Technology – Page 4 – Learning in Technicolor

24 September, 201323 July, 2017

A bit about blogging.

Photo by Kathy Cassidy

I’ve been a blogger since 2009, but I’ve been a writer for always.

When I was principal, I wanted our students to have safe spaces where they could share their writing with the world and learn to proficiently use digital tools to make their voices heard. I wanted for them to be able to share their ideas with families and friends. I wanted others to be able to comment on the creativity and ideas expressed. I wanted our kids to connect globally with other classrooms and students. I wanted them to refine and enhance the ways in which they communicate with others.

I wanted.

Why?

Because I think it matters. Communication matters.

In my years as principal we introduced blogging to classrooms of students, beginning first with teachers who were eager to embrace blogging as a venue through which students could communicate their ideas and share their learning. Many teachers found natural uses of blogging in a variety of subject areas, from free writes to summarizing key learning to creative storytelling.

We used Kidblog in the beginning, and we still do. One of my first tasks in my new role as elementary tech integrator was to create Kidblog spaces for all students and teachers grades 2-6, district-wide. One of the things I disliked about how we used Kidblog in past years is that we had to “start fresh” with a new class each year, and our teachers were managing all of their own accounts. Now I have the ability to manage all of the accounts and simply move students into their new class next school year, which will maintain the work and writing they’ve done this year in the same space.

I have some continued wishes for blogging in our schools:

We need to “move beyond pockets of excellence in blogging“. I’d like to see more kids start blogging, and I’d like to support their teachers through this process. The spaces are set up, but there’s no mandate in place that says students must blog. How will that happen? With support, guidance, modeling, showcasing the great work that’s already being done, and time. And a little nagging 🙂 As Silvia Tolisano states in her post about pockets of blogging excellence, we can see the positive effects of blogging in a classroom where students are blogging, but

What we CAN’T do with pockets of excellence is to track and identify LONG TERM gains in blogging as a LEARNING PLATFORM.

Check out Tolisano’s blogging framework to support the practice in the elementary grades.

I’d like to see our use of Kidblog morph into digital student portfolios, spaces for students to showcase and share their work (and not just the “finished product,” but allow glimpses into the learning process as it unfolds).

I’d love for more of our teachers and administrators to embrace blogging, not just as a form of home-school communication (although that’s a great start), but to creatively express themselves and share their ideas with families and other educators. These are the blogging resources I share with staff via our elem. tech blog.

We need to better involve parents and families. When we first started blogging, my genius grade 2 team developed and hosted a Family Blog Night, where they invited parents and students to learn more about blogging, Kidblog, and commenting. After the teachers shared their info, parents and students logged into the student accounts for the first time to compose the first blog post together! Read more about this event here.

I’m eager to work with more classrooms to help students learn about quality commenting and engaging in respectful discourse. I rarely, if ever, read the comments sections of online news sites, which more often than not are riddled with vulgarity, ignorance, a wealth of conventional errors, and disrespect. I seriously want our students to understand that they are capable of communicating their unique ideas in ways that do not disrespect others or cause harm.

I want students to understand that blogging is about writing and reading. I want to connect them with great blogs to read, help them learn how to organize feeds, support their efforts to make sense of the information they find online, and help them discover how to apply it to their own learning. I’ll continue using the #comments4kids community to help student voices shine.

Do I think all students will love blogging? No. Do I think they need to be skilled communicators? Yes. So I’m not in favor of mandating x number of posts are required x number of days per week, or dictating every type of post we ask kids to write. Student ownership and product/process choice is still key. But while a post like this from one of our fifth graders breaks my heart just a little, I’m glad that this quiet young man once again has a medium through which he can share with the world:

This image from Stephen Davis came through my Instagram feed and its caption really struck a chord with me:

We write to show the world we think.

Image by Stephen Davis

When our kids write, they think. If they blog and publish and share, they think aloud and think visibly.

How are you supporting your students in the quest to help them become authentic writers and visible thinkers?

7 September, 20137 September, 2013

Technology tidbits.

“So, how do you like your new job?”

In the two weeks since I’ve been “officially” back to work, I have been asked that question over a dozen times by colleagues. Teachers, principals, central office staff, parents.

