The budget process is very interesting this year.  We are looking ahead to the 2009-2010 school year and there are technology items that will have to go.  Or at least they will not be refreshed, renewed, or revised.

I think we have an interesting opportunity.  With less funds available I think we eliminate the technologies that are “fadish” or of lower comparable value.  For sure we are keeping TurnItIn.com - our English classes have started using it and it is growing in its importance in the department.  The students seem to interact much more with TurnItIn as their vehicle.  It is an affordable product - so it is staying.

The amount of toner we will purchase will be less next year.  So we need to focus on technology that will eliminate or minimze the use of paper.  The Smart Board offers opportunities along this line by offering the ability to capture its output in the form of PDF files taht can be posted on our web site.  The hardship of using a printer might be a blessing in disguise.

Products like my PassMathSOL will get a look, too.  This product offers everything on line…the practice tests, problems, and analysis.  It is green from the respect of requiring the use of no paper.

My impression is that we need to make lemonade out of lemons (I hate that phrase).  The shortage of dollars provides us the opportunity to think outside the box.  It provides the opportunity for technology to be the answer to the shortage of technology dollars.

I noticed that as an Instructional Technology Training Specialist, I am getting a wider variety of questions this school year.  The questions seemed to be more advanced in nature and the answers seem to require more time.  I think this is to be expected.

Teachers at my school are acquiring more and more technology integration skills.  As this happens they see more and more ways to apply and use the technology solutions.  Their imaginations are more fertile.  As they imagine ways to use the technology to benefits their classes, they see a need for more and more skills.  For example, using the Smart Notebook software, they can create movies of their presentations.  Now they want to edit their movies and add more narratives.

So Office 7 and Notebook 10 help illustrate the shifting of teacher knowledge of the technology available to them.  The software evolves and matures and it requires some update training.  But once trained the software opens the door to new opportunities and “how to” questions.  This means the Instructional Technology Trainer needs to not only keep up with software revisions, but needs to understand the evolving growth in the nature of the questions they will face on a daily basis.

You have all seen the refrigerator magnets that are separate words. One can take these words and construct sentences or phrases on your refrigerator (or any magnetic surface.) Here is a web page that permits teachers to enter a sentence or phrase and then the software deconstructs the sentence into a “refrigerator magnet” for each word. The words can then be moved around like magnets.

Check out the demo at XML Education. The demo is suitable for using in your classrooms with a Smart Board. Form the site’s own web page:

“This clever piece of software transforms your text into ‘magnets’ which can be dragged around the screen, colour coded and re-sized. You can also add new magnets at any time and remove any magnets that you no longer wish to use.

You can even store many words, sentences, poems and so on in a Word document so that the same information can be used over and over again without the need to re-type it every time you load the software.

The software can be used in many different ways and across every age group and subject area. For example, use XML Word Magnets to:

• Display and colour code key words and ideas
• Improve spelling by breaking words into individual letters or phonemes
• Remove and replace words to improve vocabulary
• Improve grammar by colour coding nouns, verbs, adjectives and so on
• Quickly alter the order of words in a sentence
• Drag words into groups
• Put words or ideas into rank order
• Create a time line
• Keep a list of students who are working well
• Create a simple scoreboard which is easy to update
• Display sums and let students add and drag the answers
• Create a seating plan

The possibilities are endless! The software is incredibly simple to use and will load and be ready to use in a matter of seconds.

If you require more information about XML Word Magnets, visit http://www.xmleducation.co.uk/ to view a demo or contact david@xmleducation.co.uk.”

Help your students to become more technology literate.  Can your students recognize if the page they have navigated to is a personal page or not?  Here are some tips to help your students…

You can be smart about the URL.  Reading the URL can help you decide if the page you are reading is trustworthy or not.  A personal page while “pretty and interesting” might contain opinions and very little “real” information.  You have to be smart about reading personal pages.  Can you determine if the page is a “personal page”? 

When reading a URL learn to “read past the forward slash”.  Once past the forward slash, you may see items or names that will indicate to you the page is a personal page.  Personal pages are not necessarily bad or pages to avoid.  With personal pages, you must understand that the information on the page might be opinions or biased.  When accessing a personal page, the user must realize the page is a personal page and treat the information on the page differently than if the site was a known, reputable site.

To identify a personal site, look for a personal name.  Often times the name will follow a tilde ( ~ ), a percent sign ( % ), or the words “users,” “members,” or “people.”  An example of a personal site is:

http://www.publink.com/~fabian/intro.html (not a real site)

Another key to identifying a personal page is to look for a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) or other provider of web page hosting (like aol.com, myspace.com or geocities.com).

Even sites that you trust can contain personal pages.  It is not uncommon to see a .edu extension contain personal web pages.  Again, these personal pages will likely will follow a tilde ( ~ ), a percent sign ( % ), or the words “users,” “members,” or “people.”  So even if the site is a trusted site, the user must still use good decision making skills to separate the personal pages from institution or publisher supported pages.

Use the Web Wisely 

The number of web sites on the world-wide web is mind-boggling.  Complicating the issue even more is the linking within a web site to other web sites.  So the potential is to navigate to a web site using your browser and then from there “link” to other web sites without ever entering another web site in your browser.  Web sites link to other web sites that link to other web sites and so on…

Users of the web need to have skills that permit them to make judgments about the site.  Is this site appropriate for me?  Is the information on this site reliable?  Is the site biased?  Is the web site a “front” for another, more sinister purpose?

