Up In The Sky

Have You Heard
Newsflash, the Internet has changed the world! I know, I shouldn't have let that secret out, but think about how quickly we have become a global community and it is truly amazing. For most of us we work, play and communicate daily from our multiple devices, but there are still billions of people that do not have access to the Internet.

In The Sky
By now everyone knows that Google is filling the sky with balloons to bring the Internet to rural and remote areas. If you have 4 minutes, watch how loon works, it is amazing what humans can do when they have the desire to innovate. The project has begun testing in New Zealand and most recently has asked for volunteers in California's Central Valley area to participate in generating traffic. Like all big news makers, there has been some criticism of Google putting the cart before the horse with Loon, but we all know you need a solid infrastructure before adding devices.

Enter Facebook
Recently Facebook has been in the press with their internet everywhere initiative through internet.org. Zuckerberg's plans are a bit different than Loon, as he imagines bringing the Internet to world through mobile phones. The plan doesn't seem quite as flashy as sending up giant balloons that ride on the edge of space, but having the power of mobile carriers on your team is never a bad thing. My only thought is thinking about driving to my families house in the White Mountains of Arizona. It is difficult enough getting solid 4G service in the town that they live, much less on the ride there. If establishing a reliable cell network in our country isn't easy to do, what will it be like in a third world country?

One Request
I am excited that Facebook and the other corporate giants involved are working to help connect other nations around the world that lack the infrastructure to become part of a global society. Internet.org's focus will be on these emerging markets, and I am ok with that as we will all benefit and grow as a world if we are connected. Just one request, don't lose site of the emerging markets that have no access right here in our own rural and less fortunate neighborhoods.

Guest Post: How are We Using Technology in Classrooms?

Good People
If you look closely at any successful district, school, or business, you will find that the leader has surrounded themselves with amazing people. Those people are the ones that make things happen on a day to day basis, and without those people, one person alone can not make an organization great.

I am very fortunate to have a great team in place that makes the day to day happen in our district. I learn from them weekly and they make my job an easy one. Among our team members is our district Technology Integration Specialist, Tracy Watanabe. I will always credit her for inspiring me to get in the game and start a blog. I would recommend her blog to any teacher K-12 as she does a great job of breaking down technology integration into easy to understand pieces. I wanted to share one of her recent posts as it is relevant for not only teachers but any educator. You can visit her blog or follow her on twitter. Enjoy!


How are We Using Technology in Classrooms?
Technology has changed how we do things in our daily lives such as shopping, banking, communicating, and it has changed how we should do school.

Photo Credit: Reeding Lessons via Compfight cc

When I was a child, I remember spending so much time going through microfiche to find just the right bit of information to share with the teacher. In those days, finding the right information and recollecting that information was the mark of a good student. 

Today, knowledge and information is at our fingertips. In fact, there is so much information that it's tough to know where to start and what's the best source to use. Therefore, accessing the right information at the right time is more important than just finding information.

Focusing on skills rather than knowledge is a shift in how we do school. It changes what students are taught and how they are taught.

What do these shifts look like in the classroom?
This type of learning is easy to capture because there are artifacts as evidence of learning. I could have gone to any number of AJUSD blogs to look for artifacts, but was able to find a plethora of content to share from Mrs. Hamman's post titled, The End of Another Great Year!

Final thoughts

How we “do school” has changed, and focusing on 21st century learning skills is the shift taking place. We see this shift in the Common Core State Standards, and we see this shift as a necessity to prepare students for college and careers.

Change isn't easy, but it's a necessity. I'm proud of our school district, because we are focused on giving our students 21st century, student-centered classrooms.

• What shifts do you see in how we "do school"?
• Change takes time, and progression occurs one step at a time. What goals have you made to take another step forward this school year?
• What questions or comments do you have regarding this post?

Too Big

Backlash
Isn't it just crazy how some celebrities work all their lives to become larger than life and then after they get there, things seem to fall apart? It becomes trendy to dislike them at a point, their decision making skills go out the window, they start believing in their own persona, or they relieve themselves in mop buckets and spit on people, allegedly, (sorry Beiber fans). That is when a good publicists steps in and cleans things up. If the situation is completely out of control an entire team will go to work recreating an entirely new image for the person.

Similar?
It may be a bit of a stretch to compare celebrities to companies, but I can't help but see some similarities at times between the two. They start small and many grow quickly to what seems like a larger than life company that can't do anything wrong. But give it enough time and there will be some backlash or their product lines stay the same for so long that disruptive innovation is not a priority. I am not an expert on Blackberry history, but it seems like a good example of a powerhouse that had to play catch up in a market that quickly passed them by, and it seems like their clientele focus stayed to narrow. I am still a huge fan of Blackberry and their influence on messaging and e-mail use on a mobile device, but their name isn't on my radar when thinking about a new phone.

