For $.99, it didn’t seem that big an investment. I’ve only used it once, and I look forward to using it in school districts I visit that have things “locked down.”
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30 Monday Apr 2012
For $.99, it didn’t seem that big an investment. I’ve only used it once, and I look forward to using it in school districts I visit that have things “locked down.”
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30 Monday Apr 2012
Learning with the iPad
Online via the iPad
To support robust use of iPads as learning and creativity devices, the Curriculum & Instruction and Technology Departments will design an app that facilitate access to critical curriculum resources for students and staff alike. Specifically, this involves creation of the following:
Implementation Timeline
WHO will do… | WHAT by… | WHEN | CheckUp or CheckBack |
Participate in Organizational Meetings | 02/27/2012 02/29/2012 |
||
Ms. Mary Ray | Facilitate Appy Hour Training Sessions | 03/05/2012 03/19/2012 04/02/2012 04/16/2012 |
|
m-Learning Planning Meeting | 04/04/2012 | NA | |
m-Learning Team | Visit Eanes ISD to view their implementation | 04/17/2012 | NA |
Order new iPad, reallocate iPad 2 as needed | 04, 2012 | ||
Order InTouch 40 Tablet Cart from Spectrum Industries | 04, 2012 | ||
Technical Team | Review MDM Solution Provider proposals and make recommendation selection | 04, 2012 | |
Consider registration ($25 for TCEA members or $50 per non-member attendees) at the Eanes ISD iPadPalooza to be held Tuesday, 06/19/2012. | 04, 2012 | ||
Revise AUP to reflect Responsible Use Policy | 04/30/2012 | ||
Develop m-Learning Proposal | 04/30/2012 | ||
Technical Team | Ensure wireless access points have been ordered, purchased and scheduled for placement. | 05/05/2012 | |
Review m-Learning Proposal | 05/03/2012 | ||
Executive Team | Finalize Professional Learning Plan (PLP) for Summer Session | 05/05/2012 | |
Executive Team | Finalize selection of PLP consultants from NorthEast ISD | 05/10/2012 | |
Principals’ Leadership Seminar Proposal | 05/11/2012 | ||
PD and App Selection Team | Make specfic app recommendations | 06/30/2012 | |
Technical Team | EC Hornet App | 07/01/2012 | |
Technical Team | WebDav Server Setup | 07/15/2012 | |
Technical Team | Prepare and provide training to district technicians on MDM for iPads. | 0720/2012 | |
Finalize outward facing web site/wiki featuring recommended apps, workshop materials, video lessons/tutorials and Edmodo groups | 07/01/2012 | ||
Schedule webinar sessions and meetings for m-Learning campus participants | 07/15/2012 | ||
Communications Team | Create social media accounts to facilitate sharing of information, ideas, projects online | 07/15/2012 | |
Executive Team | Schedule school board presentations | 09/01/2012 | |
Conclusion
Prompt approval and implementation of this plan will ensure successful implementation. While no plan can anticipate with 100% accuracy the issues that will arise, we can anticipate the support structures that need to be set in place. This plan seeks to do this, and your feedback is invited.
Questions/Suggestions?
Please submit questions you may have or suggestions for improvement to the following staff….
Activity Instructions: Create a Video
Interview three colleagues and video record their response to, How might you use an iPad in your role as an educator?
10:00am – 11:30am Mathematics and the iPad
Activity Instructions: EduCreations Interactive Whiteboard
Model how you would use a math app as if you were a student in response to the video you created with your learning team.
11:30am – 12:30pm Lunch
12:30pm – 3:30pm Curriculum Re-design
3:30pm – 4:00pm Session Presentations
Event #2 – iPadPalooza
Participants attend iPadPalooza then present back to the rest of the team on what they learned.
Event #3 – To Be Developed
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30 Monday Apr 2012
Earlier today (and last night), I was clutching at the hairs on my head in frustration, wondering why I hadn’t invested in a Macbook instead of an iPad. The problem? I was trying to insert videos into the iPad version of Keynote.
After almost a year at our school with 1:1 iPads for juniors/seniors, I concur with your statements, Doug, but want to add more.
Not only has the iPad meant that the students have internet access constantly during the day, meaning (from a librarian’s standpoint) they have access to answers to their questions during any class and can do research “on the spot,” but ours have also become useful production devices.
Our students are using the camera and Keynote pretty heavily in various classes. For example our American Sign Language class uses the camera to film short lessons and then installs the video into Keynote where they might be explaining a concept or illustrating a story with their signing.
Our Latin class went out in the hallways and read Latin poems to random passers-by and filmed their reactions (pretty hysterical). Other classes have used them for creating Puppet shows, our Vietnam project videos, etc.
Our statistics teacher took them out in the parking lot with the sheriff where they put on “distortion drunk” goggles and then measured how well they could walk, documenting it in spreadsheets on their ipad while out in the parking lot.
Not only can the device be used as an ereader and content consumption device, but tablet technology allows it to be used easily for mobile learning in ways that a netbook device just wouldn’t work.
Our students also used it for composing storyboards for a video, using neu.annotate to annotate pdf’s from their class, read and highlight novels for class on them, and more.
And importantly for our students, they feel more organized.
The cost, the instant “on”, the lack of troubleshooting and tech support needed are also all big plusses for our students.
I immediately tweeted at Carolyn, “How are you putting embedding videos into Keynote on iPad?” (or something similar). She responded:
As you can see from the slide above, there is a _pics for iPad in the list of Photo resources/assets. When I tapped on that, I saw the following:
I chose the video I wanted to drop in and then modified my slide:
And, that’s that! Thank you, Carolyn and Kathy!!!
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29 Sunday Apr 2012
Posted Education, iPads, OwnCloud, TechnologyManagement, TechTips, UbuntuLinux, webdav
in![]() |
Source: http://owncloud.org |
In my previous entry, I shared the Otixo approach (thanks, Mark!) to getting documents off your iPad. But that got me thinking about what would it take to set up your own WebDav server in your District so you’re not posting confidential documents off in the cloud (e.g. Dropbox, Box.net) and, in the case of Otixo (which makes it very easy to do this), having to upgrade to their paid service because they’re so awesome.
ownCloud is perfect for use inside your company. Your data on your servers, under your control.
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29 Sunday Apr 2012
In response to my previous blog entry, Exploring Workflows on an iPad, where I mention it’s hard to save documents off my iPad when using apps like Pages and Keynote, Mark Leeson shares the following suggestion:
Go to otixo.com and set up a free account that links Dropbox, Googledocs, Box etc to their webDav service. Connect Pages, Numbers, Keynote etc to WebDav via otixo and you have a perfectly fine way of uploading and downloading from those services. works fine for me and makes iPad a near laptop replacement now.
Another possibility–as an alternative to using Otixo–is to setup WebDav using DAV-pocket Lab, a suggestion by Lucie DeLaBruere. And, of course, you can always setup WebDav on your own server:
WebDAV is a web protocol that enables file reading and writing via the web. A few cloud storage services support WebDAV (Source: Cheap Geek)
The benefit of connecting cloud based services like Dropbox, GoogleDocs to WebDav is that the iPad supports those and I can use Otixo as a go-between to save content to any one of those services. This is important because if you create something on the iPad, you want an easy way to get the content out. For example, I spent some time last night creating a presentation Common Goals, Uncommon Approaches in Keynote and I wanted to get it off the iPad to somewhere like Slideshare where I could easily embed it. Using Otixo, I was able to drop it off into GoogleDocs and Slideshare, and voila! here it is (PDF version):
This process works well, although there is a limit of 250 megs per month of content you can transfer via Otixo. If you want to upgrade, you have to pay $9.99 per month for the business. I haven’t tried doing this for a month, so we’ll see how that goes!
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28 Saturday Apr 2012
“Hi, honey,” I asked my daughter on Thursday when I arrived at home, “how was school?”
“Well, Dad,” she started, “all my confidential information has been stolen.“
“What?!?” I sat down, a bit stunned that now, every member of my family–except my son–has had their confidential information compromised. As much as I believe in openness, I can’t believe how often unencrypted data finds its way into the hands of thieves, especially with identity theft so high.
“Yeah, one of the teachers at my school had information for 1,253 students on an external USB hard drive. He left the hard drive in his car and it was broken into.” One of the key points in the news article is a quote attributed to an administrator that implies, because the school is under-staffed, that it’s OK to let staff take unencrypted data home to work.
Garcia said the teacher has been reprimanded but added that NESA has a small staff and the teachers, who are busy with instruction during the day, often have to take work home with them.
Furthermore, a valid criticism may be that the school district only advised parents to review their bank accounts, credit cards, etc. to check for suspicious activity. In the past, other school districts haven’t considered that an acceptable response to data theft. According to some, the school district (or any offending agency) should pay for Equifax and similar organizations to monitor credit accounts, providing periodic updates to students (many of them just starting college) and their parents about suspicious activity.
