In case you are one of my millions of followers, you notice there are no posts from 2011. That might seem unusual, but let me explain.
I started this blog with the intent of documenting my schools' journey from a laptop cart school to a 1:1 school, and to track my growth and experiences as a new Tech Facilitator. However, in the fall of 2011, I consolidated my two gmail accounts that had the same email addresses (I had a private one, and one under my school's google.apps account). Unfortunately, I did not realize that my blog was connected to my private email address, so when I deleted that account, I lost my entire blog!
Although I wrote to google about a dozen times and pleaded for them to reactivate that account so I could salvage the blog, they were unresponsive and eventually I just gave up. As far as I could tell, I had no way to find my old posts or anything, as they soon stopped showing up on Google searches, and were not archived anywhere that I could see. Bummer.
Then I just got too busy (and disheartened) to begin a brand now blog, until the spring of 2012 when guilt got the best of me and I motivated myself to start over...hence the "Hello World" post of Feb 29.
Then, just yesterday (May 15, 2012), I was snooping around on an old email account, and activated Google.reader for that account. Lo and Behold; all my old blog posts were there! It turns out that I had subscribed to my professional blog from my personal email account, and (surprising to me), the reader actually downloads and archives all the posts rather than merely providing hyperlinks to the URL. So this morning, I was able to cut-and-paste all my old posts from my personal Reader into this blog, and using the settings on the side, I could pre-date the posts and resurrect two years of posts!
So, even though no one but me seems to be reading this, I'm still very happy to have my old archive back, as well as my documentation of some of the steps of our school's journey to a 1:1 environment.
So, whoever is out there....enjoy. Please leave a comment on your way out, and have a nice day. :-)
Friday, September 2, 2011
Friday, October 15, 2010
Sorry for Apologizing....
..but I had the best intentions of using this blog to track all the
major transitions as my school became a 1:1 laptop school, in order to
provide a road map for other tech facilitators who are going through
this transition and who similarly lack some anecdotal touchstones to
normalize to. Unfortunately, so much has happened already that I feel
like I have missed out on some important events, but, as they say;
better late than never, so let me recap what has happened so far and I
promise to be more faithful in keeping up in the future.
We did all our prep work last year: created as many predictive policies as possible, kept our invested population informed through postings on our webpage, sent home announcements and proclamations, and talked incessantly to our kids about the rollout in the fall. Even with all that, there really is no way to completely prepare for the logistical challenge of getting 1500 computers into the hands of 1500 5-12 grade students. The challenge was amplified because we had laptop carts last year which were unavailable this year, so until we had the laptops distributed, none of the teachers could use any technologies at all! So we ran weekend and after-school sessions for 3 weeks: 20 kids (plus a parent) per session, three on Saturday and one every day after classes. Each session began with a one-hour meeting where I explained our Student Use Protocols in great detail, then we had a 'out of the box hands-on session' where the kids got their computers and we changed passwords, installed programs, and gave some 'care and feeding of your laptop' details.
The Student Use Protocols are interesting. Knowing how powerful the forces are for teens to participate in certain distractive technologies like gaming and social networking, we knew it was an impossible task to completely ban those at school. However, we also know that not taking a stand at all was tantamount to being fully permissive, so we discussed with the kids the importance of making responsible decisions on their own. The big mantras were "do the Right Thing" and "think of what your behaviors would be if your parents were standing behind you." In general, the appeal worked as we have had very few incidents of teachers complaining that kids are chatting excessively during class, and I don't see TOO many kids gaming during their free time, but I do have to make a conscious decision to relax and be permissive; after all, gaming isn't evil and our kids are quite highly dedicated to their schoolwork. However, I sort of expect to see a general erosion over time and am already thinking of strategies to get the kids to realign their behaviors in the near future.
OK, more later....
We did all our prep work last year: created as many predictive policies as possible, kept our invested population informed through postings on our webpage, sent home announcements and proclamations, and talked incessantly to our kids about the rollout in the fall. Even with all that, there really is no way to completely prepare for the logistical challenge of getting 1500 computers into the hands of 1500 5-12 grade students. The challenge was amplified because we had laptop carts last year which were unavailable this year, so until we had the laptops distributed, none of the teachers could use any technologies at all! So we ran weekend and after-school sessions for 3 weeks: 20 kids (plus a parent) per session, three on Saturday and one every day after classes. Each session began with a one-hour meeting where I explained our Student Use Protocols in great detail, then we had a 'out of the box hands-on session' where the kids got their computers and we changed passwords, installed programs, and gave some 'care and feeding of your laptop' details.
