Dangerously Irrelevant

Does ASCD EDge have a chance?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Recommendation

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

Transform the instructors first?

Here’s a short Twitter conversation that I had with Mary Zedeck on Wednesday:

I’ve been thinking about the question that I asked Mary. I wonder how many P-12 teachers or postsecondary faculty have had transformative experiences using technology. In other words, how many of them have personally intersected with some of the world-changing and paradigm-shifting possibilities that are out there? And for those who have, how many of them really understood what happened (i.e., how many recognized the bigger implications of the event that they personally experienced)?

Can we realistically expect educators who have not personally had (and understood) transformative technology experiences to create such experiences for their students? If not (and I’m guessing not), what implications does this have for our preservice and inservice training efforts?

What I said to the NEA

Earlier this month I asked what you would say to the NEA Board of Directors if you had the chance. Thank you, everyone, who chimed in with thoughts and suggestions. Here’s what I ended up showing and saying to NEA’s Board. As you’ll hear, I pushed them a bit…

• Audio of presentation (21 MB mp3)
  
• Audio of post-presentation Q&A (26 MB mp3)

UPDATE: Art Wolinsky kindly synchronized the audio and the slides for me if you'd like to watch the presentation as an integrated whole rather than accessing the slides and audio separately. He's also added the video to TeacherTube. Thanks, Art!

Interesting observation #1: The room was set up kind of like the United Nations. Here is the delegation from North Carolina. And over here is the delegation from Idaho…

Interesting observation #2: If you say the word ‘Walmart’ to NEA folks, they instinctively boo and hiss? Apparently they're not big fans of Walmart...

Everyone at NEA was very kind to me and I appreciated the opportunity to speak with them. I’m not sure what they’ll do (if anything) with what I said but I guess we’ll see! For those of you who are interested, you can check out my NEA web page, which includes additional resources.

Related posts

• What would YOU say to the NEA?

What would YOU say to the NEA?

I have been invited to speak to the Board of Directors of the National Education Association (NEA), our nation's largest teacher union, about disruptive innovation. I'm scheduled for the morning of Saturday, December 12. I only have 20 minutes, plus another 10 minutes for questions and discussion. If you were in my shoes, what would you tell them (stick to the topic, please!)?

4 tales out of school

Here are four tales out of school, as relayed by parents:

Hatshepsut and Thutmose

Four questions from a study packet for a middle school World Civilizations class:

A. Nubia developed trade routes over land because:

1. there was not enough wood to build boats
2. the Egyptians controlled the Nile
3. the cataracts prevented river travel in Nubia
4. Nubians only traded with West Africans

B. According to legend, who united Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt?

1. Hatshepsut
2. Menes
3. Amon-Re
4. Thutmose III

C. Thutmose III was all of the following except:

1. a conqueror
2. an educated man
3. unmerciful to the defeated
4. a great Pharaoh

D. What was the kingdom of Kerma known for?

1. great poverty
2. skilled archers
3. delicate pottery
4. ironworking

These are just a sample; most of the items in the packet are similar. Students have to ‘learn’ these because they’ll be quizzed on them.

It’s very hard for me to see this kind of schoolwork and not think that vast amounts of student time are just being wasted. And I’m the first to admit that I did this when I taught 8th grade. I didn’t know any better, but that didn’t make it right. There are lots of great higher-level concepts possible in this unit, such as the inter-dependent relationships between people and land, what influences where civilizations develop, and so on. But I don’t see those concepts here (and I wasn’t ever taught to focus on those as a teacher or student teacher).

[Correction: I've been informed that students did get to learn/write about some of those higher-level concepts too. That doesn't remedy the multiple-choice items for me, but it does help me feel slightly better.]

Study hall rules

In a high school cafeteria, there are flyers about study hall that say (among other things):

• Students may eat and drink as long as they clean up after themselves.
• Students may listen to music as long as they have headphones.
• Students may talk quietly.
• Game/Card playing, laptops, or any other such devices are not permitted in Study Hall. I-Pods are for music only.
• NO CELL PHONE USAGE!

In other words, you can eat snacks, hang out and talk with your friends, and listen to your music during ‘study hall,’ but you can’t use what may be the most powerful learning devices that humanity has yet invented.

Assessment reliability, validity, and parent (dis)trust

An e-mail exchange between a parent and a high school teacher…

Parent

Dear [teacher], I would like to find out how to get a copy of my son's exams for his Algebra 2 class. My son's name is XXXX XXXX. He informed me that he is not allowed to take them home. I am very surprised by this. I don't know how I, as a parent, am supposed to help him if I don't know what he is not understanding. Also, it is very helpful to students to have their exams to study for the final. I am happy to pay for copies. Please let me know what I need to do. Thank you.

Teacher

I am attaching a pdf of our departments rationale for keeping students' tests on file. In addition, students are welcome to set up times when they may review a test in the math study center. When exams are returned, they are welcome to write down a question in their notes to which they may refer later.

Parent

I am very disappointed by this policy although at least the department lets parents and students look at their old exams. I appreciate not letting them come home until all students have taken the exam, but it seems that waiting a week would be fine. The "needing copies on hand" can be dealt with by letting a parent pay for a copy to take home if requested or by scanning and emailing. As for the issue of not wanting to make up new problems, math is one of the easier subjects to do this in so I'm really surprised.

