It’s that time of year again – time to be thinking about ways to make the new year easier or better or more productive than the last. If I write ‘em down, I might just achieve these goals – here’s what I plan to do differently in 2007 with regard to technology.
- Name files better. I should be more consistent and concise in creating and naming files to save. Word automatically picks up the beginning of the first sentence in a new document and will name the file with that by default – like this: It was a dark and stormy night when John first arrived at Newfound.doc. A better file name might be dark_stormy.doc – no spaces between words, no punctuation (except .doc), and just long enough to remind me of the contents of the file. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen documentation on the correct way to name files and, if it exists, please post a link for us. What I do know is that I’ve seen files that couldn’t be opened miraculously open up when odd file names are changed. I also believe Unix, which is what Macs run in the background, can be a bit fussy when it comes to file names. So I’m not taking any chances. I must be getting better with this already – the other day I labeled a Tupperware container of leftover chicken broth like this: c_broth-dec06.
- Maintain my inbox. When I was in the classroom, I had to hide my desk. Too much clutter. Eventually I got rid of it entirely and turned it into our science center. My inbox is the new reincarnation of that desk – a holding tank for all the info I don’t have time to deal with or to file or to get rid of. At last count I had 2000+ emails, which is inexcusable, and 41 folders, which has been my valiant attempt at organization. I plan to take the time daily to sift through my emails, filing what I need, deleting what I don’t, and responding back, in a timely manner, to those I need to. Email has become a way of life at Newfound. It’s time I changed my habits to deal with it effectively and efficiently.
- Pay attention to storage. As you can no doubt infer by now, I like to be able to see my stuff. Sadly my computer desktop reflects that. Folders of current projects or documents in process sit on the desktop where I can see them. Where I can get to them easily when I need them – because I’m going to need them soon! But, as a result, they don’t get backed up with the rest of the stuff hidden away in my Documents folder. Documents folders on the servers in each building are backed up every day. Choosing ease of file retrieval over ease of backup is just plain not a good choice – especially for someone in my position. This will be a tough one for me since I have Documents folders in each school. But I resolve to use them for their intended purpose – to keep all my stuff safe.
- Investigate new programs. I’m a hands-on learner. The only way I learn something new is to mess around with it, make mistakes, then learn from them. And there are so many new (and old – and FREE!) applications that I want to learn, ones that have clear implications for education. But who has the time? I sure don’t! I’m resolving this year to make time to fool around with at least a couple of them. New programs come out all the time. If I don’t keep up, I’m just going to get lost in a sea of new educational technologies about which I know only the names.
- Schedule reading. There are so many good edtech blogs out there, so many online versions of print educational magazines. So many opportunities to learn from others. And I never, ever have enough time to read it all. How do I know what’s going on outside my own walls if I don’t read? So, in an effort to keep up, I’m going to try to schedule the same hour every week, just to read. Is an hour enough? Probably not. Will I finish it all in 60 minutes? Not likely. But at least I’ll be further along in my professional reading than I have been this year.
That’s it. I think I’ve made a manageable list. I’m at least going to give it a try. How about you? What will you do differently in 2007?
Happy New Year!
For the second time in as many weeks, mainstream media has again hit the nail on the head. TIME magazine has named its 2006 Person of the Year – and it’s YOU. The award is based on our collective ability and willingness to interact, collaborate, and learn from and with each other on a global scale using the tools of Web 2.0. The podcasts and the videos, the social networking tools, the blogs and wikis and mashups. It’s “about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before” and about the energy and passion that drives millions of us to take – make – the time to be a part of it.
It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes … We’re looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it’s just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy.
It’s this movement that TIME has deemed as having most influenced the events of this year. So congratulations to YOU! Now, what are the implications of this on the future of YOUR students?
A few hours ago, the Boston Red Sox organization presented their new right hander, Daisuke Matsuzaka, at a news conference at Fenway. As I watched the footage online, I had questions and wanted to know more. On the pages of Wikipedia, I quickly read about Matsuzaka’s high school experience, his early baseball career, the 2004 Olympics, and the recent details surrounding his acquisition by the Red Sox. There was even information about tonight’s press conference, right there on the pages of Wikipedia.