Just because a web site name sounds legitimate does not necessarily mean it is so.  Some web site names are designed to lure users to their site for a purpose other than the web site name indicates.  The classic example is whitehouse.com – while it sounds like this would be a site to visit to learn about our White House in Washington, DC, it is in actuality a pornography site.

Don’t be scared!  Just be careful.  On occasion, you are probably going to find yourself transported to a web site whose descriptive name is not consistent with its mission.  This is an artifact of living in our linked world.  Our students will find them transported to web sites that we would prefer they not have access to in our schools and homes.  That is going to happen.  The best we can do is to minimize the number of these occurrences but making good decisions.  These good decisions combined with computer security measures will minimize the “bad sites” that can be visited by all of us.

URLs and Domain Names 

So far I have been talking about web site names.  Now I want to become more precise in the language that is associated with web sites.  The Universal Resource Locator or URL is the formal name for web site.  For the website Relevant411.net, the URL would be http://www.relevant411.net. The URL does contain the Domain Name.  For the URL http://www.relevant411.net, “relevant411.net” is the domain name.  The domain name is found after the “http://www.” and you can often find clues about the website in the domain name.

Extensions 

Each URL will have an extension.  For http://www.relevant411.net contains the “.net”.  Other extensions include .com and .org.  You probably are familiar with others.  Below is a list of common extensions.  Many times the extension can provide you information about what kind of web site you are about to navigate to.  It is part of good decision making to be familiar with common web site extensions.

• .biz - business use
• .com - commercial use
• .coop - cooperatives
• .edu - post-secondary education organizations
• .gov – US government organizations
• .info – sites that provide information
• .jobs - employment-related sites
• .mil - U.S. military
• .museum - museums
• .name - amilies and individuals
• .net – networks but also used for non-network websites
• .org - organizations
• .pro – professional
• .travel - travel industry

Country codes such as .uk are also common extensions.  To keep yourself informed, visit Computer User website at this URL:

http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/domains.html

Now that you know how to keep yourself informed, be advised…the extension list is not fool-proof.  People and businesses can purchase domain names with extensions so that they sound like one thing, but they deliver another.  But the best we can do is to minimize the chances of navigating to “bad” sites.

Technology Leadership Planks

The link above is a video presentation of what guides me as I practice Technology Leadership. The presentation is a Powerpoint created using Camtasia software.

Link to Google Docs This link is the Powerpoint presentation that is seen in the video above.

The video below is “must see” for all educators. This is the official update to the original “Shift Happens” video from Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod. This June 2007 update includes new and updated statistics, thought-provoking questions and a fresh design. The link is to the video on YouTube. For more information, or to join the conversation, please visit http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com — Content by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, design and development by XPLANE.

Espoused theories are the ones we learn about in college. They can be recited, discussed and tried out. One might even adopt an espoused theory of teaching or learning or discipline or leadership. But the good intentions often run head on into what we are used to doing in our real lives – our daily M.O. For example, most people will agree that it is a good idea not to talk on your cell phone while driving. So we espouse this philosophy until our own cell phone rings while we are driving. It becomes very easy to succumb to “Do as I say and not as I do.”

Many times it is “TIME”that impacts how we react or respond to a person or a situation. So when it comes to shifting the continuum from Espoused Theory to Practiced Theory, I try to keep these in mind:

• Try not to trade short term gains for long term success
• Try to identify the theories-in-use by those you would like to influence

So what are some of your thoughts and tips about holding to your “Espoused Theory” of teaching and learning?

WEB 2.0 offers many social interaction features that are becoming part of the business world as well as the world of education. But the mere mention of sites like Youtube™ and MySpace™ strikes fear into the hearts of parents and school administrators. Their concerns are generally along the lines of internet safety and fear of predators.

When a child reaches a certain age in the United States, they obtain a driver’s learners permit. It is a rite of passage. But as parents and teachers there is a certain excitement that accompanies a child growing into adulthood and obtaining a driver’s license. Yes, there are plenty of things that can go wrong - Tickets, fender benders, close calls, and accidents – even deadly accidents. Yet, those are acceptable risks and what we hope is that through training, practice and caring that our young driver will learn the care and responsibilities that accompany driving a vehicle. A person may chose not to drive or even to learn to drive, but that decision is a choice.

Learning to use Web 2.0 features, the social networking pieces, are a way of life with our newer generations. As educators and parents we need to approach use of these features the same way we approach preparing youngsters to drive a car. Yes, there are some risks associated with social networking. Yes, it is possible for a student to “waste” time in this social environment. But as we recognize these “dangers” like we do when we teach our youngsters to drive, we prepare and provide learning opportunities so students can work on the internet safely.

Social networking can empower the student. But like driving too fast, if a student is not careful or is improperly trained, bad things can happen. To address this, the schools must provide students and parents/guardians with training and tools to be savvy about the social networking world. There are many tools available that address this issue and seek to educate social network users. A starting point would be Nancy Willard’s article where she discusses the good and bad of social networking in the schools.

(http://www.education-world.com/a_issues/issues/issues423.shtml).

But collaborative authoring, collaborative discussion, and sharing of opinions are powerful forces that need exercising. These are 21^st Century skills. They are essential to be a part of the world-wide community. Let’s figure out the way to promote and use these tools and resources in the class rooms. Let’s move away from restricting or banning these sites.