My Go-to Technologies as an Administrator

Wikispaces home page for Qatar Academy

Of course I am only a rookie, but In my first two months on the job, I have been leaning heavily* on the following technologies:

Doodle
I've given this meeting scheduling software a real workout because I have set up several meetings which included 6-20 persons.  One can use Doodle to whip up a poll in a couple of minutes, deploy it, and then determine how many persons can attend at the offered times. And they don't have to be using any particular calendar software.  They just click through the link I send them and respond to a simple "poll".   I upgraded ($39) to the paid version without ads, but the free version is great.  I use this once or twice a week with efficient results.

iPad + Notes
Loyal Drive-thru readers may recall that I received my wife's hand-me-down iPad last spring.  I didn't begin using it as a workhorse until I became an administrator.  I take nearly all my meeting notes with it, and the "Notes" application synchs with my desktop, laptop, and iPhone, so it has become indispensable as my number of meetings has increased.

UPad +  Targus Stylus + iPad 
One of our vendors and I did a walk-through of our school.  We both had iPads, but he was jotting down handwritten notes continually.  When I inquired, he told me about how much he depended on the  inexpensive app, UPad, and his Targus Stylus for jotting notes.  He had tried out different solutions, and was sold on this pairing.  Based on his testimony, I purchased mine the same day and there is no looking back.  Since school started, I often walk the halls during the early morning, chatting with students and staff.  When they make requests or suggestions, I  jot them down on UPad and try to act on them before the day is through.  The advantage of course over a paper notepad is that I never lose or mislay these notes!

Wikispaces
I love Wikispaces and keep trying to lure (and yes, drive) teachers to our staff wiki.  There we can share discussions and resources without face-to-face meetings.  This seems like a no-brainer to me. One of my big projects has been a "refresh" of the school's hallways and common areas.  Since June we have had several meetings and discussions both in person and online.  All of this has taken place at the wiki, making this one of the most transparent enterprises I have experienced on a large scale.

Zoomerang
While I haven't used Zoomerang surveys as often as the other resources, it has served an extremely important task.  As part of our strategic planning for technology, we surveyed the staff on current usage. Using the "Pro" account purchased by one of our departments, I drafted a survey, submitted it to review, and beta-tested it.  Recently I deployed it.  50 persons responded and I have found that the results are easy to digest and share.  If I need to create another survey, I will definitely use Zoomerang.

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* I have not received any form of compensation for using or recommending any of these products.

"Too Busy" to be Engaged and other Paradoxes

Flickr CC Photo by Jeff Hester

I write this post with no anger, some frustration, and much bewilderment.  This year at my school we used a staff wiki for staff collaboration and sharing.  I truly believe that this became a viable place for sharing documents and achieving at least a modicum of collaboration.  I would give us an A-.


One feature of the wiki was a "forum" for discussing issues related to tech integration, professional development through "cluster groups", and conversation about Tony Wagner's "Seven Survival Skills".   As I write this today, the forum has received 435 posts.  "Success!" one might say.  Except this number has not budged for weeks, now.  Earlier in the year, I was flogging participation in the forums through my professional development group and deliberately trying to provoke conversation with statements I hoped would produce responses.  At one point, the principal urged participation in an all-staff email.  Then, it happened-- outspoken backlash-- at me!  In one of my groups there was outrage about the forum participation being forced on people.   


I get this. First of all, I don't like being told to do things, either.  And meaningful conversation can't be forced.  Also, they were "too busy" to have this additional obligation. However, during a school year, it is nearly impossible to schedule such conversations face-to-face.  Most of the threads concerned core educational issues.  


Now, here's another irony:  At the end of the school year, a very genuine colleague pulled me aside and told me she had been reading through posts in the forum and thought them so valuable that she hoped we wouldn't "lose" the ideas expressed there.  She sadly noted that only three or four persons-- always the same ones-- were having the recent conversations.  This was quite true.  But hers was not one of these voices!


I'm really not sure about the future of the forum.  If only a handful of us are going to discuss, it's sort of silly to do it this way.  On the other hand, I don't want to give up.  I thought we had reached a tipping point this year, but my guess is that the only way to rev up discussions online is to kindle them in a face-to-face context (like a faculty meeting) first.  But I right now I am pretty skeptical about even reaching the 435 post mark now that the novelty has worn off.   