You know, as I reflect on this information, it occurs to me that the District in question has joined the Texas Teacher Retirement System (TRS), the Texas Comptroller in failing to properly encrypt confidential data for public school staff and students. Consider that my 82-year old mother (a retired educator of over 36 years), my wife (a public school educator), and now, my daughter, and I have ALL had our data stolen due to lack of encrypted data.
The problem, obviously, is that the folks in question who deal with confidential data in public schools are encrypting…maybe it’s just not a priority, and it should be. And, we only hear about the unencrypted data breaches because, as I recall, those with encrypted data that is stolen do not have to report it.
LifeHacker.com recently shared their response to the question, Do you really need to encrypt every file on your computer? A better question might be, Do you really need to encrypt every file on your portable media? Obviously in the case of the various organization staff members, the answer is a resounding YES.
Here’s my comment that I left on the LifeHacker site…why don’t you give AESCrypt a chance and encrypt every file you save to a portable drive? It’s easy to unencrypt, encrypt, etc.
Howdy! I would like to suggest another alternative–instead of using TrueCrypt (great solution)–consider encrypting individual files (or zips of files, if you prefer) using the free, open source, cross-platform solution, AESCrypt.com. It’s an excellent tool right-click for Windows, and command line for Linux and Mac. Here’s more info on it: [www.mguhlin.org]I really wish school districts would pay more attention to this kind of advice that you offer. Just yesterday, I found out that over 1000 students’ confidential data had been left unencrypted on an external USB hard drive. If that data had been encrypted, the school district wouldn’t have to endure having to pay for credit protection for students, their families, and the public embarrassment!
How are you protecting confidential documents in the context of K-12 public schools?
28 Saturday Apr 2012
Posted EdTech
inSome time ago, I’d shared that blogging on an iPad was a bit of a pain. The main obstacle I found was changing my workflow…interacting with content across various tabs in a browser, flipping back to the Blogsy app (which is now working great after updates and reinstall), etc.
My previous blog entry was written entirely via iPad, and includes images, links, and more. Here are some quick tips for facilitating blog entry development:
As a result of the new workflows, getting things done takes different steps, if not extra ones. To get the full benefit of the iPad, it appears you have to pay for the apps that will enable you to get things done.
For example, a roundup of Google friendly apps might include the following:
What do you are you doing with your iPad? Is it a “laptop-replacement” tool (which is what I’m doing with it in addition to all the other neat stuff it can do)?
Update: You may also want to read these entries on how to copy and get documents on/off your iPad via WebDav:
25 Wednesday Apr 2012
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Please notice the zombie in the middle panel…more on that later! |
Thursday (04/26/2012) is my last day in the San Antonio ISD as their Director of Instructional Technology & Learning Services (ITLS). I began in June, 2002 and I have accepted a position with the East Central ISD as their Director of Technology, where I will start on April 30, 2012.
As you might imagine, I was delighted to receive this work of art (above) from my team earlier this week. Created by Molly Valdez (Virtual Learning Coordinator) and designed by all my team–notice the signatures–you can see what they imagine what my life will be like in my new workplace! What a laugh to get to the last panel!
Note: Although my disclaimer at the bottom of every blog post shares that what I write in this blog doesn’t reflect the opinions of my employer(s), I also practice a “Don’t write about work” policy except when it’s to highlight awesome stuff. Today, I’m sorta breaking that rule to share what some of you already know–I’m leaving San Antonio ISD after almost 10 years of service (June 3, 2012 would have been my 10 year marker!).
I also couldn’t have done anything without a wonderfully supportive supervisor, Patricia Holub:
…and wonderful friends like Carol Frausto (Director of Advanced Academic Services) and many others:
When I first arrived in SAISD, I had a list of projects to implement and I tried to do them all before the end of the first 6 months (ok, 2 months). As far as I was concerned, “The bus was leaving and you better get on it!” (no, I didn’t know about Jim Collins at the time). As an educator, I’ve always believed that the people on the bus, in the classroom, on your team ARE the right people…you just need to help them align their strengths with the needs of the organization. What a phenomenal change in leadership style after learning how important it is to empower others to achieve greatness, and less about your ideas and projects.
Since that time, I’ve had wonderful opportunities to work with talented team members, such as Tonya Mills who presented me with this graphic design work…you have to appreciate our sense of humor as we anticipate the zombie apocalypse foretold in the chronicles of The Walking Dead:
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This completely blew my diet for today out of the water! Grr… |
Here’s Josie looking angry, a prerequisite for angry cake (I really had to push her on this):
Thanks to all for your wonderful emails, gifts, and everything else! In truth, the gift of yourselves and what you have taught me is sufficient in itself.
And, finally, looking forward to my time in East Central ISD:
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That’s me at the ECISD Board Meeting being introduced with my family! |
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25 Wednesday Apr 2012
Posted Education, PressRelease
in![]() |
http://education.indiana.edu/jacobs |
Matthew sent me the following email, so I thought I’d share it and the information about this Teacher Award Program! Please pass it on to folks are may be interested.
Hi Miguel,
I know you don’t know me, but I have been following your blog for a few year and I thought you might be interested in this information.
I am writing to let you know about an exciting opportunity available for teachers. I am assisting with an award program at IU that is looking for exemplary teachers. See below for more info:
The Jacobs Educator Award is supported by the Barbara B. Jacobs Chair in Education and Technology to recognize K-12 teachers across the United States who are using technology to support innovative inquiry-based teaching and learning activities in their classrooms. Each year a small group of exceptional K-12 teachers are selected who are at the cutting edge of integrating digital technologies into their instruction.
Each selected Jacobs Educator will receive:
- $1500 stipend at the end of their one-year appointment,
- $1000 to be used to purchase technology resources to support their teaching,
- Funds to support travel to Indiana University in order to participate in periodic events throughout the year.
More information is available at:
WEB: http://education.indiana.edu/jacobsFACEBOOK: http://facebook.com/jacobseducators
I was wondering if you could help distribute this through your contacts. I attached a PDF announcement. It is a really great opportunity for teachers!
Thank you,
Matt
Matthew Callison
Graduate Assistant, Jacobs Educator Award ProgramIndiana University School of Education
201 N. Rose Ave.
Bloomington, IN 47405
http://education.indiana.edu/jacobshttp://facebook.com/jacobseducators
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24 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted Education, TechnologyManagement
in![]() |
Adapted from http://goo.gl/AQ3Ea |
If you’re an American educator, then chances are you have applied for different jobs in various school districts. Aside from the value inherent in the process of getting to know who you are, what you’re about, how to format your education and jobs in ways that engage job recruiters, you may have picked up another skill–how to navigate the various job application systems available online.
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23 Monday Apr 2012
JOLT – Journal of Online Learning and Teaching
- MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching
- Vol. 7, No.4, December 2011
- Digital Natives: Ten Years After
- Apostolos Koutropoulos; University of Massachusetts Boston, MA 02125 USA a.koutropoulos@umb.edu
- The digital native became a rallying cry for change in education, (expensive) technological infusion at all levels of education, and broad-changes in institutions that are providing learning opportunities and environments to these digital natives.
- Other overgeneralizations put forth by authors like Prensky, is that the digital natives prefer images over text, they prefer games over “serious work,” they function best when networked, digital natives can’t pay attention (or they choose not to!), and finally digital natives have skills, with digital technologies, that they’ve perfected.
- most people prefer to do fun things rather than something that they perceive of as work.
- Prensky doesn’t provide facts or empirical evidence, just suppositions. When Prensky writes about his preferred method of teaching (2001a) he writes that he prefers to invent video games, but he never considers that this may not be the most appropriate method of instruction, and that it might not be the learner’s preferred method for instruction. Thus in the same article he talks about the needs of the learner, while at the same time ignoring the needs of learners by imposing his own preferred method of teaching.
- rensky’s technological determinism culminates in a biological determinism in part 2 of his introduction to the concept of the digital native (2001b). Prensky argues that the brain’s neuroplasticity makes it so that the brain adapts to the environment that it is in, so in a technology-infused environment the brain will adapt to better use the tools that are available in that environment. While this may be true, there are two things that Prensky does not take into account. The first is that as human beings our brain is continuously rewiring itself throughout our lives. We don’t fossilize at a specific state of our lives, but we learn to use the tools that are available to us, thus digital natives should also exploit that physical ability to learn to function in environments that don’t necessarily have the tools that they are used to. The second thing that Prensky never questions, in either article, is the need to impose radical change on our educational system.
