Click the image above to start watching Dr. Chris Moersch share about how to TURN UP THE H.E.A.T. with Levels of Technology Implementation. Kudos to Larry Stegall and Tonya Mills for their video recording and editing work!

HEAT is an acronym for...

HIGHER-ORDER THINKING

* Students taking notes only; no questions asked

* Student learning/questioning at knowledge level

* Student learning/questioning at comprehension level

* Student learning/questioning at application level

* Student learning/questioning at analysis level

* Student learning/questioning at synthesis/evaluation

ENGAGED LEARNING

* Students report what they have learned only.

* Students report what they have learned only; collaborate with others.

* Students given options to solve a problem

* Students given options to solve a problem; collaborate with others

* Students help define the task, the process, and the solution

* Students help define the task, the process, and the solution; collaborations extends beyond the classroom.

AUTHENTICITY

* The learning experience is missing or too vague to determine relevance.

* The learning experience represents a group of connected activities, but provides no real world application.

* The learning experience provides limited real world relevance, but does not apply the learning to a real world situation.

* The learning experience provides real world relevance and opportunity for students to apply their learning to a real world situation.

* The learning experience is directly relevant to students and involves creating a product that has a purpose beyond the classroom that directly impacts the students.

TECHNOLOGY USE

* No technology use is evident.

* Technology use is unrelated to the task.

* Technology use appears to be an add-on and is not needed for task-completion.

* Technology use is somewhat connected to task completion involving one or more applications

* Technology use is directly connected to task completion involving one or more applications.

* Technology use is directly connected and needed for task completion and students determine which application(s) would best address their needs.

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Categories: AudioBlog, Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net

Source: http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/130/009_575-010~Norman-Rockwell-Triple-Self-Portrait-Posters.jpg
No endorsement of pipe-smoking suggested.

One of my favorite book titles, though I dislike the author's other works (James Joyce), is The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. Let's adjust that title to reflect our District, The Portrait of Instructional Technology Director as an Old Man.

Over at The TWAIN Blog, Joel shares a few items that every IT director needs to consider:

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

How is this being accomplished in your school district? How are you doing it? I'll come back to this after the presidential debate tonight and add mine (if I'm still awake!).

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Categories: Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net

Source: http://www.mewsreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/jailbreak.jpg

Dr. Scott McLeod (Dangerously Irrelevant) has this plea for help posted on his blog:

Help! My IT director's locked me down!
I am a technology-loving science educator. I need your help and here is the short version of my story. I have tried to be a front-end user of educational technology. However, I have lost the ability to effectively utilize technology due to the IT director’s philosophy of restricting all computers for all staff.

Last week the IT people took my MacBook and removed administrative privileges – something I have always had. This has coincided with the loss of our curriculum director, who always empowered educators that wanted to be progressive. I was hoping to spend a few minutes talking on the phone in more detail, at your convenience. Please reach out and help a fellow educator! I look forward to your response.

My response:

This isn't an uncommon situation in districts. Some possible workarounds:

1) Make a list of everything you can't do and why it's instructionally relevant that you accomplish it.

2) Contact your campus principal and explain this to him/her. If your relationship with that person is lousy, then you'll probably be better off just buying your own laptop and using it for your own purposes, just don't let students use it...and many districts are implementing policies that PREVENT personal laptops on school networks, invoking CIPA, even though it doesn't necessarily apply...or worse, writing it into the Acceptable Use Policy.

3) Share your list with everyone and ask them to sign a petition for greater rights/access.

4) Share that at least ONE person on the campus needs to have admin/install rights on campus computers to expedite the process, then volunteer to be that person. Keep track of what you do and make sure that your campus technology committee has a process in place for allowing new software installations.

5) Remember that schools today aren't about technology use, even when it impacts instruction, but rather, high-stakes test prep and tutoring. Why are you wasting instructional time using technology?

;->

To end, you're going to have to develop a relationship with the folks "in power" so that they appreciate you as an individual and are willing to either bend the rules for you or understand that you don't fit the rule as teachers go. Building that relationship takes time and you won't get there overnight...so, in the short run, you may be unable to accomplish what you want with the Macbook. Instead, ask yourself, "What CAN you accomplish?" and then do that as much as possible, celebrate it with as wide an audience (blog is useful here), and push the issue of restricted access when you get attention. Keep it positive, ok?

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Categories: Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net

Source: http://images-cdn01.associatedcontent.com/image/A3532/35326/300_35326.jpg

Sometimes, opportunities aren't flushed down the toilet...maybe, opportunities are what is left over AFTER you flush. That's crazy, isn't it?

Drudge or Dread the day away. It happens and time drags. Someone--sorry, missed you when I had to restart the browser as Firefox updated to 3.0.x--highlighted Seth Godin's recent entry about Get to vs have to. Seth writes:

How much of your day is spent doing things you have to do (as opposed to the things you get to do.) In my experience, as people become successful and happier (the subset that are both) I find that the percentage shifts. These folks end up spending more and more time on the get to tasks. You'd think that this happens because their success permits them to skip or delegate the have to tasks. And to some extent, this is true. But far more than that, these people redefine what they do all day. They view the tasks as opportunities instead of drudge work.

A simple redefinition transformed the quality of their day, and more important, the perception of their work.

I don't know about you, but redefining some of what life throws at you as opportunities instead of drudge work is well...baloney. Isn't it? Sure, it works some of the time, but at some point, all you are really doing is adjusting your own attitude, and there is an objective reality that you measure up against.

I'm always reminded of the story of the janitor whom everyone thought was wonderful, wise, and witty, self-fulfilled, but at the end of the day, he was still a janitor making a few dollars, someone who'd wasted their time in school and "failed" as we define success today--college graduate, uh, no. What external, objective reality did he use to assess his progress? When he's scraping the toilet, is that a rewarding job? What opportunity is there in scrubbing the toilet clean, only to watch pre-teen boys mess it up again? We'll come back to this question.

How is that choice one makes to choose how to assess one's worth by an external measuring stick any different than viewing tasks as opportunities instead of drudge? I'm not sure, and hey, that's why I'm writing this. To find out. I have to remind myself because I've been stuck in the how-to rut for a bit.

Wait! That's exactly what I've been doing...spending more time in the drudge tasks, but discovering that *I* enjoy them. I enjoy creating a manual, and especially today when it's so easy to publish to a worldwide audience of folks that guarantee it will be used FAR MORE than what it might be if i just passed it on to someone local. But creating those manuals just became a low-wage job...there are tons of folks creating how-to manuals.

Does that fact make my work less valuable to me? No...back to our janitor. I actually have met those wise old janitors, custodians, whatever the politically correct word is now. I like to think of them as wonderful people who have somehow transcended the stigma of being toilet bowl scrapers. Somehow, they have found a way to be happy doing what they're doing, taking pride in their work.

One gentleman, about to retire from being a custodian for however many years, proudly displayed his toilet bowl scraper. Honestly, I was inquiring about his technique..."How do you get the bowls so darn white?" He took some time out of his busy schedule--when custodians are proud of their work, there is an unending list of things to do...when they're not, well, you know--to show me.

That day, for about 10 minutes or so, garbed in a tie and long-sleeve shirt and dress pants, I learned a lot about scraping bowls. I'm not sure if he redefined his reality to see an opportunity to get ahead. Instead, he saw it as an opportunity to learn, even if he was engaged in drudge work that is considered "beneath educators" (well, not kindergarten teachers <evil grin>).

