Move Over Flair

Time...

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Probably the most common issue we hear about in life has to do with not having enough time for, and fill in the blank. Often the counter to that statement is we will make time for what is important, which is true to an extent, but doesn't change the fact that in our professional lives we still must prioritize. What has been a struggle for a number of years now from a technology integration perspective, is how we provide solid professional development to our teaching staff that is relevant, timely, and doesn't require the traditional hour before or after school that teachers may not have time for. 

Short Meaningful PD

I like to use the average length of a YouTube video to provoke discussion on just how long someone will stay with you when providing PD. Depending on what day you check, the average length of the top five most popular YouTube videos vary from 2.5 to 4.5 minutes long. When I checked #popularonyoutube when writing this post, the longest video was 5.31 and the shortest was 31 seconds. I would imagine that some may say if the content is good, it doesn't matter how much time it takes to view and to some extent that may be true. However in the hustle and bustle of the K-12 setting, moving at the pace of 140 characters at a time seems to make more sense if we want to reach a larger audience. At AJUSD we have made the conscience effort to change the way we are providing PD to our teaching staff that provides short, meaningful bursts of sharing content while staying as close to the 15 minute window as possible. Bethany Ligon, AJUSD's Technology Integration Specialist, has taken this approach with our collaboration coach tips and tools videos recently and we are monitoring feedback on video length to see what is most effective for our staff. 

Badge Up

Another area that takes time and attention is growing our professional learning networks and sharing what our teachers and administrators are doing on their campus. Social media has obviously been a game changer in this area and blending this with the traditional walking by a classroom and seeing evidence of the great things happening, has led us into the badge game. It is difficult for just one district TIS, to get around to every classroom and see what is happening. With a quick Google Site and Forms, teachers and administrators can apply for a badge, share their artifacts, display their accomplishment, and share with others how they are integrating technology in their classrooms. Bethany summed up nicely what she enjoys most about implementing this program:

The best part for me, is that teachers are able to request training on exactly what they want. It's not a one size fits all professional development setting anymore. But it's me meeting with one teacher or a small team of teachers who want to grow their instructional toolbox in a specific area or with a particular tech tool/app. And because I now have documentation on which teacher is proficient on each tool, I can use them as a resource as needed. Another "best part" for me is the teacher's reaction when I walk into their rooms on a Thursday afternoon to hand them their badge. Yesterday, a teacher literally jumped up and down and clapped her hands because she was so excited and then her little first graders started cheering for her. That totally made my day.

Find A Way
Time doesn't have to be a monster that keeps us from growing and sharing on a professional level. If we look around and see what others are doing, share what we are doing, and be willing to try new things, great things will happen. In the words of Ian Malcolm, life finds a way. 

A Tech Director's Reflection V: Be Happy Now

Part V is going to be a two question wrap up of a Tech Director's Reflection. I have enjoyed sharing these questions with everyone and I hope you have enjoyed answering the same questions yourself.

Satisfaction
When you work in IT, you have to understand that constant change, end user issues, and other variables that you can't always control are part of the gig. If flexibility and understanding are not part of you, then satisfaction on the job is probably going to be hard to come by. Salary in the K-12 setting can also be a challenge for some as it isn't always comparable to a similar industry job. Talking often about other reasons that create personal satisfaction on the job are an important part of a tech director building a strong team.

What is the most important personal satisfactions connected with your position?
Knowing that what we are doing on a daily basis provides our students and teachers with an opportunity to have and provide a relevant education is very rewarding and that makes the stressful situations seem very minor.

What other job(s) does your background qualify you for?
I don’t think there is a specific job(s) that I would name to answer this question. Good leaders develop a style that work in a number of settings because they understand how to build great teams.

A Tech Director's Reflection III: The Journey

cc-by-2.0

Morning Coffee
The great thing about careers is that often we have no idea where our current jobs and experiences will lead us in the future. I understand  that many people may map out a career path from first job to retirement, however I would assume when that plan is reviewed while sipping coffee on the front porch enjoying the morning sunrises of retirement, that there were different roads taken along the way. Reflecting on how you have arrived at your current position is a good reminder of the hard work that you have done over the years and a nice trip down memory lane, give it a try!

Courtesy Jeff Power

What jobs and experiences have led you to your present position?
I feel all my positions in education have lead me to my current position. When I started my career as a classroom teacher, I gained knowledge of what it is like to not only guide students, but what teachers need to be successful in the classroom. As a Technology Integration Coach, I was able to work with adults and develop leadership and collaboration skills and also continue to become familiar with technology on the data center side. These real world experiences prepared me for my current position and everyday is another opportunity for a hands on learning experience for continued improvement.

