MN Computer Science Strategic Plan Finished

📢 Six months ago, a coalition of esteemed technologists and educators united to establish the Minnesota’s Computer Science (CS) Working Group, embarking on a journey to develop a comprehensive Computer Science Education Strategic Plan for all public K-12 and charter schools across the state. 💻 Throughout this six-month journey, we convened for five full-day meetings and workshops, undertaking two rounds of meticulous writing to synthesize our collective insights into the plan. The journey in posts:

#1 Working group started!https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7119683894882291713

#2 Plan draft done!https://www.linkedin.com/posts/steveabuchanan_computer-science-working-group-update-activity-7159322360435634177-DglR

#3 Plan finished!https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7176989951132151808

Here is a summary of the effort:

📝 “Minnesota’s Computer Science (CS) Working Group developed a state strategic plan for computer science, finalized in March, 2024, which describes ten recommendations for long-term and sustained growth of computer science education across all public K-12 and charter schools in Minnesota, as outlined in the Computer Science Education Advancement Act Minn. Stat. 120B.241 [2023]. The recommendations are aligned to the requirements outlined in the legislation, such as licensure, high-quality professional development, continuous improvement, and standards, among others.” 

Kudos to all of the amazing indivuduals in the working group:

  • Andrea Wilson Vazquez, Minnesota Department of Education
  • Wendy Robinson, Office of Higher Education
  • Katherine Anthony-Wigle, Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB)
  • Alexandra Holter, Computer Science Teachers Association – MN Chapter
  • Steve Buchanan Microsoft, representative from the business community employing computer scientists or technologists
  • Greg Larson, Minnesota Technology Association (MnTech)
  • Mahmoud Aliamer, Science Museum of Minnesota, representative from a nonprofit organization working with students and teachers in computer science
  • Anthony Padrnos, Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA)
  • Tabitha Senty, Education Minnesota
  • Cassie Scharber, Minnesota Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (MACTE)
  • Jennifer Rosato, CSforAll MN
  • • Sheri Levasseur, Pequot Lakes Public Schools, licensed library media specialist
  • • Erica Allenburg, Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA)
  • • Vic Dreier, SciMathMN
  • • Zhaawin Gonzalez, Tribal Nations Education Committee (TNEC)
  • • Jesse Kodet, Tribal Nations Education Committee (TNEC)
  • • High School Student, Under 1,000 student school
  • • High School Student, Over 1,000 student school
  • • Andy Olson, Hermantown Community Schools, K–5 teacher
  • • Kirsten Tetzlaff, Minnetonka Public School District, 6–8 teacher
  • • Indrayani LeMaire, Hmong College Prep Academy, 9–12 teacher
  • • Tika Kude, Wayzata Public School District, 9–12 CTE teacher

🙌🏼 It was an honor to contribute to this effort, one that will profoundly impact the youth of Minnesota for years to come. 🎉🎉 Yesterday, we partnered with the Minnesota Tech Association and the Raspberry Pi Foundation to commemorate the successful completion of this plan. Hosted at REM5 Labs in St. Louis Park, the event had great support, with a notable turnout of engaged individuals. Even had the chance to speak on a panel with Philip Colligan the CEO of the Raspberry Pi Foundation! 🌟

📰 The next milestone involves publishing the plan to the Minnesota Department of Education’s (MDE) Legislative Reports page, followed by its journey through the legislative process, with the ultimate aim of committing it into law.

You can download a PDF of the plan here:

Computer Science State Strategic Plan

🏛️This achievement marks just the beginning of the journey. Sustained dedication and the involvement of more volunteers will be essential to realizing the goals outlined in this plan. 💻

Stay tuned for further updates on the progression of our efforts. There’s much more to come around this initiative.

MDE Computer Science page:

https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/stds/ComputerScience/index.htm

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New AKS Community

There is some exciting news for AKS. Brian Redmond a PM with the AKS team has worked to get the External AKS Community up and running again. This community will have monthly meetings and recorded content.

The AKS Community Meetings will be live-streamed on YouTube and will cover interesting technical content on AKS related topics “Ask me anything” sessions and more. Here is a recording of the inaugural meeting for the AKS Community. https://www.youtube.com/live/1_ukekQEzBw?feature=share&t=32

If you miss the old ‘AKS Office Hours’, you definitely need to check out this new AKS community. Looking forward to seeing this community grow!