I hope that students have been informed of this policy; I as a parent certainly haven't been by any department. My son didn't seem to be aware of it though, but that could be a teenage thing. What times are available for me to come in and look at the exams? Do I make the appointment with you to get the exams or go through the math study center? Thanks for your help.

In other words: No, we don’t trust you or your child (and/or we can’t be bothered to make an alternative assessment); if you are willing and available to take off work and come down here, we’ll show you what you want to see and you can take some notes but you may not have even a copy of your child’s work.

No computers for you!

It’s December and some upper elementary students have yet to use a computer this year for anything other than typing practice and to look up things in the library catalog.  [I’m not sure there’s anything to say about this except to sigh in dismay]

Wrap-up

Four tales out of school. Four tales that could exist in most districts in the country. Four tales that illustrate the disconnects that often exist between our schools and the caring, empowering, relevant, meaningful, modern learning environments that we should be creating for students and their families. Got one or more tales to share of your own?

Does your school organization reflect our new digital information landscape?

[cross-posted at LeaderTalk]

CASTLE has been doing a great deal of technology leadership training for the School Administrators of Iowa, some of the Iowa Area Education Agencies, some of the Minnesota Service Cooperatives, and other school organizations across the country. One of the discussion activities that we’ve been doing lately asks session participants to think in groups about the impacts that the Internet and other digital technologies have had on various sectors of our society:

• newspapers, magazines, and the news industry
• banking, money management, and personal finance
• television, movies, and video
• maps, travel agencies, and the travel industry
• radio, CDs, and the music industry
• medicine and personal health
• reading and books
• how we communicate, connect, and share with each other; and
• universities

[Download these slides: ppt pptx]

This is not an exclusive list - for example, it doesn’t include the postal service or politics / political campaigning [or real estate agents] - but it does include many of the major sectors in our society that are information-oriented. In other words, they’re societal sectors and activities that, at their heart, are all about information and knowledge in one form or another.

In groups, participants can quite easily identify that ALL of these societal sectors are undergoing major, radical transformations because of digital technologies. Information-oriented societal activities are being reshaped in significant ways, and it’s just getting started as digital tools and environments continue to advance at a rapid pace.

Characteristics of our new digital information landscape

If asked to describe the ideas or themes that cut across all of these societal changes, participants can identify the general characteristics of our new digital information landscape. It is

• open
• more accessible
• more convenient
• more immediate / real-time
• networked
• connected
• shared
• collaborative
• interactive
• individualized
• empowering
• flexible
• adaptive
• less dependent on “experts”
• rapidly-changing
• more comprehensive
• searchable
• often crowdsourced
• creative
• multimodal / multimedia
• more efficient
• often less expensive
• global
• less dependent on geography
• technology-suffused
• less dependent on physical media
• and so on…

These apply to us too!

The challenge for us as leaders, of course, is that P-12 schools also are information-oriented institutions. At our hearts, we too are all about information:

• information mastery
• knowledge transmission and transference
• organizing and accessing information
• making meaning
• etc.

Because of this, schools shouldn’t expect that they somehow will be immune from the same changes that are radically altering other information-oriented societal sectors. We can’t continue to pretend that these revolutions aren’t going to affect us too, in significant and as-yet-unknown ways.

How many of the big ideas / cross-cutting themes above describe your school? Does the daily work of your school organization reflect our new digital information landscape?

"You're fired. I only want people who already know how to do their jobs."

Back in July I said that

I was concerned that we never seem to hold folks accountable for being self-learners.

I also noted that

In many job sectors, employees are expected to keep up with relevant technologies or risk job loss. When do we require that of K-12 and postsecondary educators? At what point do we say to them “No, we’re not training you how to use this. It’s easy enough for you to learn on your own. And if you don’t, we’ll find someone else who can.”

Many of you chimed in and shared your own thoughts on this topic. Apparently, now Dilbert has too:

When will we, as educational systems, redefine the job descriptions and expectations of educators to include their regular and effective incorporation of relevant digital technologies?

Related posts

• If you took away technology
• Slide - Should teachers get to choose?
• Conditions of employment

Marge Beatty, Nebraska ESU 16, talks about 1:1 laptop programs

[cross-posted at CASTLE's 1-to-1 Schools blog]

While at Nebraska’s first-ever Educational Administrators Technology Conference, I learned that 8 of the 16 districts in Educational Service Unit 16 have 1:1 laptop programs. Marge Beatty, chief administrator for the ESU, was willing to let me ask her a few questions. Happy viewing!

7 steps to success when working with administrators

I spent yesterday with technology integrationists from the various Educational Service Units in Nebraska. In my experience, technology integrationists usually are wonderful people who know a lot about digital societal shifts and effective technology usage in the classroom. What they don’t necessarily know, however, is how to foster system-level change themselves and/or help school leaders do so.