- This, taken together with the, unknown at the time, numbers of technology use within the digital native population, means that we weren’t really talking about pedagogy, and what’s really good for the learners, but rather, perhaps, change for change’s sake, or the technological equivalent of “throwing money at the educational problem.”
- Oblinger (2005) for instance portrays a vision of technological utopia, something that supposedly exists today, where students are proactively using their iPods to learn, snap photos everywhere they go and use these tools for impromptu study meet-ups.
- First, experiential learning, another name for learning by trial and error, goes back at least to the early 1900s with the work of Piaget. Presky’s later proposals (2006a, 2006b; 2010) for using peer groups, allowing students to pursue their passions, and essentially going from a sage on the stage to a guide on the side aren’t new, but they go back to Piaget (Singer & Revenson, 1996), Vygotsky (1978) and even Socrates (Karasmanis, 2002), just to name a few. If Piaget, Vygotsky and Socrates thought of these notions, this means that these traits aren’t inherent to a population who grew up in a digital age, but rather these are traits inherent in humans as a whole, and everything else is just a tool that we can utilize.
- Another trait that is ascribed to digital natives is that they are multitaskers, moreover they are efficient at it, and it is technology that encourages this multitasking.
- Has the efficiency of multitasking been proven? And how much brainpower are we giving to each individual task?
- According to Tapscott (1999) digital natives are non-sequential with their use of information, going back and forth between programs and sources and their learning style is an outgrowth of these ingrained habits of seeking and retrieving information from the Internet. This marks a striking contrast to previous generation of students, who tend to acquire info more passively from authority figures (Tapscott as quoted in Barnes, Marateo & Ferris, 2007). Perhaps one of the bigger claims made is that this generation (i.e. digital natives) exists across the world and across socio-economic conditions, not just in advanced economies (Tapscott as cited in Jones & Healing, 2010).
- The devil is in the details and unfortunately the early literature on digital natives that built upon the work of Presky, Oblinger, Tapscott, Dede and Frand lacked that fine attention to detail; they seemed to rework the same old assumptions, and fit their data within the Weltsaschauung of the digital native proponents.
- digital natives are described as striving “to stay ahead of the technology curve in ways that often exhaust older generations,” and to achieve this they “rarely pick up the instruction pack to learn programming or a technique. Instead, spurred by our youthful exploration of the Internet, we tend to learn things ourselves, to experiment with new technology until we get it right, and to build by touch rather than tutorial” (Windham, 2005).
- Digital Natives may indeed start without looking at a manual, but when what they are using is not intuitive, they either get the manual, as is exemplified by the great numbers of computer game walkthroughs online; they will give up, as we shall see digital natives aren’t that great at adapting when compared to older students; or they stick to what they know, which means not experimenting and goes counter the claims of digital native evangelists.
- VanSlyke (2003) had originally questioned the global reach of the digital native, and Prensky, in a rebutal, disagreed with him stating that he expected children in much of the rest of the world to exhibit the behaviors of the digital native (2003). Research, however, has shown that the location does matter. In the US (Smith & Caruso, 2010) we see different levels of computer and web technology usage among the same demographic of digital natives in Australia (Kennedy, et al., 2010; Margaryan & Littlejohn, 2008) and than those in the UK (Stoerger, 2009). In South Africa, as well, we see that only 26% of the population might be described as having grown up digital (Brown & Czerniewicz, 2010).
- , this digital divide has spurred a Moral Panic, calling for radical change in education where arguments are articulated in dramatic language, with no empirical evidence or theoretical foundations, based only on “common sense” and personal anecdotes (Bennett & Maton, 2010). Anyone who resists or questions these calls radical change is said to be out of touch, lazy, or just dismissed as not having legitimate concerns (Jones & Healing, 2010).
- College students don’t represent whole populations because they tend to be from a segment of the population that has the financial capacity to afford to be able to go to college (Bradley, et al., 2008 in Bennett & Maton, 2010). As Brown & Czerniewicz (2010) framed it: it’s not about a generation but an elite.
- Only 36% of digital native students contribute to blogs, only 40% contribute to wikis, and only 42% contribute to video sites. Social games and social bookmarking sites are only used by 25% of these digital natives. Fewer that 20% of the students said that they used course lecture podcasts or videos (Smith & Caruso, 2010). Similar results were also found by the Corrin, Bennett & Lockyer in the Australian academic context (2010) and the Pew Internet Internet and American Life Project in the broader US context (Fox & Madden, 2006; Jones & Fox, 2009; Zickuhr, 2010; Rainie, 2011).
- over 80% of first year students reported a “slight confidence” and “basic skills” with presentation software and online library resources – sources that they were familiar with.
- only a minority of students felt like it was important to them to share and upload content.
- only 15% of the digital natives were “power users” and 45% were rudimentary technology users
- In Australia a study found that
- (Kennedy, et al., 2010). In a related study, more than 70% of Australian first year students never kept a blog, more than 80% had never produced a podcast and have never contributed to a wiki (Kennedy, et al., 2007). Similar results were reported by Corrin, Bennett and Lockyer (2010) indicating that only 23% of students self-reported as advanced computer users, 66% never had a blog, 69% did not maintain a website, video editing or creation was rare, and they seldom (31%) or never (41%) listened to podcasts.
- the digital natives are missing out on this rich environment because they have poorly developed information-seeking skills, in other words they consume from sources that they already know.
- the collected statistics from a variety of studies paint a different picture; the fact is that the average “digital native” entering college is not technologically sophisticated; this digital native is not a power user. Even in countries where there is more access to a computer and the Internet, usage of these technologies tends to be read-only, checking facebook or looking things up on Wikipedia (Selwyn, 2010; Margaryan & Littlejohn, 2008); in other words passive interaction.
- One final element to consider is student locus of control and the independence to experiment freely (and without consequence) with the technology. Kvavik (2005) found that in quantitative studies students say that they have the skills that they need, however qualitative data contradicts the collected quantitative data. Students only have very basic office suite skills, and they have difficulty moving beyond those basic activities; it would appear that these students don’t recognize that their applications have enhanced functionalities that they can use.
- digital natives are mystified by technology and some are afraid to putz around, to experiment, for fear that they will do something wrong and break the computer
- Educators are perhaps falling into the same trap as parents are; that is that we have a tacit expectation that kids will have spontaneous engagement with schooled interests spurred by the availability of the computer as a tool (Kerwalla & Crook, 2002),
- Looking at the research, however, we see that there is no one, monolithic, group that we can point to and say that those are digital natives. As a matter of fact, the individuals who would fit the stereotype of the digital native appear to be in the minority of the population.
- From a US context, in a post-No Child Left Behind USA, if our digital native learners aren’t engaged, they have no incentive to work around the problem and find a solution. In contrast, older learners, I would posit, are more engaged and thus do work at changing their approach in order to find solutions.
- Instead of having education professionals focus on the technology aspect of the debate and in certain digital native behaviors, which “common sense” has told us, are immutable, we ought to be focusing on proper pedagogy and exposing our students to information retrieval and critical information analysis skills that are in both the digital and the analog realms
- We out to teach our students to actually change their approaches to learning when what they are trying out is not working for them, instead of assuming that they possess this “Nintendo over logic” which enables them to modify their learning plans when things aren’t working out.
- we need to move away from this fetish of insisting in naming this generation the Digital/Net/Google Generation because those terms don’t describe them, and have the potential of keeping this group of students from realizing personal growth by assuming that they’ve already grown in areas that they so clearly have not.
- Learners don’t know what they don’t know (Christensen, 2006), but if they come to the table from a position of superiority, like they are better than the so-called digital immigrants (Roberts, 2005; Windham, 2005) they lose an opportunity to learn something that they don’t know that they don’t know, something that may be beneficial to them. Let’s resist “common sense” because common sense isn’t all that common.
- This work is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share-Alike License For details please go to: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
23 Monday Apr 2012
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Source: http://www.you-can-teach-writing.com/informal-writing-book.html |
To foster deep learning and efficient teaching, all the writing students do in a class should be on topics that are authentic to the course. Just as students must to write about biology in papers for biology class, in English they should write about English topics. Far from being limiting, that requirement yields hundreds of topics that are timely, immediately relevant to students and often fun besides.
The book also ends abruptly, has several minor errors–such as omitting the word “to” in several locations–that suggest the book is still in unfinished format. Suggestions for improvement include re-editing the text, and crafting a narrative up front–an engaging story–of how to best approach informal writing prompt development in the classroom. I found myself hungry for more “story,” or insights into how students were experiencing the use of informal writing prompts. Those may appear in a second edition after teachers have had a chance to use it in the field.
Obviously, there’s a lot more to the book that’s not included in my notes. You can order the book online and find out what’s missing from my review!