Currently, I am having some very nice experiences with conversations through a wiki about specific projects.  That is obviously a key, but I still find I have to put considerable energy into getting them started.  Any insights or suggestions?

The Gonzo Election Project

As I mentioned in a recent post, I have been collaborating with my fellow American Government teacher on an election project. We just launched this endeavor with our sophomores. It is both ambitious and unscripted. Indeed, we are placing a great deal of faith in our students' imaginations. If this faith is warranted the project could be really exciting.

Here's the plan: Each of our four classes (total) will divide up into project teams.

1) An Election News Feed team which will provide up-to-date election news.

2) A Michigan Election Information Team which will research the candidates and issues.

3) A Fantasy Presidential Campaign Team which will launch an imaginary candidate's quest for the White House.

4) A Mock Election Team which will devise a school mock election from scratch.

Now, here's the wildest feature: The project teams will be linked to their counterparts in the other three classes and must collaborate online to construct one central project.

Believe it or not, Cindy and I have pretty clear ideas as to how the individuals can be assessed in terms of their contributions. But we have no idea as to how the four sets teams will operate on their wiki sites. More later!

Election Project Overview

Collaborating on the Cloud

I have recently completed my first set of professional cluster group presentations. The "PCGs" consist of five inter-disciplinary groups of teachers and administrators from our school who meet with me once every six school days. All staff are included.

The PCGs are intended to foster Challenge Based Learning and technology integration. In order to familiarize themselves with the process the staff has undertaken a challenge of their own:

Collaborate departmentally to design a challenge based learning project which develops [Tony Wagner's Seven] "Survival Skills" for at least 15% of the students that your project team serves.

Recently, I termed this, "Challenging the Challengers".

I wanted to get off to a good start. My greatest concerns were

1) making tech novices feel as though the train had not already left the station.
2) boring tech savvy attendees by slowing down aforementioned train!
3) clarifying the confusion stirred up by the CBL launch.
4) roviding implicit reassurance that these PCG presentations would be purposeful and engaging.

I took a thematic approach for both CBL and tech-- beginning with collaboration and cloud computing. Here's the slide presentation:

Collaborating on the Cloud(PCG #1)

It starts with a cloud productivity tip. Box.net is an old favorite of mine. I find that it is a wonderful place to store files that I want access to across platforms. It's easy to link the files to different locations. The uploads are fast and sweet. 1GB of memory is offered for free.

After this warm up I gave an overview of cloud computing, suggesting that attendees complete a survey posted to our staff wiki, indicating their level of interest in some tools we might investigate at future sessions.

The most important piece was left for last: A review of the CBL model and a detailed discussion of the types of "guiding questions" that project groups should start generating. There was more discussion during this portion of the presentation (the five sessions varied greatly in terms of the quantity and tone!).

Assessment
Regarding my initial concerns, I felt that I did a better job meeting the needs of attendees with beginner skills than advanced (It's hard to stay down the middle). I felt that I achieved a good level of engagement overall, though I think some of the teachers might be surprised how much their body language resembled that of our less enthusiastic students! While I'm satisfied that the presentation set a tone of purpose, the give-and-take will definitely be the best part of the PCGs. Even though they intrude into everyone's busy schedule, these sessions will offer an opportunity for us to leave our daily routines and discuss some significant educational topics. I'm looking forward to round #2.

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As of today's blog post, Larry's Opinion Drive-thru returns to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday posting schedule.

8 Hot Techno Facts

YouTube serves up a billion videos per day.

On average, Kindle users buy 3.1 as many books as they did twelve months ago.

iPad users consume 3X videos as other users.

In December, iTunes U surpassed the 100 million download mark.

As of April 15, 2010 Wikispaces had given away 300,000 free classroom wikis.

At schools where cell phones are forbidden, 58 percent of students with mobile phones say they've sent a text message during class.

500 million people visit Facebook each month. Only Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have more monthly visitors and only Google has more page views.

In the next six years (2015), Cloud Computing will make up 17% of all IT expenditure worldwide.

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"ACBS Boat Show" Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Russell Heistuman

MHS In Service Materials

Planning the MHS In-Service was a career highlight. I loved pulling together the different elements and working with all those who pitched in. Other highlights from the experience would include :

* Launching so many folks on Twitter and reading through our hashtags after the event

*The energy level during the group collaboration session. The majority groups were really buzzing.