Here’s what I think technology integrationists can do to assist their principals and superintendents:

1. Administrators are unknowledgeable, not evil. Recognize that most of them are dedicated educators who want to do the right thing but may not have the necessary knowledge base or skill sets.
2. The world has changed. Help them see the big picture: the larger, deeper societal shifts and transformations that form the external context within which schools are operating.
3. We need to keep up. Help them see that the larger context is a desirable and/or inevitable destination for school systems generally and for their school organization specifically.
4. We’re not keeping up. Help them see that the school system’s not where it should be in regard to the big picture. Create cognitive disconnects for them between their school organization’s status quo and the desired destination.
5. Facilitate success. Help them gain the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to move toward the desired destination.
6. Rebut the naysayers. Help them counteract the inevitable yabbuts (“Yeah, but…”; “Yeah, but…”).
7. Rinse and repeat. Do this over and over again until they, you, and the system win.

The folks I worked with yesterday stated that they generally weren’t paying enough attention to #2, 3, 4, or 6. Their typical approach was to tout the benefits and wonders of – and to try to train administrators how to use – various digital technologies without sufficiently addressing the other aspects listed above. They also noted that the time they did spend working with administrators was focused too much on tool training and that they needed to spend more time on broader technology leadership issues.

Of course this model is applicable to other educators too, not just administrators. What do you think?

Technology Mentoring: A Timeless Idea

First, I'd like to thank Scott for hosting me as part of my virtual tour to support The Best of Learning & Leading with Technology. You can follow the entire tour at Ed Tech Jen. To thank you for taking the time to find out a little about me and about the book, I'll be giving away a copy of the book to one lucky commenter.

Technology Mentoring

In pulling together this collection of the best articles from a five-year span of Learning & Leading with Technology, I looked for three things:

1. Articles that were compelling to read.
2. Articles that many of our readers responded to, nominated for the collection on The Best of L&L blog, or had included in course packets.
3. Articles that contained ideas that transcended specific technologies or educational settings.

One article that really stood out in the technology leadership area was "Teacher to Teacher Mentoring" by Kathleen Gora and Janice Hinson. (ISTE members can read this article here.)

Gora and Hinson described a program in their school where the more-experienced technology users helped teach their fellow teachers to integrate specific technologies into their instruction. They found much better results from these mentorships than from other professional development methods they had tried in their school.

One of the nice things about this program was that it had the deep support of the principal. This was really a key component of its success, and the main reason that the program is still in effect today.

When I contacted many of the authors whose works are included in the book, they shared a different result. Some had retired, and some had moved into other educational settings where technology use was not as well supported. Those who were still teaching used many of the same pedagogical techniques, but were unable to include the technology component. Thus, the fact that the program described in this article is still active is notable.

One of the compelling points for me was that this school had taken a solid teaching truth and applied it to itself. We know that students learn a topic really well when they have to teach it to their fellow students. So it makes sense that teachers who have to train other teachers in a technology integration technique or the use of an application would learn it better than if they were just using it personally.

What about you. Have you used mentoring in your educational setting? If so, what sort of process have you used to group mentors and mentees and to assign topics of study? How do assess the effectiveness of the mentorship?

Have you taken any other tenet of effective student learning and applied it to teacher professional development or to your own professional learning? How has it worked? Have you thought about sharing that idea with other technology leaders?

About Jennifer Roland

Jennifer is a writer living in the Portland, Oregon, area. She holds bachelor’s degrees in magazine journalism and political science from the University of Oregon. Her education also focused on history, economics, linguistics, and educational policy and management. Before embarking on her freelance career, she was a staff member at ISTE. Follow Jennifer on her blog tour at http://edtechjen.com; each tour stop includes a chance to win a copy of The Best of Learning & Leading with Technology.

About The Best of Learning & Leading with Technology

ISTE’s flagship magazine, Learning & Leading with Technology, is where the organization’s members and industry experts share and discuss the latest and greatest in using technology to enhance education. This collection includes the very best articles from 2003-2008. Along with the articles as they originally appeared in the magazine, the book includes commentary and context introducing the articles as well as short essays from the original authors, who further discuss the issues and topics of their articles and how they’ve affected the ed tech world.

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Education policy blogs

Today is the LAST day of THE PUSH!

Today we focus on EDUCATION POLICY. We're looking for excellent education policy blogs (liberal, conservative, or neither) that P-12 educators should be reading. If you know of any, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 educators can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, at the end we should have a bevy of excellent P-12 blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

FYI, yesterday was a good day for THE PUSH. We now have a list of 9 excellent superintendent / district blogs (and that's before I add a few that I know about). Thank you! We’re doing okay in most other areas but still could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• athletics / extracurricular activities (only have 1),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 4),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 7), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

See you in Mumbai?

The American School of Bombay (ASB) in Mumbai, India is hosting a 1:1 laptop computing conference in February 2010. While the conference is aimed at other international schools, it should be an excellent learning opportunity for anyone who can attend. I attended (and keynoted) ASB's first conference two years ago, brought my buddy, Dr. David Quinn, and had an absolutely wonderful time. I met a bunch of really great international educators and learned a lot about effective 1:1 programs. I highly encourage you to try and attend; Mumbai's a fascinating city! The conference is a collaborative effort of ASB, the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation (AALF), the Laptop Institute, and the NESA Center.