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22 Sunday Apr 2012
Posted Education, Family, HigherEducation, MyNotes, Research
inSince I have a daughter entering college, this blog entry on Sexual Assault on College Campus caught my attention.
Quick facts:
Where’s that order form for mace, krav maga, personal bodyguards?
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22 Sunday Apr 2012
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Image Source: http://goo.gl/dQFF2 |
When the new Apple TV arrived, I couldn’t wait to hook it up…after all, it would magically transform…well, I don’t know. I just knew I needed to get one to fully take advantage of my iPad. Unfortunately, after digging to the bottom of a small box, I realized I was missing a critical component–an HDMI cable. At least, I thought that’s what I was missing.
Fortunately, there were a few folks online who had some suggestions for alternatives:
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6 foot cable for $9.99 via Amazon |
Two other responses:
126 drrios: @mguhlin I hooked up my Apple TV with an HDMI cable from Altex. Much cheaper.
153 mmongardi: @mguhlin I just bought an HDMI cable at an electronics store. So yes, you can do better than $19!
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$0.99 HDMI to VGA Cable via Amazon – THIS WILL NOT WORK |
This is a good quality cable, but it does not convert HDMI to VGA. HDMI is a purely digital signal and VGA is analog, unless you have a device that can accept a digital signal via its VGA port this will not work. If you need to display HDMI on a VGA monitor this will not work for you. Probably cheaper to get a secondary video card.
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$40.96 HDMI to VGA Converter Box |
I needed a converter to convert the HDMI out of the Apple TV2 to the VGA in of a projector so that I could project my iPad2 screen. Works perfectly for this solution.
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VGA to Component Cable |
Given that you bought an iPad, an Apple TV, another $50 doesn’t seem that bad an investment…or does it?
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20 Friday Apr 2012
What is your fundamental purpose in blogging, building a PLN, etc.? One of the funniest movies I saw sometime in my youth included The Gods Must Be Crazy. There’s a connection to a topic that often gives me heartburn, if only for a millisecond–When the Gods Ignore You. To get in the right frame of mind, watch this clip from The Gods Must Be Crazy:
Someone with an community floats a question or has a problem. The collective community can answer the question or help solve the problem Rainbows and unicorns then appear.
Allow me to share the PLN Process–or, Six Steps to Self-Reliance–the way I’ve observed it from my own experience:
I’m not sure this is the case. The factors that influence responses from your PLN don’t have anything to do with the size of your following. Rather, I’d like to suggest it has to do with how your PLN–regardless of size– perceives you.
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20 Friday Apr 2012
Posted Conferences, Education
inA new online conference–Education On Air!— has popped up!
Education On Air sessions on Google+:
- Conference Schedule
– List of sessions and detail
- about how to participate and add to your calendar
- Presenters
– Names, websites & contact information
- Social Media
– Conference and session hashtags
- FAQs
– Frequently asked questions
- Feedback
– Your feedback on the conference
- (coming after the event)
You do not need to register to watch the Hangouts On Air. Visit theConference Schedule tab to find sessions that interest you and add them to your calendar. All Hangouts will be live on the presenters’ Google+ Page on May 2nd at the appointed time.
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20 Friday Apr 2012
Posted Education, Family, HigherEducation, InfoGraphics
in“My son, during his junior year in pursuing Actuarial Sciences,” he paused for emphasis, “made $1000 a week during a summer internship.” He looked at me for a moment. “A thousand a week for being an intern without a degree.” Obviously, he and I were talking about career paths available to those who can do math.
Earlier today, a conversation with a colleague revealed what many educators now know–a degree in education, liberal arts, the humanities just sets you up for long-time suffering at the hands of state legislators. Like it or not, this is the sad reality. It’s why my colleague was quick to point out that his son majored in the Humanities, but also, Actuarial Sciences.
If, like me, you don’t know what Actuarial Sciences are, let me share this informative tidbit from Wikipedia:
Actuarial science is the discipline that applies mathematical and statistical methods to assess risk in the insurance and finance industries. Actuaries are professionals who are qualified in this field through education and experience. In many countries, actuaries must demonstrate their competence by passing a series of rigorous professional examinations.
Actuarial science includes probability, mathematics, statistics, finance, economics, financial economics, and computer programming. Historically, actuarial science used deterministic models in the construction of tables and premiums. The science has gone through revolutionary changes during the last 30 years because of the proliferation of high speed computers and the union of stochastic actuarial models with modern financial theory (Frees 1990).
Many universities have undergraduate and graduate degree programs in actuarial science, and these programs usually have highly specialized coursework schedules and series of exam preparation courses to prepare students for the actuarial exams and the insurance industry. In 2010, a study published by job search website CareerCast ranked actuary as the #1 job in the United States (Needleman 2010). The study used five key criteria to rank jobs: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands, and stress. A similar study by U.S. News & World Report in 2006 included actuaries among the 25 Best Professions that it expects will be in great demand in the future (Nemko 2006).
As an English major, Spanish minor, I’ve found my ability to write and technical competence helpful in achieving my humble career goals. Fortunately, my daughter is able to do well in writing AND mathematics, and I’m grateful for her abilities.
My colleague pointed out to me that his wife had said to him, “ince this field is often dominated by Americans who are less than articulate, having a double-major in English and Math will pay off financially and professionally. The career path means you’ll be a CEO because of the actuarial sciences and your ability to communicate effectively.”
and, “if you can put aside your expectation of straight As, as long as you can earn a degree in actuarial sciences and pass the exams, no one will ask what grade you made.”
Certainly, good advice. In the meantime, check out this infographic that highlights the facts visually.
From: BestDegreePrograms.org
Image Source
http://www.uwec.edu/Admissions/facts/images/Actuarial.jpg
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20 Friday Apr 2012
One of Dean Shareski’s session titles that always left me wondering, “How did he come up with that title? That’s ingenious!” includes the one he shared with the assembled audience of technology directors at the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) Technology Education Coordinators Special Interest Group (TEC-SIG) Spring Meeting (view the agenda) earlier today!
Contact Info:
Web: shareski.ca
Email: shareski@gmail.com
Twitter: @shareski
When you are thinking PD, it’s not done at 3:30pm when you leave the building.
Hashtag #tecsig
“If you’re comfortable with education today, you’re not paying attention.” (Source: Will Richardson)
In 90 seconds, write down 3 things that you’re not completely comfortable with (doesn’t have to be negative):
- iPads in education
- The idea that technology isn’t everyone’s responsibility
- Learning isn’t 24/7
Others:
Privatization of schools through vouchers
Teacher as a customer service provider isn’t respected and supported.
Technology is a disruption, that says to us we can’t continue doing the same things we’ve done before, just better. How can we change things and do things in a fundamentally different way, in a disruptive way?
When I hear the word reform, it doesn’t mean the same thing as what educators mean. A few examples of disruption around the world:
Business:“When a 14 year old kid can blow up your business in his spare time, not because he hates you but because he loves you, then you’ve got a problem.” (Gordy Thompson) That idea is…how do we rethink this. He really likes what we do, but what he’s doing doesn’t work with what we’re trying to do. How do we do our business? That’s the question that’s being asked in Board rooms.
Government:Sharing what happened in Egypt, Khaled Said, posting of internet videos…primary interaction is online. “If there’s no social network, there never would have been a part. Without facebook, twitter, google, youtube, this wouldn’t have happened.” Technology has the paper to democratize knowledge and power. These are the kinds of conversations that high school civics classes are having.
Personal:Publishing isn’t a thing anymore…you click “Publish” and you’re done.
Dean shares his journey, his gateway to finding a whole bunch of people in his journey.Dean is sharing how Casey Hales–in New Braunfels–was commenting on his work in Moosejaw in Canada. How does this happen?
[Wow, it’s been 10 years since I started blogging at least. Unbelievable.]
smart people = magic happens = you
Dean asks, “Can I find your best work online?” I challenge you…why isn’t it? I find it frustrating, and that’s my expectation.
Who do you know?
Answers to the people on Dean’s Chart: Condeleezza Rice, Roger Staubach, Julian Assange, Krypton, Adam Strange , Rosa Hadwen (Dean’s mother in law)
(hehe…)
Mind Your Own Business Learning
…where kids sit in rows.
…where you hear, “eyes on your own paper, no talking”
Is the kind of learning you want? Is watching screens really what we should be doing?
It’s a precious moment to have all these people in a building.
1 to 1 computing is great but not if it’s kids sitting by themselves. Maybe 3 kids to 1 computing device is better because of the conversation.
Unwrap what people mean. . .it all goes back to the idea of social learning.
Chris Avenir, student in Ryerson Univ. in Canada. Started a study group for chemistry group. They kicked him out of school. It was a prime example of disruption. It’s just a study group. Some of the reasons why he was told he couldn’t have one:
1) Learning should be hard
2) There is no structure of regulation for online behavior and that makes it incompatible with academic work.