As I reflect on that older, bald-headed, Hispanic, wrinkled, tidily-dressed (for a custodian, whatever that means) man, I can't help but wonder if this person who took the time to learn how to clean toilet bowls so that they were pristine, who took the time to teach me how to clean toilet bowls, if he had been engaged many years ago...well...if he'd have been wearing the tie and the long-sleeve shirt.

And, whether I, without benefit of support, would have found myself as a custodian...and whether I would have had the courage to redefine my drudge work as opportunities for continuous learning and teaching. But wait...I still can do that sitting behind my desk.

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Categories: Leadership, MGuhlin.net, Transformation

Source: http://www.stpaulsrochester.org/images/rummagec.gif

Pete Reilly (EdTech Journeys) made me crack a smile, albeit an irritated one, when he shared this comment:

Miguel,

Dorothy and Oz...hmmm!

Leaders going on a journey...the Yellow Brick Road... Along the way finding they need...Heart - the Scarecrow...Brains - the Tinman..and Courage - the Lion

I love it.

Then at the end of the journey realizing that the answers weren't out there at all...they were always within, they were always close to home. You're right Miguel, "There's no place like home!"

pete

Of course, to be transparent here, that was NOT the intent of my original message. I was wishing, like many who go somewhere wonderful, that I worked in this paradise of people relationship and technology that just works. Like Victor Valdez wrote, I am much more proud of how the technology has become "The Invisible Tool".

Yes, and darnit, I want to be proud of how technology has become, not the shunned, the ignored, the discarded without attempt at use, the invsible tool that Victor refers to. But obviously, isn't that what happens to all of us? There is always some place that appears to be better, that IS better than our current situation? The temptation is to say, "I'm going to practice," a la Robert Quinn, "active exit strategies to escape." Instead, Pete reminds us, the answers weren't out there at all...they were always within, they were always close to home.

And, so, Pete wins the comment hoist of the day because he reminds me that the best is yet to come, that WE have the answers, if only we'd bother to talk to each other, look deep inside and rummage around.

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Categories: CommentHoisting, Leadership, MGuhlin.net

This past Friday, I had the chance to visit a New Tech High School here in Texas. I honestly was not prepared for the impact it would have on me. I'd read about New Tech HS, even seriously considered it but it was cost-prohibitive for an urban district, the political will wasn't there (e.g. changing leadership, everything is on hold).

PBS TeacherLine of Texas had invited Greg Rodriguez (one of my team) and I to share about our partnership with them, and how we are using the ISTE Capstone program to build capacity. I spoke for about 15-20 minutes and then Greg shared how we were licensing PBS TeacherLine courses for use, but running them through Moodle. All in all, it was one of those nice moments when you get to share what you think is success.

But through the whole presentation, as I looked into the eyes of district administrators, surrounded by beautiful technologies in the form of iMacs, High-Def television screens, a neat and tidy environment that spoke volumes, I have to confess that I was awed. But not by the tech, although that was nice.

The superintendent was gung-ho, excited, asking hard tough questions, and I even blushed at one of them, the accountability question being one I hadn't thought of...I relished the feeling of being caught out. This was the kind of team I want to be a part of, people who are willing to embrace new technologies, CHANGE everything, and do what works. It hit me--again--that it really is about the people.

Pete Reilly (EdTech Journeys) makes this point:

As complex as it can be sometimes, the technology is the easy part. It is people that present the challenge to success. Maybe that’s why so much of the ed tech conversation revolves around the technology. It’s new. It’s cool. It’s fun. Who wants to take on the difficult task of dealing with ineffective leadership and creating systemic change?

I do.

I’m not satisfied with great ideas and great technologies failing because the people involved weren’t up to the challenge. I am not satisfied with the idea that all we have to do is build it and they will come. I am not satisfied with the idea that all we have to do is make a logical argument for change and magically people will change.

As I reflect on the exciting feelings I had when at the New Tech HS campus, the long conversation I had with the Social Studies teacher who came from California and co-teaches with an English teacher, who embraces project-based learning...well, I felt like Dorothy when she finally gets home.

Darn it, Pete...

"There's no place like home."

"There's no place like home."

"There's no...."

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Categories: Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net

As I shared earlier this week, I had the chance to present to principals about embracing technology for reflective conversations. The focus of the presentation was on helping principals become their own Communications Dept., sharing what's going on at their campus using a variety of media. Part of my presentation involved sharing two tools they could use--digital audio recorder and a digital video recorder.

Today, I read something that could just as easily applied to my presentation. What strikes me about this is that the technology we have access to makes it easy to draw parallels between journalism and education efforts. For some reason, that bothers me. It's as if new technologies present us with a problem that we all--regardless of our initial field of endeavour--are trying to parallel problem-solve.

A new video series called “Porkbusters On Patrol” is putting relatively inexpensive cameras into the hands of local reporters in an attempt to monitor unnecessary government spending.

Using a Flip Video Camera, reporters go to the site of governmentally financed projects to show what was produced with large sums of federal tax dollars.
Source: Porkbusters on Patrol - NewAssignment.net

The instructions given to the local reporters are very much like the ones I gave those principals:

“If you want to join our army of citizen reporters but don’t have a camera, you can get one free in exchange for your work. Just request a Flip video camera when you e-mail your story ideas.”

Revised, it is simply this:

"If you want to join our division of citizen-reporters but don't have a digital recording device, you can get one for free in exchange for your work. Just request a digital audio recorder when you e-mail your story ideas." We'll set up a blog for you to share the great things going on at your campus.

How are you, as an educational leader, encouraging citizen-reporting--reporting the positive communications--in your school?

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Categories: CitizenJournalism, Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net

Although this may be yet another time I've fallen into the hole, I was fascinated to read a few words over at Assorted Stuff, veteran (grin) Tim Stahmer's blog. But before jumping into that, I have to share why it was such a powerful read for me.

Under the fundamental philosophy of the American constitutional form of representative government that adheres to the principle that government is the servant and not the master of the people, it is the policy of this state that each person is entitled, unless otherwise expressly provided by law, at all times to complete information about the affairs of government and the official acts of public officials and employees. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.
Source: Government Code Chapter 552 - Public Information via Tim Holt

The term "public information" is a dirty phrase for some school districts...and some districts will do anything to delay the process. I've even seen service centers hem and haw before releasing information that is public. This isn't unusual. Sometimes, folks misconstrue public information and make mountains of molehills...but one thing remains clear. The bold section of the code cited above stands as a clear reminder as to who decides and, more importantly, that insisting on remaining informed is perfectly normal behavior.

This all came about as a result of a conversation--and actions taken--in disseminating information that was, by all accounts, public information and necessary for school districts to have access to. How far does such a right extend? Can students, should students, share what is happening in schools? Is everything that happens in a public space, public?