A Tech Director's Reflection Part II: Why Tech Director?

Morning Commute 
We should all be able to answer in a few sentences why our jobs interest us. I have spoken to a number of people that have to ponder how to answer that question and reply with, "that's a good question." The ride to work everyday should not be dreadful, if you are looking for an excuse to exit the freeway early, it may be time to reflect on why, so you can start enjoying the commute to the office.

Why did this type of position interest you and how did you best prepare for the job?

I enjoy change, moving forward and trying new things regularly. The technology landscape is an ever changing world that continually reshapes itself and that keeps my job fresh and challenging. Preparing for an ever changing set of circumstances takes understanding, patience and the ability to have strong people around you to handle the situations that will arise. I believe I prepared by being in real world situations, working hard, and not being afraid to fail. 

How does your job interest you?

A Tech Director's Reflection: A Typical Day

Courtesy Eusebius

The Assignment I was recently asked by a teacher if I could answer a few questions for them as part of an assignment they were working on in their leadership program. I may be in the minority, but I don't mind doing it, because it is always a good opportunity to reflect. I am going to share one question a day this week with my response and challenge others to think about the same question themselves as a way to reflect.

What does a typical day consist of for you?

Being responsible for the technical well being of an entire district tends to keep most days very untypical. The ever changing landscape of technology and the challenge to keep a network and devices working as efficiently as possible makes each day a little different. What I try to do on a daily basis is be there for my staff to provide them what they need to best do their jobs supporting our network and users. Reviewing and managing technology work orders, communicating with schools and departments, managing department budget, and staying active in my PLN to keep the district current are other typical day activities. What does your typical day look like?

School's Out For Summer

Willie Style

Who can forget when the Fresh Prince was throwin down "summer, summer, summertime, time to sit back and

unwind?" I am showing my age with that bit of information, that song was the first single on his Homebase album, released in May of 1991, nice play record studio. As educators we all know that summertime doesn't afford much time to unwind, although we try to sneak in a little time for "cool shootin some b-ball outside the school," the downtime is used in different way. Teachers are busy searching for new resources, building their PLN's, and planning for the upcoming school year, which is a full time job. Tech staff is using this time to upgrade hardware, implement new software, and refresh thousands of devices before the new school year arrives. Frantic as it may seem however, this may be the time to seek out new ways to collect resources, build your PLN, upgrade devices, and take a deep breath before the new school year arrives.

Your Not Alone
If you are a student, teacher, administrator, or techie, there are thousands of your same kind out there working on similar projects looking to collaborate with others. So how about taking a little time this summer to connect with others, gather some great resources, and build your PLN by following other educators on Twitter. Twitter is arguably one of the best places online to gather educational ideas and resources. Follow people like Free For Teachers @rmbyrne, hashtag #chromebooks, or if iPads interest you, guru @tonyvincent! The great thing is, you don't have to work hard to find great educators to follow, here is a list of educators that will get you started by content area/title, you can even add yourself after you create your Twitter account http://goo.gl/k8U1Yc. If you would like to take it a step further and participate in a Twitter chat, follow this link for times and hashtags http://goo.gl/9h74lg (thank you @MrsKim_Reynolds for sharing). 

                                           Change It Up

Summertime is also a chance to reflect on the traditional things that we seem to do when this time of year rolls around. Speaking from the technology side of the house, the first thought that comes to mind is re-imaging of devices. Spring always seems like the time when new images are being built for deployment, so the second the students and teachers are out the door, massive re-imaging starts taking place. Often we can't avoid this type of scenario, we will be doing our fair share of imaging this summer, but maybe there is a better way. Use this time to reflect on the processes and see how you can eliminate some of the lengthy projects that seem to take up most of those summer days that you could be focusing on other areas.

Another idea that is always refreshing during the summer months is the start of the day. When school is in session, start times are critical for providing good customer support. Summer can allow flexibility for your tech staff to start the day off in a different way. Use this time to have brief 15-30 minute sit downs to share how their summer projects are rolling along, collaborate on any issues that may be happening and enjoy a nice ice coffee or smoothie to start the day! 

   

Social "Media" Bigfoot

Footprint
Here are a few questions that I often hear when social media is being discussed that deserve some attention.

1. What is a social media footprint?
2. How big should it be?
3. Why do I care?

The Numbers
From a pure numbers perspective, it seems to make sense that jumping into the social media landscape can be a benefit to the professional growth model. Facebook currently has over a billion active users a month alone, even if you discount that 100 million of those users are pets, objects, or brands, 900 million is alot of humans. Twitter has 554,750,000 active registered twitter users that tweet on average 58 million times a day according to Statistic Brain.  As of January, 2013, Linkedin reached 200 million users, "LinkedIn now counts over 200 million members as part of our network, with representation in more than 200 countries and territories. We serve our members in 19 languages around the world." Google+ is a bit harder to get a true read on numbers, but even if we go with 135 million users actively posting to Google+ Pages, that is no small number.

