Education Week - March 5, 2014 - Leaders to Learn From - S40

Walker has added classes for students and increased
their technology capabilities with 1-to-1 laptop or tablet
programs in many schools.
A hallmark of the way he operates, she said, is starting
with a good idea and then finding a way to make it
happen-and troubleshooting when issues arise.
"Dan is not afraid to just try something and to be
that pioneer on the edge," she said.
Students can now take a variety of classes, including
instruction in the native Alaskan Yu'Pik language, that
they wouldn't have had access to without the videoconferencing
system. It has been upgraded in the past
few years with additional cameras, allowing for more
classes. With 27 schools in the district, 60 cameras may
be running for courses at once, Mr. Walker said.
And students are getting access to electives as well:
digital photography, e-journalism, and robotics are
popular. Those courses connect students to the rest of
the country and open up opportunities for them, Mr.
Walker said. The robotics course, for example, is taught
from Bethel, and the supplies needed are transported
to schools via plane. Students participate in robotics
competitions hundreds and thousands of miles away.
Teams from Lower Kuskokwim have even advanced to
state, regional, and world competitions in recent years.
But none of that can succeed without a dependable
technology network, Mr. Walker said, which is a challenge
in rural Alaska. He has worked to transform the
district's technology network from a satellite-based
Internet system to a land-based delivery system to improve
reliability.
"When you're in a regular classroom and you need
to pause, you can move on to something different," he
said. "When you're in a live videoconferencing class,
your technology has to work. If there's a 10- or 15-second
problem, things can snowball from there."
Mr. Walker is proud of his district's 100-megabit Internet
connection, which has come at a "tremendous
effort" and costs about $20 million a year. But with reimbursement
from the federal E-rate program, which
helps provide connectivity to low-income districts,
Lower Kuskokwim pays only about $2.5 million annually
for the Internet services, he said.
Access for All
Even while he was working through issues with
satellite and terrestrial Internet, Mr. Walker was
persistent in making sure students in remote areas
got connected so they could have many of the highquality
educational offerings others get, said Pamela
Lloyd. The senior director at GCI SchoolAccess, the
Anchorage, Alaska-based telecommunications company
that provides services to the district, Ms. Lloyd
has worked closely with Mr. Walker. "He pushed an
investment in broadband to offer high-quality videoconferencing
to every student, no matter their ZIP
code," she said. "His vision was about bringing equity
to the students."
And Mr. Walker is not afraid to experiment, Ms.
Lloyd said. He's looking to introduce more blended
learning opportunities and asynchronous studentteacher
experiences. And he's integrating tablets into
district offerings, which he's found to work well with
students.
"For many of these students, their first language is
Yu'Pik, and partly because of those language issues,
they're very visual learners," Mr. Walker said. "When
you stick an iPad or a laptop in their hands, they're
very savvy with using the technology.
"Kids who may feel disengaged with some of the traditional
classes, when you put the technology in their
hands, it gets them excited, and they tend to do better."
Mr. Walker isn't just guessing at what will work with
students. He's spent 23 years in the district, first teaching
in a village school, then eight years as a principal,
and the past six as an assistant superintendent.
When working in the village schools, Mr. Walker, whose
wife also spent many years in the district as a teacher
and now works in the main office, said he declared he
would never move to Bethel or work out of the district
office, because he valued his experiences in the smaller
schools.
"I learned never to say never," he said, adding that
the opportunity to bring his vision to more students
was too hard to pass up. "I am so passionate about finding
ways to get kids access to technology." n
S40 | LEADERS TO LEARN FROM > leaders.edweek.org
EDUCATION WEEK * March 5, 2014
LESSON LEARNED
"It's incumbent upon
leadership to set the
tone that the only way
to move forward is to
figure out how to work
together and work
smarter."
http://leaders.edweek.org
Education Week - March 5, 2014 - Leaders to Learn From

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