And, are classrooms considered public and can what happens there be shared? Consider this case that Tim Stahmer (Assorted Stuff) shares:

The whole story is a very interesting example of the conflict between the trend to make the operation of institutions like schools more transparent and the desire on the part of many teachers and administrators to keep them closed. So, if you’re a teacher, would you want a student to be reporting on what goes on inside your classroom? The question is relevant even if you teach in K12 and not college, because the issue is coming to your school very soon, if it hasn’t arrived already. Probably one more reason why educators should be proactive and write their own public reports on their classroom practice as a balance to what students will be posting.
Source: Reporting from Inside from Assorted Stuff

One of the quotes from Mark Glaser's blog (read the quote in context here) shares Alana's points:

“She told the class to read the article,” Taylor said. “Then she asked, ‘You all read Alana’s article, what did you think about it?’ There was silence for a good 30 or 45 seconds, and it was awkward and weird. And she said, ‘OK, we can all agree that there will be no more blogging or Twittering about the class.’ It was weird. It seemed like the students were scared to say anything.”

Often, I wonder if this isn't the approach being attempted in case like Tim Holt blogging and recording TETN presentations and sharing them online. The discomfort of public censure, of being in "hot water," is often enough to dissuade folks from pursuing a course of action. In fact, without recourse to blogs and the transparency that people are able to assure by sharing various perspectives, it's clear that this is what Tim's actions would have appeared as:

1. Tim posts video of public importance to his blog.
2. TETN administrator controls, however civilly, access to public information and censors Tim.
3. Tim removes content and posts announcement to other Texas educators that he's been asked to remove it.
4. Tim endures the humiliation of having been told to remove the content, and the chilling effect is transmitted to others who might potentially engage in acts of civic service misconstrued as disobedience.

The question that arises in my mind is, what if Tim had said, "No?" What consequences would he have been subject to?

When you consider the young journalist (Alana Taylor), and Tim Holt's act, it seems that there is a thread of commonality. Lack of control over content that should be public and available to all. These days, it's the occurrence of uh-oh at the end of "Web 2.0" that causes consternation on behalf of citizen journalists.

Transparency and Web 2. uh-oh.

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Categories: CitizenJournalism, Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net, Texas, Transparency

At last, it's out there...check it out...no mean comments about my picture. I don't know WHY they did that to it:

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Categories: Leadership, MGuhlin.net, TechTips

Image Source Shown here

It's not every day that a state agency makes the decision to assess school administrators based on the Technology Standards for School Administrators (TSSA). Here are the ground-breaking self-assessment statements:

1. Inspire a shared vision for comprehensive integration of technology and foster an environment and culture conducive to the realization of that vision.
2. Ensure that curricular design, instuctional strategies, and learning environments integrate appropriate technologies to maximize learning and teaching.
3. Apply technology to enhance my professional practice and to increase my own productivity and that of others.
4. Ensure the integration of technology to support productive systems for learning and administration.
5. Use technology to plan and implement comprehensive systems of effective assessment and evaluation.
6. Understand the social, legal, and ethical issues related to technology and model responsible decision making related to these issues.

To each, a campus administrator must identify whether they are Early Tech, Developing Tech, Advanced Tech, or Target Tech. While this is not an instrument that could be considered "valid" or "reliable" in any sense of the word, it does do one important thing--it highlights the need for a deeper conversation about technology literacy for administrators. A quick tutorial on how to accomplish this:

Today, I had the opportunity to share my thoughts--not to mention those of Chris Lehmann and Dean Shareski, who were kind enough to offer their feedback via Twitter when I was grasping around for some focus in the midst of a busy work and home schedule (busy is an understatement)--with principals in my district. It felt great. I decided to approach this, not as a director of Instructional Technology, but as a learner inviting folks to learn 24/7, anytime/anywhere, since that is what life demands from us now.

My presentation is shared here; I'll be revamping this presentation for other audiences...this presentation was really given in about 20 minutes and accomplished my objectives. Some of the embedded videos included:

Videos/Audio:

* Slide 3 - Stuck on the Elevator

* Slide 7 - Walkthroughs (dancing principals)

* Slide 14 - Murfee 911 Remembrance

* Slide 17 - Autistic - Carly (shared under Fair Use-May not be posted on the Web)

* Slide 18 - Marco Torres - "Parents"

* Slide 20 - Audio of "Lupita" on Mother's Day

* Slide 21 - Dr. Tim Tyson's Open House and PodcastCentral

I wanted this presentation to be more about marketing, citizen-journalism, but in the end, I threw those terms out of the presentation. Instead, I focused on sharing the power of student voices, those great moments that happen in the hallway, on the playground, in the classroom where you just wish you DID have a camera crew with you. But instead, all you have is your Olympus WS-100 digital audio recorder or FLIP video camera...and that's ALL you need.

We're also using the Apple Server's blog/podcast component...every principal gets a blog and so does every teacher. You can get a wiki and calendar as well. For fun, a team member set one up in less than 5 minutes via Active Directory login for someone and they were typing and going right away. Whew! It was that or customize Wordpress blogs for over 80 people...I wasn't looking forward to that!

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Categories: Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net, Texas, Transparency

Earlier this week, the Texas Education Technology Network (TETN) broadcast instruction about how administrators were going to be expected to submit a Technology Standards for School Administrators (TSSA) aligned assessment. The very worthy and important mission of TETN is as follows:

The mission of TETN is to facilitate communications among educational entities throughout Texas to improve student performance and to increase efficiency of educational operations via an effective telecommunications network. --TETN Policy Manual

Yet, recent actions by TETN call into question the REAL intent of this espoused mission. I was shocked to read the following at Tim Holt's Intended Consequences blog:

When I got to work this morning, I opened an email from my local ESC technology director, saying that I was in trouble...well, she actually said “Hot water” So what else is new eh? I wondered what I did this time. Apparently, yesterday I innocently recorded a presentation on the Texas Education Technology Network. The presentation was about new Title II D reporting requirements that the state was rolling out. Pretty boring stuff actually, but pertinent to some people on my staff and some others that I knew could not attend. I posted the video on this site . Innocent stuff I thought. Share the information. Let everyone see what is expected of them.

Apparently not. I got a letter asking me to tear down my podcast from Carol Wallis at TETN.
Read the rest

I was shocked to read this, and had already pulled my audio recording of the TETN session off-line because it was alleged to be a copyright violation...so, I pulled the links to the audio down and removed it, even though the notes I took got over 500 hits in the space of a few hours. Simply, LOTS of people in Texas found it useful information to have. While it bothered me to pull it down--actually, in retrospect, cowardly on my part (I'll explain why in a second)--I was disappointed that the fundamental mission seemed to be at odds with the clear need to share NCLB Technology Report assessment information so that data could be collected. Wouldn't an organization like TETN want to see this information disseminated as far and wide as possible, as quickly as possible?

Tim makes those points in his post. My initial comment was this:

Tim, it would be great to know if audio of the TETN could be shared. I applaud your sharing this as a blog entry and increasing transparency.

This is an excellent example of disruptive technologies and their power to disintermediate traditional "middle men" organizations--in this case a regional service center (don't they have those in every state?). There's no reason why any organization cannot share the original broadcast via SkypeCast/uStream or one of the newer technologies. Actually, there is ONE reason--revenue-generation for an outmoded technology (e.g. satellite broadcasts).

Again, I applaud your transparency in regards to this. In reviewing the mission, it seems that there is a more important mission at stake here--generate revenue. It's not inappropriate, evil, or bad...rather, it just needs to be stated more directly in the policy.

In the meantime, my notes endure online.