If you'd like to submit a proposal to present, the deadline is September 5. The deadline to register and attend is November 15. More information on the conference - including how to register and/or submit a proposal - is at the ASB Un-Plugged Ning.

CASTLE will be sending three representatives to the conference. We're going to make sure we're there in time for the preconference with AALF, which looks totally amazing. ASB is the best 1:1 school I've seen to date; I'm looking forward to seeing how much progress they've made since my last visit. I'm heading up the leadership strand of the conference. Vicki Davis, Julie Lindsay, Doug Johnson, Scott Klososky, and Helen Barrett will be leading conference strands too. Hope to see you there!

Related posts

• Sharing the global stage: Musings on Mumbai
• Musings from Mumbai: Fostering a climate of innovation in the middle and high schools

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Superintendent / district blogs

Just 1 day left for THE PUSH! 

Today we focus on SUPERINTENDENTS / SCHOOL DISTRICTS. We're looking for excellent superintendent, central office, or district-wide blogs (e.g., where multiple individuals contribute). What superintendent / district blogs should P-12 administrators be reading or viewing as models? If you know of any, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. 

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 educators can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, at the end we should have a bevy of excellent P-12 blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

FYI, yesterday was a good day for THE PUSH. We now have a list of 24 principal / school blogs. Thank you! We’re doing okay in most other areas but still could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• athletics / extracurricular activities (only have 1),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 4),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 7), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Principal / school blogs

Just 2 days left for THE PUSH! 

I had a moment of panic yesterday because the Moving Forward wiki disappeared completely from the Web. Fortunately Wikispaces resolved the problem quickly and kindly. Great customer service!

Today we focus on PRINCIPALS / SCHOOLS. We're looking for excellent principal blogs or school-wide blogs (e.g., where multiple individuals contribute). What principal / school blogs should P-12 administrators be reading or viewing as models? If you know of any, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. [Note: Tomorrow we'll look for superintendent / school district / central office blogs.]

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 educators can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, at the end we should have a bevy of excellent P-12 blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

We’re doing okay in most other areas but still could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• athletics / extracurricular activities (only have 1),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 4),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 7), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Secondary teacher blogs

Just 3 days left for THE PUSH! I don't know how many of these we'll get, but today we focus on SECONDARY TEACHERS. Are there any excellent secondary teacher blogs where 7-12 educators are blogging generally about middle or high school teaching that DON'T fall into a particular subject area? In other words, generalist secondary teacher blogs? If you know of any, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. [Note: Yesterday we worked on secondary classroom blogs where 7-12 students are writing and sharing. Also, we already covered subject-specific blogs.]

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, at the end we should have a bevy of excellent P-12 blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

With just a few days to go, we’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• athletics / extracurricular activities (only have 1),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 3),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 7), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

Chris Lehmann speaks to the FCC

I don't know how Chris Lehmann finagled an invite to speak to the FCC, but I sure am glad he did (and that he filmed it!). Click on the picture below to listen to Chris' 10-minute presentation. I promise it will be WELL worth your time. 

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Secondary classroom blogs

Just 4 days left of THE PUSH! Today we focus on SECONDARY CLASSROOMS. What are some excellent secondary classroom blogs that 7-12 educators should be reading? We're looking for excellent examples of blogs where secondary students share their work. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. [Note: Tomorrow we'll work on secondary teacher blogs - where teachers are writing and sharing about their lives as middle and high school educators).

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, at the end we should have a bevy of excellent P-12 blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

FYI, yesterday was another good day for THE PUSH. We now have a list of 18 excellent general elementary teacher blogs. With 4 days to go, we’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• athletics / extracurricular activities (only have 1),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 3),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 7), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Elementary classroom blogs

Today THE PUSH focuses on ELEMENTARY CLASSROOMS. What are some excellent elementary classroom blogs that P-6 educators should be reading? We're looking for excellent examples of blogs where elementary students share their work. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. [Note: Tomorrow we'll work on elementary teacher blogs - where teachers, but not students - are writing and sharing).

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, at the end we should have a bevy of excellent P-12 blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

FYI, yesterday was another good day for THE PUSH. We now have a list of 16 excellent P-12 library / media education blogs. With 7 days to go, we’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• athletics / extracurricular activities (only have 1),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 3),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 7), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Library / media education blogs

Yesterday was a good day for THE PUSH. We now have a list of 13 excellent P-12 business / computer science education blogs! As we get closer to the end (only 7 more days!), we’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• athletics / extracurricular activities (only have 1),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 7), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

Today we focus on LIBRARY / MEDIA EDUCATION. What are some excellent library / media education blogs that P-12 educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, at the end we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Business / computer science education blogs

I took a couple of days off from THE PUSH - guess I was tired! We only identified 1 excellent P-12 athletics / extracurricular activities blog. As we head into the home stretch (only 8 more days!), we’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 6), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

Today we focus on BUSINESS / COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION. What are some excellent business / computer science education blogs that P-12 educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Athletics / extracurricular activities blogs

Sometimes THE PUSH has a tough day. Yesterday we only identified 2 excellent school counseling / college and career counseling / school psychology education blogs. We’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education (only have 3),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2), and
• physical / health education blogs (only have 6).

