Dangerously Irrelevant

No early impacts on the NEA

Last month I gave an inspired presentation to the Board of Directors for the National Education Association (NEA), our nation’s largest teachers union. As you can see from the NEA’s latest poll of its members, apparently I didn’t have much impact on its thinking, at least at this early stage. There is absolutely no recognition in the survey of the dramatic technological and information-related changes that we’re experiencing. [sigh]

Does ASCD EDge have a chance?

I usually am pretty impressed with the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). I find that its books typically are of high quality. One of the best conferences I ever attended was an ASCD conference. I am a long-time ASCD member, subscriber to its SmartBrief e-mail newsletter, and reader of its Educational Leadership magazine and Inservice blog and Twitter feed. In other words, ASCD does good work.

That said, I confess that I am a little skeptical about the long-term chances of ASCD’s new online community, ASCD EDge. As you can see below, it’s a very sophisticated and comprehensive site. The ASCD Web team clearly has put a lot of thought and effort into the community. But I am not sure that educators need another freestanding social networking space. I know that I already have trouble staying on top of the ones in which I’m currently enrolled (on a side note, there are WAY too many good Ning communities out there!). I know that others find it difficult to keep up as well.

The social networking dilemma: Use someone else’s service or build your own

The challenge for an organization like ASCD that wants to tap into the benefits of social networking for its members is that it has two options:

1. Create a visible presence in someone else’s social network (e.g., a Facebook community), or
2. Create its own social network.

ASCD has decided to go with Option 2. In order for ASCD EDge to be a success, ASCD has to persuade large numbers of people to spend time in its online space rather than one that appeals to both educators and non-educators. Personally, as much as I like ASCD, I’m pretty unlikely to put my status updates and blog posts and photos and videos and discussions in a place other than Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, or some other more general space that has larger network effects. I’m guessing that most other folks will be hesitant as well, particularly if other educational organizations like NASSP, NAESP, and AASA, etc. decide they need to create their own proprietary social networks too.

I don’t know how many active EDge members ASCD needs to consider this community a success. It may be that it only needs a few hundred or thousand to justify the time and expense. If anyone call pull off a proprietary social network for educators, it’s likely to be ASCD. It will be an interesting experiment to watch over time and I hope that ASCD regularly reports out membership numbers, levels of activity, unique user visits, and other usage statistics.

Screenshots from ASCD EDge (click on images for larger versions)

 

Recommendation

I will close with one suggestion for ASCD, which is that it resets all subscription options (see, e.g., below) so that their default status is unchecked rather than checked. If we want to sign up for these communication channels, we will. Until then, ASCD should assume that we don’t want more unsolicited e-mail rather than that we do.

Hey, AERA! Most researchers are terrible presenters!

The American Educational Research Association (AERA), the world’s largest educational research organization, recently adopted some ‘important changes’ to improve the quality of its annual conference. As AERA notes, the purpose of the changes are to ‘enhance the quality of the Annual Meeting as a forum for communication and dissemination of new knowledge.’

Take a look at the document. Notice anything missing? I do. It’s any recognition whatsoever that the vast majority of the presentations are horrendously painful, characterized by terrible PowerPoint, boring monotone delivery, inadequate pacing, and a lack of emphasis on the needs of attendees rather than presenters.

If AERA is going to focus on improving the quality of its attendees’ conference experiences, shouldn’t it at least pay some attention to the elephant in the room, which is most researchers’ poor presenting skills?

Unemployment in Iowa

[Cross-posted at the Iowa 1to1 Network]

As the following chart illustrates, more Iowa workers were employed in May 2008 than in any other month in the past two years. Since then, Iowa has lost 65,700 jobs and gained 7,000, for an aggregate total of 58,700 jobs lost. The Construction and Manufacturing sectors represented about 20% of all of the jobs in Iowa in May 2008, but have represented nearly 60% of all the job losses since then. In other words, those two sectors are hemorrhaging jobs at a rate of about 3 times their representation in the state economy. Most other sectors’ losses have been roughly proportionate to their representation in the Iowa economy. Two sectors, Financial activities and insurance and Educational and health services, have actually seen employment gains since May 2008.

What implications do these data have for us as educational organizations?

[Click on image for larger version]

Want to know what I'm reading online?

For those who are interested in what I’m reading online, here are is a number of the RSS channels in my Google Reader account (some blogs are in multiple channels):

• 1 to 1 schools
• Blogs that deserve a bigger audience (DABA)
• CASTLE blogs
• CASTLE’s list of great blogs for busy administrators
• Education
• Educational leadership
• Educational technology
• Higher education
• Iowa
• Law
• Marketing
• Miscellaneous
• School law
• Technology

You too can subscribe to these channels by using the RSS feed at each link. These channels are fluid; I add and remove individual blogs all the time!

Stay in line

Overheard at a preschool I visited yesterday:

Good job! I like the way you all are staying in line. You’re so good at this!

The socialization to be a cog in the machine begins early. Woe be it if you don’t stay in line.

Secular v. sectarian Christmas displays: What is the obligation of public schools to be welcoming?

I walked into one of the Iowa Area Education Agencies (AEAs) last week and saw a tree in the foyer that was decorated with lights, tinsel, ornaments, a star on top, and presents underneath. The area around the receptionist’s desk was decorated with red and green garland; a Santa Claus candy dish; little stockings with names on them; Santa Claus nesting dolls; and a smaller tree also decorated with lights, ornaments, and a star on top. On the door to the receptionist’s area was a green wreath and a chalkboard sign with a snowman on it that said ‘11 days ‘til Christmas!’

As I walked past the holiday displays, I was confronted yet again with my annual concerns about public schools, religion, and inclusiveness. I’ve blogged about this the past two Decembers:

• 2007 - Bah, humbug? (and its 24 comments)
• 2008 - It’s time to play … Spot that holiday violation 2008! (and its 62 comments)

The Iowa Department of Education speaks

This year I decided to ask an Iowa school law attorney what he thought about what I saw at the AEA. He referred me to the December issue of the Iowa Department of Education’s School Leader Update monthly newsletter, which states on page 11 (in part):

Secular aspects of Christmas. The non-religious aspects of Christmas may be part of students‘ lives at school to the extent that they do not otherwise violate school rules. For example, the following are permissible activities (inasmuch as they do not violate the First Amendment):

• Hanging pictures of reindeer, bells, other non-religious symbols.
• Sponsoring a "giving tree" on which students may hang hats, mittens, scarves, other items for donation to less fortunate persons.
• Handing out candy. [Remember, this does not violate either the First Amendment or state nutrition guidelines (if not provided by the school; check to see if it would violate a local school wellness policy!]
• Sponsoring sleigh rides.

Class parties. Focus on the secular side of Christmas. Excuse all children whose families object to celebrating Christmas in any way, both those families who are of other faiths and those who are Christian, but who find the commercial aspects of the holiday to be offensive.

. . .

Displays. Aside from the utter schizophrenic nature of displays that commingle nativity scenes with Santa, displays that do not overemphasize the religious side of Christmas have been ruled by courts to not violate the First Amendment. Nativity scenes standing alone have been struck down by the courts.

Christmas trees. There is nothing sectarian about a “Christmas” tree. (Go ahead…show me where the New Testament refers to it!) The tree is not the problem. The ornamentation could be. Make sure that the ornaments are not all (or not primarily) representative of the Christian faith. Better yet, see “Secular aspects of Christmas” above.

Scram, kids. We’re celebrating!

So it appears that the Iowa Department of Education has no problem with secular Christmas displays, trees, or celebrations in public schools [and even gets a little cheeky about it; read that New Testament comment again!]. The Department says that class Christmas parties are not an issue: simply excuse objecting students from the party. [Sorry, kids. We’re all now going to celebrate the secular aspects of a sectarian holiday. If you don’t like it, we’ll send you to some other location in the building while we engage in our revelry. You can come back when we’re done with our merriment.]

I don’t fully agree with some aspects of the Department’s legal analysis, but that’s okay. Some of the finer points of holiday displays and celebrations are yet to be determined by courts. What I’m more concerned about, however, is the issue of inclusiveness.

Serving all, but only welcoming to some

Last year in the very active discussion to my post on this topic, I said:

I notice that no one's taken up my inclusiveness concern (and by that I mean schools' moral, ethical, professional, and societal responsibility to provide welcoming learning environments for ALL kids).

The obligation of public schools to be welcoming to students, families, and community members appears to be lost in all the legalistic wrangling. We can dance on the legal head of the pin all we want, but the bottom line is that all communities - even really homogenous ones like those that exist in many rural Iowa communities - have some members who are Jews, Muslims, Jains, agnostics, Hindus, Baha’i, atheists, etc. They also have members who may be Christian but who aren’t of the dominant denomination(s) in the local area and thus may object to particular expressions of belief. Many of these members are uncomfortable with public schools expressing even the secular aspects of sectarian holidays because there’s often no concurrent recognition (in December or at other times) of their own holidays. They don’t feel that their own beliefs are validated, they don’t feel included, and they don’t feel welcome.

It’s not about declaring a ‘war on Christmas.’ Heck, I like Christmas; my family celebrates it every year. Much of this isn’t even about religion. Instead it’s about kindness and respect. Why do so many schools talk all year (and even implement curricular programs) about being kind, respectful, and inclusive and then get their backs up and get defensive about their right to do this? Don’t they see the disconnects between their rhetoric and their actions? Why on earth are they fighting so hard to send messages of noninclusiveness?