Then, the more I thought about it, this seemed like a Shirky moment. I meditated about it and then wrote this:

In my home, I've been stunned to watch the damage caused by Hurricane Ike. I'm hungry for more information and realize that many of the folks who are off-line can't respond. I was shocked by the photos I saw. But I didn't get those photos from the news, but instead, via Flickr...from people who are/were there.

Watching the morning news, I was surprised to see the News sharing a broadcast from hurricane-ravaged parts of Texas. How were they doing it? Using Skype and portable video equipment. "The new technology is reliable enough that we can broadcast from out in the field," shared the newscaster. Much cheaper than the technology they were using, much lighter, too, one would think.

When we consider what a revolutionary role TETN has played in the last 10+ years, juxtapose it with the situation Tim writes about, one has to ask, Is this an example of folks clinging to a technology that has outlived its usefulness? Is it criminal--or even a reprimandable offense (you know, someone calling up your superintendent to express distress about asking questions like these)--to ask these questions?

Questions to ask:

• Are we using the best technologies to swiftly facilitate communications and disseminate information among educational entities throughout Texas?
• How could we leverage newer technologies--like podcasting, vidcasting, blogs, and wikis--to better achieve our need to get information in the hands of people who need it quickly?
• How can MORE stakeholders be involved in the conversation?

I haven't asked these question, and only offer these as examples of possible question we might ask if we were having a conversation. And, it's clear that these conversations ARE important to have, not just avoid because it might not be politically correct.

One of my favorite quotes from Clay Shirky (author of "Here Comes Everybody"), and I think you'll see the connections pretty quickly, is this one below:

Now that there is competition to traditional institutional forms for getting things done, those institutions will continue to exist, but their purchase on modern life will weaken as novel alternatives for group action arise.

What a great quote that is. Our institutions continue to exist but novel alternatives for group actions--such as Tim's blog with video of a broadcast ALL of us need access to quickly--have arisen. Yet, these novel alternatives present threats to the status quo.

Clay Shirky is essentially letting us know, by publishing a book about this, that this is something we have to face as adults in the world...and what once was a service now is a bottleneck. In Tim's example, TETN has content but it's not available for wide-dissemination UNLESS you meet certain criteria (e.g. you pay for it, show up to be present, whatever). In that way, it becomes an information bottleneck.

What a fascinating conversation that we ALL need to have, not only in our districts with each other but also at the state level. The question is, will it take Clay Shirky or some keynote speaker have to deliver this presentation several times in Texas BEFORE it becomes acceptable to do what Tim Holt did for Texas educational organizations?

And, one has to ask this question, Is this technology use--shown to be not as nimble, perhaps, as new videocasting that Tim has done and that we all saw modelled at NECC 2008--need to be re-considered? What can districts do to support the transition from service (the past) to bottleneck (possibly, the present) to reconfigured service (the future)?

END

Now, when one works at an education service center, it appears one forfeits the right to write like this...this kind of writing would get folks fired! I still remember the SAVE TENET days when executive directors were calling ed-tech specialists at the ESCs to remind them, "TEA has spoken...no objections!" In fact, blogging is probably a "no-no" for those who fear dissent and open conversation and it is not allowed. The next thing to fear is whether TETN or TEA would file a complaint with an employer because they disliked what one wrote here. To those, it is worth remembering the words of Patrick Finn, author of Literacy with an Attitude:

First, there is empowering education, which leads to powerful literacy, the kind of literacy that leads to positions of power and authority. Second, there is domesticating education, which leads to functional literacy, literacy that makes a person productive and dependable, not troublesome.

Must troublesome go along with empowering education? Obviously so...asking hard questions is what America prizes above all, because if you can't ask tough questions, then you never have the chance to measure up with awesome solutions. Imagine if The Alamo defenders had said, "No, we better toe the line and take direction from the people who own Texas!"

Tim is afraid of getting a pink slip, but I bet so are most people who choose not to discuss this issue. Isn't it time we broke the bottleneck? But if they did, they would still fail to silence the essential truths that Clay Shirky has pointed out. Not only do we need to support disruptive technologies that disintermediate organizations using older technologies, we also need to ask ourselves, Should we be concerned about those organizations? Our society is caught up trying to answer the question, How can you be a maverick if the organization you're a part of IS the status quo? If we cannot see the possibilities for reform from within in government, how could we expect it from education organizations and state agencies?

As one watches the financial fiasco happen, like a train wreck, you have to ask, should we bail out our education organizations with out-dated approaches to communicating and collaborating, bail out organizations who have failed to envision and learn NEW ways of achieving the fundamental tenets of their mission?

And, should we provide that support to people who say "yes, we know what our mission is, but we need to revise our policy, so in the meantime, take down the content" to Texas leaders in ed-tech (like Tim Holt)? Leaders who are facilitating effective communications to increase the efficiency of educational organizations is wrong when they use modern technology because they have chosen to embrace new technologies?

Seems simple to me. You?

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Categories: Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net, Texas

How would this apply to you, as a leader in ed-leadership in schools or ed-tech?

theodp writes "Instead of laying off techies who directly help users, Robert X. Cringely argues that the best place to cut IT organizations is at the top. One of the great problems in IT management, Cringely says, is that the big bosses typically haven't a clue what is happening, what needs to happen, and what it all should cost.

He issues the following challenge: 'If you are managing an IT shop and can't write the code to render "hello world" in C, HTML, PHP, and pull "hello world" from a MySQL database using a perl script, then you are in the wrong job.' Even with help from Google, Cringely believes many technical managers would fail this test and should get the boot as a result — you can't manage what you don't understand."
Source: via Slashdot

Instead of laying off the teachers, shaking the tree to get rid of the underlings, maybe we need to kick the leadership out? Start with directors....

;->

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Leadership, MGuhlin.net

A few weeks ago (what? 2?) I shared that I'd stolen the Massachusett's Technology Self-Assessment Tool (TSAT) and adapted it for use in a local school district. To be honest, I was more interested in exploring the use of the Questionnaire Module for Moodle, so when someone said, "Gee, wouldn't it be great to do an online assessment of administrators so that we can know what professional development they need?" I was already 3/4 of the way done...or so I thought. Then, the email came that had me re-investigating Filemaker Pro as a way to manage data, exporting from the Questionnaire Module (thank goodness, it was easy) and then using my non-existent artistic design skills--I'm a wordsmith, not an artist!--to come up with a usable district level and individual respondent report.

I know, this is terrible. I shouldn't be admitting this or even sharing it with you but when you spend a few hours of a day working on a project, you want other people to know, to suffer with...so, while I wish that the process above was what I followed, here's the process I actually followed (although, come to think of it, I don't think I was THAT <snicker> far off):

1) I stole MA Technology Self-Assessment Tool. I liked it because it boiled the Technology Standards for School Administrators (TSSA) down to 3 domains, which it characterized as:

• Basic Technology Skills
• Leadership Skills
• Social, Legal and Ethical Issues

While I don't care for the first domain--basic technology skills--they are pretty accurate...and needed by administrators. For example, how do you save your email into Personal Folders in Outlook to save space on the mail server? That's important for administrators because they have 100s of emails coming at them, some with large attachments but they only have 50 megs of email space (why don't they switch to GoogleApps for Education? 6 gigs of space!). Yet, a lot of them may not know how to accomplish this. Another point--I don't see these domains as having to be mastered one at a time, one before the other. I see them all as co-existing and valuable but you don't have to do the basics before getting the leadership or ethical issues nailed down.