Today we focus on ATHLETICS AND EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES. Who's doing a great job of using a blog to publicize their athletic and/or extracurricular programs? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: School counseling / school psychology / career education blogs

Yesterday was a good day for THE PUSH! We identified 7 excellent gifted education blogs. We’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education (only have 3),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2), and
• physical / health education blogs (only have 6).

Today we focus on SCHOOL COUNSELING, SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY, and/or CAREER EDUCATION. What are some excellent blogs that P-12 counselors, school psychologists, and/or career educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Gifted education blogs

Yesterday was another great day for THE PUSH! We identified 11 excellent English as a second language (ESL) education blogs. We’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education (only have 3),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2), and
• physical / health education blogs (only have 6).

Today we focus on GIFTED EDUCATION. What are some excellent Gifted and Talented education blogs that P-12 educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: English as a Second Language (ESL) education blogs

Yesterday was a better day for THE PUSH. We identified 8 excellent preschool / early childhood education blogs. We’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education (only have 3),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2), and
• physical / health education blogs (only have 6).

Today we focus on ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL) EDUCATION. What are some excellent ESL education blogs that P-12 ESL educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Preschool / early childhood education blogs

THE PUSH is struggling a bit right now. The past few categories have been tough. Yesterday we only identified 3 excellent agricultural education blogs. We’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2)
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2), and
• physical / health education blogs (only have 6).

Today we focus on PRESCHOOL / EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION. What are some excellent early childhood education blogs that preschool educators should be reading? If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Agricultural education blogs

THE PUSH is a hit: we're getting closer and closer to 200 excellent subject-specific P-12 blogs! However, we're in a really tough stretch right now. Yesterday we only identified 2 excellent family / consumer sciences education blogs. We’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2), and
• physical / health education blogs (only have 5).

Today we focus on AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. What are some excellent agricultural education blogs that P-12 Ag educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

"I'm not good at math." "I'm not very good at computers."

The personal computer has been around for about 30 years. For most of us, the Internet has been around for about 10 years. And yet we still have a sizable percentage of teachers and administrators who can barely work their computers. What does this say about us as educators? As employees of supposed learning organizations who purportedly are all about 'life-long learning?'

Is saying "I'm not very good at computers" the modern counterpart to "I'm not good at math" (both typically accompanied by a chuckle and a c'est la vie hand wave as if it didn't matter)?

Photo credit: Nonchalant glamour

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Family / consumer sciences education blogs

By all accounts THE PUSH has been a big success. However, some areas are more difficult than others. For example, yesterday we only identified 1 excellent drama / theater education blog. That's sad, because a blog would be a great way to publicize and highlight dramatic works. The possibilities for embedded video, for example, are endless. Here’s how we’re doing in other areas:

• 21 special education blogs,
• 2 vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (we need more of these!),
• 5 physical / health education blogs (we still need more of these too),
• 9 music education blogs,
• 14 art education blogs,
• 11 world languages education blogs,
• 12 Social Studies education blogs,
• 17 English / language arts education blogs,
• 29 science education blogs, and
• 29 math education blogs.

Today we focus on FAMILY / CONSUMER SCIENCES EDUCATION. What are some excellent family / consumer sciences education blogs that P-12 FACS educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Drama / theater education blogs

Yesterday THE PUSH identified 20 excellent special education blogs. Nice work, everyone! Here’s how we’re doing in other areas:

• 2 vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (we need more of these!),
• 5 physical / health education blogs (we still need more of these too),
• 9 music education blogs,
• 14 art education blogs,
• 11 world languages education blogs,
• 12 Social Studies education blogs,
• 17 English / language arts education blogs,
• 28 science education blogs, and
• 29 math education blogs.

Today we focus on DRAMA / THEATER EDUCATION. What are some excellent drama education blogs that P-12 dramatic arts educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Special education blogs

Yesterday was a tough day for THE PUSH. We only came up with 2 excellent vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs yesterday. If you know of any more, we could use them. Here’s how we’re doing in other areas:

• 5 physical / health education blogs (we still need more of these too),
• 9 music education blogs,
• 14 art education blogs,
• 11 world languages education blogs,
• 11 Social Studies education blogs,
• 17 English / language arts education blogs,
• 27 science education blogs, and
• 28 math education blogs.

Today we focus on SPECIAL EDUCATION. What are some excellent special education blogs that P-12 special educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs

Well, THE PUSH only came up with 4 excellent physical / health education blogs yesterday. If you know of any more, we could use them. Here’s how we’re doing in other areas:

• 8 music education blogs,
• 14 art education blogs,
• 9 world languages education blogs,
• 10 Social Studies education blogs,
• 16 English / language arts education blogs,
• 23 science education blogs, and
• 27 math education blogs.

Today we focus on VOCATIONAL / APPLIED / INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION. What are some excellent vocational / applied / industrial technology blogs that P-12 educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. [Note: later on we'll be looking for family / consumer science education, agricultural education, and business / computer science education blogs.]