As a former Social Studies teacher, attorney, school law professor, and American citizen, I believe that public school administrators and the organizations that they lead have an obligation to recognize and honor the ideological, cultural, and religious diversity that exists in our country. We don’t do that by allowing holiday displays that scream CHRISTMAS! and nothing else. Every December this is an issue, and every December I feel sorry for the students and families who are of minority faiths or no faith because I know that many schools are doing very little to help them feel welcome too during this supposedly-festive time. In a country that is the standard-bearer for the world when it comes to ideological and religious diversity, allowing this sort of activity just doesn’t sit well with me. Even if it’s legal, that doesn’t mean it’s morally right for the members of our community that we choose to ignore.

Okay, I’ve said my piece. Have at me…

P.S. Also see this story about a preschooler being suspended for having long hair for an altogether different example of a school’s noninclusiveness.

Some thoughts on U.S. News & World Report's 100 best public high schools

My father-in-law gave me the January 2010 issue of U.S. News & World Report. It features a number of articles on P-12 education and includes detailed tables of its ‘100 best public high schools’ in the United States. I’ve been playing around with the data a bit…

1. Nationally, it helps to be rich and/or flexible

The tables show that 72 of the top 100 schools are magnet schools, charter schools, or have an application process for students. Only 33 of the top 100 high schools are classified as open enrollment schools. What’s not apparent from the online tables (but is in the printed version), however, is that 5 of those 33 also are labeled as magnet or charter schools and that 26 of the remaining 28 have fewer than 10% of their students classified as economically disadvantaged. In other word, only 2 of the 100 ‘best’ public high schools are traditional open enrollment schools serving a socioeconomically-diverse student population:

• High School for Dual Language and Asian Studies (#52; New York, New York)
• Hidalog Early College High School (#97; Hidalgo, Texas)

2. In Iowa, small homogenous schools reign

No high schools in Iowa were given a gold medal by U.S. News. Only 1 of the 47 Iowa high schools given a bronze or silver medal has a sizable number of students in it:

• Washington High School (1,463 students; Linn County, Iowa)

The remaining 46 high schools have fewer than 600 students. Over 3/4 have fewer than 300 students, often spread out over grades 7 through 12, not just grades 9 through 12. Only 4 of the 47 high schools (including Washington High School above) have racial/ethnic minority student percentages greater than 6%.

3. Are these schools good models for others?

No doubt these are good schools. Some of them appear on the U.S. News list every year. But many will question whether they are good models or exemplars for traditional schools. Are they doing things differently in terms of curriculum, instruction, expectations for student work, teacher training, etc.? And to the extent that they are, how much is due to their greater flexibility compared to more traditional schools?

I’m not disparaging these schools. I’m just thinking out loud here…

Kudos, Dr. Watson!

 

Bill Watson, Activities Director for the Urbandale (IA) Community School District, received his doctorate this evening from Iowa State University. As his doctoral advisor, I had the pleasure of 'hooding' Bill at Commencement.

Please extend your heartiest congratulations to Dr. Watson for successfully completing his doctoral program. Doctorates are always difficult and challenging journeys (particularly when your advisor is me!). Nice work, Bill!

Related posts

• Kudos, Drs. Davis and Finsness!

Mind Dump: My new personal blog

Some of you have noticed that I’ve got a new blog! I’m using Posterous to capture those online items that interest me but for which I don’t have time (or inclination) to blog about on Dangerously Irrelevant. For example, recent items include:

• ‘But I don’t want to teach my students to use technology’
• Beware the reverse brain drain to India and China
• The Pomodoro technique
• Iowa Department of Education: Characteristics of effective instruction
• The mobile Web is taking over the world (and other Internet trends)
• Games & video can improve preschooler literacy
• Getting students more learning time online

If you’d like to subscribe, please visit Mind Dump!

Teacher layoffs: Should seniority rule?

As budget cuts loom again in many states, employee termination, seniority, and ‘bumping rights’ are in the news. The essential issue is whether organizational leaders should be able to retain the employees they think are the most highly-skilled or whether seniority (or some other factor) should be employed instead. ‘Highly skilled’ in this instance means ‘employee quality’ or ‘best fit for employer needs,’ both of which are typically defined by the organization, not the employee or union.

Here is an indicative quote from Iowa in favor of seniority-based employment provisions:

“We're not going to have this debate on whether or not somebody who has worked for a year gets to stay over somebody who has devoted 30 years of their life because they work harder," [Danny Homan, president of Council 61 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees] said. "That is baloney."

And here’s another, this time in favor of merit-based layoffs:

"You always want to focus on keeping your best-performing people," said David Keeling, a spokesman for the New Teacher Project. "The only thing worse than a layoff situation is one where you are forced to cut some of your best-performing people regardless of their contributions or their fit with their jobs."

Providence, Rhode Island parents have petitioned the local teachers union to give up seniority-based layoff protections. The New York Daily News has stated that

there is basically no relationship between seniority and teaching ability. A wide and scarcely disputed body of research finds that teachers' additional experience stops paying off after about year three.

Education Sector reported that rethinking teacher contracts could free billions for school reform. And a very interesting study out of Indianapolis showed that a majority of sampled teachers thought that factors other than seniority (but not student achievement, apparently) should be considered for teacher layoffs.

The National Education Association recently made news for stating that it would encourage local unions to “waive any contract language that prohibits staffing high-needs schools with great teachers.” In the past it had said that staffing and seniority issues should be left to local unions and districts. The American Federation of Teachers chimed in with its support.

I wonder if the majority of educators favor or disfavor seniority-based layoff protections. I wonder how the majority of citizens feel as well. If I had to guess, I’d venture that most citizens are against teacher seniority serving as the primary determinant of job protection. I’m not sure about public school educators. What do you think?

BlogBall09 heads into the playoffs

For those of you who are interested, here are the final regular season standings for BlogBall09, our edublogger fantasy baseball leagues. As league commissioners, apparently both Jon Becker and I got to finish in 7th place, one spot out of the playoffs. Ugh.

BlogBall09 - Mid-season update

For those of you who are curious, here are the standings in our two edublogger fantasy baseball leagues at the All-Star break:

Teen sexting: I failed my own information literacy test

I tweeted:

And Barry Dahl replied:

Barry’s right and I’m wrong. I failed my own information literacy test. Why? Because even though I had access to (and linked to) the original report, I didn’t critically consume it the way I should have. Instead I relied on this report from CNN:

And because I did, I made an incorrect statement that then got retweeted by others. Shame on CNN for being misleading and/or inaccurate, but shame on me too for not doing my homework the way I should have. Just because CNN is a traditional, reputable news organization doesn’t mean that I don’t need to be a critical consumer of the information it provides.

Thanks, Barry.

NECC - My adventures with Horse & Hound magazine: Florida Virtual School, Achieve3000

A few days before NECC I was invited by a publicist to interview Julie Young, the Executive Director of the Florida Virtual School (FLVS), and also speak with the folks from Achieve3000. I accepted because I’ve always wanted the chance to talk with Julie. I had no idea in advance that I would end up having a Notting Hill Horse & Hound magazine-type experience (and, yes, I was Hugh Grant).

Florida Virtual School

I knock on a door and am quickly ushered into a hotel suite. I meet and shake hands with Ben Noel, CEO of 360Ed, as he walks out the door. Then I am offered a beverage, plunked onto a couch, handed a packet of publicity materials, and given 30 minutes to talk with Julie and Andy Ross, VP of Global Services for FLVS. The topic: FLVS’ new online video game / American History course, Conspiracy Code. I’m a little bit disoriented but gamely dive in…

Conspiracy Code runs on a custom gaming engine designed specifically for FLVS by 360Ed. It cost $1.5 million to develop; costs were shared equally by FLVS and 360Ed and spread over three years ($250K per partner per year). Two hundred FLVS students are in the game now. Several other districts are piloting it. Conspiracy Code is designed to be an integrated, full-year course / gaming experience. Students take about 90 to 100 hours to complete the game. They dip in and out of the gaming engine throughout the year, assembling clues and completing missions. The game includes 51 assessments (both oral and written), 270 mini-games, numerous interrogations, 30 ‘agent eliminations,’ and 371 clues. Teachers monitor student progress; each of the 10 missions takes 2 to 3 weeks. Most students spend about an hour a day working for the class, some of which is in the game environment. Historical facts are interwoven throughout the gaming experience and student-teacher discussion. Sometimes the game requires students to do outside research to complete assignments and proceed forward.

• Conspiracy Code Product Overview
• Conspiracy Code Press Release
• FLVS Consipiracy Code web site
• FLVS Presskit
• Education Next article about FLVS

The first evaluation report on the Conspiracy Code is due in a couple of weeks but anecdotal evidence looks extremely promising. The students who seem to like the game the most are the ones who ‘hate history.’ The game requires students to write, create data maps, make timelines, ask questions, make associations, solve problems, etc. Students must apply their knowledge and facts in a number of different ways to be successful. Some ‘barriers’ were put in place to ensure that students didn’t play more than work (e.g., students can’t move forward until they work on their data map, write in their journal, get feedback from their teacher, etc.).

 

The first two teachers were ‘gaming people.’ It still took them 2 to 3 months to get comfortable with teaching this way. All FLVS teachers receive extensive professional development before they’re allowed to teach. The first few teachers will train those that follow. There is a ‘Teaching Online 101’ course plus a separate gaming module for Conspiracy Code.

 

Now that the gaming engine has been built, FLVS will use it for other games/courses; I also suggested that FLVS release it to students to design their own games. The next Conspiracy Code game will target reading and comes out in August. All in all, it appears to be a solid attempt at integrating gaming into the education experience. It will be interesting to see the evaluation results when they come out. FLVS is a data-driven organization and is committed to reworking the game/course as need be to ensure students are both engaged AND learning whatever facts they need for success in the standardized-testing era.