3) It is our job to protect academic integrity from any threat.
“Bringing smart people together is an ancient and effective technique for developing ideas. The Net also lets smart people connect and communicate. But the Net brings people together in new and occasionally weird configurations–a weirdness.”
There’s not that much controversy with Wikipedia….
“The problem with Wikipedia is that it only works in practice. In theory, it can never work.”
The interesting part of Wikipedia are the discussion tabs. Find out how did they get there, negotiate the information. At the very top of the page, you’ll see warnings about the content. Does your newspaper do that?
“The smartest person in the room, is the room.” -Dave Weinberger
The big shift isn’t that content is digital. It’s that learning culture is participatory. (Source: Angela Maiers).
The best way to learn is to teach it…now we have many opportunities to do so online.
Strangers – We have to get over the notion that strangers are bad.
“If your students are shring their work with the world, they want it to be good. If they’re just sharing it with you, they want it to be good enough.” Rushton Hurley
Instead of thinking of the internet as 2 billion predators, what if we thought of it as 2 billion teachers?
What do we mean by learning? What are we talking about?
“The need to know the capital of Florida died when my phone learned the answer.” StudentDean teaches “Smart Folks I Know”…I’m connecting my students to these people all the time. You need to be able to have these connections. your talent is important, but your connections are so much more important.
Community as Content (Dave Cormier)
“The community is not the path to understanding or accessing the curriculum, rather the community is the curriculum.”
(MG: This reminds me of Wes Fryer’s point that people are the curriculum).
“Obvious to you. Amazing to others.” Derek Sivers…watch the video above.
Are you holding back something that is too obvious to share?
Great stuff, experience! Thanks, Dean!
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18 Wednesday Apr 2012
Earlier today, I had the chance to attend an Apple briefing–excellent facilitation by Jill Vermillion–on iBook Author and iTunesU Course Manager. Wow, I can understand the excitement about creating, managing and sharing content using these tools! In spite of the stunning positives (easiest content development I’ve seen, and I’ve played with Sigil, LibreOffice, and Calibre), there are flies in the ointment, mainly the following:
Aside: I am particularly grateful to Jim Baldoni (NorthEast ISD) for articulating some of these concerns as fast as they popped into my head and doing it so eloquently! I also have to give a shout out to Chryssie and Leigh-Ann (I apologize if I’ve mis-spelled names) from one of NorthEast ISD’s high schools. They not only sat in the front row, they showed off a “Triangles” course they’d been developing using iBook Author. Kudos to them for their fast work, as well as Jim’s leadership.
Facilitator: Jill Vermillion, Education Content, Apple, Inc.
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17 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted Education, iPads, Leadership, Transformation, Transparency
in![]() |
Adapted from Image Source at http://goo.gl/u9GYd |
“How can we better articulate what iPads are being purchased to accomplish in schools? It feels so elusive.”
For me, this tweet gets to the heart of the problem I’m having with iPads in schools–simply, I don’t get it. I want to explore why “I don’t get it–iPads in schools” for a simple reason. It’s not because I’ll be working on an iPad deployment, or because I want to justify the 64gig WiFi iPad I just purchased for my own use as part of my education consulting. It’s because a part of me fears that my past experiences with technology are interfering with how I use technology in the present and future. Does that make sense?
elusive…prob because I’d rather have a netbook running Linux than an iPad, but non-techies would rathr hv iPad.
The reason I see a netbook/Macbook running Linux/Windows/MacOS as more valuable is for the following reasons:
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16 Monday Apr 2012
Posted Education, TechnologyManagement, Texas
inLast week, I had the opportunity to attend the San Antonio Regional Technology Directors’ Meeting. Of course, it was a fruitful meeting (not just because TCEA Area 20 Director, Dr. Roland Rios and Jennifer Faulkner (past Area 20 Director) brought fruit!). Special thanks to NorthEast ISD for hosting the meeting!
There were a variety of topics discussed, and below you can find my imperfect notes on the meeting. I hope to add audio to the notes later, but this should give you an idea for some of the topics discussed.
Key Performance Indicators for Department Performance Over Time
IMA Technology Funds
User Provisioning
Inventory Management Software
Mobile Device Management
16 Monday Apr 2012
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A representation of iPad via iTunes |
As I look back on past blog entries I’ve written on this subject, essentially about how to get video onto your iPad without iTunes, I realize I definitely skipped over how easy it is to get videos–AVI, MP4, etc.–onto an iPad with iTunes’ apps.
I’ve also experimented with a few others, such as OPlayer Lite (no-cost, ads), Video Downloader Lite. Unfortunately, while these latter solutions work, they involve ads or are limited in some way. The flex:Player app works the best…of course, I haven’t tried the AV Player HD app since it, well, costs money….however, AVPlayer HD does have the benefit of allowing you to add content via WiFi in case you’re on the go and don’t have access to your computer. There’s a nice review of it here and after reading it, you’ll probably add it to your app wish list.
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Note the add button lets you put your own content, including AVI, MP4 video files. |
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11 Wednesday Apr 2012
Posted EdTech, KindleFire, MobileDevices
inConsidering deploying Kindle Fire mobile devices in your school setting? Be careful you don’t get burned. Of course, all these tablets are evolving, getting friendlier and friendlier to school settings–which usually involve top-down control.
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Source: http://images.decalgirl.com/assets/items/akf/400/akf-flwrfire.jpg |
This garnered a few responses worth considering, such as this one from Greg Caldwell (Texas)
We looked into Kindle Fires and decided against them for the following reasons:
1) It is difficult to install 3rd party apps.2) You have to have a credit card on file even to download free apps. You are NOT prompted for a password when downloading apps. They are a “one-click” purchase. So, you have to have a credit card on file and one-click app downloads mean that students, teachers, or anyone else can download any app at any time and someone will be obligated to pay for it.3) There is no way to centrally manage them. Each individual device has to be touched to change anything.4) Dealing with Amazon’s customer service is like talking to a horse. They might understand a few things but get “off-script” and they can’t help you. Asking to speak with a supervisor or someone in the US does not help.5) Kindle Fires are designed to be a personal use item and do not play well a muli-user or enterprise environment.6) If you are looking for an e-reader, the low end Kindle works. If you looking for more, stay away from the Fire.7) One more thing I almost forgot, the Kindle Fire as well as other tablets will not handle Java. I don’t care what Steve Jobs said about Java dying, right now a LOT of the interactive content of online textbooks and other educational websites are Java-based and it will be several years before that changes.
For all the reasons cited above, as well as cost and other factors, we are staying with laptops. I can get a powerful laptop that will do everything students need to do with a full 3 year warranty for the cost of a low end IPad 3 or the “new IPad” or whatever it’s called.
I normally recommend against Kindle Fire for the simple reason that there are other more open Android alternatives that give more for the money, the best currently being the Lenovo IdeaPad A1.
1. Google Market (Play Store) Certified and no problem installing 3rd party apps.2. No credit card needed – only a Gmail or GAFE account.3. Multiple or group management is reasonable and getting better.4. Never had to call for Android or Google support – forums and wikis always suffice.5. Tablets are indeed a personal device, though Android has apps to adapt somewhat to multiple users.6. Any Android can be a Kindle reader except for the dedicated Kindle’s read-to-me feature.7. Not sure about Java but I don’t think any tablet fully replaces a laptop anyway. I do believe many Androids including the soon-coming 7″ Google tablet, easily out-feature Fire if a handier tablet form is called for.
It’s true the Kindle is a personal device and suffers from lack of enterprise management, sames as the iPad did when it came out. Apple has made improvements in this area and I think Amazon will too over time.
While we haven’t used the Kindle in the classroom here, I bought Kindles for my kids at home and tackled some of these issues. First, I did not want a credit card tied to their accounts. Each Kindle has to be tied to an Amazon account (just like iTunes). For each kid, I set up a new Amazon account tied to their personal e-mail.
I give my kids Amazon gift cards which they use to buy books or apps. But, one of the selling points of the Fire was the huge number of free apps and books on Amazon. To get those, you have to have “one click” activated. “One click” does not need a credit card, but it does need a physical address. Once I figured that out, it was easy to configure their Kindles so that they could download all the free stuff they wanted, and not have a credit card tied to their accounts.
So, for school purposes, A clean Kindle Fire with an active Amazon account that has no physical address entered, will not be able to download free apps or books, or any other apps or books. It occurs to me that this might be a good thing in some classroom situations.
Also, a Kindle can be set up to be able to download free apps and books, but not be able to _buy_ apps and books that are not free. This also might be good for some classrooms or check-out scenarios.