Microsoft restructure
When Microsoft recently made news with their big restructure plan, I couldn't help but think of the larger than life celebrity that became to big and then starting making questionable decisions. Ballmer seems committed to creating something that is more collaborative and focused, but is the direction a catch up approach or create game changers one, that will put them back on top as an innovative powerhouse. If they decide to keep throwing Hail Mary passes like giving away 10,000 Surface tablets at ISTE this year, I am not sure they are going to reconnect with their audience.

Bring it around
So how does it all apply to the local IT shop? I think it is rather simple, do not become to comfortable with the service you are providing and become something larger than life. When you become complacent and feel there is nothing that you can improve upon, the backlash will begin. Continue to look for ways to innovate and ask your customers for feedback on your service and please, stay away from mop buckets.

Soak It In

It's Over
Isn't it amazing how fast time passes when you are engaged in something you enjoy doing. The ISTE conference is one of those things that always seems to go by a bit to quick for me. It's that one session that you just could not squeeze in, the byod session that you didn't register for early enough, and most importantly that last opportunity to talk with someone from somewhere else. But that is the great thing about making all those connections, they are so engaging and refreshing, that you can't wait to plan for next year's trip.

Not A Commercial
I know that sounded like a paid advertisement for the conference, but that is not my intentions. The point that I am trying to make is very simple, we enjoy taking part in engaging activities. The range of those activities are all over the board at the conference, lectures, panels, byod's, keynotes, poster sessions, the list goes on.

The Magic
So what is the piece that makes all the different varieties of presentation so engaging, wait for it...the presenter(s). The great ones are able to use a variety of ways to engage us and keep us glued to their words, but more importantly, creatively finding ways that allow us to participate, collaborate and create, all within a small window of time. A good presenter quickly makes a connection with the audience, has us involved in communicating with one another and often leaving with something we have created. Hmm, this is sounding very similar to what a teacher does on a daily basis. Maybe start over and replace conference with classroom and presenter with teacher, any similarities? Good teachers, like good presenters, use a variety of approaches to make the magic happen and technology plays a very meaningful part. Take some time and review your ISTE notes, reflect on the experience, and share all the magic with others.

ISTE 2013!

World Stage 
The best way to describe the start to ISTE in San Antonio this year for me is, global. From the moment you arrive at registration,  the global presence is felt. There are thousands in attendance from over 70 countries, almost staggering to think that one conference can bring so many together. ISTE even presented their new logo at the opening keynote, which contains a global flare.

Global Collaboration
To reinforce the global connections that were happening, I attended the Global Collaboration Projects session. This session is a poster session with 30 different booths setup with a small display area. All the projects in this session followed the theme of global collaboration and the highlight is the students that have come to share what they have developed to connect themselves to the world. I met a number of amazing young kids that were so excited to share what their teams have been working on. Yeah, they used technology in their projects to connect with the world, but it wasn't about the technology. It was refreshing to see the shiny gadgets take the back seat as the students described how they developed their ideas, collaborated with others and continue to share their success with the world.

Perspective
It is easy to get wrapped up in the glitz and glamour at ISTE, with all the corporate involvement, the giant tablet giveaway this year, shiny new gadgets, and free pens being handed out :-). I don't have a problem with it, it is part of the show and must exist. Just try and keep things in perspective and remember the students at the global collaboration session over the shiny object.

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.

Quick Feet

The Future
I have said before that I like change for a number of reasons. Maybe it is because I am not a big story
teller of past experiences or don't spend a lot of time day dreaming about the good old days (there is nothing wrong with that of course). I just personally enjoy looking forward to the new experience, it keeps things fresh and even though it can be a struggle at times, the world we live in waits for no one.

Traditional
Quite often I hear industrial age model, traditional, slow to change, creatures of habit, as words and phrases commonly used to describe our public school system. Having two elementary age children, I would rather hear the words collaborative, innovative, student centered, challenging, and ready to adapt for each individual student. Those environments do exist in public education and we should hold them up as models for others to see.  The question is how did they get to that place many schools and districts struggle for everyday?

An Agile Staff
When I say agile, I am using the word it in the purest sense:

-quick and well-coordinated in movement
-active: lively
-marked by an ability to think quickly: mentally acute or aware

I am not an English major, so hopefully I am using the word correctly, but I can't dismiss the notion that if a staff is agile and prepared to be quick on their feet, they probably have a mindset that is open to change. The question becomes how do we build in a comfort level with our staff that allows them to be quick on their feet, embrace change, and allow that quick thinking, lively personality to take over?

Supportive Environment
Start by building a supportive environment that fosters collaboration, risk taking, and direct answers that address concerns when they arise. If staff members have support from their leadership and peers, change can become more of an opportunity for improvement and not a scary situation that threatens the comfort of what we know.

Change is inevitable and it is necessary for moving forwarding in any school, department, or business. Embracing the concept is difficult for most because routine is something that is built into us as humans from birth, so maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise. But a supportive environment is also something that most are provided from birth and that allows kids to grow and develop and enjoy new experiences. Maybe we just need to provide that supportive environment at the shop and see what happens.