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Physical education / health education blogs

THE PUSH has a big challenge today. Are we up to the task? Yesterday we identified 7 excellent music education blogs. Here’s how we’re doing in other areas:

• 13 art education blogs,
• 8 world languages education blogs,
• 10 Social Studies education blogs,
• 14 English / language arts education blogs,
• 24 science education blogs, and
• 27 math education blogs.

Today we focus on PHYSICAL EDUCATION / HEALTH EDUCATION. What are some PE / health education blogs that P-12 physical / health educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. 

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Music education blogs

THE PUSH continues to get more DIFFICULT as we head away from the “core” areas. Yesterday was a good day. We identified 12 excellent art education blogs. Here’s how we’re doing in other areas:

• 5 world languages education blogs (we need MORE of these!),
• 10 Social Studies education blogs,
• 14 English / language arts education blogs,
• 20 science education blogs, and
• 27 math education blogs.

Today we focus on MUSIC EDUCATION. What are some music education blogs that P-12 music educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. 

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Art education blogs

THE PUSH is getting HARDER as we move away from the “core” areas. Yesterday we only identified 2 (yes, 2) excellent language education blogs. We’re doing much better in other areas:

• 9 Social Studies education blogs,
• 13 English / language arts education blogs,
• 19 science education blogs, and
• 26 math education blogs.

Today we focus on ART EDUCATION. What are some art education blogs that P-12 art educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. 

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: World languages education

THE PUSH continues... So far we're up to:

• 6 Social Studies education blogs (really? that's all?),
• 9 English / language arts education blogs,
• 17 science education blogs, and
• 24 math education blogs.

Thanks, everyone!

Today this initiative gets harder as we begin to move away from "the core" and focus on WORLD LANGUAGES EDUCATION. What are some Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, Latin, and/or other language education blogs that P-12 language educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. 

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: Social Studies education blogs

THE PUSH had another great day yesterday. We’re now up to:

• 8 English / language arts education blogs,
• 13 science education blogs, and
• 24 math education blogs.

Thanks, everyone!

Today we work on SOCIAL STUDIES EDUCATION. What are some excellent history, government (or political science), geography, sociology, psychology, and/or economics education blogs that P-12 Social Studies educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. 

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH: English / language arts education blogs

Thirteen science education blogs and twenty-four math education blogs later, THE PUSH is off to a good start!

Today we work on ENGLISH / LANGUAGE ARTS EDUCATION. What are some excellent English / Language Arts education blogs that P-12 Language Arts educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. [note: There’s a separate category on the wiki for English as a Second Language blogs. We’ll get to those later!]

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH continues: Science education blogs

Yesterday I announced THE PUSH… [and we generated an amazing list in just 24 hours]

Today we work on SCIENCE EDUCATION. What are some excellent science education blogs that P-12 science educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

HELP WANTED - THE PUSH begins: Math blogs

THE PUSH begins today! What is THE PUSH? Glad you asked!

Every single day for at least the next two weeks, we work together to identify excellent subject-specific blogs that are useful to P-12 teachers. Why? Several reasons…

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

We start with MATH EDUCATION. What are some excellent math education blogs that P-12 math educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

Podcast - Conversation with Dr. Dan Willingham, University of Virginia

Many of you have been participating in and/or following the conversations for this year’s CASTLE Summer Book Club. 

I am pleased to announce that my interview today with Dr. Dan Willingham, professor at the University of Virginia and author of Why Don’t Students Like School?, is now available as either streaming audio or a downloadable podcast.

Happy listening!

Are our training efforts helping educators or enabling codependence?

I had a Twitter discussion the other night with Jim Twetten, who’s the Assistant Director for Academic Technologies here at Iowa State University and also has quickly become one of my ‘go to’ people on campus.

Jim took exception to the fact that I had poked fun at the ‘Learn about Facebook’ training session that ISU was offering to faculty. I replied that I was concerned that we never seem to hold folks accountable for being self-learners. After all, Facebook isn’t an extraordinarily difficult tool to learn how to use. Most intelligent people (which university faculty generally are) could figure out much of it if they just sat down and messed around for 30 minutes or so. And of course the same applies to blogs, wikis, and many other technologies. They’ve gotten so simple that the learning curve just isn’t that steep anymore.

And yet many educators (K-12 teachers and administrators, postsecondary faculty, etc.) still are extremely unwilling to just sit down and try stuff. Our digital learners, of course, have little hesitancy when it comes to clicking on things just to see what they’ll do. That willingness to probe, investigate, and experiment helps them learn and master the tools.

As someone who does a lot of training and professional development for school administrators, I wonder how much I’m facilitating codependence. In many job sectors, employees are expected to keep up with relevant technologies or risk job loss. When do we require that of K-12 and postsecondary educators? At what point do we say to them “No, we’re not training you how to use this. It’s easy enough for you to learn on your own. And if you don’t, we’ll find someone else who can.”

It’s a fine line between helping and codependence. And when it comes to educator technology training, I’m not sure we’re always on the right side of that line…

Opening up my classes, looking for co-learners: Fall 2009 School Law & DDDM

Some of you may have noticed that I have two online courses coming up this fall. Here’s what I’m thinking…

I’ve been reading Jeff Jarvis’ superb book, What Would Google Do? (which I’ll be writing more about soon). Over and over again, he stresses the importance of openness, transparency, collaboration, collective action, co-learning, co-creation of knowledge, and giving up control in this new Internet era.

