Dangerously Irrelevant

Moving forward - Example wikis to use for presentations?

In August I announced a wiki, Moving Forward, that is intended to provide technology-related resources for everyone who gives presentations or delivers training workshops for K-12 or postsecondary educators. I asked readers to contribute blog-related resources and URLs to the wiki, including good classroom blogs and other blogs that can be used as models for educators.

A big thanks to everyone who contributed to the blogs page. We still could use some more model classroom blogs. It would be particularly nice if some of our ‘superhub’ bloggers could throw in a link or two. I know that many of these folks show examples to schools all the time and they’re extremely well-versed on cutting-edge stuff that’s occurring in the world of K-12 ed tech. The average educator who’s trying to facilitate technology-related change in his/her school or district could use some help. Can we give those folks a few choice links that they can show their staff as examples rather than making them dig around the Web trying to find their own?

In addition to my plea for more blog-related resources, I’ll now request some links to some good K-12 wikis. If you have some good examples of how teachers, students, and administrators are using wikis to facilitate their work, please add them to the Moving Forward wikis page.

Thanks in advance. We’re all in this together. Let’s help each other out?

Banned books week

This week is the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week. The most-banned book of 2006? A multiple award-winning children’s picture book about two male penguins that adopt an egg.

Support your local library.

Cherish your freedom to read what you wish.

Jott

Like others, I am finding that Jott is becoming an integral part of my life. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the service, you call a toll-free number, talk for up to 30 seconds, and then a typed transcription appears in your e-mail inbox. You can also use Jott to post to your blog, Twitter, get a Zillow estimate, add to your to-do list, and so on. For me, the best part of Jott may be that I can send myself reminders for a specific date and time. I also like that I can send a message to an e-mail group (like my family or my Educational Administration faculty team).

The service is free. All you have to do is register your e-mail account and phone number. Check it out!

Ergonomic computing

The more time we spend at our computers, the more importance we need to place on proper ergonomics. Prevent repetitive stress injuries, back pain, and eye strain by checking out the resources below. Your body will thank you for it.

Is your primary computing place ergonomically correct?

Ergonomic resources

• Ergotron - Make Your Workstation Fit You (see image above)
• UC-Irvine Ergonomic Review Tool
• CDC Computer Workstation Ergonomics
• CU Ergo (particularly the product and posture evaluations)
• UNC Office Ergonomics
• HealthyComputing

2007 recipients of the Technology Leadership Research Award

It is my great pleasure to announce that Dr. Chris Gareis and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach are the recipients of the 2007 Technology Leadership Research Award. Here is the abstract from their co-authored article, Electronically Mentoring to Develop Accomplished Professional Teachers:

With nearly half of all new teachers leaving the classroom within five years, schools are faced with the challenge of retaining early-career teachers while simultaneously providing them with the support they need to develop into effective professionals. Mentoring novice teachers by pairing them with experienced teachers in schools is a widely adopted practice for addressing these needs; however, face-to-face mentoring is subject to challenges. A promising complement to face-to-face mentoring may be found in the innovative use of computer-mediated communications, such as online forums. In an effort to support, develop, and retain novice teachers, The College of William and Mary has partnered with the Center for Teacher Quality to create ENDAPT – Electronically Networking to Develop Accomplished Professional Teachers. ENDAPT is an asynchronous online forum that brings together novice teachers and teacher leaders in a virtual mentoring community. This article provides an overview of the program model and presents research findings from a study of participants' postings using content analysis methodology to identify and describe the nature of professional conversations among mentors and novice teachers.

Although we can’t share the actual article with you (because it’s currently under review by a journal), Chris and Sheryl will be giving a presentation on their paper at the UCEA conference in November which we will try to make available to folks.

I would like to publicly thank the other practitioners and academics who took the time out of their extremely busy schedules to participate in the anonymous review process this year:

• Kurt Bernardo, Technology Coordinator, Orange City (OH) Schools; 2005 Ohio Technology Coordinator of the Year
• Dr. Jim Morrison, Editor-in-Chief, Innovate
• Dr. Chris Sessums, Director of Distance Education, University of Florida College of Education; Best Individual Blog, 2006 Edublog Awards
• Dr. Jon Voss, Coordinator, Northern Star Online (MN) Schooling Collaborative

The Technology Leadership Research Award is jointly sponsored by CASTLE and the UCEA School Technology Leadership Special Interest Group.