Well, truth be told. I kind of love it.

The first week of the school year was dizzying. In a good way. I’ve already learned some lessons about the role of the instructional coach and the ways in which we use technology to support learning. Here are a few tidbits that have been on my mind.

1. The more devices the merrier? Not quite. Our grades 4-6 are 1:1 this year and our primary students have access to a ton of devices. Lucky us! However, with more devices come more headaches. Java incompatibility/updates/whatever. Desktop shortcuts pointing to the wrong URL for a site-based program. Upgrades to a new early learning system caused teachers to be unsure how to manage it. Newly enrolled students without access to key accounts. Entire labs freezing up when attempting to get online (via Internet Explorer, so.) These things will happen, and do happen, in schools everywhere. My takeaway here is that our technicians look like they have been run over by a bus during the last few weeks of summer and the first few weeks of school. If you’re going to increase the number of devices and services on your campus, you’d better be prepared to increase the amount of support personnel. Otherwise, you will frustrate the teachers, students, and administrators who expect to work with functioning devices and services.

2. Email is the devil. In my opinion, it’s just not a great way to communicate. Threaded email is even worse. I sent a few mass emails during the first two weeks of school to communicate some issues common to all three schools, and it was like my emails self-destructed a second after they were opened by recipients. The administrators and I continued to get a multitude of emails asking questions that were answered in my proactive attempts at communication. I continue to send my teachers to our elementary instructional tech blog (a work in progress), in the hopes it will serve as the central hub for our teaching and learning efforts this year, thus eliminating the need for 50 emails about how so-and-so can’t access what’s-it-called. And let’s just all take a moment to remember that writing something in all-caps and/or boldface doesn’t make me pay more attention to your message. It hurts my ears. And feelings.

3. There’s probably a reason why your tech department is asking you to submit a work order. When I was a building principal, and I had a tech issue, I emailed the tech supervisor. I didn’t stop to consider that there were probably 100 other people doing that as well. (See #2.) I did it because I wanted an immediate response and action to be taken. I know everyone who has a tech issue feels that exact same way. This year I’m in a role where I’m not a member of the technology department, but I can help teachers with technical issues that arise. While my instinct is still to email technicians my questions so I can quickly get an answer in order to most efficiently help staff, I’ve come to realize that it’s important for us to submit formal work orders. The help desk system is designed to track, monitor, and assign work tasks to technicians. If we skip around that step, the system begins to break down. So as much as it’s a pain to log onto yet another portal to access yet another site and fill out yet another form, it’s necessary. Would I rather have access to the technicians on Google chat 100% of the workday? Yes.

4. Plan, plan, plan. Then, backup plan. Due to an issue on Pearson’s end (so we’ve been told- we’re still waiting for our Successnet issues to be remedied -anyone from Pearson technical support reading this?), our teacher and student access to the online literacy program portal is not yet up and running. Heading into our third week of school, teachers had already planned to access the portal and use a number of the resources there. Now unavailable, teachers have to resort to plan B. Perfectionists all, it’s difficult to plan for the use of technology, have it fail you, and then buck up and try again when things have been remedied. You lose a little faith each time that happens.

5. Those who take initiative reap rewards. Since the first day of school, I’ve worked in the classrooms of about ten different teachers across the district. Some eagerly invited me in to teach a lesson about quality blog commenting and others asked for modeling the use of Google docs and helping their kids get acclimated to the tools. They asked for my help without hesitation, and I could tell they spent a lot of time over the summer or at the start of the year prepping their students and preparing themselves to include technology in the daily business of the classroom. They were brave in the face of challenges and accepted what they did not know. These teachers will serve as the leaders for their colleagues moving forward and will no doubt allow their students to make the most out of their learning experiences supported by tech. I’ve had initial conversations with teachers who want to integrate technology in more meaningful ways this year, but they feel absolutely swamped at this point. My role will be to support them where they are, all the while gently nudging…

6. Relationships rule. I still haven’t met face-to-face all of the new teachers I’ll be working with this year, but when I’m in the buildings I try to say hello and as unobtrusively as possible, let people know I’m here for them!