Achieve3000

Throughout our conversation, people are coming in and out of a door to another room in the suite (reporters? other bloggers?). When my 30 minutes with Julie and Andy are up, I’m swooped into that room, replaced by someone else who gets my spot on the FLVS couch. I’m handed another publicity packet, do the quick meet-and-greet, and away we go…

Achieve3000 is a ‘differentiated instruction solution.’ In essence, students are given an article to read on the computer that’s aligned with their reading level. The company recommends a minimum of 1 or 2 articles a week but there are articles available every day if desired. Great care has been taken to avoid stigmatization of low-level readers. For example, even though the article text and corresponding assignments are geared to students’ individual reading level, the overall layout of the article, font size, graphics, etc. all are extremely similar to what other higher-level readers in the class are experiencing. There is little to no difference in reading experience; it’s actually fairly difficult to tell at a glance at what level another student is working. The student reading at first-grade level also is reading the same content as her peer at the ninth-grade level. This allows low-level readers to still contribute to class discussions. All of this is in contrast to schools’ typical practice of having separate books or textbooks – often on separate topics – or pullout programs for struggling readers.

Results so far seem to be impressive. Expected student growth in a year is 46 lexile points. Students who read one article a week average 102 lexile point gains; students who read two articles per week average 124. The program accommodates Spanish-speaking students (and, soon, those that speak Haitian Creole). The New York City and Miami-Dade school districts (as well as the State of Hawaii) are using Achieve3000. Average gains in one year for ESL/ELL students are 166 lexile points (compared to 27 points expected). Good results also are being seen with students with special needs (see, e.g., the Arrowhead (WI) Schools).

Achieve3000 is working with the Associated Press and now has an archive of over 16,000 nonfiction articles. Next steps for the company are to 1) create a number of specific science units, and 2) identify and/or write articles that target specific career clusters and can be aligned with the WorkKeys job skill assessment program.

Final impressions

My time is up. I’m whisked out of the back room toward the hotel suite door. Julie and Andy are talking with someone new on the couch and I’m soon in the hallway, left at last to collect my thoughts. As I walk toward the elevator to return to my own hotel room, I’m left with one thought: Man, was that strange. Quite informative, but strange nonetheless. Who knows what else goes on in the back hallways, hotel suites, and meeting rooms of NECC?!

Disclosure: I received no incentives from either organization (other than a thumb drive from FLVS that contained the above Conspiracy Code materials) and was not pressured to cover them in any particular way. In short, I believe I was treated much like any media representative, despite being ‘just a blogger.’

Recent publicity for me and CASTLE - Edutopia, T.H.E. Journal, Fort Dodge Messenger, ISU Talk About IT & College of Human Sciences

Thought I’d share some recent publicity that CASTLE and I have gotten. I’ve been sitting on some of these for a while and wanted to get them all out so I can focus on NECC ‘09!

Edutopia

Quick: Name ten excellent Web sites related to the grade level or subject area you teach.

Scott McLeod, coordinator of the educational-administration program at Iowa State University, recently posed that question on his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant. Many of the comments his readers left echo McLeod's assertion that the Internet delivers "a paucity of high-quality online resources for educators."

McLeod and others don't deny the abundance of online resources teachers have at their fingertips. The challenge is sifting through all that stuff to find what you need -- and then knowing how to incorporate the gems into your curriculum. 

Read more…

T.H.E. Journal

SCOTT MCLEOD SAYS the great sin in the way professional development is provided in this country is one of omission. On his blog, McLeod, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Iowa State University and the coordinator of the department's Educational Administration Program, writes, "Most of our school leaders have received no training whatsoever when it comes to 21st-century schooling."

It is not totally their fault, he says. Few higher ed programs for administrators even have a course dealing with digital technology, and if they do, the course generally covers basic software, not leadership. Neither school districts nor professional organizations offer workshops in the area either. As a result, no movement can be made toward 21stlearning environments: When leaders are clueless about technology and the impact it can have in classrooms, they are powerless to change their school or district into one that provides tech-enabled instruction for students.

Read more…

Fort Dodge (IA) Messenger (this link might expire?)

In a world where so much revolves around technology, high school students often only have the opportunity to use technology as part of their in-school learning process for an average of 30 minutes per week.

That is something that Scott McLeod, associate professor of educational leadership at Iowa State University, would like to see change in Iowa classrooms.

McLeod was the keynote speaker Tuesday afternoon at the Iowa Central Summer Science Institute at Iowa Central Community College, where he addressed a group of 25 high school and college science instructors on how they can implement technology in the classroom and why it is so crucial for students to be able to develop workplace skills and remain engaged in their course work.

Read more…

ISU Talk About IT

See the original here…

ISU College of Human Sciences

See the original here… (pp. 18-19)

Happy reading / viewing!

Walking out on bad presenters

I walked out of a 2–hour workshop last week. I actually really wanted to know the information that was to be presented, but the workshop facilitator did such a terrible job that I left after 35 minutes. My graduate assistant said the next day, “I heard you walked out on that workshop.” I replied, “Did you hear anything else about it?” She said, “Yeah, I heard it was pretty bad.”

I find myself having less and less patience for people who waste my time in unproductive meetings, boring presentations, workshops that don’t meet my needs, and so on. Even when I’m extremely interested in the topic, a facilitator’s structure and/or delivery can ruin it for me. I don’t leave right away. I try to stay mentally engaged and I give the facilitator a chance to right the ship. But if it’s clearly a lost cause, I’m usually out of there (if I can’t leave, then I start quietly checking my e-mail / surfing the Web).

I have worked very hard over the past few years to ramp up my presentation skills, both in terms of content and delivery. I try to apply that learning to the various aspects of my life, whether it be teaching, consulting, or just holding meetings. I ask myself questions like “Do we really need this meeting or activity?” and “What is my audience doing at this stage?” and “How are my students or participants feeling right about now?” In other words, I try my utmost to think intentionally and purposefully about the impact of what I do on others’ valuable time. Is it too much to expect others to do the same?

But, Scott, it’s rude to walk out on someone (or check your e-mail). Not any more rude than it is to fail to deliver a learning experience that meets the group’s needs rather than your own. It’s one thing to waste your own time. It’s another to waste the time of five to twenty to hundreds of others. Shame on you.

But, Scott, aren’t you worried about your reputation? I’m willing to stand up for quality presentations, meetings, and learning experiences. I think that collectively we would be better off if more of us left more often. We’re captive to our own ‘politeness’ (if that’s what we want to call it) and we suffer countless wasted hours as a result. If folks walk out of one of my presentations, that lets me know that their needs aren’t being met. Rather than taking it personally, I’m glad that they’re going somewhere else that is a better fit for them. If walk-outs happen in large numbers or on a frequent basis, that lets me know that I need to something differently.

But, Scott, maybe the facilitator didn’t know how to do any better. So? How is that my problem? Why shouldn’t the responsibility be on presenters, facilitators, and instructors to do a better job? Why should they get to waste our time rather than improve their skills? What’s their impetus for change if we passively acquiesce to their ineptitude?

P-12 students usually don’t have the chance to walk out of poor learning experiences (wouldn’t it be interesting if we gave every student a red ‘I’m disengaged’ card that she could lay on her desk every time she was turned off or tuned out?). But we adults do if we’re brave enough to stand up for quality learning experiences. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not investing my walk-out last week with any huge societal significance. But larger battles start one principled stand at a time… Care to join me?

Photo credit: Not my cat, but cute enough.

P.S. On a related note, my proposal submission to address the issue of bad academic PowerPoint got rejected by the reviewers for the annual educational leadership professors conference. Ugh.

Where are our academic superstars going to college? Who knows?

Check out this comment on Linda Fandel’s Des Moines Register blog today:

"Ames’ Kellogg says she will play basketball at Minnesota"
"Charles City’s Buss says he will play basketball at UNI"

These are two headlines from the DMR [Des Moines Register] today.

Where will Des Moines North Valedictorian attend school? Where are the National Merit Scholars going. Who else got scholarships to attend college... non-sports' scholarships?

Cut the arts??? Maybe a hundred people will be at the school board meeting to complain. Cut the football program... you will have a community-wide revolt.

You want world-class schools on a limited budget... not till the people value it more than sports.

So true, so true…

Dangerously Irrelevant now available for the Kindle

Thanks to instructions from the kind folks at Mashable, this blog is now available in a Kindle edition. I think you now have at least four different ways to connect with Dangerously Irrelevant: going to the web site, RSS, e-mail, and Kindle. Just trying to create a variety of options for you…

Happy reading!

Who are you?

I’m trying to get a handle on who’s reading Dangerously Irrelevant (it’s not as easy as you might think). So I thought the best way would be to just ask!

I created a 2- to 4-question survey. It shouldn’t take you more than 60 seconds. Please?

[If you follow me on Twitter, here's my 60-second Twitter survey. Thanks!]

Blog Tweet Cook - Update 1

A couple of weeks ago I launched an edublogger/eduTwitterer cookbook, BlogTweetCook.org. At the time, I said I didn’t know if it was a great idea or a dumb one. Well, to date we have 22 recipes posted, ranging from Señor Chris’ Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas to Hot German Potato Salad to Brew’s Brandy Slush to Roasted Halibut with Banana-Orange Relish.

Try some of these out. Pass along the URL. And if you’ve got a great recipe to share, please do so!

8 indispensable items for presenters

I’m getting more requests to come speak to groups. Here are 8 items that are indispensable to me as a presenter (click on each image for a larger version)…

1. Presentation remote

The Interlink RemotePoint Navigator is without a doubt the best presentation remote that I’ve ever seen. It has the usual functions: forward, backward, laser pointer, and “slide hide” (which turns the screen to black). But its aesthetic feel is what distinguishes it from its competitors. This device is designed perfectly for the human hand. I’ve had numerous people borrow this remote, either because they forgot theirs or because they don’t have one. I invariably get some kind of comment like, “Ooh, this is NICE. Where can I get one?” It comes with a USB dongle and a bag and, although a little pricy, is worth every penny. I have three – stashed in my home, office, and car – so that I always have one readily available.