The article is heavily footnoted with citations to content in the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, ESPN, Yahoo Sports and japanball.com. There are facts stated with requests in blue asking for someone to post the citation. There’s a disclaimer stating that the article is a current sports-related event and the content may change rapidly. The reader is made aware of possible discrepancies in the article.
Yes, Wikipedia can be written to by anyone. And yes, anyone can edit what’s there. But are there instances where that’s a postive rather than a negative? Are there times when Wikipedia is the best place to look for information?
Red Sox fans will no doubt monitor the article’s content and tweak it if needed. They’ll edit out misinformation if it appears. This is the beauty of Wikipedia – collective collaboration centered around a point of mutual interest to disseminate the facts. Can Encyclopedia Britannica do that?
Interesting article about the nation’s schools in this week’s TIME magazine: How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century.
For the past five years, the national conversation on education has focused on reading scores, math tests and closing the “achievement gap” between social classes. This is not a story about that conversation. This is a story about the big public conversation the nation is not having about education, the one that will ultimately determine not merely whether some fraction of our children get “left behind” but also whether an entire generation of kids will fail to make the grade in the global economy because they can’t think their way through abstract problems, work in teams, distinguish good information from bad or speak a language other than English.
Many edtech bloggers have long been posting along these lines. The flattening World. Preparation for a global economy. Thinking outside the box. Creativity. Now these ideas are showing up in mainstream media. Will the message be more emphatic now that TIME says it?
David Weinberger and Deneen Frazier Bowen were the Wednesday and Thursday keynote speakers. Weinberger talked a lot about traditional knowledge and how it’s changing with the advance of web 2.0 tools like blogging, social bookmarking and wikipedia. See the previous post to access his presentation. Fraizer Bowen gave an amazing performance for her keynote presentation. It’s about forty minutes long – but its highly entertaining. Watch it and you’ll never think about kids and technology the same way again.
Reoccuring themes at the conference were blogging, podcasting, and other web 2.0 techniques. A resounding message: that these web 2.0 tools make it quicker and easier for individuals, our students included, to post content to the web. As a result, more and better critical thinking needs to be applied to that content by the viewer. Who created this? For what purpose? Is it credible? Why or why not? And how do we know?
Another focus was on building digital portfolios in compliance with the new ICT Literacy standards – which is in the works here in our district already.
Newfound representatives Blessing and Tripp presented their blogging project to approximately fifty participants on Wednesday. Again, the project was really well received. We’ve had many requests for our templates and rubrics.
Finally, running through most of the keynotes and the sessions was the message that schools need to be engaging and empowering kids with technology in a seamless and integrated way that supports learning. That, for their future, our students will need the creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving skills that working with technology now affords.
A great conference again this year, hosted by NHSTE and featuring keynote speakers Alan November, David Weinberger, and Dineen Frasier Bowen. All three speakers ran two sessions to follow-up their presentations – I like that about this conference.
Alan November started out by stating that we’re not preparing kids for a New Hampshire economy – we need to be preparing them for a global one, and that kids need to understand others’ points of view to work globally. That seems like such a far-reaching idea for an elementary teacher. But in roughly ten short years, our kids will be facing that scenario. It also struck me when he said technology has made kids equal to teachers as far as having, or being able to find, the information they need to learn. He thinks blogging is a good tool for writing since blog comments critique the work, and not the writer. He talked more about Web 2.0 tools – blogs, wikis, tools for collaboration. That teachers should be modeling for students the power of these tools as well as modeling appropriate tech behaviors. He told this great story about kids in a high school algebra class taking notes and posting them online for their peers – and having younger kids in the school access them and learn from them. One final note: November swears by AltaVista for searching! Also, I have his book – Empowering Students with Technology – if anyone wants to borrow it.
More about the other speakers soon……in the meantime, if you want to see the keynotes for yourself, they’re online at http://www.nhcmtc.org/2006/Keynote.html. Another thing I love about this conference.