So what would that look like in a graduate-level course? I’m not quite sure but I want to find out. I’m taking my two most popular educational leadership courses - School Law & Data-Driven Decision-Making - and offering them online to anyone, anywhere who wants to take them.

I’m looking for teachers and administrators who want to dive in deep, wrestle with thorny problems, and challenge their thinking regarding these two important school leadership topics. I don’t know yet what directions we’ll go; we’ll determine that together. I don’t know yet what topics we’ll cover; we’ll determine that together. I don’t know yet how we’ll demonstrate our learning; we’ll determine that together. The point of this is that I’m not going to be the omniscient, omnipotent faculty member dictating course structure, sequence, assessment, etc. This is a joint exercise in learning and I need participants who are willing to be active co-learners.

I’ve taught these classes online before with great success. I’ve prided myself on being a student-centered instructor. But it’s time to take my teaching to the next level. Am I a little uncertain about this? Absolutely. But a little healthy instructional tension will be good for me and my students both.

More information on the two courses - including tuition costs and how to register - is here. Both classes should be excellent options for educators who need relicensure credits, are exploring the idea of graduate-level coursework, or need to take an outside course for an existing graduate program.

Hope some of you will join me; please feel free to also pass this along. We start at the end of August!

Technology boot camp for administrators

A few weeks ago we decided to offer a technology ‘boot camp’ for administrators. CASTLE is working with the School Administrators of Iowa to make it happen. For those of you who are interested, here is some information on what we’re doing:

• Promotional flyer
• Boot camp wiki 
• The signs we have all around the room

We started yesterday. Unlike our Transitioning Schools into the 21st Century workshops, which focused on technology leadership issues, the purpose of the boot camp is solely to ramp up school leaders’ technological skills. Our emphasis is on providing a safe space for administrators to learn and empowering them to walk away from the workshop with the ability to actually do this stuff. We’re taking our time, answering lots of questions, and covering whatever we can in the time that we have. We had participants blogging within the first hour yesterday. They were pretty excited!

We’ve got a great bunch of school leaders in this first boot camp. If today goes as well as yesterday, we’ll do a few more next academic year.

Any feedback that you have on what we’re doing would be most welcome. Anyone out there doing something similar? If so, how’s it going?

CASTLE Summer Book Club - We have liftoff!

Whew! It’s consumed a lot of my time the past week but I am pleased to say that the 2009 CASTLE Summer Book Club is off and running! [Okay, more accurately, I should say that it has consumed a lot of the valuable time of Laura Bestler, CASTLE’s technology coordinator. Thank you, Laura!]

How to participate

Thanks to a few last-minute folks, our grand total is 246. Participants are busy introducing themselves (and learning how to comment on a blog!). If you want to follow the action, here are our four discussion groups:

• Group 1 (blue)
• Group 2 (orange)
• Group 3 (green)
• Group 4 (pink)

Even if you’re not an ‘official’ participant and thus can’t post to the group blogs, you still can play along at home by leaving comments (be sure to read the copyright notice in the initial Getting Started post). If you’re interested, each discussion group also has RSS feeds and e-mail subscription options for both the posts and the comments.

Social media

The book club has a Twitter and Technorati hashtag (#castlebc) and a Twibe.

Hope you’ll join us for our live podcast with Dr. Daniel Willingham, the author of Why Don’t Students Like School?, at 12pm Central on July 13!

CASTLE Summer Book Club - Update 3

[Update: If you registered, please check your junk mail / spam folders. Many of you who thought you had not received an e-mail from me later found my message in there...]

Registration for the 2009 CASTLE Summer Book Club has closed. We have 238 participants this year, including myself. Whew! Participants come from the following countries:

• Canada (6)
• Malaysia (1)
• Singapore (1)
• United Kingdom (1)
• United States (229)

I have divided us into four discussion groups. Last night I sent an e-mail to all participants that confirmed their registration and notified them of their group number. They will receive another e-mail this weekend that includes the URL of their online discussion area. The links to the four discussion areas will be posted here as well. Our conversations will be public and anyone can join us on an ad hoc basis as desired.

We start on Monday!

Mark your calendars

Dr. Daniel Willingham, author of the book that we’re reading, Why Don’t Students Like School?, has graciously agreed to do a live podcast with me on July 13 from 1pm to 2pm Eastern. Questions will be generated from our book club participants.

Related posts

• Our discussion timeline for the summer
• Some FAQs
• Another update

CASTLE Summer Book Club - Update 2

Registration for the 2009 CASTLE Summer Book Club closes this Wednesday at midnight. To date we have 159 participants, which blows the doors off of last year’s total of 125. A week ago we had 81 participants, so we’ve effectively doubled the size of the group in the last seven days. Awesome!

We’re reading Why Don’t Students Like School? by Dr. Daniel Willingham, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia. I selected this book despite the fact that my alma mater, The College of William & Mary, is a fierce in-state academic rival of UVA so you know the book has to be pretty good! Sorry, those of you who have asked for a Kindle version...