The Student Use Protocols are interesting. Knowing how powerful the forces are for teens to participate in certain distractive technologies like gaming and social networking, we knew it was an impossible task to completely ban those at school. However, we also know that not taking a stand at all was tantamount to being fully permissive, so we discussed with the kids the importance of making responsible decisions on their own. The big mantras were "do the Right Thing" and "think of what your behaviors would be if your parents were standing behind you." In general, the appeal worked as we have had very few incidents of teachers complaining that kids are chatting excessively during class, and I don't see TOO many kids gaming during their free time, but I do have to make a conscious decision to relax and be permissive; after all, gaming isn't evil and our kids are quite highly dedicated to their schoolwork. However, I sort of expect to see a general erosion over time and am already thinking of strategies to get the kids to realign their behaviors in the near future.
OK, more later....
Saturday, September 18, 2010
The Future is NOW
I snagged this video and the text from another blog, repurposed,
by Joe Archer of Ball State University . He wrote it so well, I can't
improve on what he said, so I am reposting his comment word for word.
"This trailer was made by Fede Alvarez, a producer from Uruguay who uploaded a short film to YouTube and now has been offered a 30 Mil. dollar hollywood contract. The contract was sponsored by director Sam Raimi, whose credits include the Spiderman and Evil Dead films. Alvarez's short film "Ataque de Panico!" (Panic Attack!) featured giant robots invading and destroying Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.
It was made on a budget of $300 (£186).
So far it has had more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.
This impressive feat just goes to show how much technology is bringing communication to the masses. Prior to the past five years, this would not have happened. There is a specific space being created with opensourceing and 'do it yourself' software like Youtube, which is breaking the hierarchy of society. Interesting. Space is allowing discourse."
"This trailer was made by Fede Alvarez, a producer from Uruguay who uploaded a short film to YouTube and now has been offered a 30 Mil. dollar hollywood contract. The contract was sponsored by director Sam Raimi, whose credits include the Spiderman and Evil Dead films. Alvarez's short film "Ataque de Panico!" (Panic Attack!) featured giant robots invading and destroying Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.
It was made on a budget of $300 (£186).
So far it has had more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.
This impressive feat just goes to show how much technology is bringing communication to the masses. Prior to the past five years, this would not have happened. There is a specific space being created with opensourceing and 'do it yourself' software like Youtube, which is breaking the hierarchy of society. Interesting. Space is allowing discourse."
Friday, June 4, 2010
Modern (Im)Morality
On a webpage discussing the battle of words between Apple and Adobe
over Flash, someone said "Just jailbreak your phone, then you can run
flash on it with no problem." This is my reply to him:
" 'Just jailbreak your phone...?' Does the concept of legality, intellectual property rights and moral standards not have a role anywhere in the digital world? It seems like people just want to do whatever they please...rip CDs, download illegal content, jailbreak phones, nethack, plagiarize, steal...
Yeah I know...you're rolling your eyes at me. That scares me even worse. Its bad enough that breaking the law and violating IP rights has become commonplace and accepted, but even taking a stand against it has become disdainful. We have not only lost our moral compass, but laugh at the idea of even having one."
What are your thoughts on this?
" 'Just jailbreak your phone...?' Does the concept of legality, intellectual property rights and moral standards not have a role anywhere in the digital world? It seems like people just want to do whatever they please...rip CDs, download illegal content, jailbreak phones, nethack, plagiarize, steal...
Yeah I know...you're rolling your eyes at me. That scares me even worse. Its bad enough that breaking the law and violating IP rights has become commonplace and accepted, but even taking a stand against it has become disdainful. We have not only lost our moral compass, but laugh at the idea of even having one."
What are your thoughts on this?
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
A Day In The Life of a 20th Century Teacher (with 21st Century students)
Posted without comment (for now) :-)
Saturday, April 10, 2010
A Day In The Life of a 21st Century Teacher
I had one of those "THAT'S what I'm talking about!" days yesterday. We
have all heard about how using technology in our teaching transforms our
lives; well, my day yesterday exemplified that to me in a big way.
7:00AM; Wake up groggy, check my school email and private email on my iPhone, get up, and get ready for work
7:30AM: Arrive at work, plug my iPhone into my desktop charger, check my school email again, and respond to a colleague who had a problem accessing a file from his workstation when he got to work. Forward the message to our crack ETS team so solve it electronically in minutes.
7:35AM: Start prepping for a Games Development class I teach at 9:20. I need a project that ties together what we have been learning about strategies, so I google 'games course strategy projects' and get about a million hits with some excellent ideas. I browse the first dozen or so hits until an idea formulates.