Why Do I Care
All the numbers above can be dissected, debated and manipulated for company purposes but I see them as an opportunity to connect with others that run in the same professional circle as myself (no pun intended). I care about growing as an individual and bringing new ideas into the workplace and sharing my successes with others, which is easily done through social media.

                                        How Big

The size of your social media footprint depends on your comfort level in this arena. Some can juggle multiple feeds while others feel overwhelmed with more than one. My suggestion is take your time and find what works for you, and use technology to help you organize. There are a number of programs out there that will help you streamline your feeds and better manage the large amount of information coming in and out of your busy day. HootSuite is one that I have found to be very helpful for me and worth a look if interested in managing multiple streams.

Give It A Try
We often hear the saying that you have to get out of the four walls of your classroom or office to see what is happening out there. That is a true statement as we all know that sharing, collaborating and having an open mindset will help us grow as individuals. To grow professionally you have to care, why not use social media as one option to step outside those walls.

Food For Thought

It's Lunch Time
Do you ever notice that lunch conversation quite often is just another opportunity to talk about work stuff. It is tough sometimes to turn off the switch in the middle of the day for an hour and conversation inevitably stays on work. In my post F5, I talked about IT stress, burnout, and it being difficult to shut down at the end of the day, so should we be concerned about lunchtime?

                                           
Good Question
It is a good question, but a tough question to answer from a director's view. Often the best time to collaborate is over a good meal in a relaxing setting, so why change the conversation? A couple months ago we were discussing how to communicate the day to day information that is so critical for an IT department. Each day something new is discovered that can improve the end users experience, but often we are busy and don't find the time to e-mail, blog, or just talk about these things.

Make It A Date
A long time veteran of our IT department, Lonnie Trotter, suggested that we get together once a week at lunch time for an informal lunch gathering to chat about day to day happenings. Everyone can bring their lunch of choice, no formal agenda, and share anything that they feel is important for others to know. Since it is a "working" lunch, that hour is taken off the end of the day and another positive layer of communication has been added to the week.

Keep It Simple
You are probably thinking to yourself, so what. Working lunches, morning coffee, there are a number of ways to informally gather staffs together to chat, but how often do those go by the wayside when things get busy. The difficult task is finding the time and staying consistent with promoting positive collaboration within teams. Keeping it simple and not creating a multilayer approach to most situations usually yields the best results in my experience. If it takes rocket science to figure out how to communicate with one another, there may be other issues.

So, how does your team find time to stay in touch with the valuable day to day information that is critical for an IT department. The more collaborating the better, so please share. 

Been A While

Been A While

courtesy of Arndt Nollau

It has been quite some time since my last post, a little over three months actually. I would imagine that is probably a bit to long in between posts, but the inspiration to write has been lacking. In my opinion, it is probably better to take a break than force something that just isn't there. Lacking the motivation to blog is not any different than becoming stagnant with other things in life, even in the workplace, where there are numerous things to keep us busy. So how do we stay motivated, inspired, full of enough energy to keep innovating and moving forward at work or anywhere for that matter?

courtesy of Bjorn Hermans

Get Out...
of the four walls of that office or classroom and start building your personal learning network! The greatest source of inspiration for me comes from others that I am connected too. It can be virtual connections or face to face, but sharing thoughts, ideas, and opinions with others will contribute to your professional development and knowledge. And (not sure that is grammatically correct), we all need support, information in today's world comes at such a rapid pace it is impossible to keep up without a network.


Where Do I Start?
The first step in any new adventure is the hardest part, but let's just be honest with ourselves here, you are not climbing a 500 ft. cliff without a rope, or walking a tightrope with no safety net, you are looking for individuals that share a common denominator. If in a classroom or office, prop your door open and say hi to your colleagues as they pass by, maybe they will drop in and you can talk about what they have planned for the day. Jump into the Social Hurricane and build your PLN virtually through social media. Find a group that is outside of your school walls but maybe local in your state (AzTea, AZ CIO/CTO, @azk12) or venture out to the national organizations (ISTE, COSN, TLN)!

Big Thanks
I want to thank the AZ CIO/CTO group for being a big part of my PLN. The passionate, diverse, thought provoking contributions by this great group has been very helpful in building my professional development and knowledge. The recent activity on the list serv is what inspired me to get back to my blog, thanks all.