Then, with all that in mind, I made some modifications to the instrument. Remember, the goal of this assessment was to help administrators understand what professional development they needed to participate in. That means, professional development that I would have to offer or contract out with someone to provide. But, I didn't think that far ahead when I was dropping this stuff into Questionnaire Module...I was having too much fun learning a new tool...has that ever happened to you?

I was hoping to point administrators in the general direction of the new NETS-S, especially creativity and collaboration, digital citizenship, etc. It didn't occur to me at this point 2 weeks or so ago that I would need to craft workshops aligned to the questions.

2) After swiping the MA Technology Self-Assessment Tool, I eagerly installed and dropped the content into the Questionnaire Module in Moodle. What an awesome tool. Yes, I was carried away by the excitement of the tool without thinking clearly about its uses. So what? I had fun, I just didn't realize 44 questions later and 44 responses later, what would be involved in analyzing the data.

In the meantime, I enjoyed the output of the reports that displayed simple YES/NO responses. Please, tell me how bad it was for me to assume, "Yes, you either know something," or "No, you don't know it." I like the honesty of such an admission, the ownership of reducing complex knowledge, skills and strategies to a simple "YES" or "NO". Blank responses--such as to questions about budget--were labelled as "NO". And, in reality, the answers were 1s and 0s. The irony of binary responses was lost on me until this very moment.

Here are a few of the questions (the first in each domain):

I did make some modifications to the questions to reflect my fascination with GoogleDocs, blogs, etc:

2) Analyzing the data collected. District administrators responsible for campus administrators set a requirement of about a week and a half for staff to complete the assessment. Then, came the question that I should have anticipated but neglected to anticipate:

How soon can you analyze the results of the technology survey? Will you have the capability to analyze results by Area, by campus level, or only by District? Pending access to survey responses and identification of patterns of needs, we would like you to present a needs-based topic to principals at the next principals’ meeting. The time would be approximately 30 minutes....

30 minutes for a variety of topics. But how to export the data? Fortunately, Questionnaire Module in Moodle makes it easy.

But the real challenge was analyzing the data, making it understandable, because what follows isn't all that helpful:

unless you import it. So, that's what I did...right into Filemaker Pro. And, that helped me understand the data a lot more than just a bunch of 1s and 0s. But I still wasn't happy...I wanted to provide something more, and frankly, I just couldn't see the patterns in the 1s and 0s (I'm not Neo from The Matrix). 

So I started playing with Filemaker and how I could represent the data. It started to shape up but the fact is, I'm not sure what I shaped up. Here's what it ended up looking like:

Page 1:
 

3) Creating individualized reports--a customized learning plan--based on the data. This was particularly difficult. Not the concept of doing so, but that I'd have to design courses to fill the gaps. Of course, difficult and fun! But a lot more work needs to be done. If I'm not way over the line in interpreting assessment data (I suspect I'm so far over I'll be condemned, how's that for transparency?), I'll be even more way out there for what is to come.

What appears below is Page 2, which is an individual administrator's report (in 3 sections). Each administrator gets their own custom report. You'll note that the raw scores appear (Yes=1, No=0). Every "0" is tied to a specific workshop you can take to address your "deficit" or need as an administrator. This is where I really took a leap of something and where I'm most nervous about this assessment and its validity (no, probably none).

The recommended workshops again reflect specific needs. Most of the Web 2.0, or Read/Write Web, stuff, well, you can see that it's what principals were shown to need. How these align to the Technology Standards for School Administrators (TSSA), that's the next part of the job...making that connection as clear as possible, or at least, trying to make the connection. Again, I'm honestly not sure if this is possible but with only a few hours work to turn this around (that sounds like an excuse), this is what I came up with.

I am also worried about the design. Not the artistic design of the report, but rather, the design of the instrument itself. What fundamental rules have I broken here? The rest of the recommended workshops are not as easy. I noticed that as soon as I departed from the how-to in the realms of leadership and ethics, I was immediately struggling to come up with workshops that would address the needs. I definitely need to spend more time reflecting on what I know that fits, as well as what I don't know that could fit (gee, your help would be great here!).

Going through this has taught me a few things, and made me aware of the gulf of what I don't know. As a speaker and author, I get to pick what I'm presenting on and share it with a wide audience. I venture out, quite confident, about a particular topic or subject but the job of assessing (which is probably best left to folks like Dr. Chris Moersch with his LOTI, or enGauge, or the others out there) and adapting workshops...well, I'm not as confident. This highlights for me a whole area of professional learning that I need to engage in because what I thought I knew, I don't. And, what I wish I knew, well, I better get started learning now. The problem is, what do I do with the principals who will get this assessment report and then dedicate time to live up to it?

That's the part that bothers me the most. Will I have given them a goal worthy of them and what I'll teach for both of us to live up to? I don't know. Thoughts?

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net, Transparency

In November of 2007, I had an email exchange with Dr. Scott McLeod. I was interested in accomplishing the following...

I'd like to start an EdTech Directors group blog along the lines of LeaderTalk but for a diff audience. It would be Texas focused, but I'm not sure there's enough people who would do it. I'd definitely follow your lead. I was considering getting TCEA to sponsor the web site costs, etc...unless you want a piece of the action, because I have no objections to doing this independently of any organization!

Thoughts? Am I nuts?

Although Scott was open to the idea, I lost track of the project. Yet, this discussion was starred in my Gmail so I can't let it go <smile>.

My checklist for launching a new project like this is as follows:

1. Decide on the focus - Chief Technology/Information Officer, Directors of Technology
2. Come up with a name - CTO Central
3. Customize instructions to reflect the new site - A draft appears here (adapted from LeaderTalk)
4. Invite bloggers/writers for each day of the month - Instructions appear here.
5. Come up with a logo/image/banner for the blog
6. Setup the blog
7. Publicize the launch of the blog -
8. Launch - December 1, 2009 launch date
9. Follow - up

The more I think about it, the less inclined I am to limit such a group to Texas CTOs. While there are undoubtedly lots of them out there, it may take a national pool of CTOs who are willing to write one post out of the month. In the meantime, I'm up to step 4.

Any takers?

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net

Here's the lead on a new article I wrote recently for Education World. You'll have to wait for the article to come out on Education World but it should appear here...

“Miguel,” a superintendent in a district I was visiting asked me, “could you develop a CD highlighting the top 5 technology tools to make a principal’s life easier?” I was flabbergasted. A CD? You mean, a compact disc? Who uses those anymore? The ubiquitous web makes it possible to access a wealth of online resources. Sure, a simple CD with free, open source tools would be useful, but there is so much you can do with free, online professional learning tools. As such, my response was simple....

I'd love to hear your feedback once the article is published by mid-September!

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net, Moodle, TechTips

Having just finished reading Patrick Lencioni's 3 Signs of a Miserable Job for the second time--it was referenced in a leadership presentation I had the chance to observe, so I thought it was worth revisiting--I wondered what it might be like to write a blog entry (article, really) aligning the 3 signs with Read/Write Web tools.