To make sure you’re always in the loop and never miss a beat, follow the official PG on various social media sites. Stay informed about upcoming meetings, exclusive content drops, and other exciting AKS-related news: 

Twitter – https://twitter.com/theakscommunity 
YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/@theakscommunity 
Threads – https://www.threads.net/@theakscommunity 
Github – https://github.com/theakscommunity/aks-community-meetings

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Presenting on AKS at Tech Summit Nigeria 2022

I will be speaking at Tech Summit Nigeria 2022. This event is to be held in Lagos, Nigeria at the Microsoft ADC center. It is an event for Cloud & Mixed- Reality professionals & enthusiasts. The website for the is https://www.techsummitnigeria.com.

My session title is: “K8s is complex! Simplify its Deployment & Configuration“.

The abstract is: Understanding Kubernetes is complex. Designing its architecture is complex. Deploying it is complex. And Configuring it is complex. K8s in general are complex. Spend less time on getting your Kubernetes up and running and more time running your containerized apps!

In this session, Steve Buchanan will take you on a journey utilizing a tool named the AKS Construction Helper that can simplify your AKS Deployment & Configurations.

***Update***

It was a fun session with an engaged audience! Here are some pictures from the session.

If you missed my session you can watch the replay here:

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Watch Learn Live Episode 7 – Introduction to Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes

Today Pierre Roman (@wiredcanuck) Senior Cloud Advocate of Microsoft & myself (@buchatech) streamed “Introduction to Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes” on Learn Live. Here is what we covered in this session:

In this session, showed you how Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes clusters can help customers like Contoso to optimize and simplify their operations. Here are the Learning objectives we covered:

  • Describe Kubernetes, Azure Arc, and Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes.
  • Connect Kubernetes clusters to Azure Arc.
  • Manage Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes clusters by using GitOps.
  • Integrate Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes cluster with Azure services like Azure Monitor and Azure Policy.

If you missed it don’t worry. 🙂 You can watch the playback on the Microsoft Developer YouTube channel here:

You can check out more Learn Live episodes on the:

Or

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Speaking on the Metaverse at GatherVerse Summit 2022

GatherVerse is a new conference about the MetaVerse. GatherVerse is the creation of entrepreneur & tech leader Christopher Lafayette. The GatherVerse is a global gathering discussing humanity first standards of education, safety, privacy, wellness, equality, community development and accessibility in the next steps of the metaverse. Here is the GatherVerse website: www.gatherversesummit.com

I will be a part of a panel discussing EdTech’s role in the Metaverse. This panel will be on day 2 – February 23rd, 2022 @ 2:00pm pst – 2:48pm pst

I will join a great panel of esteemed tech professionals. On the panel, I will give my personal point of view of how companies and technologies such as Accenture (who recently bought of 60k Oculus headsets), Microsoft, FlipGrid, TakeLessons, LinkedIn Learning, Roblox, Pluralsight, and more fit into the Metaverse.

This event is free. Here are links to learn more and sign up:

Free Tickets
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gatherverse-summit-tickets-217609685427

Website
www.gatherversesummit.com

LinkedIn Event Link
https://www.linkedin.com/events/gatherversesummit20226871478586432454656/about/

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Next Chapter – Joining Microsoft

I am excited to announce the next chapter in my career. It has been a long time coming, I am joining Microsoft (going to the mothership). I will be joining an elite team focused on Azure product improvement in one of the engineering orgs as a Principal Program Manager. I will be focused on improving Azure’s end-to-end open-source & Kubernetes experiences as well as working with multiple clouds. Several things excite me about this role such as; the talented folks on the team, being a part of improving the Azure, continuing to expand my open-source skills, continuing to expand my multi-cloud skills, and working with various product groups as well as leadership.

I am really looking forward to this change in my career as I will be moving from the consulting discipline to the product/cloud provider discipline. I view this as a soft reboot to my career, the next chapter in my book, and the 3rd lap in the race of my career. The possibilities where this will lead are endless and will open many new doors.