Just like with the iPad, teachers and other users are figuring out work-arounds to get the device to do what they want it to do. One guy had the idea of setting up a trial (that is, fake) credit card number from PayPal, and using it as the credit card on his kid’s Kindle Fire. The kid can download free stuff, but pay items can’t be charged. That’s a different work-around than I took when setting up my kids’ Kindles, but it’s just as effective.
Here’s details: http://www.dragonblogger.com/setup-kindle-fire-kids/
The same blogger found out about a child lock app that prevents accessing other apps on the device without a code number entered. So, that might be a classroom solution too. Read his comment section. The first comment was about a teacher running 5 Kindles in the classroom. The blogger notes that tying all the Kindles in the classroom to one account essentially syncs them in terms of apps or books available.
It’s an exciting time in ed tech. Lots of new products are making their way into the classroom. The Kindle is still designed for reading and simple apps. The iPad is designed for video and higher end apps. The notebook is designed for multiple computing purposes. Each fills a role at competing price points, and each has value.
Update: Consider the info shared by the National Federation of the Blind:
Baltimore, Maryland (September 29, 2011): The National Federation of the Blind commented today on the release of Amazon’s new Kindle Fire, which cannot be used by people who are blind.
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: “Blind Americans have repeatedly asked Amazon to include accessibility for the blind in its Kindle product line. The feasibility of including accessibility in similar products has been demonstrated. The Department of Education and the Department of Justice have made it clear that Kindle devices cannot be purchased by educational institutions, libraries, and other entities covered by this country’s disability laws unless the devices are fully accessible. Despite all this, Amazon has released a brand new Kindle device, the Kindle Fire, which cannot be used by people who are blind. Enough! We condemn this latest action by Amazon and reiterate that we will not tolerate technological discrimination. The National Federation of the Blind seeks nothing less than equal access to all technology for blind people. It is one of the most critical civil rights issues facing blind Americans in the twenty-first century, and we will do everything in our power to see that this right is secured.”
Thanks to @KarenJan for the NFB info!
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10 Tuesday Apr 2012
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View interactive version online | Have Freemind? Get the MM document file |
NOTE: Since Tim was kind enough to send me the original file, if you still allow Java to run on your computer, you should check out the web-based version of the graphic organizer. I’ve uploaded it to a colleague’s server…it’s interactive.
This is a basic overall roll out plan for the EPISD TLI Grant . Including the four areas that we are rolling out.
Need to coordinate the ordering of the technology so that rollout matches the timeline of the grant. There are specific venal times, and there are general deadlines such as “iPads will be on campus at the beginning of the school year.”
There are many materials that are part of the technical part of the grant that are not part of the EPISD inventory. For instance,iPad carts or sync stations. iPad covers that protect the devices. Apps are also a major part of the vetting process.
The community needs to be informed in how the devices will be used in the classroom.
The technology needs to be aligned to the episd standards based curriculum. This includes the alignment of the apps to the curriculum and finding apps that do not simply replicate what. Already do in class.
The technology training aspect is based on the SAMR MODEL and the iPad basics model of atomic learning.
Apps are based on the level. Each level has differ apps
All stakeholders need to be in PST
Network administration is in charge of this
The SAMR model is designed to demonstrate how to properly integrate technology into class lessons.
This is the training as prescribed by the grant
How do we rollout the materials for the grant? Large group? No training no iPads?
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10 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted Education, JobPosting, Texas
inEnter your email address:
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10 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted Education, JobPosting, Texas
inAnother one…
DISTRICT: | Farmersville |
STATUS: | OPEN |
POSTING DATE: | 04/04/2012 |
CLOSING DATE: | |
POSTING NUMBER: | 013098 |
LOCATION: | District Wide |
POSITION: | Instructional Technology Facilitator |
JOB DESCRIPTION: | Facilitate the effective use of computers and other technology in the instructional programs district-wide. Assist in the development of short and long range plans for integration of technology into the instructional program. Implement and coordinate the technology staff development and training program. |
JOB QUALIFICATIONS: | Bachelor’s DegreeValid Texas teaching certificateMinimum of three years classroom experienceGT endorsement or willingness to become GT endorsedProven leadership skills Demonstrated ability as an instructional leader with both adults and studentsExtensive experience integrating technology into the curriculumSuccessful experience creating instructional materials to promote technology integrationSuccessful experience with technologies available for use in instructional settingsDemonstrated capacity to be self-directed, organized, and collaborative with all staff members Demonstrate ability in the research, development and delivery of innovative technologies |
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: | Professional Development:1. Conduct needs assessments to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weaknesses in order to inform the content and delivery of professional development programs and technology interventions that have a direct positive impact on student learning.2. Design, develop, and implement technology-rich professional development programs that model principles of adult learning and promote digital-age best practices in teaching, learning, and assessment.3. Evaluate results of professional development programs, technology infrastructure, and instructional technology interventions to determine the overall effectiveness of a program on deepening student content knowledge, improving pedagogical skills, and increasing student learning.Teaching, Learning, and Assessment:1. Model and coach teachers to design and implement technology-enhanced learning experiences addressing content standards and student technology standards.2. Model and coach teachers to design and implement technology-enhanced learning experiences using a variety of research-based, learner-centered instructional strategies and assessment tools to address the diverse needs and interests of all students.3. Coach teachers to engage students in local and global interdisciplinary units in which technology helps students assume professional roles, research real-world problems, collaborate with others, and produce products that are meaningful and useful to a wide audience.4. Model and coach teachers to design and implement technology-enhanced learning experiences emphasizing higher order thinking skills (e.g., compare, contrast, classify); processes (e.g., problem-solving, decision-making); and mental habits of mind (e.g., critical thinking, creative thinking, and self-regulation).5. Model and coach teachers to design and implement technology-enhanced learning experiences using differentiation, including adjusting content, process, product, and learning environment based upon student readiness levels, learning styles, interests and personal goals.6. Model and coach teachers to effectively use technology tools and resources to continuously assess student learning and technology literacy by applying a rich variety of formative and summative assessments aligned with content and student technology standards.7. Model and coach teachers to effectively use technology tools and resources to systematically collect and analyze student achievement data, interpret results, and communicate findings to improve instructional practice and maximize student learning.8. Participate in a teaching and learning capacity at approved technology and curriculum conferences that enhance professional qualifications.Communication:1. Collaborate with district and campus personnel to create the best methods for delivering technology integrated lessons to teachers and students.2. <span font="" s |
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE: | 3 years teaching experience 3 years experience working with computer hardward and instructional software applications |
OTHER INFORMATION: | |
APPLY TO: | send cover letter & resume to: wsullivan@farmersvilleisd.net |
SALARY: | district teacher scale commensurate w/duty days |
DAYS: | 226 |
WORK HOURS: | FROM – TO – |
GRADE / STEP: | |
START DATE: | June 2012 |
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10 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted Education, JobPosting, Texas
inDISTRICT: | Lewisville |
STATUS: | OPEN |
POSTING DATE: | 04/05/2012 |
CLOSING DATE: | 04/20/2012 |
POSTING NUMBER: | 013106 |
LOCATION: | Bolin Administration Building |
POSITION: | Director of Information Management Systems |
JOB DESCRIPTION: | Please go to the followitn link for a current (read only) job description: http://lisd.net/ourpages/auto/2011/12/15/36703610/DIRECTOR%20OF%20INFORMATION%20MANAGEMENT%20SYSTEMS.doc |
JOB QUALIFICATIONS: | see job description |
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: | see job description |
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE: | see job description |
OTHER INFORMATION: | LISD employees DO NOT fill out the online application. Internal candidates (ONLY) send letter of interest/qualifications and resume to currany@lisd.net |
APPLY TO: | http://www.teacherjobnet.org Follow instructions and attach all pertinent documents to the online application. Internal candidates DO NOT fill out the online application. Int. Cand. (ONLY) send letter of interest/Qualifications and resume to curray@lisd.net |
SALARY: | Midpoint Salary $90,830, Experience Considered |
DAYS: | 240 |
WORK HOURS: | FROM – 8 TO – 5 |
GRADE / STEP: | |
START DATE: | July 2, 2012 |
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10 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted Education, JobPosting, Texas
inLooking for a Director of Educational Technology? Lewisville ISD just posted one.
