The TWAIN blog

The last day of the TCEA Tech Directors Academy was three days ago and I am just now able to blog about it and post my reflection. I was really thrown by that day and it wasn’t a reach for me. It was a concept I am really familiar with but haven’t been implementing: facilitative learning.

As a classroom teacher, I was pretty good at this idea. I took the lecturn out of my classroom and provided differentiated, problem-based teaching with the basis that “I don’t have the answers” so students learned to find answers on their own. I implemented the “Ask Three Before Me” concept that had students ask three of their peers before asking me for help. Not only did this help them with collaboration, but it gave me time to consult my Dummies books for answers.:)

A stinging reflection has been that I feel I strayed from this method as a campus technologist and became the “expert” in my old job; thus leading to fast burnout. I became the expert in so many things that I didn’t allow people on the campus to become the experts. People called me for help in everything. They didn’t know how to find answers on their own. This isn’t an exercise in making me out to be something super. Nope. In fact, this is an embarrassment to me. This is a reflection on how poor I have been as a teacher the past 5 years.

As I prepare to start professional development next week, I see that I need to completely renovate how I develop training so that I don’t do this to myself in this new role. In other words, I need to change…..everything…..again. I need to go back to the basics. Each staff development program I offer needs to be about the audience learning to find solutions on their own; and not about me being the one with all the knowledge.

The truth is, I am not the one with all the knowledge! I really think the only thing I am good at is putting in the right terms in a search engine for the answers. This is what I need to show staff to do – show them how I find the answers and how they can find their own answers. Let them become their own search experts.

I know this sounds basic to some of you who are in this role and you probably do this very well. I want to say that I used to be doing this. I was good at letting go and letting the class take learning above the level I could teach. The frustration is that I did not carry this over with the adults I was teaching. As I look back on how I worked at WHS, I (embarrassingly) look back and see that the training was about what I was doing with technology.

Such a shame.

Thus the reason for not posting a reflection on the last day of the Tech Directors Academy. It was a hard lesson to learn and may be harder to put into effect. But I will try! I will adapt. I will let go!

The past few nights I have spent getting ready for summer training for the teachers in my district. I am attempting to model the web tools we will be using to host the training sessions. I setup a wiki specifically to host all the notes and embedded videos that will be presented over the course of summer.

Teachers in Kerrville have requested a lot of technology training this summer. I hope our plans are enough to deliver! And I am excited about it because they requested the training. It means that they are interested and willing participants in learning more about technology and using resources to connect to their students and peers. I would be greatly disappointed if technology training wasn’t top of the list.

We are still presenting in small to large group formats but by using the wiki, I hope to provide extended training beyond the 3 hour sessions we will have through summer. Plus I want to keep the site running for discussion posts that are reflections on the lessons and then a reflection on the actual integration of the tools they may use during the school year.

I am trying to learn Adobe Connect as fast as I can because I believe we will be able to stream our training live for staff who can join our training from outside the training room. Plus, we will be able to archive the footage for people to watch later if they would like.

It is exciting to put this all together and I am charged up about it. I just hope they sign up!

Our website if you wish to visit is http://summer09techtraining.wikispaces.com/ and I would love ideas, comments, suggestions, and well wishes.

So Monday was the first day of my week at TCEA. It started with the Tech Coordinator’s Academy which is a 5-day workshop spread across the year. The first 2 days were in the fall in Dallas and I attended (and blogged about) them. They were fantastic! Very motivational!

This week’s workshop wasn’t so motivational. And I say that only because the topics were on the security side of running a district technology system. It wasn’t a bad workshop. It just wasn’t so “up” because the topics were about the security side and reality of what we can do to make our networks secure.

Our reflection for journaling is this topic: What is my vision of how the network, hardware, and software will help us accomplish our goals in my district? What are my next steps in regards to infrastructure?

After yesterday’s session, I see how my district needs to do more to provide a more secure network and to keep our data safe. I don’t think we are doing a good job at this. I can see how spending needs to go toward providing this before we start adding more “stuff” to our network.