Kudos to Chris and Sheryl. I'm looking forward to the submissions for next year!

Dear superintendent

[cross-posted at the TechLearning blog]

Dear superintendent,

I lost one of my principals in our Principal Blogging Project today. I’m not very happy about it. You see, it’s your fault.

She was a fabulous blogger. She used her blog to share great things that were happening in her school. She uploaded photos and graphics to create student and parent interest. She hyperlinked to helpful resources. She was a master at using her blog to enhance communication with parents and build school community. Parents and students loved it. She was even featured in the newspaper for her blogging efforts.

But then you came to the district. Its new superintendent. The person who is supposed to lead the way. And you shut her down. Why? Because of a few negative parent comments on a few blog posts.

You had the chance to do the right thing. You had the chance to hear your principal tell you about the power of this new communication medium. You had the chance to find out that every major corporation is blogging and that there are numerous reasons why administrators should blog. You had the chance to learn about the technology and the fact that individual commenters could be blocked or that comments could be turned off altogether. Sure, some interactivity would be disabled. Sure, some of the power of blogging would be lost. But at least the principal’s voice could have been preserved.

But you didn’t. Instead you had a knee-jerk reaction and shut her down. Closed her off. Relegated her to the inefficiencies of a listserv and a paper newsletter.

The irony is that you say on your district web page that you embrace change. That you value the input of parents and the local community. That you always want to do what’s best for kids. How do you reconcile shutting down your cutting-edge principal’s use of modern communication tools with your so-called values?

Shame on you. You’re supposed to be modeling effective leadership. You’re supposed to be facilitating your building-level leaders’ use of 21st century technologies so that teachers and students will be more likely to use them. You’re supposed to be the penultimate “lifelong learner” in your organization. As someone who prepares superintendents, I am not impressed.

Congratulations. You’ve moved your school system one step closer to the 19th century. I’m sure your parents and community will thank you for it. May your reign be short.                           

[cross-posted at the TechLearning blog]

Dear superintendent,

I lost one of my principals in our Principal Blogging Project today. I’m not very happy about it. You see, it’s your fault.

She was a fabulous blogger. She used her blog to share great things that were happening in her school. She uploaded photos and graphics to create student and parent interest. She hyperlinked to helpful resources. She was a master at using her blog to enhance communication with parents and build school community. Parents and students loved it. She was even featured in the newspaper for her blogging efforts.

But then you came to the district. Its new superintendent. The person who is supposed to lead the way. And you shut her down. Why? Because of a few negative parent comments on a few blog posts.

You had the chance to do the right thing. You had the chance to hear your principal tell you about the power of this new communication medium. You had the chance to find out that every major corporation is blogging and that there are numerous reasons why administrators should blog. You had the chance to learn about the technology and the fact that individual commenters could be blocked or that comments could be turned off altogether. Sure, some interactivity would be disabled. Sure, some of the power of blogging would be lost. But at least the principal’s voice could have been preserved.

But you didn’t. Instead you had a knee-jerk reaction and shut her down. Closed her off. Relegated her to the inefficiencies of a listserv and a paper newsletter.

The irony is that you say on your district web page that you embrace change. That you value the input of parents and the local community. That you always want to do what’s best for kids. How do you reconcile shutting down your cutting-edge principal’s use of modern communication tools with your so-called values?

Shame on you. You’re supposed to be modeling effective leadership. You’re supposed to be facilitating your building-level leaders’ use of 21st century technologies so that teachers and students will be more likely to use them. You’re supposed to be the penultimate “lifelong learner” in your organization. As someone who prepares superintendents, I am not impressed.

Congratulations. You’ve moved your school system one step closer to the 19th century. I’m sure your parents and community will thank you for it. May your reign be short.                           