7. There is still a lot of fear. It must be difficult to relinquish control. We have a classroom management/monitoring program to assist in the computer labs and the classrooms with laptop carts. I think for some teachers, the most exciting aspect of this is that they can blank the students’ screens and/or “control” what they’re doing at certain times to ensure they’re giving their fullest attention where it is due. Where is the attention due? Shouldn’t our attention be given to them? Here’s an idea. Plan well and engage your kids. Deal individually with the students who having difficulty using the technology to support their learning. Don’t focus on “locking down” an entire class as an attempt to have its undivided attention. I appreciate that we have tools to help monitor students’ use in order to keep them safe. I just don’t think we need to be all Big Brother-y about it.

8. Kids are the best. Kids are so great. I really missed my students. It’s been so fantastic seeing their faces. They are so much taller than they were when I went out on leave! I am also enjoying meeting some new kiddos at the other two schools where I now work. I love watching kids in the computer labs. Did you ever watch a kindergarten student try to work a mouse? It’s clear who has a mouse on their computer at home, and who uses Mom’s iPad/iPhone/tablet/trackpad/swipey device. Did you ever watch a six-year-old attempt to login to a computer with some ridiculous username like Gard3485 and an even more ludicrous password of GSKDG7485? Did you ever hear kids laugh out loud or sing along to a game while they’re wearing their headphones, oblivious to what’s going on around them? Adorbs.

9. I don’t miss administrative meetings.

10. I have a lot to learn. There’s so much I want to learn this year. I’m excited about our county technology integrators meeting coming up next week, held monthly throughout the year. (Thanks for organizing, Ken!) I really want to dive into some of the coaching academy courses from ISTE. I continue reading some great posts and conversations in the instructional technology integrators/coaches Google+ community. I’ll keep tweeting and perusing chats and reading blogs. Hopefully I’ll get to some conferences like Edscape and Educon to connect with some smart folks. I started some lessons in Codecademy. I have a pile of books to read and blog about.

What have you learned with the start of your new school year?

Photo Credit: Tiger Pixel via Compfight cc

23 June, 2013

Community.

Years ago, when I heard the word community, I thought of my childhood home and the town in which we lived, a rural town where I was free to walk to the playground, the park, the pool, and my friends’ houses. Community made me think of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and Sesame Street.

Now I know community to be so much more.

Even our social studies curriculum today asks our kindergartners, How do people in a community cooperate? and discussions focus around jobs and services and firefighters and post mail deliverers and teachers and police officers and store clerks.

But now we know that community can extend far beyond the physical space. That relationships are forged, ideas exchanged, and services rendered without ever having to leave the comfort of our familiar spaces.

Something fun I’ve learned about virtual communities – they exist because we want them to exist. We create them. They emerge out of a need, out of shared passions. Members don’t have to share physical space in order for the community to thrive. These spaces just need our time and attention, and they’re strengthened by the members’ desires to come together for a shared purpose.

I’m embarking on a new role as technology integrator, and I know I need support. I created the Instructional Technology Integrators/Coaches community on Google+ because selfishly I was hoping there were others out there who would share their ideas and resources with me. Just yesterday after only a few months of existence, our community reached over 400 members. I’m so grateful to the teachers, administrators and coaches who have taken the time to post ideas, ask questions, ignite conversations, and share resources with the group. Please consider joining us if you have not done so already!

It’s just one of many communities I have embraced as part of my learning network. First there was Connected Principals. Then PLP. Edcamps. ETMOOC. The #edchat crew and now the #edtechchat team. There are countless ways for educators to become members of dynamic, nurturing, knowledgeable communities.

It takes time and a willingness to contribute. The payoffs are huge.

When do our students need to know this? Upon entering kindergarten, are children already cognizant of their role in the global community? Why should we limit their view of what a community is and can be by simply discussing jobs and services within the city limits? Certainly I want our young children to know how the fine folks who serve them support a community in need. But, there’s a whole wide world and a global community waiting for them. A textbook definition of community just doesn’t cut it anymore. There are a multitude of ways we can help children become contributing citizens in their global learning community. Through Global Read-Alouds and Skype in the Classroom and Kiva and quadblogging and the experiences shared in Connected Learners and sophisticated service projects and collaborative work as students progress through their school years.