With this move, I will no longer be a Microsoft MVP. Microsoft employees cannot be Microsoft MVPs. After 10 years as a Microsoft MVP, I will surely miss being a part of the MVP family. However, I will continue to contribute to the technical community through blogging, speaking at conferences, user groups, creating content such as e-books, sharing my insights on podcasts, and creating more Pluralsight courses! Sharing my knowledge is a part of who I am. Buchatech will live on! I look forward to working with folks from the other side of the table and continuing to interact/collaborate with folks in the community!

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Featured on BITTechTalk Episode #127 – PC Tech to Microsoft MVP

I have been waiting for this one to release! I was a guest on Blacks In Technology ‘s renowned podcast BITTechTalk.

On this episode we talk about; the pros and cons of having a coding background vs infra, what it’s like coming from infrastructure into DevOps, the importance of networking skills in DevOps.

We get into the fact that many folks in the tech industry have to jump ship to get the promotion & better pay, being in consulting vs internal tech, what it’s like being a Microsoft MVP, changing the narrative of blacks in tech, tech salaries and much more!

Check out the podcast episode with the BIT founder Greg Greenlee & me here:

https://www.blacksintechnology.net/bittechtalk-ep-127-steve-buchanan-pc-tech-to-microsoft-mvp/

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Speaking at Microsoft Ignite 2020

I am excited to announce that I am one of the experts in several Ask the Expert sessions during Microsoft Ignite 2020 this week.

I will be a part of a variety of sessions with topics ranging from Linux and PowerShell on Azure, Kubernetes on Azure, Azure Migration, and Transforming Windows Server workloads in Azure.

My Speaker profile:

https://myignite.microsoft.com/speaker/ce1ea0e0-3f42-4986-90ab-aee809e3735d

The sessions are:

Here is the link to the Ignite home page myignite.microsoft.com. I hope to see you on the digital Ignite event and in one of the Ask the Expert Sessions!

Update 9/30/2020

Being a part of several Ask the Expert sessions was really fun! My most memorable session was the Ask the Expert: Linux and PowerShell on Azure session.

This session was packed full of superstars from Microsoft product groups and fellow MVPs including; Jeffery Snover, Jason Helmick, Janaka Rangama, and Alexander Nikolić. Here is a screenshot from the session:

After the session, I tweeted about the session and shared some wisdom about PowerShell, and both Jeffery Snover and Jason Helmick retweet my tweet!

2020 is not all bad. It’s pretty cool when the inventor of PowerShell and the PowerShell Program Manager retweet you!

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Third Pluralsight Course Published – Microsoft Azure Pricing and Support Options

Today my third Pluralsight course has been published. This course is titled “Microsoft Azure Pricing and Support Options“. It is a part of an AZ-900 learning path that will help you prepare for the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 exam. Learn more about that exam here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-900 .

I was excited about this course as it is a part of my day to day focus on Azure. Also, this is a chance to help those that are getting started with Azure. Here is what you will gain from this course:

This course will teach you the fundamental knowledge about the pricing and support options in Azure one of the core skills measured in the AZ-900: Azure Fundamentals exam.

In this course, Microsoft Azure Pricing and Support Options, you’ll learn to estimate the pricing and support of Azure cloud services. First, you’ll explore Azure subscriptions, subscription management, and management groups.

Next, you’ll discover, plan, and manage Azure costs. Finally, you’ll learn how to understand Azure SLA’s, various Azure service lifecycles, and how to select the right support options. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge of Azure pricing and available support needed to estimate Azure costs and select the right support options.

Please check out this new course here: https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/microsoft-azure-pricing-support-options

Also, be sure to follow my profile on Pluralsight so you will be notified as I release new courses! I will be releasing more courses soon!

Here is the link to my Pluralsight profile: https://app.pluralsight.com/profile/author/steve-buchanan

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Microsoft MVP Summit 2019

This year’s summit was one of the best MVP summits I have been to since being a Microsoft MVP! I focused on Azure, Azure Stack, containers, and orchestration platforms. That’s about all I can say about the summit. Everything else is NDA!

On top of all the learning at the summit it was great connecting with other MVP’s and the Microsoft teams. This I can share. Here are some highlights from the summit in pictures:

It was full of cool stickers starting off with one for the 2019 MVP Summit.

Here are a some of the core CDM MVPs in front of building 92 including Bob Cornelissen, John Joyner, Janaka Rangama, Jakob Svendsen, Sam Erskine, Cameron Fuller, Robert Hedblom, Dieter Wijckmans, and others.

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