TJ 2.0: Design the Future
Widely known as a "Father of the Internet" and currently Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, Vint Cerf shared his vast experience with the Networking and Security breakout group.
As the first National Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft Education, Cameron Evans is responsible for shaping and executing Microsoft's technology agenda in US Education. His powerful kick-off speech reminded attendees that the work we’re doing must be meaningful to kids who today are only in elementary school.
Aneesh Chopra, the United States Chief Technology Officer and former Virginia Secretary of Technology, made room in his busy schedule to address the workshop crowd.
Evan Burfield, TJ ‘95, CEO and co-founder of Synteractive, a technology consulting company, chats with Vint Cerf.
TJ Principal Evan Glazer and Partnership Fund Chair Mark Skolnik present Microsoft Education CTO Cameron Evans with a certificate of appreciation for Microsoft’s generous hosting of the event.
Andrew Ko, Senior Director, US Partners in Learning, Microsoft, at the kick-off party at Microsoft’s Reston offices.
Joel Hansma, IT Systems Engineer & Manager, Northrop Grumman Information Systems, and facilitator of the Data Access, Management & Storage breakout group, explains his results to the larger group.
Mary McDowell, TJ Assistant Principal for Science and Tech, and Chandru Rajam, Visiting Associate Professor of International Business, George Washington University, and facilitator of the Outreach breakout group, consider the remarks of a fellow participant.
The approach of TJ’s long-awaited renovation means that in addition to keeping a school of 1850 students and 120 faculty and staff running smoothly every day, the current TJ administration must plan for its future. Included in the planning process is the herculean task of choosing IT configurations that are both robust and flexible enough to enable TJ to become the prototype of, and ambassador for, secondary STEM education in Northern Virginia and beyond. As a first step in that process, the TJ administration set out its goals for the technological capabilities of the new building.
TJ 2.0: A Blueprint for the Future of STEM Education
Prepared by TJHSST Administration and Faculty, Spring 2011
TJ 2.0 also seeks to establish a 21st-century information and collaboration infrastructure throughout the school that supports and extends TJ’s mission and provides advanced tools and opportunities for its students and faculty. This infrastructure should be designed with the following capabilities:Underlying research infrastructure, the essential facility and building environment for scientific inquiry that is shared among multiple research disciplines.
Advanced tools and equipment*, driven by the future vision for each of TJ’s research labs and made possible by their increased size and the addition of connected classroom space, which will enable students to engage in meaningful cutting-edge scientific and technological inquiry.
- Technology that allows for collaboration
- Two-way communication with professionals in the field and in academia, as well as with teachers and students at other institutions
- Information-sharing can take place directly from the lab or classroom via effective video communication
- Ubiquitous connectivity and interoperability
- Wireless sensor network allows the school building itself to become the object of inquiry
- Any standards-based network-addressable device or system could be connected anywhere in the school
- Sufficient capacity to sustain a large scale virtual learning environment
- Remains operable despite a large numbers of users
- Provides tele-learn flexibility for half-days, snow days, emergencies and unanticipated future needs
- Promotes off-site mentoring
- Allows student enrollment at TJ from other sites
- Offers the potential to depart from a fixed master schedule
- Limited Operations and Maintenance (O&M) accessibility
- Student experimentation with, and routine use of, the IT infrastructure is possible without disruption of daily operations
- Infrastructure becomes a teaching tool
- A more effective means to fulfill our mission as a Regional Governor’s School
- Routine access to the unique tools at TJ from other locations
- Extend the capacity of the school to more users in the region
- Adaptability in the face of change
- Ability to continuously update the technology without rebuilding the infrastructure
- Security and privacy for all users
- Meets the standards for security and privacy demanded by the school system in recognition of the fact that users are minors and required by law to be in school
- Protects all users from intentional or unintentional interference by a highly-capable and energetic user base
- Sustains operations despite unfavorable environmental conditions
- Labs maintain power in support of ongoing experimentation
- Insures optimal conditions for living organisms dependent on artificial systems to sustain life
To support the administration as they plan for the next twenty-five years in a field that is in constant motion, the Partnership Fund organized a workshop, “TJ 2.0 Design the Future,” where IT professionals from academia and industry could gather to share ideas with TJ’s principal, science & technology administrators, and technology professionals. Microsoft generously sponsored the daylong July 26th workshop, donating meeting and breakout space in its Reston offices, catering the event - including a kick-off cocktail reception the night before - and even offering interested participants a brief tour of its facilities.
Experts in their respective fields joined Administration and Partnership Fund representatives for brainstorming sessions and discussions in several breakout groups, followed by presentations to the larger group. Breakout groups tackled such pressing technology concerns as networking and security; data access, management and storage; and adaptability. For example, “Outreach,” the breakout group that included TJ’s principal, Evan Glazer, and Assistant Principal for Science & Technology, Mary McDowell, considered technological and other solutions for expanding TJ’s reach beyond enrolled students. In the afternoon, a panel of experts from local universities shared with the larger group the most important lessons they had learned from guiding their institutions through technological change.
Everyone left the workshop exhausted but energized, with more questions, not fewer, but with plans for future collaboration. Just as it took a public/private partnership to launch TJ on its enormously successful trajectory back in 1985, it will take another such partnership to guide the School through the 21st century. This workshop was an important step toward establishing those partnerships and making TJ 2.0 a reality.