2. Up-down timer

I strongly encourage anyone who presents, including classroom teachers and professors, to invest in an inexpensive timer, particularly one that counts both up and down. A timer keeps you on track, lets you know if you need to speed up or slow down a bit, and sends a message to participants that you consider their time to be important. My latest timer, the Component Design TM15, has extra-large digits for easy reading and a loud alarm, which is helpful to me because I like to roam around when I present and often am not near the podium. I also like the fact that mine has a fold-down stand rather than a clip that sticks out from the back. This gives it a smaller profile in my travel bag. One disadvantage of mine is that there’s no on-off switch, which means I have to take the battery out to prevent accidental operation.

3. Screen timer

I’m a pretty strong believer that, no matter how engaging you are as a presenter, listeners’ brains are mush after 45 minutes or so. That’s why for even short presentations I create opportunities for participants to take mini-breaks. Typically I’ll pause my presentation after 10 to 15 minutes, throw up a 60– or 120–second countdown slide, and ask them to share some thoughts with their neighbors. When I’m doing a presentation or workshop that’s longer than an hour, we take bigger breaks: 10 to 15 minutes, get up and stretch your legs and lips, hit the restroom, get a drink of water, check your cell phone voice mail, and so on. I have found this online screen timer to be absolutely wonderful for getting people back into the room on time (and use this downloadable one as an alternative when I don’t have Internet access). I start it up before I let them loose so they know to keep an eye on the time. This has worked much better than simply telling folks to check their watch.

4. Wireless broadband

I pay a monthly fee for wireless broadband from Verizon (and am grateful for the Iowa State University discount). I carry around this USB dongle and can plug it into any of my laptops or netbooks that have the Verizon software installed on them. Sometimes I need this when I require Internet access on the road but am not near an open wireless access point. Its primary use, however, occurs when I visit schools that either can’t give me Internet access, won’t give me Internet access, or give me Internet access but filter and block everything so tightly that I can’t show anything (you know who you are, people!). So, plain and simple, it’s my school district filter bypass and I’ve had to use it on numerous occasions.

5. USB memory stick

Nothing’s worse as a presenter than bringing your own laptop and then having some technology problem just a few minutes before your presentation starts. This is particularly true if you’re supposed to be some sort of ‘technology expert’ that others might even be paying to listen to. Almost nothing destroys that professional aura quicker than fumbling around with your very own computer! So I ALWAYS bring my presentation files on a USB stick: every slide, every video, every Internet URL. I have only had to fall back on this option a couple of times, but when I have I’ve been grateful that I was prescient enough to load it up and bring it along.

6. Audio and video cables

My move to Iowa has put me in more rural schools than ever before, many of which are quite old. One of the things I am finding i that older school auditoriums typically are not configured very well for laptop-driven presentations. Although, as noted above, I rarely pin myself to the podium, I at least like to be somewhat near my laptop. That’s difficult to do when I am up front and the laptop/projector is in the back right corner, in the projection booth at the rear of the auditorium, or smack dab in the middle of the auditorium rows (and, yes, I’ve had all three of these happen to me). I invested in some audio and VGA video cables - along with 12– to 15–foot extension cables for each. These have proved useful on numerous occasions.

7. Travel speakers

It’s rare when I fail to have some kind of multimedia content in my presentations. But it’s tough to show a video or play an audio file if the audience can’t hear it. I ask the folks who invite me to please have speakers available but time after time I show up and they don’t have any, or they had some but now can’t find them, or they have some but someone is using them, etc. So I started bringing my own. My Griffin Journi speakers are a little large and I know that there are smaller ones out there. They’re pretty loud, though, so I’m hanging on to them for now. One advantage of my speakers is that they have a rechargeable battery that allows usage without needing an electrical outlet. The wrap-around leather cover flips over and slides into a slot on the back and thus creates a self-contained stand to keep the speakers upright.

8. Contractor power strips

I usually encourage my workshop participants to bring their own laptops. I’m not threatened by their presence and understand that people can be both paying attention and also checking their e-mail on occasion. In fact, sometimes they pay better attention because they can keep one eye on things back home rather than being anxious about what’s occurring in their absence. However, rarely are we in a location that has sufficient access to electrical outlets. While this usually is not a problem for a 60–minute session, it’s a huge issue when we’re doing an all-day workshop. I carry four industrial-strength power strips in my car. I’ve used these so often that I’m considering investing in a few more. I like these because the cord is 15 feet long, which is incredibly helpful when existing outlets are far from participants’ tables.

All of this has evolved for me over time. As I run into presentation dilemmas, I try to invest in things that eliminate those problems for future events. What else have you found to be useful for your own presentations?

Why I read Tim Stahmer

If I didn’t subscribe to Assorted Stuff, I’d miss brilliant, hysterical stuff like this:

A crappy copy should work just fine

Be sure to watch the MPAA’s video and read the comments underneath it!

Edubloggers and eduTwitterers, share your recipes at Blog Tweet Cook!

Okay, I don’t know if this is a great idea or a dumb one but I thought I’d roll it out and see (the Twittersphere seemed to like it a few days ago)…

I am pleased to announce the formation of BlogTweetCook.org, an online edublogger/eduTwitterer cookbook. Are you an educator who blogs or tweets? Do you also have a great recipe to share? If so, head on over to Blog Tweet Cook and add your delicious contribution(s)!

As always, suggestions and feedback are welcome!

[Hat tip to an earlier, unpublicized idea by Jennifer Jones, John Pederson (Pot Roast Nachos!), and Cindy Seibel.]

No more Arabic at Kalona Elementary

I was disappointed to read recently in the Des Moines Register that Kalona Elementary School here in Iowa is discontinuing its Arabic language program due to lack of funding. Not only is it wonderful when school systems teach languages to kids at the elementary rather than secondary level, this country benefits from having more people who know how to speak Arabic.

In 2006 the United States government established the National Strategic Language Initiative (NSLI), “an inter-agency effort … to dramatically increase the number of Americans learning, speaking, and teaching critical need foreign languages.” Languages targeted by the NSLI include Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Darwazi, Farsi, Hindi, Korean, Russian, and Turkish. The NSLI has a number of programs for K-12 schools. Its August 2008 report noted that nearly 47,000 elementary and secondary students had been served to date.

Finding qualified instructors to teach these languages often is difficult for school systems. Finding initial or ongoing funding is a challenge as well. As a society, however, we need to figure out how to make this happen. French, German, and Spanish – the holy trinity of school language instruction – still are important languages but the growing ascendancy of non-Western countries on the global stage also makes other languages important for both economic and cultural reasons.

Photo credit: EidMubarak

Paul Potts, Susan Boyle, and the problem of undiscovered talent in schools

I’ve probably watched this video clip of Paul Potts a dozen times and I still choke up when I see it [click on picture to see video]:

Now Britain has Susan Boyle:

There’s a lot of undiscovered potential out there. As schools and societies, we often fail to create the conditions in which talent can be nurtured, recognized, and utilized. I hope that one of the lasting impacts of this Internet age will be that people’s skills and talents get noticed and used more effectively. Sure, there still will be a lot of junk that will get in the way of this happening. But the potential for ordinary citizens to express their talents and reach others is greater than it ever has been before.

Do you have a story of undiscovered talent in your local school organization? I bet you do…

The CIA discovers Web 2.0

TIME has a new article out on the use of Web 2.0 tools by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Apparently Intellipedia, a classified version of Wikipedia, has been “transforming the way U.S. spy agencies handle top-secret information by fostering collaboration across Washington and around the world.”

Here’s what I think is the money quote from the article:

The first time chlorine was used in an improvised explosive device in Iraq, someone created a wiki page asking what intelligence officers and others in the field should do to collect evidence of the usage. "Twenty-three people at 18 or 19 locations around the world chimed in on this thing, and we got a perfectly serviceable set of instructions in two days," says Tom Fingar, who headed the National Intelligence Council from 2005 to 2008. "Nobody called a meeting, there was no elaborate 'Gotta go back and check with Mom to see if this is the view of my organization.' "

Intellipedia now consists of 900,000 pages, has about 100,000 users, and receives around 5,000 page edits a day. Hey, if the deeply paranoid folks at the CIA can do this Web 2.0 stuff, can’t schools?

PostRank confuses me

Larry Ferlazzo blogged yesterday about PostRank’s list of the top education blogs as measured by “engagement.” I think PostRank has the potential to be a really useful tool but right now I have some serious questions about it. For example… [click on images for larger versions]

1. Why is edu.blogs.com on the list twice?

2. I don’t think www.ed.gov technically is a “blog.” And I don’t think its affiliated static web sites like Do[ing] What Works or African-American History [FREE] are either.

3. I confess that when I think of “education blogs,” neither EurekAlert! nor Common Craft nor OUPblog nor Clear Admit pop into my head. Ever.

4. Yesterday this blog was #78 – down from #30 the previous week – below Teacher Lingo. That was cool except my engagement numbers seemed significantly higher. So I figured maybe I didn’t understand the ranking system. But then this morning I find that this blog is #35 – down from #31 last week. Huh? What happened to me being #78 and #30? Now I don’t have any faith in its engagement numbers or its rankings.

PostRank clearly isn’t ready for prime time yet (but keep an eye on it!)…

If you could, would you? And, if not, why not?

My series of quotes from The Game of School resonated with a lot of readers. A number of folks felt that the beliefs and concerns that Robert Fried articulated about public schools were applicable to their own, children's, or grandchildren's experiences. So here are two questions for you...

1. If you had the opportunity to place your kid(s) in some kind of non-traditional school setting (home school, magnet school, cyber school, etc.), would you? 
2. And, if not, what draws you to your public school(s)?

BlogBall09 - Our leagues are ready!