DISTRICT: | Lewisville |
STATUS: | OPEN |
POSTING DATE: | 04/02/2012 |
CLOSING DATE: | 04/17/2012 |
POSTING NUMBER: | 013076 |
LOCATION: | Bolin Administration Building |
POSITION: | Director of Educational Technology |
JOB DESCRIPTION: | Please go to the following link for a current (read only) job description:
http://lisd.net/ourpages/auto/2011/12/15/36703610/DIRECTOR%20OF%20EDUCATIONAL%20TECHNOLOGY.docx |
JOB QUALIFICATIONS: | see job description |
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: | see job description |
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE: | see job description |
OTHER INFORMATION: | LISD employees DO NOT fill out the online application. Internal candidates (ONLY) send letter of interest/qualifications and resume to currany@lisd.net |
APPLY TO: | http://www.teacherjobnet.org Follow instructions and attach all pertinent documents to the online application. Internal candidates DO NOT fill out the online application. Int. Cand. (ONLY) send letter of interest/Qualifications and resume to curray@lisd.net |
SALARY: | Midpoint Salary $90,830 Experience considered |
DAYS: | 240 |
WORK HOURS: | FROM – 8 TO – 5 |
GRADE / STEP: | |
START DATE: | July 2, 2012 |
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10 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted Education, iPads, Transparency
inEducation technology, whether it’s a smart board, blended learning curriculum, computer, or iPad, is merely a tool. It’s only as good as it can be effectively used to solve a need for a teacher. . .We need tools that solve real problems. (Read source)
A part of me balks at the idea of technology as a tool. Of course, I pandered to this perspective in my time…if we’re going to see technology as fundamentally transformational, expanding our definition of a tool as something simply external to the human body, then “tool” may not cut it.
You know, that’s a perspective worth playing around with. Even the idea of “mindtools” has been floated…but at what point do we achieve tool saturation? At what point is one individually over-run with available “tools,” in infinite variety and limited only by imagination? And, what are the fundamental needs of a teacher that can be met by the right tool? There seems an infinite amount of tools available for a finite amount of teacher needs. Even if you factor in that problems are as varied as the students, technology as a tool to solve real problems teachers have eventually makes students into problems. “There’s an app for you, apt pupil.”
In education, we’ve certainly seen a wave of cool technologies being “shoved down the throat of educators,” as one old colleague pointed out to me. In fact, I’m typing on an iPad right now, and I remember working on Palm handheld devices in the not too recent past (well, years ago, but still). I still remember one school district who, while cleaning out its storage room, stumbled on a whole bunch of Palm handheld devices–Tungsten Cs. “What?!? You found how many Tungstens sitting in their boxes, unopened?” was my shocked reply. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter what kind of tool you have, whether you have access to it, if management of the equipment isn’t up to snuff, then it just doesn’t matter, right?
Since I’m a writer, all you need to make a device useful to me is to attach a keyboard. For example, a Palm handheld wasn’t useful to me until the portable keyboard came in, same as the iPad. However, one of the powerful aspects of app-based learning is that tool-making is what we do as human beings…and, while I may not want to make apps to match the problems I encounter, I often don’t know–in true writer form–what my problem is until I meet the app that solves it.
Finding the app that solves a problem I couldn’t imagine before the app–a solution–is very similar to the writer who doesn’t know where s/he is going until s/he gets there by writing through the ideas. The key is, finding ways to write that will yield value…sometimes, the value is in the trouble of development, not the end-product, although that may pay off, too.
Is the iPad I’m typing on solving a problem I recognized myself as having, or a problem I wanted to have, a tool to use, a solution for a problem I didn’t have until I embraced the technology? Whew, what a convoluted mess. I clearly need to spend more time reflecting on this.
10 Tuesday Apr 2012
This is my first blog entry on the iPad, 3rd generation. I’m thoroughly astonished at how easy it is to blog on Blogsy app and Zagg keyboard. Adding an image wasn’t very hard to do…I pulled it in from PicasaWeb.
ATPE and the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) have teamed up to offer another useful and free professional learning experience for ATPE and TCEA members! Join us at 4:30 p.m. April 12 for Technology Tips for the Bilingual Classroom. During the webinar, TCEA Professional Development Director Monica Martinez will share useful tips for turning your classroom technology tools into resources for bilingual learners. For direct registration, click here.
Ok, enough playing around. Definitely worthwhile to check out my favorite must-have apps for iPad! Adding a link wasn’t too difficult either!
(how’s that for an even more than usual vacuous blog post? 😉 )
Oh, I also tried out Keynote…wow, it’s better than I hoped! You can actually embed videos, photos easily into Keynote slides. I’m going to give it a first run later and see how that goes…anyone else making Keynote presos with iPad Keynote App and sharing them online?
04 Wednesday Apr 2012
This is part two of a series on the new Texas Technology Application TEKS. This segment looks at the 6 Strands, which are based on the ISTE NETS-S.
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04 Wednesday Apr 2012
Posted Education, TechnologyManagement, TechTips
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Freedom Area School District Director of Technology Matt Scala is on duty at Thursday’s school board meeting, which took place with laptops replacing the traditional agendas and other documents. Source: TimesOnline.com Scenario:
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“We’re issuing laptops to the school board members…but we need something that will allow them to make changes to the machine, connecting digital projectors and adjusting the display settings but allow us to restore the machine, perhaps remotely, when the school board members mess it up without losing their data.”
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04 Wednesday Apr 2012
Posted Education, SocialMedia
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A colleague recently posted the following question–relevant to educators using Pinterest in educational settings–to a Texas listserv:
I am a big Pinterest fan, but I have seen some very questionable content. As in many other things, it is hidden in an innocent search. I have seen nudity, sexual depictions and even some images that could be stretched into child porn. I saw these images in searches under photography, nature and gardening and reported them but . . . This is certainly not the norm but I would not want to open it up to students in general.
It feels too often we are playing pin the tail on the donkey — spin around recycling what we’ve always done and stumble towards a target that we can’t see nor understand.
While Ryan is discussing failed education policies, we could think of it differently for social media use.
If you block everything that “may” have inappropriate content, you might as well shutdown the internet. If a teacher doesn’t have enough sense to preview what they’re broadcasting to their class, then they probably should not be in the classroom anyway. Unblock and let teachers and students use this great tool. If it gets used inappropriately, it’s a teacher or student disciple issue and should be dealt with as such. (Another response from a Texas Tech Coordinator)
One of the things I keep pushing with staff is the use of social media as a platform for growth and PLC’s. I’ve been really hitting them hard with Twitter over the years as a resource, but met with some resistance or general non-interest. Pinterest users are 80% female, which happes to be the same demographic as most of my teaching staff. Rather than try to convert them, I figure, join them and hit them where they are at. (like Facebook) Sure there are the occasionai off-topic walls like fashion, cookie recipes, or interior design, but we have started to use it to have a repository of articles in the Ed Tech world.
I don’t have ANY of these issues in my district…the solution is very simple…and works for everyone including parents and board members..etc. We give the teachers the right to bypass for any service and they can also bypass for students who need use…they are just responsible for monitoring more closely while in that mode…Nothing is beyond the reach of our students if the teacher as previewed the content and found it to be useful for student use.
Use is still logged and can be reviewed at any time….for instance had a teacher once who went to a strip bar site during class…very informative about this gentleman’s habits…but otherwise…no miss use or issues….they know they are responsible and accountable. Never have to respond to a request for opening a site unless it is something going to be used overtime, all the time.
Image Citations
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03 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted CTOsRole, Education, Leadership, Texas
inIn an earlier blog entry in my “The CTO’s Role” series, I explored a few tips for doing first things first. Since I wrote that blog entry, I had a chance to exchange emails with an esteemed colleague in another State about what she did upon first arriving to a school district as a CTO.
When I first started here I scheduled individual conversations with every administrator and technology person, as well as a few teachers who were identified as very interested and “high end” users. I had good conversations and took lots of notes, and I also asked every one of them to identify “2 stars and a wish” – 2 things we were doing really well on and one thing we could do (or do better) that would really impact their school. I mentioned their “stars” when I spoke at School Committee meetings or other events to make sure they heard that I valued their existing successes, even though they might be small, or things I didn’t think were necessarily stars. I managed to find something in them that I could praise. Then, I used the “wish” list so that during that first year I made headway (at least some progress) on every item. This is part of my building relationships strategy – people want to know you care before they care about what you know. So working on their wishes showed I listened and made what they cared about a priority for me, which showed I cared.
People build relationships in different ways – some by chatting and going to lunch and connecting about personal topics, and others tend to work more through shared tasks. I lean more to shared tasks (but not exclusively) – I find I can connect with people faster that way and can let the personal relationship grow over time. That’s just me – you may have a totally different style, but given that’s my approach, the strategy of working on something together with each person gave me the opportunity to start off building relationships through my strong suit.
2 Stars: What are two things the Tech Dept is doing really well?
1 Wish: What is one thing we could do (or do better) that would really impact your work in the school district?
…when you come into a new district you want to leverage other relationships – seek out the teachers who are leading the way with technology and partner with them to bring others along; connect with the library-media people and make sure they are integrating technology and helping to carry some of the technology department water; get to be really friendly with your CFO (or whatever the business officer is called) so that you know when they have extra money or [have] unspent tech money or budgets are going to be frozen soon (etc).
