The TWAIN blog

I am quite disappointed in the lack of comments to my blog. I get more response on my old Myspace page that I haven’t touched in years, than this place.

I thought blogging was two-way communication. I post something and then people respond.

But lately, I post something and no one responds. Lately?? Who am I kidding? This has been ongoing for about 4 months now! No response! No comments!

It is bruising my delicate ego, to say the least.

Another nail in the coffin: I tried Plurk again recently, only to find that I have no fans there. So whatever I post, no one is reading. I wondered why no one responds to my comments there. The news was broken to me when I had to read the help page to learn that I have no fans. I can post a response to others on the timeline but they choose not to follow me.

I use Plurk to post all my confessions now. It is quite liberating to throw them out to the world. I also post vulgar tirades there. I mean, why not?!?! A timeline of tirades that no one is watching meshed in with other ed. tech leaders sharing about what they eat, how they exercise, and what they think of Plurk vs. Twitter. It is like an explosion of vulgarity between their conversations that only I am enjoying.

I get good responses to Twitter, but that’s the only place where my Web 2.0 interactive conversations take place. The problem is that the response has to be less than 140 characters.

Maybe blogging is dead and I didn’t get that memo! I read blogs daily on all sorts of topics in and outside of education.  I have noticed that several educational blogs/podcasts I used to access haven’t updated in a while (see previous post). Maybe it isn’t just me! Maybe our entire blogosphere has shifted. Have people stopped blogging? I bet they have until February 10 when we all finish the state conference and blogging is cool again!

Ahh.. I dunno what I am saying here. I don’t understand this at all and am really starting to take it personally. I reach out and post on other blogs, Twitter posts, Plurks, message boards, etc. in hopes that the link will draw them to read my opinions here. But…..that isn’t working.

Am I giving up? Nope. This is a nice venting place. People can reply or not. I use it to track my own progress on things.
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Hmmmmm

I don’t think anyone is even reading this post,  so I will end by saying “ppppplllllllbbbbbbppppp!!!!” (phonetic raspberry sound)

This is day 2 of our technology academy for tech directors. I have to say that I am overwhelmed with so many ideas. Being new to this area, I have felt completely like a fish out of water. As a classroom teacher who has made my way up to this field, I want to give every teacher as many resources as possible. I want to freely open up all resources and push beyond the issues of administration. In other words, I have wanted to “break all the rules” and to have everyone be so thrilled with me.

I am not giving up hope on doing this but I do know there are constraints by law and state mandate for what we have to provide to secure our systems for the students. I know this and I hate to admit it. Its a struggle that will continue through this career. That is the impact of this workshop. It is showing me the stuff that I knew was out there for policy but I didn’t have a clear concept view of it all. Now I am starting to see the system and learning how to adapt it for my job. It really is better to know than to not know in our field.

So day 2 is so much better. The day is about staffing and working within a team. I have moved to a district with a great group of people but I have struggled with figuring out how to work with them and to help develop them as workers as well. I have never had a secretary nor have I had someone handle the various aspects of the jobs I have done on my own. This is a different animal entirely and I have been reading all these different “management” books without finding a good solution. I mean “The Five Dysfunctions of Team” can only carry me so far.

Today, we worked with Lori Gacey from Bastrop ISD on how to deal with staffing. So many resources!! I remember doing Icebreaker and Personality tests with my students to help us as a class work better with each other. I had forgotten to apply those to the people I work with and to help them learn to use the same tools to work with our users. What a great skill to develop a technology team to work better with people!

Five steps for what we should do in Instructional Technology:

1) Inventory of all technology and software

2) Determination of acceptable standards for downtime, repair costs, etc.

3) Assessment of teacher competencies

4) Study of how computers are currently being used in the curriculum

5) Creation of specific goals for computer use in your district

And we all have various ways of getting this done along with the support of our systems.

I tell you, I am really getting some great information that I can’t wait to start piecing together. For the first time, I am starting to learn for myself that this is something I can do. I have felt so out of place for the past few weeks in trying to figure out how other districts and technologists are doing it for their district. I am refocusing now to make it work for where I am and with the resources I have at my disposal.

This is so exciting….again!

I am in Dallas staying at Hotel Indigo with a group of technology directors from around the state. The purpose of this is to learn how to be a Technology Director. TCEA is providing a 5-day technology directors academy with the dates spread year-round. This week’s sessions are the first two in the five day rotation. I know from my colleagues who are not attending that there is some interest in what we are doing here so I am happy to share about it as much as I can. I won’t get into it all because there is something to be said about attending one of these instead of just reading about it.

First, I want to say that I highly recommend this academy. It has been presented very well with a lot of information that could be very boring but presented in a way to make it interesting and interactive. We have learned about finance, state requirements, and the laws surrounding technology. We have been invited to collaborate and share web resources as well. Mixed into our group are educators and technology directors who have no classroom experience. It is REALLY interesting to hear the “ooohs” and “aahhhhs” from classroom educators next to the silence of our non-classroom experienced colleagues when seeing some really cool teacher tools. ha

A quote from Monday’s 1st session that really hit me was “You are the visionary for your district. Your job is to be visionary.” This is such a costly burden for many of us. I know I was hired for my vision but as I learn more and more about my responsibilities, I wonder when I will have time to develop a vision or to even collaborate with others to put vision into practice. I have worked with other technology directors in my time and I wonder what vision they had other than “to block all the sites I use”.

I hope I can remain the district visionary while keeping up with all the behind-the-scenes work. We discussed building the BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal) for our district and then developing the smaller goals below that one. The visionary looks from the mountain when their BHAG is met and can see how they built the mountain through all the goals to build up to it. I believe this comes from the book “Built to Last” and “Good to Great” both by Jim Collins. These books were recommended reading as well.

We were given a thumb drive full of resources for us to use for Budgeting, FISH, NETS, Planning, Budgeting, Team Building, Law, and a lot more. These resources included PDFs, videos, Power Points, and all sorts of document resources that are working and in use in districts across the state. We had input from other technology directors in the state who gave great information about how to work with the community and how to get support. Very good resources not only in the meeting but in our discussions as well.

Day 2 has started so I will take further notes and reflections on it.

Again, I highly recommend this academy for the new technology director and for the experienced one. We have a few in here who are repeat academy attenders who say they come every few years to get new resources and they are impressed each and every time.