And most importantly, by sharing with students that you, too, are a member of communities that extend beyond the school’s walls.

This post is dedicated to @Joe_Mazza who reminded me that I used to blog a lot more often.

Photo Credit: greekadman via Compfight cc

28 May, 2013

Pay attention.

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Working from home is hard. I remember thinking, “Oh, once the baby is here, I can work from home while he naps, it will be a breeze!” Ha. Silly. Being a stay-at-home mom trying to balance some semblance of a professional life is challenging to say the least.

There are so many demands on my energy and time at any given moment. Curriculum writing calls. Laundry beckons. Snuggling is a priority, of course. But when he’s content bouncing in his jumperoo, should I try to blog? Should I tackle some reads in my Feedly stream that’s busting at the seams? Should I continue work on curating elementary tech resources for my teachers? Should I get lost on Facebook for awhile? Maybe I should get a shower!

It’s hard to pay attention.

That fact has become more and more apparent over the past six months.

My administrative colleagues would sometimes comment on my ability to multitask during meetings. Am I a supertasker? Uh, I doubt it. Quality definitely suffers when I decide to remove my brain from the task at hand, even if only for a few seconds. It might be quality of product, process, or thought. But I really can’t perform to my fullest ability when I am distracted, whether it’s a digital distraction such as a notification that a new tweet has mentioned my name, or an analog distraction like the dog hair accumulating on the bookshelf, reminding me to dust as soon as possible. Do I sometimes tune out of conversations at meetings and instead focus my attention on completing tasks that require just a smidgen of cognitive effort, such as responding to emails or creating Google forms or checking other quick tasks off of my to-do list? Yes. Because I have little tolerance for rambling and meetings, in general. For whatever reason, those conversations couldn’t hold my attention when compared to what I could accomplish during that time using the device in front of me. Lately it’s been very easy for my mind to wander elsewhere while attempting to complete a task. Blame it on sleep deprivation or the fact that the to-do list is overflowing or that I’m trying to simultaneously soak up every magical moment in person with my son while also capturing it on camera/video because he’ll only be a baby for a short while and I must cement these memories by backing up to one of many Photostreams or Flickr or Instagram or something like that.

When I was younger and I assumed a not-so-ladylike attitude with my mother she would tell me I was “running off at the mouth” in an attempt to end my self-righteous rants. Well, now it feels like my brain is running off with itself. Can’t shut it off. So much to consider and do and so much to distract me from considering and doing it.

Imagine what our kids go through on a daily basis with a device (or two or three) in hand to use all day long in their classrooms. We ask them to tune out surrounding distractions to “Get to work.” Pay attention here. Don’t pay attention there. Don’t worry about what your best friend just tweeted or the photo you were tagged in. You can worry about that later. (Similar to how I’ll be trying not to notice #iste13 tweets flying by next month when I’m teaching my first graduate course that week!)

How can we help students pay attention? And what does that mean? To whom should they be paying that attention? To what? Are there tools available to help them do so? What strategies are effective in helping them learn how to make the most of their time online and in learning?

Thinking back to Howard Rheingold’s #etmooc session on Literacies of Attention, Crap Detection, Participation, Collaboration, and Network Know-How, I know that our attention is continually challenged by the digital demands (and not-so-digital demands) that surround us. He referenced the video of the texting girl who fell into the water fountain at the mall (a video I love to watch, because that is my local mall!) which is a clear example of how not paying attention can be detrimental to your health and productivity and self-esteem. Rheingold recorded his students as they used their laptops during his class and noticed that one of his students visited a webpage and checked email while Rheingold lectured, which we know is not atypical for students (and adults) today. What Rheingold wondered was, since the student was one of the most astute in his class and could recite the content of Rheingold’s lecture, was he one of the “supertaskers”? And was he born that way? Or did he learn something to allow him to conquer the art of paying attention?