Will libraries still exist?

A few years ago I had the opportunity to do a behind-the-scenes tour of the National Archives. The sense of history was very palpable as we passed around the journals of Lewis and Clark, Sigmund Freud’s sketches, and the military telegram announcing the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Which sort of leads me to my topic for today: libraries. As the pictures below show, the world contains some beautiful pantheons of learning. Will they become dusty relics, set aside for gawking tourists? In our digital age, what will we do with these places that used to be national centers of learning? Fifty years from now, will the local town library have any relevance or purpose?

I’m sure that Doug Johnson, Carolyn Foote, and others have some thoughts…[click on pictures for larger images]

Trinity College, Dublin

Real Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, Rio de Janeiro

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Operation Chamber, Lower House, States-General, The Hague

British Library, London

Russian National Library, St. Petersburg

National Library of France, Paris

New York Public Library, New York City

Photo credits:

See this comment noting Candida Hofer for many of the photo credits

and also

• http://thenonist.com/index.php/thenonist/permalink/hot_library_smut/
• http://crystalking.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/library-love/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Library_of_Congress.jpg
• http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=419652947&size=l
• http://www.inepac.rj.gov.br/modules/Guia/images/Real%20gabinete%202.jpg
• http://www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/bodlein.jpg
• http://www.easternct.edu/personal/faculty/pocock/brmus.gif

The Chronicle features Henry Jenkins

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a great feature on Dr. Henry Jenkins, director of the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT. Too bad it's locked down so that most folks can't access it...

If you haven't yet read Convergence Culture, you should!

Social networking in schools

I received this question recently:

What resources (contacts, advisors, print, online, etc.) do you recommend to our school leaders - and lawyers - so they can make informed decisions about student access to social networking tools?

Anyone have any suggestions? Is there a place for current social networking tools in our students' education?

Academics don't know design

This is a screenshot of the page for AERA proposal reviewers. Can you find the link to download the proposal I'm supposed to review? (click on the image for a larger version)

Administrator Supershow, Round 2

This post is overdue, but last week I had a great time (again) with the "Women of Web 2.0" talking about K-12 technology leadership issues. If you haven't yet listened to the podcast, it's a great one (of course I'm biased!).

Why is staff development so bad?

[cross-posted at the TechLearning blog]

We have known for a long time (decades!) about what constitutes effective staff development. As the latest version of the National Staff Development Council Standards for Staff Development notes, effective staff development

• has small groups of educators working together over time in professional learning communities;
• is based on principles of effective adult learning; and
• deepens educators’ content knowledge.

Yet what does staff development look like in most school districts? Typically it involves three or four one-shot “sit and get” (or “spray and pray”) sessions spread across the year, each on a different topic than the one before, that are attended by most or all educators in the organization. A “one size fits all” model is used, meaning that there is relatively little differentiation between, say, music teachers and math teachers and industrial arts teachers. Sometimes schools spice it up a bit and have a buffet day where educators can pick from multiple choices throughout the day, much like a professional conference.

Rarely is there follow-up. Rarely is there sustained, focused conversation about a specific learning issue over time. Rarely does educators’ staff development satisfy any of the three bullet points listed above. In fact, schools make deliberate structural choices that directly violate the three bullet points above. The end result, of course, is that most school organizations’ staff development practices have little to no meaningful impact on instructional practice and/or student learning outcomes.

This is a shame, because staff development time and monies might possibly be the most scarce resources in schools. Staff development also is one of the only mechanisms that schools have for giving employees new skills and turning the organization in new directions. It’s embarrassing and disappointing that schools take this precious, limited resource and squander it.

So the question is… Given that we know what effective staff development looks like, why is most staff development still so bad?

Largest U.S. universities

Surprised? Two primarily online universities and one community college among the top five. FYI, the University of Phoenix has more than twice the number of students (117,309) as any of the next four (which range from 54,169 to 50,663).

[Source: Chronicle of Higher Education. Campuses with the Largest Enrollments, Fall 2005. August 31, 2007.]

Thanks, Edutopia!