The question that got me going was, How can citizen-journalism strategies--including Read/Write Web tools--eliminate irrelevance, immeasurement, and anonymity for K-12 leaders? To be honest, it was a fun article to write. At the same time I was contemplating the idea and sitting down to write it, Scott McLeod shared the exciting news that LeaderTalk.org is still moving towards becoming syndicated or a part of a larger news organization. This is a testament to Scott McLeod's leadership (Dangerously Irrelevant) and the writing of my fellow LeaderTalk folks.

What was funny to me, though, was that Scott wanted everyone who would be contributing, to make sure and do so during the month of September. Although my day isn't officially until the 26th of each month, I can't help but feel my creativity is constrained when I have an idea NOW that wants to get out to its audience NOW, rather than wait until it's acceptable. And, it was the first blog entry of September, 2008. Big deal, right? <wink>

So, a long story to bring you the results of my experiment blending Lencioni with citizen-journalism:

 
Read Embracing Citizen-Journalism in K-12 Leadership

BTW, if you have examples of this in your own work, please share them! I'll be submitting this article in modified form for a print publication with a completely different audience...perhaps you'll allow me to include a link or two to how you, as an education leader, are using citizen-journalism to spotlight what is going on at your campus.

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: CitizenJournalism, Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net

Source: http://www.alwayswow.com/Ikea%20Job%20Interview.jpg

When I go on a job interview, I like to think I'm doing research for an article. And, though I've interviewed for many positions over the course of my career, recently, I was delighted to interview for a position with a school district as their Chief Technology Officer.

As an edublogger, I also felt a responsibility to take notes and remember the questions asked. Not everybody gets asked these kinds of questions, and I remember how much I wish someone, anyone would have shared these with me BEFORE I applied for a CTO position, what kind of questions interviewers might ask.

Today, for the second time in my professional career, I found out the kinds of questions a CTO interview candidate is asked. I left the interview on a "high," thrilled and excited to have simply been selected to interview and listened to by keenly interested, high ranking district administrators! It was wonderful to have the opportunity to share my experiences in the context of responding to simple, open-ended questions whose purpose was not to plumb the depths of my knowledge, but rather, "to get to know you better." And, that's what I wanted, too.

I remember several of the questions in the 30 minute interview and I made the effort to write things down...so come along with me as recount the CTO Interview Experience. I hope that you'll find the journey fun, and that you'll share your thoughts along the way.

THE START
A few weeks ago, I submitted an application for a CTO position. I've learned that if I don't apply for these positions that are near my "home base" in San Antonio, I find myself regretting that I didn't apply. And, though I am successful in my current position--and I define success as the opportunity to learn, teach and motivate others to learn how to use technology to impact teaching, learning and leading district-wide--I am always looking for a spot where I can learn more and effect greater change. So, when the call came late last week, I planned accordingly, even though this is one of the toughest weeks to be out (I checked email and called in, as I always do to find out what was going on..."it was slow" today shared my team and I was grateful).

When I stepped into the Administration building where the interview was to take place, I introduced myself to the Secretary who had contacted me to arrange the interview. She said, "Welcome! You're here with plenty of time for the written exercise." I had known there would be something but no clear indication of what would be involved was given. As I sat down in a small room, two other people were typing furiously on laptops, equally dressed up in "interview togs."

THE PROMPT
"Respond to the question on the paper and save the document on the Desktop of the computer. I'll come get you when they're ready for you." A quick glance at my phone--set to silent--revealed that I would have approximately 30 minutes. The prompt?

If selected for this position, what would be the first action you would take?

Now, believe it or not, this was one of those questions for which I had prepared for. How did I prepare? I called up my colleagues who were CTOs and asked them, what does being a CTO involve? What questions did they ask you when you interviewed? What did you do your first day? And, not surprisingly, the ideal response shared was this one:

My first action would be to visit every campus and department and identify their needs. Figure out where the leaders were and do everything to encourage them and help them. Have conversations and build relationships.

But, did I do that? No, I neglected to mention that right off the bat. Instead, I started thinking about everything I wanted them to know. In 30 minutes, this is my first draft of what I wrote--and it was the only draft I would get to write. Worse, I started having fun with the piece of writing. I even laughed (quiet, inside voice laugh) that it might end up as a blog entry. "Life is a bloggable experience." (Source: uh, me).

How did I manage to get a copy of my response? I logged into my wiki--I thought using the Internet might be "against the rules" even though no rules were given--and copied-n-pasted the content from the Word document there. I could just as easily gone to GoogleDocs, but Gmail was blocked as a web-based email provider. The block made me wonder if the District supported tiered content filtering or not...I realized as a CTO, I would have the opportunity to influence that decision.

SELF-DOUBT
As I re-read my response, I find it so...inadequate. There's so much more I could have said. I started to have fun with the structure, but I left out parts that would have made the explanation clearer. Perhaps, I should have been more "hands-on" in my comments, sharing steps as to what I would have done.

Worse, I realized that I had slipped into "test-taking," competitive mode. It was an unfamiliar feeling for me. I knew it had happened when an older gentleman came in, also applying for the CTO position, and said "Hello, how are you?" when the secretary had left. Regrettably, I ignored him, already deep into page 3 of my response, as if being deeply focused on my work excused common courtesy. To be honest, "test-taking" mode had predisposed me to keep my mouth closed, eyes on my own paper. Later, after the interview, as he waited his turn, I walked up to him, shook his hand and apologized for not responding. I would have explained but he excused my behavior and immediately launched into a story of his own. I'd been forgiven by a complete stranger.

THE RESPONSE
My response appears below. To you, faithful readers of this blog, some of this will look very familiar. In fact, I have no doubt that I would not have been able to write as much if I had not discussed these very ideas with you here. And, I'm also grateful to Jeff Utecht ("The THinking Stick") for his recent entry on technology, not as a tool, but as a connector. His ideas inspired me as my mind dashed along the learning connections made. I also called on Will Richardson and his idea of "learner in charge," which after a few hours reflection, I realized should have been, "learner in chief." Yet, I might be forgiven for adapting their work for a document only a committee of 5 would read.

What bothers me most, aside from what I've shared already, is that I didn't share how much I believe that leadership isn't about authority, but rather, influence. I've been reading Clay Shirky, and I wanted to touch on that thread, to introduce that thinking. After all, in 30 minutes, after 4 years of blogging, I feel I should have done better. A CTO friend of mine said to me, though, "In 30 minutes, most people would only have written one page." Given time, perhaps, I could have trimmed my response to only reflect diamond bright, hard-hitting responses.

“Technology change,” shares Neil Postman, “is ecological.” My motto as a leader and “chief learner in charge” has been to find ways to continually transform teaching, learning and leading through the strategic use of technology. Accomplishing this can be challenging—we must analyze our current situation, consider the implications of acting on the data gathered, engage in fierce conversations with our stakeholders, and find ways to ensure that the process unites, rather than divides, us.

WHERE ARE WE NOW?
If analysis of our current situation is a key starting point, then my first steps as Chief Technology Official would be to review existing reports and documents that provide insights into the way we do business in this ISD, as well as staff our positions. I would also seek to gather more information by conducting needs assessments. In the realm of technology, there are various critical assessments that can be conducted:

1. Analysis of staff organization – Are we capitalizing on the strengths of our team members? What weaknesses would re-organization address and what need is there to accomplish that?

2. Analysis of project management – when you want to accomplish systemic change in the District, how do you manage projects from beginning to end, how do you transition from what is planning to implementation to maintenance? Who is responsible for each change?