Rheingold names attention as a 21st century social media literacy. And he believes that attention can be trained. He’s conducted a series of probes with his students to learn more about the dynamics of “attention literacy” in his classroom. He believes it’s necessary for students to learn how to turn on their “focused attention” when necessary and learn when it’s appropriate to task-switch. A simple way to train yourself to better attention is to use a tool like Netvibes which Rheingold teaches his students to use. He encourages the learner to “make your goals visible daily” which will help train your attention to what you want to get done. Another word of advice? Breathe. Rheingold shared that many people hold their breath when checking email, which is related to the fight/flight response. I hold my breath when I’m writing a blog post.

I’m doing it now.

Breathe.

Here’s another presentation about attention and learning from Rheingold. Worth checking out along with all of his resources on social media literacies. Watch the #etmooc presentation if you haven’t already.

I’m going to continue pondering how we help teachers and students engage mindfully with their devices in the classroom. I know that my work with teachers this summer will include this topic as we are transitioning to a 1:1 environment in our upper elementary grades, and teachers certainly will be cognizant about how students are utilizing their devices for learning and what they are paying attention to at any given time.

I’m going to start paying attention to attention. And also to the person sitting next to me. The sky and the flowers and the green grass. And the doggies.

I would love to hear how you have learned to manage distractions while working online and the tools/tricks/strategies you use to ensure peak productivity, both for yourself and your students/teachers. Please share in the comments below!

“Attention to intention is how the mind changes the brain.”

-Howard Rheingold

Photo Credit: untitledprojects via Compfight cc

26 February, 201323 July, 2017

What is digital literacy?

I’m playing #etmooc catch up (again) and will begin sharing all of my reflective posts here as well as my original learning with #etmooc blog space because of the demise of Posterous, which has both saddened and irritated me.

Digital literacy is the topic that made the etmooc learning space so irresistible to me… I think as educators we spout off about wanting our students to be digitally literate, but not many of us (myself included) have a firm grasp about what that actually means, and quite a number of us are still attempting to become digitally literate ourselves.

Whatever that means.

It turns out, defining digital literacy isn’t such an easy task. The etmooc community was fortunate enough to hear Doug Belshaw speak on this topic in a recent webinar. I’ve followed Doug on Twitter for quite some time, and it turns out his dissertation investigates just what is digital literacy… and his TED talk can be viewed here.

Doug explained that digital literacy is quite ambiguous, and he doesn’t have all of the answers when it comes to defining these terms. He made a point to ask, How can we define digital literacy when we don’t know what literacy is? There are over 30 definitions of digital literacy represented in one of the first texts about the topic (from Gilster, published in 1998!!), so it’s no wonder that as educators we have a difficult time trying to figure out what it is and how we can ensure our students are “digitally literate.” (Doug also pointed out that often we like to attach literate to a term in order to make it sound more important :)).

Doug shared this quote from his research (Martin, 2006): “Digital literacy is a condition, not a threshold.” It changes the way we teach. It’s a relationship and represents the way we orient ourselves with the world. Digital literacy doesn’t include a sequential set of skills. There’s a lot more “messing around” involved, and it’s subjective and highly contextual. Digital literacy in a K-12 setting varies greatly from that in a collegiate setting.

From his research, Doug crafted Eight Essential Elements of Digital Literacy:

He explained each along with “soundbites” from his research to guide the discussions.

Cultural – We need to pay attention to the culture in which the literacies are situated.

Cognitive – We can’t just consider the procedural ways in which we use devices and programs. It’s the way we think when we’re using them.

Constructive – We can’t be passive consumers of technology/information. We should strive to use digital tools in reflective and appropriate ways to be constructive and be socially active.

Communicative – Digital tools and power structures change the way we communicate. An element of digital literacy is how we take command of that structure and use it to communicate effectively and contribute meaningfully.

Confident – Doug believes that in order to be a proficient user of technology, one must have the courage and confidence to dive into the unknown, take risks, make mistakes, and display confidence when “messing around” with new tools.

Creative – Doug shared this quote from his research, which, to me, said it all:

“The creative adoption of new technology requires teachers who are willing to take risks… a prescriptive curriculum, routine practices… and a tight target-setting regime, is unlikely to be helpful.” Conlon & Simpson (2003)

Critical – Digital literacy involves an understanding of how to deal with hyperspace and hypertext and understanding that it’s “not entirely read or spoken.” Can we critically evaluate the technologies we’re using?