We discussed ways to figure out the TCO – Total Cost of Ownership for adding to our network infrastructure and the idea of sharing this with our stakeholders. We just can’t add resources to the system without building up the system istelf.

One of my main goals here this year is to visit the exhibit hall to get more information about these types of security resources. I hear from vendors almost daily so it is important for me to go and look at all the products to find the perfect fit for our district. Cost is a major factor for us and some resources just offer too much than what we need.

Disaster recovery was another topic and Kari shared how her district prepared for hurricane damage. Her plan is so detailed that I would think this type of planning would be almost a full time in itself. While Kerrville isn’t in danger of major hurricanes, we are open to other types of disasters and need to come up with better planning. I like not only that Kari explained the plan but she also provided each staff member with a list of who is responsible for what and at what point do they “pull the plug”.

She even shared that the district has a stand-by 1-800 number for if the phones go down that will still allow them to answer calls. Every instance is covered.

Currently, I meet with city resources in our town and one of our agenda items is planning for how we can all help each other with disaster recovery. Could we all provide a temporary NOC for another system from our own location and maintain our own system security? Could we work together in case of a real emergency? I think so.

The final part of the workshop was spent on 1:1 computing and the idea (or is it a mandate?) from TEA that districts are to test all freshmen in 2012 online for end of course assessments. No funding provided of course. To me, this seemed like something I could push back until we figured out who gets projectors next! But with this deadline looming, we have a lot to do in Kerrville to get ready for this!

So, I left yesterday with a heavy heart. So much to do and so little time! I appreciate not only the discussions we had in the room but the knowledge that all of us are ill-prepared for these types of mandates. I’m not the only one in this boat! Plus, Lori shared resources on how Bastrop is going with 1:1 computing. Her candid perspective on this type of venture was appreciated!

I like how she explained that adding the laptops/netbooks to the campuses wasn’t the answer. The real way to get it to all work together was to get the curriculum to change for the use of technology. If you don’t change the way we teach, then the laptops won’t add to your instruction. They will detract.

So much great information shared. Another hit of a workshop! I can’t tell you how much this Academy has really helped a newbie like me! They gave us another file full of resources to use and they are REAL resources, each one.

Tech Directors – I just want to implore that you take this Academy when they offer it next year. It is a pricey cost, I know! But if you really want it to work well – invite your curriculum director to attend with you. Two for one training! It is really worth it!

Someone recently asked me what I would show a group of tech-savvy teachers if I had 15 minutes with them?

I started spinning out ideas and thought I would share mine. Then ask the collective what they think they would show?

1) I would show Wordle.net which has some interesting things to show with the Obama Inauguration Speech. Visual themes in written word. A teacher at the high school today had her kids finish out their poetry theme by posting their poems in Wordle and getting an instant peek at the most repetitive words. A quick peek at visual themes and then generating their own.

I think as an addition to this I would add oneword.com – which challenges visitors to type in a box on screen based on a one-word prompt. The site even times down on the screen so you only have 60 seconds to type on the topic. I would combine the two by typing a 60 second prompt, copy and paste into Wordle to see it play out.

2) Wikipedia – The Discussion Tab – Show the back-end of how the discussions between the authors of information collaborate to post accurately. This is the history of the collaborative process of creating the world’s largest and most current encyclopedia. Pick a few research topics and lead a discussion with the teachers to find out how this could be used in their classrooms. What are some ways this could be used? Also see if they can cross-collaborate with these tools. How could you combine this tool in an English class? Math class? Science? etc.

3) Google News Feed – Go to Google News and search a topic. Then you can sort by year, by blogs that are on that topic, and you can even subscribe to RSS/Atom feeds for receiving the most up-to-date information on the topic. If not ready to get into RSS/Atom? Click on Google News Alert and put in your email address. You can receive email alerts when a new story breaks on the topic. Instant news!

For research topics, students can not only research archived data but they can receive the most current information as well. And with cell phones in the classroom…..updates to their topics could be filling up their phones (while they are turned off or silent in their backpacks). Click on Mobile Updates and put in your cell number. Instant text updates.

15 Minutes to shine. What do you show to a group of tech-savvy teachers? Tech-savvy Administrators? Counselors? Librarians?