*The good humor that greeted me at the beginning. Most folks had logged Sunday work hours at Open House the day before, but were troopers at 8:30 A.M on Monday.

*There were some great questions through the day and also some impressive problem solving.

I had no major regrets but I was sorry that I frustrated many by going so fast through the social media. Perhaps adding Diigo put us on overload. I assumed more familiarity with the wiki. I also was surprised by the few I encountered who are really dug into an "I can't" position on tech. (This is certainly a self-fulfilling prophecy). I also was surprised that some folks took the group collaboration as an assignment rather than an opportunity. This was my fault to a degree not explaining the process more clearly. I also apologize if I used jargon or made references casually techie things that were not common knowledge. That is annoying.

Overall, a very cool experience for me. (And kind of glad I do not have a big presentation scheduled until March). It reminded me how very much I like the problem solving involved with using social media to meet teaching or communication goals.


I am happy to make the various presentation elements available by link for thirty days. All the original work is licensed with Creative Commons, non-commercial attribution.

Social Media (PLN, part 1)

Building a Network (PLN, part 2)

Collaborating with Collections (PLN, part 3)

An Old Dog Learning. . . .New Tricks

A "Chapter" of Baker's Digital Anthology

ITunes U Sampler

Apple Learning Interchange

Digital Anthology Movie

The Networked Student

Music Playlists

Web Warriors

Diigo Tour Videos

Free Apple Resources (including Apps).

I hope you feel free to add your own comments about the In Service or the materials.

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In Service slide created by Cheryl Corte

Under Pressure

Today, at 8:20 am I will be addressing our Curriculum Council (primarily department heads) , giving them a snapshot of the staff in-service I will be leading on Personal Learning Networks. This is what I will be telling them:

The way information is being accessed and shared is changing radically. Students must learn to access and critically evaluate information. They need to learn new skills for communicating and collaborating. But how can we teach them unless we too are plugged in?

The in-service will provided a three step program:
1) Guided Exploration of some social media (Twitter, Diigo , Ning , WikiSpaces)
2) The PLN
3) Collaboration through Digital Anthologies

In addition to three taut presentations, the day will included two extended playing/brainstorming sessions. The approach will emphasize fun, exploration, and a purposeful outcome. A wide open feedback channel will be featured (via Twitter)

I am asking the chairs to pitch this to their departments with a positive attitude, emphasizing that there will be something for everyone and that our kids really need help plugging into networks. We are trying to develop a school technology culture and we need everyone to buy in.
I'm going to mention that the usual reasons to be negative about in-service won't work this time. I won't be talking down to anyone. I have no hidden agenda. Every department has something to gain. I have everything to lose, since I will be back in the ranks, slogging away with the rest of them the next day.

I will be interested in their responses....and as always, yours.

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"Under Pressure" Flickr Creative Commons photo by Tattooed JJ

Paging All Waivers!

This year I was prepared.

But last time around I introduced WikiSpaces and Google Docs to my students mid-term. My adventures were not without setbacks (see Larry's Adventures in Wikiland), but some of the groups and individuals produced remarkable podcasts, videos, web sites and wikis. So then I decided that I wanted to share, blog about, or just show off their work. Consequently, I was generating ad hoc notifications and permission slips throughout the year.

This summer I whipped up three notification / waivers for my three courses. Check out the one I prepared for American Government (Click for pdf).

The document was made with iWork '09. I used a brochure template and found the banner with a public domain search. The Pages application allowed me to easily match the colors of the banner throughout the document. I thought the coolest feature was my ability to drop the public domain photo of the capitol dome into the background of the document. (A one minute Atomic Learning tutorial taught me this trick). Even a clod like me could produce a slick looking document and publish it as a pdf.

My students' first assignment of the semester was to download this document, get it signed and return it to class.

100% of them have done so, and only one parent declined any of the permissions. Pretty cool.

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Photo is a screen capture of Lit into Film course waiver.

The Old Guy Goes Multimedia

For want of the correct adaptor, I was prevented from showing my Keynote presentation on "Apple Solutions for the 21st Century" at Madonna U. last week. Instead, I improvised, going directly to the Web for a "show & tell" of some online concoctions I've whipped up for my high school courses. I took a more or less chronological approach. It made me realize how I had evolved over the past 18 months. My progression is outlined here:

It all started with podcasts by phone. I made mp3 lectures with Gabcast for my Government class, and I began to require my students to report by podcast as well.