For those of you who are interested, here are the 24 teams that are participating in edublogger fantasy baseball this year (in alphabetical order by manager).

League A

• Swing from the Heels, Eric Bouvier, Auburn Public Schools Ed. Tech Blog
• Mr. Mojo Risin’, Jeremy Brueck, Raised Digital
• Motor City Kitties, Jim Dornberg, EdTech Update
• Rutherford’s Beard, Bill Ferriter, The Tempered Radical
• Buckeye Ballers, Toby Fischer, Future of Education
• RickRockRadio, Rick Heitmeyer, The Hump in the Bus
• Higgy’s Tribe Time, Chris Higgins, Mr. Higgins’ Blog
• Oslo Octopi, Scott McLeod, Dangerously Irrelevant
• My Momma’s a Sox Fan, Brendan Murphy, Philosophy Without a Home
• Hirschy Bears, Robert Pondiscio, The Core Knowledge Blog
• Broke a bat Mountain, Mark Schuldt, Roosevelt Elementary
• ChiSox, Dave Sherman, The Principal and Interest

League B

• A Few Good Men, Jon Becker, Educational Insanity
• TAG! You’re Out!, Russ Goerend, TAGmirror
• Kneighborhood Knine, Mark Granito, The Kneighborhood Annex
• Unsigned Free Agent, Matt Haan, Hoover Power Podcast
• Lehmann’s Demons, Chris Lehmann, Practical Theory
• Lou’s Sport Shop, Dave Meister, PHSprincipalBLOG
• Carolina Seadogs, Jason Ramsden, Raventech Reveals
• Kerplunk, Ted Sakshaug, Nonsense
• Harold’s Red Sox, Harold Shaw, Aging Reluctantly
• Great Hambinos, Brian Smith, Streaming Thoughts
• PrincipalsPage, Michael Smith, PrincipalsPage.com Blog
• BewareOfGreenWeenies, Vinnie Vrotny, Multi-faceted Refractions

My sincerest apologies to those of you who also expressed interest but e-mailed me after these folks. We didn’t have enough to make a third league or I would have done so. Maybe next year!

Good luck, everyone (and Go Twins!).

Help wanted - Building a new secondary school

I received this message recently from a school administrator:

Our district is looking at building a new high school or middle school in the near future. I would appreciate your opinion on what technology should be in place in order to create classrooms suitable for teaching 21st century skills. For example, I am thinking that each classroom should have a LCD projector mounted on the ceiling, screen or white board, some kind of document camera like an "elmo," a way to bring the Internet onto a screen so that students can use it like a mimio, and a laptop with docking station for teachers and students to use. The building should be wireless, and ... here's where I am running out of ideas! What are your suggestions? We have a limited budget but I believe that if we are going to build a new building, it should be capable of supporting 21st century learning immediately instead of treating technology as an "add-on." 

I would appreciate learning your thoughts about what a high school should have and a middle school, and if possible resources I could review or contact to determine costs.

What do you think? In addition to the necessary instructional changes, if you were building / designing a new secondary school to support powerful 21st century learning, what would you be sure to include on the technology, facilities, and infrastructure fronts?

February 12 at 5:30pm - That's tonight!

Tonight’s the night! Including myself, we’ll have 19 people for our discussion of Tribes here in Ames. I’m really looking forward to the conversation.

We’re going to do our best to record our chat for later download. I think that Mike Sansone and/or Angela Maiers might be live tweeting the discussion on Twitter. Mike also was making some noise about maybe live streaming. I'm letting others step up on this one rather than trying to control the event. We'll see what happens!

BlogBall09

Update: Our two leagues (yes, two!) are now full. Sorry...

It’s time for another season of edublogger fantasy baseball (and, yes, you have to be an edublogger)! Last year’s champion, Jim Dornberg, will be back to defend his title. I shall return as well, hoping to improve on my team’s lackluster late-season performance (maybe I need a different team name!).

Same rules and league settings as last year. A big trophy for the winner. Friendly banter, potential bragging rights, and loads of baseball fun could be yours!

If you’re interested, send me an e-mail with BlogBall09 in the subject line. First come, first serve!

Edublogger letters to the next President - Summary

In case you didn’t notice, we inaugurated a President yesterday! Back in October, before we knew who he would be, I invited edubloggers to write a letter to the next President. Here are some excerpts from each participant’s response… [click on names for full posts]

Rich Haglund

If you want our country to be safe from terrorists or rogue nuclear states, focus on education.  As Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone recently explained to Charlie Rose:  We need a group of people to stand up and say, “Education is a national security issue and we’re not gonna let it go down without a fight.”

Tom Hoffman

Please (continue to) listen to Linda Darling-Hammond and do what she says.

Miguel Guhlin

It will be easy to listen to the experts, to enact legislation like NCLB that calls for high standards and ruthless accountability, to forget that we must ask, not what technology can do with students, but rather, what they can do with technology. Remember one story, and ask, how will this child see America? A land of freedom that empowers, or that freedom belongs to those rich enough, powerful enough to control the technology?

Justin Bathon

For the past hundred years we have educated toward manufacturing and we built a manufacturing economy in the United States the likes of which the world has never seen. Our prosperity in the last century was built on the backs of factory workers and truck drivers and plant managers and all the people needed to service them. Both of my parents, for instance, continue to manufacture car bumpers and it allowed them to build a nice home and send their kids to college. In fact, we got so damn good at manufacturing that everyone else around the globe learned and imitated us. But, how do we assure America's prosperity in 2108? Can we expect the America we know today to be similarly prosperous then by tinkering with the status quo?

Tammy Gillmore

Just as you never take being an American for granted, nor do I ever want my students to ever forget the many hard-fought freedoms that we are privileged to every day, every day within our classrooms, within our homes, within our towns, within our states.  For without patriots such as yourself, we would not live in such a blessed nation as the great United States of America.

Kevin Riley [see also this post and this post]

Hope…
I am the preacher-prophet who foretold that we would reside one day
in a promised land.
He must be with us now.
Though the years have kept his visage young…
His eternal voice is crisp as fire
As he sings from the mountain top.
This morning I heard the sky rejoice-
like the deafening wail of 10,000 hurricanes.

Bill Ferriter [see also this post]

I think successfully educating all children in America requires something more than sounding warning bells and asking teachers to “pull up their boot straps” time and again.  For me, improving education means being willing to significantly rethink how “school” is done in our country.

Robert Pondiscio

We’re not going to get anywhere as long as teachers are expected to bear the load alone.

Scott Schwister [see also this post]

Education is not a factory, and children are not widgets. Rather, there’s art and unpredictability and instinct and intuition in this messy, mysterious process we call learning. There’s beauty and fear, frustration, loss, and wonder. Students are human, and humans are messy. In human learning, we find the familiar black and white, but also quirkier flavors: up and down, strange and charm. We have responsibility to leave no child behind, and an equal responsibility to define “behind” in a way that recognizes and honors each child’s uniqueness. If you’re not with us, you’re. . . behind? We need a more inclusive vision of education.

Evan Abbey

Just like Iowa's schools, you are a powerful symbol. An historic symbol. A symbol for our students everywhere, regardless of their humble beginnings or color of their skin, that they can achieve whatever they put their mind to. The votes cast for you were much more than votes cast for your ideology or votes cast against the previous president; they were votes cast for the very democratic principals that make this country truly strong.

Wesley Fryer

We have too many mandates from state and national governments, and many teachers do not feel empowered or even permitted to help students engage in the deep, project-based approaches to learning which lead to actual transfer and retention. We must have a secretary of education who rejects the vending-machine approach to learning which has become a policy mantra in past years. We need someone who understands the power of open content, collaboration, and hyperlinked writing. We need a secretary of education who champions the importance of teacher relationships with students: Teachers who KNOW their students and therefore understand how to best stretch and extend their skills, knowledge, and dispositions. We need a secretary of education who promotes not just Internet safety, but digital citizenship. We need a secretary of education who can not only form coalitions and partnerships, but can inspire our nation to transform our classrooms and schools into places where passionate learners gather to share, collaborate, create, and show what they know.

Scott McLeod

I voted for caring over self-interest. I voted for mastery of our digital world, not ignorance. I voted for hope rather than fear. Most of all, given the ambiguity and complexity in which we live, I voted for general promise rather than specific promises.

See also Renee Moore’s post at Education Week and Brian Crosby’s writing assignment for his students.

Many thanks to everyone who participated. Happy reading!

[cross-posted at the TechLearning blog]

After class

I love winter. But I'll admit it's been a bit nippy here lately. Here was the temp when I got out of my class in Mason City Wednesday night:

My class is a blended model of instruction: some face-to-face meetings and the rest online. In this kind of weather, that means fewer long drives through blowing snow for me and my students and fewer frozen noses. We can cozy up inside our warm homes and yet still learn from each other... Awesome!

2007 eSchoolNews video

I just ran across this eSchoolNews video from my 2007 Leaders in Learning trip to Washington, DC. I had completely forgotten about it. For those of you who are interested, here’s 10 minutes of me (squinting because of the bright lights they had in my face!)…

Yes! Yes! Thank you! Thank you!

Seth Godin passed along this video at Pwn or Die, noting that it’s pretty disturbing to watch the graphic intersection of commercialization and children.

From a marketing sense, however, you have to acknowledge the power of the Nintendo Wii brand here. How many products (or people) have brands that make individuals weep when they intersect with them?

These are the reactions I’m hoping for after my presentations and workshops. 

Beware outside consultants? - Part 4, hiring organizations

This is my final post in my series on outside consultants. Parts 1 and 2 highlighted two controversial consultants, Drs. Willard Daggett and Ruby Payne, to illustrate some possible issues of concern. Part 3 delved into some professional obligations of outside consultants (like myself) who work with educational organizations. Today’s post will offer some of my thoughts on the responsibilities of the school organizations that hire outside consultants.