And be sure you are in the same bus going in the same direction with whoever is head of instruction – make sure they see you as a partner from the start and not someone to come to after they buy software that won’t fit their needs or answer their questions.
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03 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted TechTips, VideoConversion
inNote: You may want to scroll down and pause the auto-start video somewhere down in this post…or go crazy.
Some time in the last week, I shared the following with colleagues on the Google-Certified Teachers (GCT) list:
A colleague recently posted this question, and to be honest, we’ve had the same question in my current district. Any suggestions/ideas?
Students from one of our classes have entered a contest in our Electric Coop. They have uploaded a video to Youtube and it will be seen and judged on content. When I go to see it (and hopefully put it on our website) I see content that shouldn’t be viewed by children next to it. How can I avoid this? We tagged the youtube video with the words: teen, Silverton, electricity, co-op, energy.
You’ve probably already heard of ViewPure.com–I’d heard of it, but forgotten to bookmark it, and so…it was lost to me until Robert Madden (@mrmadden77) on the GCT list mentioned it again.
Viewpure is a web service that removes all the clutter from YouTube video and runs it in a neat interface. You can also create a custom environment for video viewing, example you can generate personalized URL (ViewPure.com/[URL]) and also password protect your video.
Read more: http://www.callingallgeeks.org/3412/watch-youtube-videos-in-clutter-free-interface-using-viewpure/#ixzz1qwJg3Ea9 Under Creative Commons License: Attribution No Derivatives
ViewPure.com solves the problem of inappropriate content popping up…not that I could find any for this blog entry:
And, if you’re feeling really adventurous and edgy (not really), you can also customize the page that appears on the ViewPure site, cutting out extraneous stuff…but that’s a bit more risky and in danger of violating copyright that ViewPure has established. I’ve emailed ViewPure.com to see what might be possible…is this something that could be self-hosted by schools?
Some other write-ups on ViewPure:
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2011/03/viewpure-how-to-make-educative-videos.html
http://www.detools.ca/?p=6973
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02 Monday Apr 2012
Posted Education, iPads, SpecialEducation
inThis news via the TCEA CAMPSIG email list (Lori Gracey):
Other free apps today are listed in the TCEA Tweets at http://www.twitter.com/tcea.
All the Milo speech apps which are normally $1.99 – $2.99 are on sale for $0.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speech-with-milo-verbs/id405441288?mt=8
Thank you!
Note: You can also find Miguel’s Must-Have Apps listed here!
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02 Monday Apr 2012
Posted Education, JobPosting, Texas
inDISTRICT: | Farmersville |
STATUS: | OPEN |
POSTING DATE: | 04/02/2012 |
CLOSING DATE: | |
POSTING NUMBER: | 013068 |
LOCATION: | District Wide |
POSITION: | Instructional Technology Facilitator |
JOB DESCRIPTION: | Facilitate the effective use of computers and other technology in instructional programs districtwide. Assist in the development of short- and long-range plans for the integration of technology into the instructional program. Implement and coordinate the technology staff development and training program.
Other Duties: |
JOB QUALIFICATIONS: | Education/Certification: Bachelor’s degree Valid Texas teaching certificate Special Knowledge/Skills: Knowledge of computer hardware and software applications Knowledge of technologies available for use in instructional setting Knowledge of curriculum design and implementation Ability to develop and deliver technology training to adult learners Strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills |
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: | Professional Development:1. Conduct needs assessments to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weaknesses in order to inform the content and delivery of professional development programs and technology interventions that have a direct positive impact on student learning. 2. Design, develop, and implement technology-rich professional development programs that model principles of adult learning and promote digital-age best practices in teaching, learning, and assessment. 3. Evaluate results of professional development programs, technology infrastructure, and instructional technology interventions to determine the overall effectiveness of a program on deepening student content knowledge, improving pedagogical skills, and increasing student learning. Teaching, Learning, and Assessment 1. Model and coach teachers to design and implement technology-enhanced learning experiences addressing content standards and student technology standards. 2. Model and coach teachers to design and implement technology-enhanced learning experiences using a variety of research-based, learner-centered instructional strategies and assessment tools to address the diverse needs and interests of all students. 3. Coach teachers to engage students in local and global interdisciplinary units in which technology helps students assume professional roles, research real-world problems, collaborate with others, and produce products that are meaningful and useful to a wide audience. 4. Model and coach teachers to design and implement technology-enhanced learning experiences emphasizing higher order thinking skills (e.g., compare, contrast, classify); processes (e.g., problem-solving, decision-making); and mental habits of mind (e.g., critical thinking, creative thinking, and self-regulation). 5. Model and coach teachers to design and implement technology-enhanced learning experiences using differentiation, including adjusting content, process, product, and learning environment based upon student readiness levels, learning styles, interests and personal goals. 6. Model and c |
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE: | 3 years teaching experience 3 years experience working with computer hardware and instructional software applications |
OTHER INFORMATION: | |
APPLY TO: | http://www.teacherjobnet.org wsullivan@farmersvilleisd.net |
SALARY: | district teacher scale commensurate w/duty days |
DAYS: | 226 |
WORK HOURS: | FROM – TO – |
GRADE / STEP: | |
START DATE: | June, 2012 |
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01 Sunday Apr 2012
Posted Education, TechnologyManagement, Texas, Virtualization
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Source: http://www.chriswolf.com/images/vdappliance.jpg |
Note: If images don’t appear below, please feel free to view this via EverNote. I have tried to correct the links and the images should appear. Thanks to Josh (comments) for noticing this!
Don Hindsley (catch him on Google+), a technology director about to retire in Texas schools, recently shared his response to the following question:
We’re ready to try our hand at desktop virtualization and would appreciate your advice on how to achieve the greatest results with minimum expense. VMWare?
Below, you’ll find his detailed response…thanks, Don!
In the summer of 2006, we installed a Citrix server farm that permitted us to virtualize the desktops for all of our students. They could access their virtual desktop anywhere here at school and also from home via the school website. It was great because if their computer (school or home) quit on them for any reason, they could just log onto any one nearby and pick up right where they were. No lost work, if they hadn’t saved lately.
Second huge advantage: we only had five installs of any new software or upgrade.
And third: we could easily show licensing compliance, because Citrix listed individuals and groups that had been given rights/access to the software.
Here is our total cost in 2006:
We purchased five Dell PowerEdge 2850’s w/ 4 GB-RAM and this set-up worked great for four years. Fall of 2010, we began to see a serious slowdown of the server farm because usage had grown beyond the number of simultaneous users we had planned for (150 max).
We had to research and decide whether the 1) Replace 2)increase capacity, or 3) add another system and split users into two groups.
We chose to install and run alongside the Citrix system a VMware setup (w/ View) because the product seemed to have made strides past where Citrix was then, AND we wanted to have both systems for our own learning and experience.
This past summer (2011), we installed a full Cisco blade server (8-quadcore CPU’s, 384 GB-RAM) and two ½ blades. Also VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus, w/ View.
Product list and costs are below:
It took us about three ½ months to feel that we had it all running consistently the way we wanted. We gor a late start because of the timimg of school budgets (We wish we could have started in June because then we would have been nearly ready for the start of school. As it turned out, administrative snafus with the budgeting delayed so the we started the installation at the beginnijng of August and were not ready to “turn it on” until Thanksgiving. The last entry for $25,000 (Professional Services) was assisting us, in person or on the telephone, in the configuration.
So now we have the students on Citrix (150 simultaneously with great speed) and 100 seats for faulty and staff on VMware.
Both system have their strong points. Right now, we really like the VMware the best. This spring, I am taking the Citrix servers dowm, on at a time, and re-installing the OS (server 2008 this time) then the latest Citrix software, etc. . . for students (and the IT staff) to experience the best of that, too. I think we’ll like Citrix better once we upgrade to a newer version.
DON’T SKIMP ON HARDWARE (you’ll be sorry with performance), and we’re glad we got View with the VMware.
01 Sunday Apr 2012
Posted Education, GoogleApps, Privacy
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Source: http://www.the-techbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Google-Privacy1.jpg |
Original Blog Entry
Vicki “CoolCatTeacher” Davis recently wrote a blog post, Why Schools Shouldn’t Use GoogleDocs for Anything Private, as well as responded via Facebook to this topic. I won’t spend much time on the problem, except to say that you can go read her blog entry and comments.
Google is working to protect our users’ privacy, especially from identity theft. It is not a violation to ask for an email address. While our protection policies occasionally classify some forms as abusing our TOS when they are not, no data is lost and through a review process we can return legitimate forms data to users who created the form. Within a domain, forms are not classified by Google at all.
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