7:50-8:15AM: Using Word, I create a document outlining the project for my students, save and upload it to our online resource files on our school teaching management system, and share the document with the class via the class web page.
8:15-8:30AM: I send an email to the HS faculty who are leading trips for groups of kids in 2 weeks, to be sure their trip webpages are updated and that their kids and parents know the URLs. Moments later, an email comes in from a basic-user colleague who forgot how to make changes to her site but whose flight information has changed. I email her a link to a file I created last year in our school management system that gives the basic steps for wiki management.
8:30-8:45AM: A student emails me that he will miss the Games class today, so I reply with the link to the project I will be handing out in an hour to the class. He replies with his thanks, and his promise to get an early start on it. I go to my online calendar and start blocking out time slots for our online parent conference signups that will be happening next week. Meanwhile, the colleague who had trouble with her Trip page emails me an enthusiastic message relaying her success.
8:45-9:00AM: I make an important phone call on Skype to the colleague who will be co-leading my student trip, as she is currently out of the country. Then I create a google.doc with a timeline of tasks and share it electronically with her. (Since I will be gone for the ASB Unplugged conference in Mumbai this week and for some Apple professional development training next week, we need to share our ideas and work collaboratively over the wires)
9:00-9:15AM: Put the final touches on my lesson plan for the Games class, finish my cooling cup of coffee, and go to class.
9:20-12:00: Teach my two classes. I tell the kids that I will be gone for the next 3 class periods for conferences and workshops, but I open the link on our class webpage to the 4-day project that I have created, and preview the task for them. They have to submit different components to their Blog sites on given deadlines, and they know that I do not accept any late work as there is no excuse for missing electronic deadlines. Laptops come out, and the kids get right on task. I work at my own workstation updating the online attendance and grades, the send each kids updated grade to theirs and their parent's email addresses. I notice another student absent, so I email him the class assignment. Minutes later, I see from the log that he receives and opens my email.
12:00-1:00 After lunch, I log on to check my seat for my flight to Mumbai tomorrow, as well as the flight status of a friend who is flying back to the US after visiting me for the past week. Then I start checking the students blogs to see who has started working on the project, and provide some encouraging comments to the kids who have tangible progress.
1:00-1:30 I start preparing for a meeting after school. I lead a group of enthusiastic kids who are crafting the Student Digital Use Guidelines for our 1:1 rollout next year. I create a google.doc with the agenda and put it in the shared folder, then email the 40 kids with the link and remind them of the meeting after school.
1:30-2:00 Spend some more time online arranging travel plans to the airport tomorrow and ensuring that all the games kids have accessed and read the document with their class project. Two students email me to claim that they had made certain blog posts before the deadlines last month, and I use the Page History tool to show them that they had actually done those assignments late. I them spent some time talking to colleagues on video chat with Skype about some ideas I have for faculty professional development the week after the trips, pay some online bills that cannot wait, and show one of the office secretaries how to create and share a google.survey with the HS faculty to gather some phone information for the trips. I also email all the parents in the high school with the link to the trip webpages.
2:00-2:30 Breathe time. I take a walk around the school to do some drop ins with teachers to see if anyone needs any help with anything. Lots of little tech assistance happens; this is my favorite part of the day.
2:30-3:15 The student meeting: Kids work collaboratively on google.docs to brainstorm Tech Use guidelines, and then send the link to the kids who could not make it to the meeting. I send an email to the entire group encouraging them to continue their work for the next two weeks during my absence to meet our deadline of having a draft of these guidelines done before we leave for our student trips. I promise to monitor their progress, but to let them own the process.
3:15-4:00 Final touches on preparing for my absence. I email the full faculty to remind them that I will be gone, but will be available online for assitance. Tidy up my desk, and head home to pack for my trip.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, but as I reflect on my day yesterday, I realize how it was full of collaboration across time and space with groups and individuals, how information could be updated instantly, how I could monitor students' and colleagues' progress with different tasks, how I could productively multitask, how the school saved on 2 weeks of sub pay while I will be able to teach my classes remotely and stay caught up with grading....and how none of this would be possible without the tools and techniques available to me.
Its been said that 21st Century tools transform education...I can not imagine how the tasks that I did yesterday could have been done any other way.
7:00AM; Wake up groggy, check my school email and private email on my iPhone, get up, and get ready for work
7:30AM: Arrive at work, plug my iPhone into my desktop charger, check my school email again, and respond to a colleague who had a problem accessing a file from his workstation when he got to work. Forward the message to our crack ETS team so solve it electronically in minutes.