J. Dellicolli helpfully pointed us to the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) Code of Ethics for professional development leaders and providers. The code for providers is fairly similar to the National Speakers Association’s (NSA) code that I highlighted in Part 3. Unlike the NSA code, the NSDC code does include an emphasis on alignment with student learning goals. Note that Dr. Payne may fall afoul of Principle II of the NSDC code, which states that professional development providers should “habitually and accurately explain the strengths and limitations of the practices they recommend” (emphasis added). Similarly, Dr. Daggett’s work appears to violate Principle I of the NSDC code, which says that services should be consistent with “high standards of quality.”

More importantly for this post, however, is the NSDC code for professional development leaders:

Principle I: Staff development leaders are committed to achieving school and district goals, particularly those addressing high levels of learning and performance for all students and staff members.

Staff development leaders make decisions based on high academic standards for all students. They ensure that staff development activities make a significant contribution to the accomplishment of school system and school goals for student learning.

Principle II: Staff development leaders select staff development content and processes that are research-based and proven in practice after examining various types of information about student and educator learning needs.

Staff development leaders are informed consumers of educational research. They are familiar with and use research findings and understand the strengths and weaknesses of the research and its applicability to their settings. Consequently, staff development leaders only recommend professional practices that support high-quality teaching and learning. Staff development leaders use data to plan, assess, and evaluate the effectiveness of staff development efforts. Data may be drawn from various valid and reliable sources such as norm-referenced and criterion-reference tests, portfolios of student work, teacher grades, and student attendance and graduation rates. These data are disaggregated to determine the effectiveness of the school program and staff development on various sub-groups of students. In addition, other sources of information, such as data on student, parent, staff, and community satisfaction with schools, are used to guide decision making.

Principle III: Staff development leaders continuously improve their work through the ongoing evaluation of staff development’s effectiveness in achieving school system and school goals for student learning.

Staff development leaders conduct formative as well as summative evaluation of the effectiveness of the staff development content and processes in achieving student learning objectives. They routinely and clearly report in writing the results of staff development to persons responsible for allocating staff development resources. Staff development leaders ensure that adequate funds are available for evaluation and that the evaluation process begins with the establishment of student learning goals and the planning of adult learning activities. They also ensure that members of school improvement teams have the necessary knowledge and skills to evaluate the effectiveness of staff development in improving student learning.

Principle IV: Staff development leaders continuously improve their knowledge and skills.

Staff development leaders read widely, attend workshops and conferences, belong to appropriate professional associations, regularly consult with researchers and professional colleagues, and reflect on the effectiveness of their own practice. They contribute to the development of other staff development leaders through conference presentations, professional writing, and service on professional boards and committees.

Principle V: Staff development leaders ensure an equitable distribution of resources to accomplish school system and school goals for student learning.

Staff development leaders ensure to the extent of their authority that adequate resources of funding and time are available to achieve district and school goals and that the allocation of these resources reflect both fairness and need. They also ensure that resources are invested in those areas deemed most likely to promote high levels of learning for all students.

Principle VI: Staff development leaders advocate for policies and practices that ensure the continuous learning of all students and employees.

Staff development leaders make certain that schools provide a culture and structures that support the continuous improvement of practice and of student learning. These organizations have norms of continuous improvement, collegiality, and experimentation. Organizational structures such as school calendars and daily schedules, labor contracts, and leadership practices advance school system and school goals for student learning.

Principle VII: Staff development leaders conduct themselves in a manner that avoids conflict of interest or the appearance of such conflict.

Staff development leaders do not accept any compensation, gratuities, or favors from staff development providers that may directly or indirectly affect leaders’ judgments about contracting for services with providers. In addition, staff development leaders have no financial investment in or obligation to providers with whom the school system or school contracts.

Some of my quick thoughts on these seven principles include the following:

• In many school organizations, the percentage of staff development time spent on activities having nothing to do with Principle 1 is very high. This is a complete waste of an extremely precious resource.
• NSDC advocates professional development that is “research-based and proven in practice” (Principle 2). This is an admirable goal but difficult to achieve given the often conflicting nature of existing research, the lack of high-quality research in certain areas, and/or the highly contextual nature of education (i.e., certain practices are more successful in some situations but not others and we’re not always sure when or why this is true).
• I would guess that most school districts do an extremely poor job with Principle 3, evaluation of the effectiveness of their professional development practices. This is also probably true for Principle 6, ensuring a climate of continuous learning for employees and students.
• Principle 5, equitable and adequate allocation of funding and time, is intriguing. I’m unclear whether this pertains only to the professional development efforts themselves or whether it’s a broader call for the other supports that must accompany staff development activities in order for those activities to be successful.

Like for the NSA code, I also think that the NSDC code may not be specific or comprehensive enough. For example, here are some suggestions from Darin King:

1. Balance. Has the organization adequately researched the topic to understand the variety of perspectives associated with a specific topic? Sometimes school districts can become enamored with a certain consultant and their ideological and/or philosophical perspective. It is important to seek out information on the same topic that is slightly or significantly different.
2. Situation. Has the organization adequately researched what makes their organization unique from others? A school district needs to identify the uniqueness of their own situation to determine the validity of a consultant’s recommendations. I believe strongly that "one size does not fit all" when it comes to making significant change in a school district. We are sometimes too quick to adopt an entire list of recommendations without recognizing the local presence of the parameters that are necessary for a successful implementation.
3. Capacity. Has the organization adequately assessed their capacity to implement the recommendations? Considering change without a clear picture of the organizational capacity as it relates to the implementation is silly. There are areas in every school district that are weak and/or stressed, so implementing recommendations that rely on weak and/or stressed areas may become difficult to successfully accomplish.
4. Alignment. Has the organization adequately developed strategic and/or tactical plans that focus on specific organizational outcomes? To avoid constantly “jumping on the bandwagon” with the latest fad, school districts should have a clear picture of what they are trying to accomplish. The whole language versus phonics debate comes to mind. Figure out what you believe in, find a consultant that can help, and then make sure the recommendations are aligned to the strategic outcomes of the district.

These are all great ideas and align well with the NSDC code. Here are some additional recommendations that I’d make for hiring organizations:

5. Do your homework. As Ron Houtman notes, hiring organizations “should do some due diligence and see what others are saying” about the people they’re considering hiring. In the Google era, there’s no reason not to spend a few minutes researching proposed outside consultants. Better to find out beforehand than to have participants fact check and undermine the speaker during the session.
6. Avoid unnecessary controversy. Both Daggett and Payne come with too much baggage. There usually are other folks who can deliver the same high-quality content and message who don’t have the accompanying controversy. Why not hire them instead and avoid the negative news story in the local paper?
7. Don’t waste people’s time. As Darin noted, have a clear goal in mind. Assess the organization’s capacity to implement the consultant’s recommendations. Put into place the needed support structures to make the initiative successful. And so on… Otherwise, it becomes just another “sit and get” session with no purpose, no follow-up, and no impact. In other words, a session that erodes your credibility with the people whom you’re suppposed to be serving.
8. Don’t just bring someone in because he’s a great speaker. Unfortunately, what I often see with my own invitations is that someone has seen me present and “thinks I’d be a great speaker for their staff.” As much as I enjoy intersecting with school organizations and other groups, however, it shouldn’t be about me and it shouldn’t be that I get invited just because I’m a dynamic presenter (or because they heard a neighboring school district brought me in so they think they should too). Again, it’s not purposeful and, no matter how great I am, it’s almost guaranteed not to be impactful. Now, I do believe there is some worth in bringing in someone to “challenge the status quo” IF there’s a follow-up plan in mind…
9. Look inside. Some of your best experts already work for you. They’re already doing what you want the rest of your staff to do. Find ways to tap into their experience and expertise. Create thoughtful, structured, ongoing opportunities for them to work with others in your organization. Give them resources to increase their reach and impact. There’s no reason to abide by the old saw that “an expert is anyone who’s at least 50 miles away.”
10. Insist on more for your money. I’ll echo Gary Stager’s beliefs that hiring organizations should ask more of outside consultants. Don’t just bring us in for a keynote talk. Create strategic opportunities for us to interact with educators before and after “the big speech.” Have us do workshops, discussion sessions, training in the classroom or computer lab, etc. In addition to teachers or administrators, have us meet with school board members, support staff, and/or community members (all of which are neglected but important groups for the success of professional development efforts). Most of us charge by the day. Don’t kill us but use us for the entire day (including the evening). Many of us would greatly welcome the opportunity to interact more with your people.

This has been an extremely long post so I will conclude with the observation that lack of follow-up kills the most well-intentioned professional development. If hiring organizations don’t have a plan in place for building upon and extending an outside consultant’s visit, they might as well not even have her come visit.

Like my previous list for outside consultants, this list is not meant to be conclusive but rather a starting place for conversation. What else should I have included?

[Note: If you haven’t read the comments to Part 2 (in particular), or the accompanying conversations on the In Practice blog and elsewhere, they’re well worth a read. See also Miguel Guhlin’s post regarding his own expectations for speakers, Gary Stager’s 2000 article section on False Prophets/Profits, and my previous post, Why is staff development so bad?]

Beware outside consultants? - Part 3, me (and others)

I’ve been thinking a lot about my previous two posts regarding Drs. Willard Daggett and Ruby Payne. Both make a great deal of money and have built mini-empires out of their speaking engagements, writing, and/or consulting enterprises. Both have serious, serious concerns attached to their work. When phrases like ‘riddled with unverifiable assertions’ or ‘[as] full of crap as a Christmas turkey’ get used, that’s not good…

Daggett and Payne aren’t the only ones to experience some criticism. For example, I have tremendous respect for Dr. Rick DuFour and the work that he and his team have done on professional learning communities. I’ve learned a boatload from their books and use On Common Ground as a required reading for my data-driven decision-making class. But I’ve been hearing from some educators across the country that they feel that the presentations are starting to get stale, that there are only so many times the Faces of Hope video can be shown before it loses its impact, that after one institute there’s no need to go back for more. Miguel Guhlin also points us to some criticism of Marc Prensky (whose ideas have been useful to me).

