System upgrade was path to ‘awesome’ data visualization at Oklahoma City Public Schools

Eric Hileman wants to bring student data visualization capabilities to teachers in Oklahoma City Public Schools, but until recently, the school’s legacy infrastructure couldn’t support it.

“We had green screen student information systems,” Hileman, the district’s executive director of IT, says in a video interview with EdScoop. “In order to do deep data analysis and visualizations, you cannot do it on a legacy-based system.”

Hileman says the district, which serves 40,000 students, switched to Infinite Campus for its student information system a few years ago, but even that was only an intermediate step on the university’s journey to something greater.

“Even though that was like huge brain surgery and it touches everything in your district, that’s not the goal. That’s the intermediary goal,” Hileman says. “The goal is to then do something with that awesome data system.”

For Hileman, he sees that as data visualizations where a teacher can have one place for all student data to inform the learning process.

Ultimately, he said, the data visualization platform is hoped to give teachers the opportunity to “slice and dice student data” and produce better outcomes in classrooms.

Hileman on lessons for digital learning: 

Hileman on his top priorities:

Hileman on emerging edtech trends:

These videos were filmed and produced by EdScoop at the 2018 State Educational Technology Directors Association Leadership Summit in Arlington, Virginia.