About 14 months ago, I began to integrate hyperlinks into my film study guides, illustrating concepts with photos and YouTube examples.

Exactly a year ago, I began using the Flip Mino I received for my birthday. I turned the camera on myself and started to record video directions for absent students. More significantly, I loaned the camera out to my AP Government students, so that they could vlog opinion pieces. Then their classmates blogged about these vlogs. The blogging feature of iWeb was perfect for this little enterprise.

In November, '08, I began to edit video movies with iMovie. I was very intimidated by this great software, but once again Atomic Learning helped me out.

In February, 2009, I taught my sophomores how to use wikis so that they could host their own multimedia resources. Many groups conducted interesting interviews and created short video pieces. Using iWeb I began creating exhibition pages for my students' multimedia work. I then shared the link with the editor of the school bulletin, The Mercy Memo.

I began podcasting with GarageBand. What an upgrade over Gabcast! ( Thanks for the tip, Andy Mann). And thank you, Rick Strobl for suggesting at Schuste's retirement party that I animate jpegs with PhotoToMovie. This was the best $50 I ever spent on software. Combining GarageBand mp3s with jpegs and turning them into movies has been a fun summer pastime.

Discovering that I could search for Library of Congress public domain photos on Flickr, further enhanced my ability to animate jpegs for instructional purposes.

I finally learned how to use Keynote. I had no idea that what I took to be slide show software could present so many multimedia options. This is my July and August preoccupation-- making moves using GarageBand (for soundtrack) and Keynote.

While I can't prove that my students are learning more after being fed with this stew of media, I know that I have, and I believe that I am modeling communication skills that they will need in their careers.

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"Multimedia Message" (The cover of the May/June Communication Arts Magazine). Flickr Creative Commons photo by mwilke.

Larry's Queries

Just in case, I seem to have grown to cocky while away from my students, I want to lay out some issues that are simmering away over the summer, unresolved. I’m hoping that my readership may have some ideas about my assorted challenges. Feel free to comment publicly or correspond privately.

Trickle Down Wikinomics

I teach an elective Advanced Placement U.S. Government to seniors and a required America Government class to sophomores. The former is a college political science class and the latter is more comparable to basic civics.

I usually require some kind of project from the AP class during the first semester. This time, I was thinking of assigning some wiki projects around different portions of the Constitution. I would like to give the seniors the aim of building a helpful resource for the sophomores. I’m comfortable assigning the wiki project. I’ve done that before with other classes. But I am not sure how to utilize this kind of resource with the younger students. Any ideas?

Blog Squad

I am very excited about the impending launch of the Blog Squad. The general aim would be to provide a way for students to help students when teachers launched tech projects. This will be a pilot involving a small circle The participating adults (six or seven) have helped me identify thirty prospective student participants. I have decided to try a Ning for facilitating this project. I am relatively inexperienced with Nings. Any suggestions?

Group Work

As I move forward into challenge based learning I still remain puzzled about achieving accountability with the groups. I can reflect on a number of great things that came out of the wiki projects I tried last year, but complaints about group members not following through dogged these enterprises. Any input will be welcomed.

Self-Stoppers (Anxiety as an Impediment to Change)

I was recently reading Bend without Breaking by Jim Huling. Though directed at a business audience his comments really ring true for schools as well. Some folks bristle at the mention of new technology because they seem to feel that they "must master every aspect immediately." Huling urges us to counter this anxiety by "building a plan for the daily or weekly improvements."

I know teachers who feel enormously pressured to change, and their anxiety seems to paralyze them. Most of what I've learned with tech has come very deliberately. I've become competent with tools like Moodle, Google Docs, and iMovie by using tutorials through Atomic Learning, completing a few modules each day. This gives me the sense that I am making progress. And by focusing on one tool at a time, I feel less overwhelmed.

On a related note, I've often hear the lament that things are changing so fast, that by the time one gets started on something, it will probably be outdated. Well, there is an element of truth to this. Topics that I presented on in January have already drastically changed by July. But rather than paralysis, this calls for learning a "tool set." By playing around at popular sites like iTunes, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and WikiSpaces one can see that A) One can get around one these sites without a computer engineering degree. B) There is considerable transference of competency from one site to another. As I've often remarked, it's easier to jump into the Read/Write Web now than ever before. Despairing that one is hopelessly behind is a pretty lousy excuse for not engaging in the here and now.