A number of folks in the educational technology community serve as speakers and/or consultants. Will Richardson, David Warlick, and Angela Maiers, for example, do this as their primary vocation. Others such as myself, Doug Johnson, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Miguel Guhlin, Dean Shareski, Sylvia Martinez, and Wesley Fryer occasionally do this on the side in addition to our regular employment.

What obligations do we have as speakers / consultants?

For those of us who do some professional speaking or consulting, this excerpt from the National Speakers Association’s Code of Professional Ethics is probably a good place to start:

Article 1. The NSA member shall accurately represent qualifications and experience in both oral and written communications.

Article 2. The NSA member shall act and speak on a high professional level so as to neither offend nor bring discredit to the speaking profession.

Article 3. The NSA member shall exert diligence to understand the client’s organization, approaches and goals in advance of the presentation.

Article 4. The NSA member shall avoid using materials, titles and thematic creations originated by others, either orally or in writing.

Article 5. The NSA member shall share knowledge and experience with others.

Article 6. The NSA member shall treat other speakers with professional courtesy and dignity.

Article 7. The NSA member shall limit services to those areas in which the member is qualified to serve, taking into consideration available opportunities for the member to develop new materials or undertake new fields. When unable or unqualified to fulfill requests for presentations, the NSA member shall make every effort to recommend the services of other qualified speakers, agencies or bureaus.

Article 8. The NSA member shall maintain the trust of clients, and fidelity concerning the business or personal affairs of a client, agents and other speakers who may reveal confidential information.

Article 9. The NSA member shall protect the public against fraud or unfair practices and shall attempt to eliminate from the speaking profession all practices which bring discredit to the profession.

Article 10. The NSA member shall not be party to any agreement to unfairly limit or restrain access to the marketplace by any other speaker, client or to the public, based upon economic factors, race, creed, color, sex, age, physical handicap or country of national origin of another speaker.

But these may not be specific or comprehensive enough. For example, the primary criticism of Daggett is that he just makes up stuff. Does that come under Article 2? Article 9? Or not at all? The primary criticisms of Payne are that she is overly stereotypical and makes unproven assertions. Under which article(s) do those fall?

Here are some key things that I think we speakers/consultants owe the organizations with whom we work:

1. Accuracy. Our work should be truthful and accurate. If we make an assertion, it should be based on a source that’s reasonably trustworthy. If it’s an opinion, it should be clearly indicated as such. If we don’t know, we should admit it. Can we make an occasional unverifiable assertion? Sure, but that shouldn’t constitute the bulk of our work. Does everything need to be ‘research-based?’ No, absolutely not, particularly given the inconclusive nature of educational research on many topics.
2. Currency. Our work should be as up-to-date as possible. This is tough, both in terms of monitoring numerous channels of information and in terms of finding the time to update one’s materials. It’s also difficult sometimes to take new approaches to older work; I empathize greatly with DuFour’s challenge of continually needing to find new ways to present, expand, and build upon what’s been done before. I think we owe it to the groups we’re serving to continually update our material and make it as relevant as possible to each organization rather than repeatedly doing the same schtick regardless of audience.
3. Transparency. If we make mistakes, say so. Publicly. If we’re wrestling mentally with an issue or otherwise are not sure of something, admit it. Is there a major line of research contesting our assertions (as is the case with Payne) or do we have a particular ideological bent? Acknowledge it so that the organization can make informed decisions about our work. The more transparent we can be, the better.
4. Service. It’s about the organization, not us. Professional development time and money usually are quite scarce. We can charge whatever we think our time and expertise are worth (and the market will bear), but we should be providing something of value. Usually that means something practical that members of the organization can start using and acting upon tomorrow. Oral presentations, written materials, and other resources should be professional, engaging, and helpful. [Note: I confess I have trouble with the “I was buried by an avalanche in the Himalayas for 2 weeks with nothing to eat but my clothing” or the “I was down and out but now I’m successful and at peace” speeches. Sure, they’re inspiring (and often quite expensive) but they don’t really help me do my job any better…]

This list is not meant to be conclusive but rather a starting place for conversation. What else should I have included?

Beware outside consultants? - Part 2, Ruby Payne

As America becomes increasingly diverse, many school districts are experiencing changes in their traditional student populations. When districts have significant increases in the number of students of color and/or students in poverty, they often try to increase the cultural competence of their teaching and administrative staff. And that means that many of them turn to Dr. Ruby Payne. Dr. Payne’s seminal book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, has sold over a million copies and has resulted in many regarding her as an expert on poverty.

Many academics (and others) have expressed grave concerns about Payne’s work, however. For example, here is an excerpt from a 2006 article in Teachers College Record by Dr. Paul Gorski (now an Assistant Professor at George Mason University):

A casual flip-through of A Framework uncovers dozens of deficit-laden statements. According to Payne (2001), people in poverty are bad parents: “The typical pattern in poverty for discipline is to verbally chastise the child, or physically beat the child, then forgive and feed him/her” (p. 37). They are also criminals:  “Also, individuals in poverty are seldom going to call the police, for two reasons: First the police may be looking for them. . . . ” (pp. 37-38). They are disloyal: “Allegiances may change overnight; favoritism is a way of life” (p. 74). They are violent and “on the streets”: “If students in poverty don’t know how to fight physically, they are going to be in danger on the streets” (p. 100). And, according to Payne, people in poverty are unmotivated addicts: “And for some, alcoholism, laziness, lack of motivation, drug addition, etc., in effect make the choices for the individual” (p. 148). Although research indicates some differences in child discipline practices and levels of day-to-day physical violence between economically deprived communities and middle or upper class communities, the fact remains that most people in poverty are responsible, hard working, drug and alcohol free, and not “on the streets” (a phrase that may also cycle the stereotype that all poor people live in urban communities, when many live in rural communities). These people – the average, hard working, employed, drug free people in poverty – are largely invisible in A Framework and Payne’s other books.

And here’s an excerpt from another 2006 article in Teachers College Record, this one by Drs. Jennifer Ng, Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas, and John Rury, Professor at DePaul University:

[In Payne's] descriptive scenarios, the poor are generally depicted as having a weak work ethic, little sense of internal discipline or future orientation, and leading lives characterized to one extent or another by disorder and violence. In making these characterizations, Payne seems to be unaware of the many studies dating from the late 1960s that challenged the culture of poverty thesis, in many instances directly testing the extent to which traits such as these were more prevalent among the poor than other groups. By and large, these studies found that such characteristics were not more likely to be evident in poor individuals or households. Indeed, people in poverty valued work, saving money, behaving properly, maintaining stable families, and a number of other “middle-class” attributes as much as their counterparts in higher social and economic strata. These results, moreover, held across groups with experiences of differing duration in poverty and across racial and ethnic lines (Roach & Gursslin, 1967; Irelan, Moles, & O’Shea, 1969; Coward, Feagin, & Williams, 1974; Davidson & Gaitz, 1974; Abell & Lyon, 1979; Carmon, 1985; Jones & Luo, 1999). . . . Most educators . . . are unfamiliar with the extensive research literature on poverty and its effects on children, and if Payne’s citations seem to support their own views about the poor, they would hardly be in a position to challenge the interpretation of research that Payne offers. If they are predisposed to believing that the poor are lazy and impulsive as well as unreliable and temperamental, they are more likely to agree with Payne’s analysis than to question it. In short, Payne may be popular simply because she echoes commonplace assumptions about why some individuals appear to succeed in American society while others do not.

And here’s what may be the only criticism of a famous educational consultant by a 14–year-old:

Is this how schools should be spending their scarce professional development time and monies?

So, like my post yesterday about Dr. Willard Daggett, the information gathered for this post raises some important questions.

First, should districts be spending their monies on a consultant whose work has been accused of being riddled with hundreds of unproven assertions? Whose emphasis on students’ need to change is allegedly so reductionist that it basically ignores the school, neighborhood, societal, political, and other contextual factors that influence the life success of students in poverty? 

If the poor are poor simply because they do not know how to behave as if they were not poor, then the middle class and the wealthy should not be taxed to provide public assistance, public health, public schooling, or a public sphere in which the poor might participate. According to such a perspective, neither structural inequality, nor public policy, nor barriers to good jobs, nor lack of money cause the plight of the poor; they just don't have the right story structure, or tone of voice, or register, or cognitive strategies. (Bomer, Dworin, May, & Semingson, 2008)

Who self-describes her foundational work as “the findings of a 30-year longitudinal case study of one neighborhood of poverty” when that actually means that “her expertise on poverty resulted primarily from being married for over 30 years to her husband, Frank, who grew up in ‘situational’ (or temporary) poverty, but lived for several years with others who were in ‘generational’ (or long-term) poverty” (Gorski, 2006; Payne, 1995)? Whose seminal book was admittedly inspired by financial "spirit guides" and written in a single week so that she might “fulfill her dream of ‘a life without financial constraints?’" (Bohn, 2007; Tough, 2007).

Second, are most districts that hire Dr. Payne aware of the criticisms that have been leveled against her work? And, third, even if so, should districts’ professional development work involve a consultant/speaker that’s this controversial, no matter how famous or widespread her message is?