Civic – Something I think many schools are beginning to embrace, we must use technology to improve our lives and the lives of others in our world.

There was a discussion in the session about the term “digital native” and most participants disagreed that digital natives actually existed, and instead the term “digital wisdom” was suggested as an alternative.

So, as someone who is currently working on drafting a sort of elementary “technology curriculum” for her district, based around ISTE’s NETS for Students and aligned to our content curricula, I see a great need to infuse these digital literacy elements into that plan. But, alas, how to do that when digital literacy is so “grey?” How to make a plea for these characteristics and competencies to be modeled by our teachers and administrators when due to our current state, teachers may just revolt if I ask them to veer from the script they’ve been tasked with delivering to spend time on topics and tasks that won’t be progress monitored, standardized-tested or used in their professional evaluations? Alec’s comment in the chat caused me to mutter, “Uh, yes” under my breath when I read it: “Which is where curriculum planners always get stumped by deliverables.” How can we design standards for digital literacy when we’ve proven how contextual it is? And how best to marry these digital literacy elements with the strictly enforced content area curricula our district prescribes?

All questions I shall continue to ponder.

This is a fantastic digital literacy slideset shared by Doug. Check it out, and ask yourself: In my school, how do we approach these eight elements of digital literacy with our students? Teachers? Administrators? Community? If we don’t, how can we start? If you have ideas/advice/resources to share, please do so in the comments below!

The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies from Doug Belshaw

13 January, 201321 March, 2013

#etmooc

#etmooc – a Massive Open Online Course on Educational Technology and Media -is underway. I registered and will do my best to participate in this course, since its topics are of great interest to me: connected learning, digital storytelling, digital literacy, the open movement, and digital literacy. View topics & schedule here.

As with any MOOC, the more I put into engaging in the spaces and the conversations, the more I’ll get out of it. I know it will be difficult to find the time to attend sessions and complete all tasks, but I’m eager to learn more in these areas. I used Posterous to create a space for my #etmooc reflections. (Is there anything simpler than setting up a space in Posterous? Love it.)

You can participate too! Register here.

9 December, 201221 March, 2013

Reactions.

Last week I received a direct message tweet from a former administrative colleague, asking me if I had seen the “gangnam style” video that was dubbed “the worst video on the entire internet.” He told me he saw it when the link was tweeted by someone with over 25,000 followers… so I figured it was going to be viewed by a handful of people.

But why did he send the link to me?

I was out and about with a newborn singing melodiously in his carseat and didn’t have a chance to view the video at that time, but when I glanced at the video’s thumbnail, I recognized three of my administrative colleagues from our district’s high school:

Reaction #1: These three are dedicated professionals and do have a great sense of humor, but why in the world would they create a gangnam style parody video and post it on YouTube?

When I got home I was able to view the video in its entirety and realized it was a student-created video. At the time, it had around 45,000 views. (As I write this post, it has over 1 million).

And then, I began reading the comments.

Hateful, hurtful, horrid comments. Many of which were written by children. (Yes, high school students, you are children. Embrace it.)

“The worst video on the entire internet?” Hardly. Could it have used some polishing? Sure. But it clearly was a video that the students put a lot of thought into, and its production was supported by the school community at large. The student incorporated the school’s “Spartan Way” ideals and the messages shared were positive ones.

Reaction #2: Please, God, don’t let the student who made this video take these comments personally.

(Kind of impossible, right?)

As the video went viral, it found its way to various media sources, including the Huffington Post, MSN, and even Tosh.0’s Facebook page, which, if you know anything about Tosh.0, you know he doesn’t feature the world’s most dazzling internet video footage. The local news reported on the story, and the comments shared on this article were positive overall and supported the student and school for their creative efforts, which was nice to see.

Reaction #3: This, too, shall pass. But at what cost?

Like any internet meme, the meteoric rise to attention can be overwhelming and, in the case of a meme swarmed with negative attention, alarming for those at the center of the hullabaloo. When we create, publish, and share, we open ourselves up to a world of other people’s reactions: praise, criticisms, attention. Sometimes the feedback is unwarranted. It can be constructive. It can be destructive.