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"Frustrated" Flickr Creative Commons Photo by frekur

Larry's Adventures in Wiki Land, Part 2

Whew! My American Government students' wikis are done. You may recall from Part One, the students were charged with assembling curriculum materials for a civil rights or civil liberties project. They then taught this portion of the curriculum to their classmates. I'd like to share some observations on this experience while the memories are fresh:

* More students were actively engaged with the wikis than comparable "paper" report projects of the the past.

* I found it necessary to intervene mid-point in order to remind some groups that the wiki materials should be prepared to instruct their
peers rather than impress me. The instructional design feature still ended up being the weakest aspect of the wikis. This point would need more emphasis in the future.

* Students reported that the projects were "challenging" (good!). But there were no complaints from parents or students about anyone being thoroughly overwhelmed or confused. I enjoyed serving as a guide, and though I was involved inside and outside the class I never felt overwhelmed either. In most groups a tech-adept person surfaced to teach others or take over the reigns for pulling together the PowerPoint.

*Retrospectively, students expressed that they needed more time to meet (in physical space) as they neared the deadline (as opposed to the early stages). I can see why, particularly as related to page design and PowerPoint issues. Point noted for next time.

*Some students reported that they initially had trouble conceiving the idea of the wiki and that consequently the groups set unrealistic goals for themselves. Now, I will have models to show others.

*All of the wikis had solid instructional value, but the study guides which accompanied the wikis were sort of useless because they were overwhelming in quantity of questions. In the future I would adivise the students to provide fewer study questions and better directions on where to look in the wiki in order to find the answers. The embedded slide shows were outstanding, though we had to trouble-shoot some minor technical challenges getting them onto the wiki.

*The most gratifying aspect of the wikis were the variety of media employed. A few groups created their own videos. These were very effective and I will encourage more original material in the future.

* The in class presentations based on the the wikis were several cuts above the usual fare. Our Associate Principal was present for two and was very impressed. In nearly every case the students showed a strong command of the material. I credit the wiki building experience as rooting the knowledge more deeply in the presenters.

*You would like to see the wikis, perhaps? I plan to share them on March 25, when I post, "Tooting Your Horn"
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Screen Capture of "American Government Wiki Hall of Fame"

Larry's Adventures in Wiki Land, part 1

I've been eagerly looking forward to my Civil Rights/Liberties Project with my Am. Gov. class. I tweaked it for my Apple ADE application and loaded the instructions with my beloved hyperlinks. In past years I had tried different kinds of research projects on this issue with dreary results, so I have been ready to launch full bore into a Wikispaces collaboration.

First, I presented my 85 students (three classes) with an orientation, let that sink in, and couple of days later formed groups and chose topics. Having been recently tipped off by a fellow wiki geek, that I could bulk load all the student registrations to the wikis, I required the students to format their user names, etc. so that I could easily register all of them with a few copy & pastes . Cool. I also had the students create "action plans" for their group meetings. This was great because the meetings were purposeful-- no aimless yacking.

Well....when we next met, I requested students who had not gotten into the site to email me. Good Gawd! The emails started pouring in. That evening I went back to the wikis and tried to make some general adjustments. A day later, I asked the students to see me one at a time if they were still shut out of the wiki. After a few minutes I had students crowding my desk, holding their laptops, lamenting, "I can't get in, I can't get in." The reasons ranged from the ridiculous to the utterly mysterious (I think our spam filter was intercepting some of the messages). By week's end, I was beaten down, but had worked out the bugs. It occurred to me how happy some of my peers would have been to see Mr. Web 2.0 techie under siege.

As the debacle was ending, I ran into my pal, Alison, who informed me of a much simpler way to register my kids. I should have consulted her, first. Lesson learned and a good reason to further urge administration to develop a plan for creating staff resource hubs to facilitate such sharing.

Any good news? Absolutely. It's simple for a teacher to monitor activity on Wickispaces and when mine got up and running, they really started buzzing. Granted, most of the initial activity was posting messages like, "Woohoo!!!!" on the home page. But I heard some great plans for podcast interviews and videos. Our kids are terrific with PowerPoint and most of the groups were making detailed plans to collaborate in this area as well. I don't anticipate again coming under siege as I was during the registration process. But I'll keep you posted. Check back in a couple of weeks when the wikis will be done.
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"Why Wikis" Creative Commons Flickr Photo by Blogefl