3. Analysis of Capital Outlay and Systems – As CTO, there are a variety of systems that can be used to enhance our work (provided they work together rather than be in silos), such as:

• Human Resources Systems
• Student Information Systems
• Data Warehouse
• Gradebook and Attendance Tracking System (GATS, or in the case of this ISD, GradeSpeed)
• Learning Management Systems – track instructor-led professional learning, as well as enable facilitation of online learning opportunities.
• Server Maintenance, including routers, wireless equipment, servers and Voice Over IP (VOIP). • Library Automation Systems
• HelpDesk and Support (is HEAT working well? How can HEAT be configured to provide more information to the end user and facilitate communication?)
• Campus Visitation Management System – how do you know who you have visiting campuses is on the “up and up?”

4. Analysis of Educational Technology Plan (“ePlan” submitted to the Texas Education Agency) and how it might be better aligned to Curriculum & Instruction.

5. Conduct some benchmark assessments that are more rigorous than the School Technology and Readiness (STaR) Chart for teachers, librarians, and administrators (new for 2008), not to mention reviewing 8th Grade Technology Literacy Assessments for the 2007–2008 school year.

One such assessment is the Levels of Technology Implementation (LOTI) (recently retitled Levels of Teacher Innovation). Are this ISD's teachers using technology to identify and solve real life problems, as well as extend learning beyond the classroom walls? What does that look like?

WHERE DO WE WANT TO GO?
In any process, but especially one that involves technology, it is essential that we have fierce, learning conversations. If technology is irrelevant to what we’re doing in the classroom—teaching and learning—then our classrooms are irrelevant to our children. A host of reports published in the last 5 years highlight the increasing need for us to engineer quality learning, engaging experiences for our children.

The new National Education Technology Standards for Students (NET-S) call for more than just knowledge of technology operations and concepts, or what we once called computer literacy. As technology enables us to create, communicate, collaborate in an increasingly flattening world (read Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat and/or Dan Pink’s A Whole New World ). Our focus instead has to be on digital citizenship, how to facilitate creating, communicating, collaborating in ways that extend our students’ reach BEYOND the classroom walls. In fact, the question isn’t how WE can teach our children, but how can we make it possible for our children in this District to contribute to a global community of learners? How can we scaffold safe, engaging learning for our children that enables them to be continuously innovating?

Read/Write Web Tools (online collaboration and creation tools) are available that make it easy to achieve the highest level of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy—CREATE—much easier. My daughter (13 years old) wrote an 18 chapter fiction story and published it online. Two children in a log cabin (home schooled) in Tennessee took that story and made a movie of it using Moviemaker and Paint—free programs on Windows computers—and then published it to a worldwide audience on YouTube.com…without adult supervision.

Are public school students—like this ISD's students—accomplishing this? One of my favorite quotes is, “Hardware without software is just junk, but software without teaching is just noise.” Software and hardware do not instruct, do not teach; people do. When we consider the power of learning technologies, we must remember to ask not what computers can do for students, teachers and leaders, but rather, what students, teachers and leaders can do with technology? And, that is changing rapidly, even faster than any one person can keep up with. Being a “learner” that learns beyond the 8:00 AM to 3:30PM school day, or beyond the occasional staff development day or annual conference is not only essential, it is necessary.

How do you extend learning beyond the classroom walls? First, you provide leaders—including teacher-leaders—with open-ended communication and collaboration tools that enable anytime/anywhere learning. Consider the use of tools such as Read/Write Web tools such as online discussion areas, wikis for collaborative work, and more. Second, you make it possible for children’s voices to be heard at the community level. Third, you ensure that emerging technologies are used with children and adult learners and available to them. The goal is not to prescribe learning but to allow it to flourish in a rich, multi-literate/media environment.

Literacy = multimedia = Creativity/Collaboration at a distance

HOW WILL WE GET THERE?
We can not move forward unless we move forward together. Moving forward together is the only way to accomplish change. As an educator, my goal is to bring stakeholders together, to bridge the divide that sometimes exists between technology and leadership, technology and curriculum, and lead in that environment. “He who would lead,” goes one of my favorite quotes, “must build a bridge.” That is my primary goal as Chief Technology Official and Chief Learner in Charge.

As CTO, my goal is to facilitate fierce, engaging conversations about how to bring about change in schools that are aligned to the needs of our students. For digital students in analog schools, that can have a stressful impact on educators. Conversations about what change means in MY life, YOUR life, and WHO WE ARE TOGETHER are critical.

Take those conversations and put them in writing, make them widely available to all stakeholders, such as our Community, our Students, our Teachers and Staff, and Leadership. Then, continue to revisit those online, collaborating as knowledge workers…as knowledge architects to design where we are all going together.

CONCLUSION
Technology change is ecological—it changes everything. If you’re not changing, learning with technology, then you are missing the power of networked, connected learning that is now possible. As an education author and speaker, my focus isn’t on technology. Rather it is on how technology is a connector, enabling me to engage with others, tap into a global network of people as committed to transforming teaching, learning and leading through the strategic use of technology.

In summary, my first acts would be to analyze district needs through assessments and reports, as well as site visits and conversations with key stakeholders; 2) Strategize with “leaders” wherever they might be and empower them to have learning conversations with technology; and 3) Move swiftly as a learning organization to achieve the change we want to see and be in the world.

In spite of my reflections here, I felt great about what I wrote. The act of writing gives me a rush, and I definitely entered the Zone, in spite of other people in the small room, the self-imposed restriction to not use the Web. One though that came to mind, though, was, "Wow, it's been so long since I've written something without inspiration from the blog entries of others." Fortunately, I carried many of those with me. As I re-read it again, I see George Siemens interview.

THE INTERVIEW
After turning my classwork in <smile>, I followed my guide to the office where the 30 minute interview was to take place. There were some quick introductions...two principals, 1 deputy superintendent, 2 human resources folks but there names wouldn't stick in my mind. I could feel the onset of fear. Then, the first question, and I poured myself into the response, pushing, expanding. After that question--which I can't remember at all, nor my response--I was able to take stock and jot down the rest of the questions.

Those questions included:

• What is the role of technology in learning?
  
• What is the role of technology in school business systems? (paraphrased)
• What formal process do you use in selecting programs?

There was also one question that referenced a service that was completely foreign to me. I shared the acronym with a colleague and she pulled it up on Wikipedia:

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of concepts and techniques for managing information technology (IT) infrastructure, development, and operations...ITIL is built around a process-model based view of controlling and managing operations often credited to W. Edwards Deming[citation needed]. The ITIL recommendations were developed in the 1980s by the UK Government's CCTA in response to the growing dependence on IT and a recognition that without standard practices, government agencies and private sector contracts were independently creating their own IT management practices and duplicating effort within their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) projects resulting in common mistakes and increased costs.

One of the primary benefits claimed by proponents of ITIL within the IT community is its provision of common vocabulary, consisting of a glossary of tightly defined and widely agreed terms. A new and enhanced glossary has been developed as a key deliverable of the ITIL v3 (also known as the ITIL Refresh Project).
Source: Wikipedia

I had never heard of this term--ITIL--but after reading the Wikipedia entry, I can begin to understand it. More research shows that this is a term associated with a local business in the town I was being interviewed...and, I remember now that there was a representative from business present. It all starts to make sense <smile>.