Reaction #4: We need to do better.

Now a myriad of questions are swimming through my sleep-deprived brain. How do we continue ensuring our students develop into respectable digital citizens? Can we help students understand the impact a hurtful comment can have, as well as the power of constructive criticism? When we talk of cyberbullying, particularly with today’s high school students, does it just go in one ear and out the other? When posting children’s work online (whether school-related projects or not), how do we help creators understand and use the types of feedback they may receive? Are we helping children develop into respectful, caring, empathetic human beings who can resist the urge to use profanity and hateful speech when remarking on the work of others? (I wondered how many of the commenters, particularly those who attend the same school, would consider sharing their comments in a face-to-face conversation with the video creator. Is it easier to be disrespectful online?) How are we addressing these issues with our youngest students? With our pre-school children? How are we educating parents and communities about the types of online engagement and conversations that their children will be involved in, and how are we modeling the importance of respectful online dialogue? Are the teachers and administrators who helped promote the completion of the project now second-guessing allowing students to take risks and the ways in which technology is integrated into the curriculum?

There are many more questions to ask and attempt to answer when it comes to children and digital citizenship. As school leaders, we need to have a heightened awareness of how to help our school communities thrive in an increasingly public world.

12 August, 201215 August, 2012

Looking forward to learning with you!

On Monday, August 13, 2012, I’ll be facilitating four webinars for the Simple K12 Teacher Learning Community as the “spotlight” presenter. Join me!

10 AM EST – Getting Your School Started with Blogging – the what, hows, and whys of blogging for schools interested in getting started with student, teacher, and/or administrator and school blogs

11 AM EST – Google Apps for Streamlining Tasks: An Administrator’s Guide – easy ways to utilize Google Apps to make your life (a little) easier as a school administrator

12 PM EST – Innovative Professional Development: Host a Fed-Ex Day! – ideas for how to spice up professional development opportunities for your staff including the use of the #edcamp model, Fed Ex days, and other non-traditional types of PD

1 PM EST – Free Web Tools for Administrator Communication and Collaboration -an overview of some of the online, interactive tools administrators can use to enhance communications and collaboration within their learning organizations and among networks

Click on any of the above links to register. While much will be shared to guide the administrator in learning more about these topics, teachers and other educators are encouraged to attend. Hope to see you there!

2 August, 20122 August, 2012

Edcamp Leadership

Screen Shot 2012-08-02 at 11.41.12 AM — Dr. Timony’s session at Edcamp Leadership – photo by Kevin Jarrett

One week ago I attended the first Edcamp Leadership, held in Monroe, NJ. The event was attended by a lot of friendly folks from New Jersey and surrounding areas, including administrators, teachers, tech integrators, curriculum specialists, and other fine educators. I was especially excited to meet valued members of my PLN Akevy, Shira, and Jason for the first time!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Edcamp model, the day’s learning sessions are created and presented by the event attendees. Participants sign up on the “board” to share sessions throughout the day. Attendees then choose from the menu, and the “vote with your feet” rule applies: if you don’t like the session you’re in, up and leave and head to another session. There’s a focus on conversation and making sure the day is meaningful for you as the learner.

I attended a number of sessions, ranging from learning more about Evernote and its use in schools to a discussion about personal preconceptions and how they shape our supervision and evaluation of teachers. Here are some highlights of the sessions I attended last week.

Evernote – There are a lot of uses for Evernote in schools, most of which I’ve never fully explored. I mainly use Evernote for personal notetaking, thankful I can access my notes from any device. I will sometimes use the web clipper, but again, I’m not sharing my clippings with the world. I asked the Twitterverse how they’re using Evernote in schools, and many admin chimed in that they use them for note-taking during observations and walkthroughs, which can then be shared with staff (and some even include photos). Our session facilitator referenced Nick Provenzano’s Epic Evernote Experiment, which I recommend to any teacher interested in learning more about how to use Evernote with students in the classroom.

Google Sites for ePortfolios – I stopped into a session about the use of Google Sites since we are a Google Apps school, and I’d like to encourage the use of portfolios for student use. This Livebinder of resources was shared.

