexible way along with unprotected content.
A standard for the metadata describing the content in the cartridge - based on Dublin Core. Common Cartridge is extensible to allow other metadata schemas.
A standard for test items, tests, and assessments. This standard allows learning systems to understand imported assessments as natively - so they can be manipulated (such as deciding what items are to be used and where in the flow of a course) as needed in the learning system.
A standard for launching and exchanging data with external applications so that they can be part of a single learning experience orchestrated through the learning system. These can be literally any type of application in any location, such as social networking, wiki, external assessment systems, adaptive tutors, varieties of web-based content libraries, or other learning systems.
A standard for populating online discussion forums for collaboration among students. This allows such forums to be pre-populated with potential exercises, discussion threads, and so forth. (See a diagram of Common Cartridge and Learning Tools Interoperability and Common Cartridge Content Hierarchy)

14. 7 Months
33 Course Packages Loaded: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pearson, CompuScholar
29 Course Packages Loaded, Tested, and available in HUB Live: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- Go Math
- Science Fusion
- Environmental Science
- Modern Chemistry
Represents 65,000 Learning Objects

15. All High School content is digital
(Looking Ahead)
Today: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt integrated digital content, with more coming
All High School content is digital
Onboarding (provide developmental tools for progressive, increasingly sophisticated use)
Personalizing Instruction – are we there yet?

16. Q & A
Laura Brown
itslearning
Beatriz Arnillas
Houston ISD
Thank you from itslearning and Houston ISD!
Start free trial at itslearning.net