7:35AM: Start prepping for a Games Development class I teach at 9:20. I need a project that ties together what we have been learning about strategies, so I google 'games course strategy projects' and get about a million hits with some excellent ideas. I browse the first dozen or so hits until an idea formulates.
7:50-8:15AM: Using Word, I create a document outlining the project for my students, save and upload it to our online resource files on our school teaching management system, and share the document with the class via the class web page.
8:15-8:30AM: I send an email to the HS faculty who are leading trips for groups of kids in 2 weeks, to be sure their trip webpages are updated and that their kids and parents know the URLs. Moments later, an email comes in from a basic-user colleague who forgot how to make changes to her site but whose flight information has changed. I email her a link to a file I created last year in our school management system that gives the basic steps for wiki management.
8:30-8:45AM: A student emails me that he will miss the Games class today, so I reply with the link to the project I will be handing out in an hour to the class. He replies with his thanks, and his promise to get an early start on it. I go to my online calendar and start blocking out time slots for our online parent conference signups that will be happening next week. Meanwhile, the colleague who had trouble with her Trip page emails me an enthusiastic message relaying her success.
8:45-9:00AM: I make an important phone call on Skype to the colleague who will be co-leading my student trip, as she is currently out of the country. Then I create a google.doc with a timeline of tasks and share it electronically with her. (Since I will be gone for the ASB Unplugged conference in Mumbai this week and for some Apple professional development training next week, we need to share our ideas and work collaboratively over the wires)
9:00-9:15AM: Put the final touches on my lesson plan for the Games class, finish my cooling cup of coffee, and go to class.
9:20-12:00: Teach my two classes. I tell the kids that I will be gone for the next 3 class periods for conferences and workshops, but I open the link on our class webpage to the 4-day project that I have created, and preview the task for them. They have to submit different components to their Blog sites on given deadlines, and they know that I do not accept any late work as there is no excuse for missing electronic deadlines. Laptops come out, and the kids get right on task. I work at my own workstation updating the online attendance and grades, the send each kids updated grade to theirs and their parent's email addresses. I notice another student absent, so I email him the class assignment. Minutes later, I see from the log that he receives and opens my email.
12:00-1:00 After lunch, I log on to check my seat for my flight to Mumbai tomorrow, as well as the flight status of a friend who is flying back to the US after visiting me for the past week. Then I start checking the students blogs to see who has started working on the project, and provide some encouraging comments to the kids who have tangible progress.
1:00-1:30 I start preparing for a meeting after school. I lead a group of enthusiastic kids who are crafting the Student Digital Use Guidelines for our 1:1 rollout next year. I create a google.doc with the agenda and put it in the shared folder, then email the 40 kids with the link and remind them of the meeting after school.
1:30-2:00 Spend some more time online arranging travel plans to the airport tomorrow and ensuring that all the games kids have accessed and read the document with their class project. Two students email me to claim that they had made certain blog posts before the deadlines last month, and I use the Page History tool to show them that they had actually done those assignments late. I them spent some time talking to colleagues on video chat with Skype about some ideas I have for faculty professional development the week after the trips, pay some online bills that cannot wait, and show one of the office secretaries how to create and share a google.survey with the HS faculty to gather some phone information for the trips. I also email all the parents in the high school with the link to the trip webpages.
2:00-2:30 Breathe time. I take a walk around the school to do some drop ins with teachers to see if anyone needs any help with anything. Lots of little tech assistance happens; this is my favorite part of the day.
2:30-3:15 The student meeting: Kids work collaboratively on google.docs to brainstorm Tech Use guidelines, and then send the link to the kids who could not make it to the meeting. I send an email to the entire group encouraging them to continue their work for the next two weeks during my absence to meet our deadline of having a draft of these guidelines done before we leave for our student trips. I promise to monitor their progress, but to let them own the process.
3:15-4:00 Final touches on preparing for my absence. I email the full faculty to remind them that I will be gone, but will be available online for assitance. Tidy up my desk, and head home to pack for my trip.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, but as I reflect on my day yesterday, I realize how it was full of collaboration across time and space with groups and individuals, how information could be updated instantly, how I could monitor students' and colleagues' progress with different tasks, how I could productively multitask, how the school saved on 2 weeks of sub pay while I will be able to teach my classes remotely and stay caught up with grading....and how none of this would be possible without the tools and techniques available to me.
Its been said that 21st Century tools transform education...I can not imagine how the tasks that I did yesterday could have been done any other way.
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