This is important, not trivial, stuff. As Bomer et al. (2008) note:

It is well-established . . . that teacher beliefs have an impact on the ways they teach and on their students’ learning (National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, 1996; Nespor, 1987). Since teachers do make decisions and plans on the basis of their beliefs or conceptualizations of their students, students' daily lives are strongly affected by the influences on their teachers' thinking. We have demonstrated through our analysis that teachers may be misinformed by Payne's claims. Poverty in Payne's work is marked only as a negative, only as a divergence from a middle-class norm, and students who are "of poverty" need to be fixed. This way of regarding the children of poor parents has predictable and undesirable consequences in US education (Brophy & Good, 1974; Rist, 1970; Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968). As a consequence of low teacher expectations, poor students are more likely to be in lower tracks or lower ability groups (Ansalone, 2001, 2003; Connor & Boskin, 2001; Gamoran & Berends, 1987; Oakes, 1985), and their educational experience is more often dominated by rote drill and practice (Anyon, 1980, 1997; Dudley-Marling & Paugh, 2005; Moll, 1988; Moll & Ruiz, 2002; Valenzuela, 1999).

How accountable should we be holding outside consultants (and the people who hire them)?

Beware outside consultants? - Part 1, Willard Daggett

The work of Willard Daggett is HUGE here in Iowa. Dr. Daggett heads the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE). His emphasis on ‘rigor, relevance, and relationships’ is so prevalent in the state that those three buzzwords come up in almost every conversation pertaining to school success and student achievement.

I’ve never had a chance to intersect personally with Dr. Daggett, although I did get to hear ICLE’s Senior Vice President, Dr. Ray McNulty, speak at the Vermont Principals Association Leadership Academy this summer (and he did a nice job). I confess that the center’s rigor/relevance framework has at least some intuitive appeal to me.

So I was surprised today when I ran across a scathing May 2008 blog post by Gerald Bracey that raised some pretty serious concerns about Daggett’s veracity (if you don’t know Dr. Bracey, he’s a longtime education scholar and a passionate defender of American schools). Back in 1995 he originally voiced his doubts about Daggett. Thirteen years later he is still concerned about Daggett’s accuracy and/or truthfulness. Here’s the video that accompanies Bracey’s post: 

 

Here are additional links (some by Bracey) that raise concerns about Daggett:

• Oct 1999 – Investor’s Business Daily
• Oct 1999 – Ninth Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education
• Nov 1999 – John Locke Foundation
• Apr 2000 – The Tower, the South High student newspaper (reprint; Grosse Point, Michigan))
• Dec 2002 – The Times-Examiner (South Carolina)
• Aug 2006 – Sherman Dorn
• Sep 2007 – Greater Orange News Service (California)
• Jan 2008 – Rotten Apple Awards
• Apr 2008 – WCF Courier (Iowa)

Should Iowa be basing much of its school reform work on this guy?

I had never heard about any of this. After reading through all of these links, however, I can see why afterward it would be pretty difficult for educators to have much faith in Daggett’s work. Regardless of the underlying appeal of his messages, at what point do the multiple accusations about Daggett’s ongoing disregard for facts impact his credibility and worthiness as a consultant and/or speaker? I wonder if the Iowa Department of Education, state educational leadership associations, and school districts even know about all of this. If so, should they disregard his rigor/relevance framework and exhortations about teaching kids 21st century skills?

A major award

Spotted in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania:

If you celebrate Christmas (or A Christmas Story), have a great day!

Help wanted - World's best PTO blog?

Let’s say that you were interested in creating the world’s best PTA / PTO blog as a tool to help build greater community for your kids’ elementary school. What would you include in it?

You can see what I’ve come up with so far at the Fellows PTO Blog. I’m just getting started. In addition to fun and/or helpful online resources for students and parents, over the next few months I’m going to:

• solicit student stories or artwork,
• publicize upcoming school events,
• interview principals and the teaching staff,
• highlight great books (and hopefully have students submit book reviews), and
• possibly host a few fun contests for kids and families.

If you have other suggestions for blog activities, web sites I should be checking out, or great PTA / PTO blog examples, please leave them in the comments area or send me a note. Thanks!

Teaching administrators about Wikipedia

[cross-linked at the TechLearning blog]

Last year a middle school librarian in New Jersey received a lot of media attention for her anti-Wikipedia campaign:

Linda O'Connor regards Wikipedia the same way former first lady Nancy Reagan campaigned against drugs. . . . She put up a sign saying "Just Say No to Wikipedia" over the computers in the school library. . . . Wikipedia is blocked on all computers in the Warren Hills Regional School District.

At the time I said that I was highly skeptical about this librarian's stance. On any given day, approximately 1 in 10 Internet users visits Wikipedia. This fact alone should indicate that there's something going on worth paying attention to, something that warrants a more nuanced approach than simply prohibiting access. If it was terrible, it wouldn’t maintain its audience. Folks who take the time to understand Wikipedia learn very quickly that it's actually an amazing site. It's already 8 times larger than the Encyclopedia Brittanica, is growing incredibly quickly, and has been created entirely by volunteers. Peer-reviewed studies published in our top scientific journals have shown that it is as accurate as the Brittanica too, particularly those articles that reside in its mainstream core (rather than at the fringes).

If all of this is true, then why are so many educators, librarians, and media specialists upset about Wikipedia? I think the concerns stem from several different sources. One is their beliefs about accuracy. We tend to assume that print materials such as the Brittanica and school textbooks are error-free when in actuality they contain numerous mistakes. Even when identified, these mistakes usually linger until the next edition is printed and purchased (unlike Wikipedia which corrects known mistakes almost instantly). Second, the idea that volunteers can create something as valuable as that created by experts strikes us as ludicrous. But in this case it happens to be true. Sure, at any given second, some vandal or incompetent may have inserted something inaccurate into a particular article. But over time (and often unbelievably quickly), Wikipedia is remarkably self-healing, unlike the paper materials on our bookshelves. Wikipedia also is a counter to outdated information. How many of the reference books in libraries and school media centers contain incomplete or inaccurate information simply because they're old? Wikipedia doesn't have that problem.

Our students deserve better training about how to navigate our new, complex, online information landscape. They don't learn about information literacy, bias, media literacy, assessment of online validity, and other critical online skills by being denied access to that information. They don't learn how to cite and use online resources appropriately if they can't use those resources and learn from their mistakes because the materials are banned.

If you take half an hour to show administrators these things, their mindset changes. I like to have school leaders visit some Wikipedia pages with me. I start by showing them the asphalt article. After we look at the article itself, I show them the history tab (and take them all the way back to the first few revisions) and then the discussion tab. We talk about what we see and what their perceptions are regarding accuracy, quality, and neutrality. Then I put them into groups to check out more controversial articles like Sarah Palin, Islam, Vladimir Putin, or Pluto. They examine the articles for bias and inaccuracy and spend some time in the history and discussion areas.

The administrators inevitably walk away with a deeper understanding of Wikipedia and a greater appreciation for the safeguards that have evolved to protect against abuse and inaccuracy. Many of them also begin to see the site as an excellent lens for teaching students about how, as a society, we construct knowledge, negotiate meaning, and develop collective understanding. Some even begin to think about how their students might be able to serve as Wikipedia contributors. In the end, that richer understanding may be more valuable than the content of the articles themselves.

How are you using Wikipedia to teach information literacy and critical thinking?

One of our own needs help

Imagine if your house burned down. With only a short time to gather a few belongings and throw them into your car, what would you save?

Unfortunately, one of our edublogger colleagues, Barbara Barreda, is facing exactly this situation right now. Please read more at the web site set up by Clarence Fisher and Jen Wagner and donate generously during her time of need. If you don’t have any extra funds or clothes right now, even some supportive wishes would be most welcome.

Barbara is a wonderfully thoughtful blogger and administrator. She and I have been trading messages and resources for over a year about effective (and ineffective) grading practices. Anything you can do to help her (including passing this post along to others) would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/slworking/1795641717

February 12 at 5:30pm

On February 12, 2009, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm Central, I’ll be at a yet-to-be-determined location here in Ames, Iowa to discuss Seth Godin’s new book, Tribes. Godin has finally tipped over from writing about marketing to writing about leadership. The discussion around this book is going to be AMAZING.

What do you do for a living? What do you make? Leaders make a ruckus. (p. 19)

If you’re in, let me know you’re coming. Dinner’s on me. If you’re coming from out-of-state and need a place to stay, let me know and we’ll see what we can arrange…

Nana turns 90

My grandma turned 90 today. She doesn’t have a computer and probably will never see this message but I’m blogging about it anyway ‘cause I think it’s cool.

Help wanted - Using online games in K-12 classrooms

Each month, Cable in the Classroom Magazine has a page called InterActive that asks educators to answer a question related to the issue’s theme. The magazine usually prints at least five answers from readers.

The magazine editors have requested my help finding contributors for the February question:

How have you used an online game to enhance your students’ classroom experience?

If you’re a K-12 teacher to whom this question applies, please send your thoughts to Ellen Ullman. If you know a teacher who’s done this, please pass this post along. Thanks!

Dear Mr. President

I voted today (22nd in line!).

I voted for future-oriented leadership instead of compliance. I voted for anticipatory, not reactionary.

I voted for engagement with the world, not bellicosity. I voted for the view that education is a societal investment rather than a private good.

I voted for caring over self-interest. I voted for mastery of our digital world, not ignorance. I voted for hope rather than fear. Most of all, given the ambiguity and complexity in which we live, I voted for general promise rather than specific promises.

You have enormous challenges ahead of you. Tell us like it is instead of what you think we want to hear. The American people are amazingly resilient; they deserve the opportunity to rise to their potential. Lead us to a better place. We can do great things if properly informed, inspired, and enabled.

Good luck, Mr. President. Our hopes and dreams now reside with you.

Generation We

I love both these videos. Will you join them? 

Generation WE: The Movement Begins... from Generation We on Vimeo.



Generation We: The Movement is Spreading! from Generation We on Vimeo.