#satchat – Brad Currie and Scott Rocco began #satchat to involve educators in rich discussions of educational topics. Held Saturday mornings at 7:30 AM EST (thus my struggle to attend on a regular basis ;)), the Brad and Scott are passionate about learning and leading and did a fine job facilitating a session about the power of the PLN. To learn more about #satchat and the tools and features they use to support this endeavor (such as Storify, which I used only once, but found I really like), check out this post.

He, She, They, We: Tools for Faculty Evaluation and Development with @DrTimony – I always try to attend David’s sessions, because he’s wicked smart and I go in hoping some of his intellect will jump off of him and land on my shirt or my shoes or something and somehow seep into my brain. Our central question was, “How do our unspoken perceptions influence evaluation before decision-making occurs?” He referenced Michael Polanyi and tacit knowledge and its impact on our supervisory roles of teachers. We talked about good design and how something that is designed well requires few, if any, instructions to work it properly. How do our inherent feelings lead us to reasoning (making excuses to ourselves); how do our pre-cognitive decisions made by our brain (our brain is out to get us, I remember that clearly from EdcampNYC) force us into an agenda our brain has already put in place? When we start to process our perceptions, we start to make good headway. We can then intervene on our pre-cognitive decisions and prejudices. And while we can’t always change our prejudices/feelings that we have, we can use mechanisms to help us deal with them. We discussed frameworks for supervision and evaluation and the tools we could use to ensure we’re observing in an objective, constructive manner. Shira suggested asking four nonjudgmental prompts during walkthroughs to assist with this process: “I Notice, I Wonder, What if?, How might?” These questions help shape reflections and conversations following the learning walks.

David continued to stress the importance of observing in a purely supervisory role, not evaluative in any way. I struggled with this concept, because as an administrator, truly everything I see in a classroom could be taken into account in an evaluation. Do I think supervision needs to exist in its truest form to promote professional learning? Definitely, but it’s really hard to make that distinction sometimes. I know other administrators share that sentiment. On the whiteboard David reminded us Supervision = Coaching; Evaluation = Judging.

Many participants shared that they became uncomfortable when being observed, whether by a single administrator, a team of observers, or by peers. One teacher said her students “froze” when the admin team walked in with their laptops. That, to me, indicates a bigger problem: the administrators/observers aren’t a regular presence in the classroom or school. The culture of the school should support a sense of openness: We don’t teach behind closed doors here, everyone is welcome at any time!

Conversations swirled around the term “effective practice” – determined by whom? What is the evidence of effectiveness? Are we asking students, “What are the characteristics of the most effective teacher you ever had?” Will those responses be the same for every student? Does every effective teacher practice the same way as every other effective teacher? What tool are we using? Checklists? Rubrics? David remarked that we use these standardized tools in a “prophylactic sense.” We want to be protected from what we might write in a more qualitative fashion in an observation report.

So, do our supervisory and evaluation methods operate under the assumption that everybody gets the same thing? Or does everyone get what they need? What’s alarming to me, is that in Pennsylvania and many other states, the teacher and principal evaluation systems have been revamped to be highly standardized, insanely time consuming, and tied to standardized test scores. I am being trained in this system in a few weeks and am eager to find the opportunities for teacher autonomy in professional development that districts can hopefully intertwine into the standardized process. A colleague of mine who has piloted the new system shared the details surrounding the 11+ page paperwork completion process for one formal observation, and I think I blacked out for a minute or two.

Some final thoughts on Managing Change, a session led by @dle59 (sorry, can’t find your actual name on your Twitter page!), who shaped the conversation around Spencer Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese? Yes, change is uncomfortable. Yes, we work with people who are entitled. “I’ve been teaching for 25 years! I’m entitled to doing things my way!” Yes, change is possible, even in large organizations, and many come to realize that it was silly of them to resist change in the first place. A great analogy was shared by a participant who asked us to consider professional athletes who are in the game too long. “It’s sad to watch, actually.” And then there are others, who realize that physically they can’t perform the way they used to, the way that’s necessary for the growth and performance of the team as a whole, so they find other ways to contribute to the profession. Look at your role. Find ways to be effective in this time of change.

Category: Technology