I was informed today that Dangerously Irrelevant AND LeaderTalk both made Edutopia's short list of "edublogs they love." Here's the link:

• Edublogs we love: Ten top stops for Internet interaction

We are distinctly honored (and oh so pleased!). Thanks!

P.S. If you're not subscribing to Edutopia, sponsored by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, you should be!

The 21st Century Principal

Pierce, M., & Stapleton, D. L. (Eds.). (2003). The 21st century principal: Current issues in leadership and policy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

The essays in this volume examine the future of public schooling in the United States – and what it will mean to be a leader in public schools – by focusing on the issues that are most likely to have an impact on American society within the next 20 years. (p. 1)

Total number of pages in book = 96

Total number of pages that discuss (and disagree about) the skills needed for 21st century workplaces = approximately 3

Total number of pages that discuss the impact of digital technologies on how K-12 education is delivered / done = 0

Total number of pages that discuss the need for school administrators to be technology leaders = 0

Read the book title and opening quote again. Shake your head in disbelief.

It's the system, stupid

I just read this tale of woe about the start of the school year.

As Edward Deming noted, it's the system, not the worker. Administrators are responsible for the system.

Good luck, Sherry. My thoughts are with you.

Math wikis?

I received this recently:

Dr. McLeod, I am a math teacher in [school district] and have attended two of your presentations (one last school year). I am wondering if there is a place where I could create wikis for my classes that allow students to enter math equations, use correct geometric notation, etc. (similar to MathType). It doesn’t seem like this is an option?? Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Got any suggestions for him?

Owatonna People's Press

I was the keynote speaker for the Owatonna Public Schools' kickoff day for all staff for the new school year. I've worked with the district before. Not only am I continually impressed with its desire to move its educators into the 21st century, this time the local paper covered my presentation. It's always fun to see others' perceptions of your work!

School data tutorials

[cross-posted at LeaderTalk]

Even when principals and teachers have access to data, they often aren't sure what to do with it. That’s why CASTLE (okay, it was me!) created School Data Tutorials, a web site intended to help K-12 educators work with raw student and school data.

The tutorials on the web site highlight many of the Excel skills that are helpful when working with building- and district-level data. The tutorials are targeted at data managers, principals, guidance counselors, teachers, and other school personnel who have the responsibility for collecting, analyzing, and reporting K-12 performance data (which is just about everyone these days!). You will see that the tutorials are much like the ones created by Atomic Learning (they trained us!) but are focused on data-driven decision-making needs of educators rather than being generic.

Below are the four sets of tutorials we recommend for every teacher and administrator. If every educator knew how to do these four things, schools’ capacity to do some basic monitoring of student progress would be greatly enhanced. They take just over half an hour to watch once, and of course they can be viewed as many times as necessary to accomplish mastery.

Many more tutorials are available on the site, including instructions on how to make your own data collection templates. Let me know if you feel empowered after watching these!

Freeze panes

• Freezing rows to remain visible (1:11)
• Freezing columns to remain visible (0:40)
• Freezing both rows and columns to remain visible (0:49)

Sort

• Sorting data using a single criterion (3:04)
• Sorting data using multiple criteria (2:29)
• Sorting data with multiple header rows (1:27)

Filter

• Filtering data with AutoFilter (1:13)
• Analyzing data with AutoFilter (1:45)
• Using Custom AutoFilter to filter numerical values less or greater than a specified value (1:41)
• Turning filters off (0:34)
• Printing datasets from AutoFilter (1:39)
• Copying just the dataset obtained from AutoFilter (2:23)
• Using the Esc (Escape) key to clear selections and copy another dataset (1:16)

Conditional formatting

• Changing a numerical cell's color with single conditional formatting conditions (2:17)
• Changing a numerical cell's color with multiple conditional formatting conditions (1:50)
• Changing a text cell's color with single conditional formatting conditions (0:55)
• Changing a text cell's color with multiple conditional formatting conditions (2:53)
• Changing a cell's color with calculated value conditions (3:58)

Note that you may need to turn off your browser's pop-up blocker or install the latest Flash plug-in to view these tutorials. Happy viewing!