Stay in touch as you have questions. I’ll see some of you online starting next week! 

Second annual CASTLE summer book club starts June 15

After much deliberation, I’ve decided to do another online summer book club. I’m supposed to be taking the summer off but last year’s discussion of Influencer: The Power to Change Anything was so much fun that I can’t resist doing it again…

This year’s reading for the CASTLE summer book club will be Why Don’t Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for Your Classroom. The author is Dr. Daniel Willingham, Professor of Psychology at The University of Virginia.

Getting started

1. Complete the online participation form by midnight, June 10 (Central time).
2. Buy the book!

Commitments

• We start June 15. Be ready.
• Keep up with the reading. No excuses.
• Be an active participant in our online discussion area.
• Dissect ideas vigorously but also be nice to other discussants.
• Help foster interesting dialogue and connected community.

Schedule

1. 6/15 to 6/21 – Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 (40 pages)
2. 6/22 to 6/28 – Chapters 3 and 4 (40 pages)
3. 6/29 to 7/5 – Chapters 5 and 6 (32 pages)
4. 7/6 to 7/12 – Chapters 7 and 8 (34 pages)
5. 7/13 to 7/19 – Chapter 9, Conclusion, and Wrap-Up (20 pages)

This offer is open to all leaders and change agents, at whatever level they’re operating (hint: this might be a good summer activity for some of your local principals or superintendents!).

I’m looking forward to some interesting discussions. Hope some of you will join me this summer!

Related posts

• CASTLE Summer Book Club - Update 1

Top 10 K12 Online 2008 podcasts for busy school administrators

Here are my top 10 2008 K12 Online Conference podcasts for busy principals and superintendents (in no particular order). These are the K12 Online presentations that I think are most likely to interest, educate, and entertain administrators as well as make them think!

1. There’s something going on here you need to know about… (Dennis Richards)
2. Current leadership models are inadequate for disruptive innovations (Scott McLeod)
3. The voices of School 2.0: School reform as described by the words and images of the people of the Science Leadership Academy (Chris Lehmann)
4. I like Delicious things: An introduction to tagging and folksonomies (Chris Betcher)
5. Telling the new story: Leverage points for inspiring change orientation (David Warlick)
6. Oh the possibilities (Lisa Parisi)
7. Games in education (Sylvia Martinez)
8. Facilitating technology integration: A synthesis of the research (Jon Becker)
9. “What did you do in school yesterday, today, and three years ago?” (H Songhai)
10. Parental engagement in the 21st century: Leveraging Web 2.0 tools to engage parents in non-traditional ways (Lorna Constantini & Matt Montagne)

Load these onto an iPod, hand it to a busy school administrator, and say, “Here are some presentations that I think you’ll enjoy while you’re exercising or driving around. After you’ve listened to a few, let me know what you think!”

Yesterday

• See my list of the top 20 TED Talks podcasts for busy school administrators.

See also

• The Moving Forward wiki’s Podcasts page

Related posts

• Creating digitally-interested administrators
• Professional development for the leaders
• Great education podcasts meme

Top 20 TED Talks podcasts for busy school administrators

Here are my top 20 TED Talks podcasts for busy principals and superintendents (in no particular order). These are the TED presentations that I think are most likely to interest, educate, and entertain administrators as well as make them think!

1. Kevin Kelly on the next 5,000 days of the web
2. Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom
3. Brewster Kahle builds a free digital library
4. Jonathan Drori on what we think we know
5. Mae Jemison on teaching arts and sciences together
6. Patti Maes demos the Sixth Sense
7. Clay Shirky on institutions vs. collaboration
8. Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
9. David Perry on videogames
10. Stuart Brown says play is more than fun
11. Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves
12. Charles Leadbeater on innovation
13. Michael Merzenich on re-wiring the brain
14. Dave Eggers’ wish: Once upon a school
15. Ray Kurzweil on how technology will transform us
16. Alan Kay shares a powerful idea about ideas
17. Howard Rheingold on collaboration
18. Erin McKean redefines the dictionary
19. Richard Baraniuk on open-source learning
20. Ann Cooper talks school lunches

Load these onto an iPod, hand it to a busy school administrator, and say, “Here are some presentations that I think you’ll enjoy while you’re exercising or driving around. After you’ve listened to a few, let me know what you think!”

Stay tuned

• Come back tomorrow for my list of the top 10 2008 K12 Online Conference podcasts for busy school administrators.

See also

• The Moving Forward wiki’s Podcasts page

Related posts

• Creating digitally-interested administrators
• Professional development for the leaders
• Great education podcasts meme

Upcoming event: AASA's Seattle Summit

I was delighted to see the announcement from the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) that it is hosting a summit in July on technology leadership issues. AASA is the national organization for school superintendents. Despite the desperate need for more tech-, 21st-century-skills–, and/or future-savvy school administrators, we don’t see near enough learning opportunities in this area from the big three national associations (AASA, NAESP, and NASSP). Maybe down the road AASA will do another one of these and I’ll get an invite to participate (hint, hint)!

The three-day institute is called the Seattle Summit. If any of you go, let me know how it went for you! Anyone want to go and live blog it? That would be fun!