This was, a colleague suggests, a trick question to see if I would admit I didn't know (joke). As an educator who has come up through the ranks, I don't feel too badly that i didn't know it. I did try to respond to the question but knowing that I was sure to miss this one question completely.

REFLECTION
I left the interview feeling excited and thrilled to have had a chance to present and share ideas. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for a 2nd interview with the Superintendent, but in the meantime, I honestly can't complain. I've come to see job interviews as an opportunity to research the process, to push myself to learn things I didn't know, and a way to gain insight as to how I perform under pressure.

QUESTIONS FOR YOU
As I reflect on my experience, I invite you to join me and share how YOU would have responded to the written prompt or to any of the other questions. Though ultimately the assessment of whether I did well or not, and whether my doing well is aligned to what the interviewing District needs, is based on what the District and/or I think, I'm curious to know what your thoughts are.

Finally, I have to admit that this is the first time I've shared the interview process with anyone aside from family and close friends. Do you think I should have shared this with you here? If the interviewing District were to read this, what do you think they would think or say?

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net, Texas

Please find the lead to a new blog entry cross-posted in full at LeaderTalk.org, the first group blog written by school leaders for school leaders. LeaderTalk hopes to share insights and resources that are beneficial to P-12 administrators and educational leadership preparation programs.

"Check yourself in the mirror," my Dad would call out each morning before we left for the drive to school. That last minute look in the mirror would often reveal a hair out of place, or that my shirt buttons and belt buckle weren't lined up right. Worse, it might show a bit of stubble--when in high school--that I hadn't shaved, or crud in the corner of my eye.

Now, every morning, I offer my nine-year old the same advice. It's not about vanity but knowing how you will appear to others. And, if you're sending the message you want to send, then that's fine. But if you're not, that last check in the mirror can provide a crucial moment of insight. While some prefer to never look in the mirror when it comes to their organization, it's absolutely necessary. Our role today in schools is about building Global Communications Center for our campus or district. It is NOT the job of the Communications Department...it's YOUR job as an educational leader.
Read the Rest

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: CitizenJournalism, Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net

Please find the lead to a new blog entry cross-posted in full at LeaderTalk.org, the first group blog written by school leaders for school leaders. LeaderTalk hopes to share insights and resources that are beneficial to P-12 administrators and educational leadership preparation programs.

"Either write something worth reading," shared Ben Franklin, "or do something worth writing about." This entry outlines a few strategies for enhancing your communication strategies as a "administrator-journalist." As educational leaders, powerful tools are available to us. Assume the role of a citizen-journalist, or "administrator-journalist!"

The idea behind this is administrators that can--although we lack professional journalism training--use modern tools to create, enhance and/or share information. At a time when we're all struggling to share what we're about, why we need more funding, it's essential that each of us recognize that maybe, it's no longer just about teaching, learning, and leading...it's also about sharing about that in ways that are easy for others to understand. The techniques shared in this blog entry will help you.
Read the Rest

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: CitizenJournalism, Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net

I recently posted a question to the edu-twittersphere:

What qualities should a Chief Tech Officer have in K-12 education?

Of course, I have an ulterior motive...I'll be reflecting heavily on those qualities and whether I'm in possession of them.

Some of the responses included:

• csitterley: @mguhlin As Tec Dir 4 k12 school-would love 2 say I always do-won't lie-but 24 yrs in classrm before tech-I try to remember how I wanted it
• csitterley: @mguhlin background and experience that allows them to at least be able to talk about the educational use and needs for classroom
• michellek107: @mguhlin In K-12 Ed, I would prefer an education background and some tech experience, rather than the other way around, for a CTO.
• jonbecker: @mguhlin COSN has a fancy checklist for you: http://tinyurl.com/5uefg6

All of which were supported by Tim Stahmer's (Assorted Stuff) comment to my Essential CTO Skills post:

Does this prototype CTO have any sort of teaching experience? I ask because ours has none (same for most of her top management) and she tends to articulate solutions for the classroom from a business perspective. That lack of understanding is most noticable when we start discussing the issues in number two on the list.

If the tools we are proposing to use don't come with a Microsoft stamp of approval (and a growing number don't), our IT department wants nothing to do with them. And as to identifying "technology competencies for all employees", shouldn't that be something that educators should determine for educational employees?

The essential quality seems to be a CTO's ability to relate, to understand where educators are coming from rather than be techno-centric, in spite of the "prototype CTO" description. Yet, in my conversations with colleagues who are CTOs now, they do find themselves doing a lot of these prototypical things. However, finding balance and being understanding is important.

The intelligent and systematic use--which is techno-centric, beneficial to the tech subsystem rather than the ecology of the learning environment--of technology often results in what Tim refers to as implementation of solutions that ONLY have the stamp of approval of a particular vendor (e.g. Microsoft) or approach (e.g. Cisco network). It's not that these technologies are bad or evil--although a lot of words have been spilled on the subject--it's how we use them. Intelligent use of technology often results in despair-causing uses of technology that still the creative heart that beats in every teacher's breast. In short, we must allow technology to not be "intelligently" used.

We must abandon previous positions on the efficacy of technology in schools, and instead, use technology to amplify the human voice, the voices of our children. As parents, teachers, and administrators, it is our responsibility to do the right thing. That's a simple expectation, incredibly difficult to accomplish. Brian Lamb (Learning is Messy) bemoans the lack of student and teacher projects at NECC, as if only an elite group of presenters were sharing tool-centric possibilities...

Is it because there are no teachers doing and modeling this kind of teaching in their classrooms? … No. But I believe the result might be one of the factors slowing the adoption of these tools and methods by teachers and administrators.

While I once believed that there were few modeling this kind of teaching in their classrooms, I don't believe that any longer. There are too many abundant examples online...but how many of your district's teachers are online?

On my way to work, National Public Radio shared an interview with a musician who also happened to have been knighted. I regret that I couldn't take notes and have forgotten every detail of the conversation, except what I'm about to share here. Let's just say that as I listened to the story, I found a remarkable coincidence between the knight's appraisal of how we treat hunger and education today. He said something along the lines of, "We know what the right things to do are, yet we consistently fail to do them."

We know that creating vibrant online communities is possible, but how many of us enable children's voices, and teacher project explanations, online?

As an administrator, I can't underestimate the power of children's voices. Let those voices fight for the freedom to use technology to learn in a way that is relevant, connected, and free. As educators, especially educators responsible for administering school environments, we must awaken to the power within us to bring about change through the relationships we build with others. The old standard for administrators was one who built relationships in his district. The standard has been raised. The new standard is now that an administrator must build a web of connections with others online. No longer can an administrator encourage his/her teachers to learn new technologies (e.g. Read/Write Web tools) but not learn them him/her-self...to do that is to be cut off from the network and to miss out on the conversations.

I honestly believe that our role--as administrators--is to educate as many people as we can, as quickly as we can as to what the options are. . .like using GoogleDocs (only one example among many) spreadsheets, forms to collect data that is beyond the control of the "technology gatekeepers" in an organization. The power these tools is that those options can be quickly shared and responded to in ways that email never permitted.

On the one hand education departments are calling for innovation, change, creating the future, constructivism, more emphasis on engagement with less emphasis on content. On the other hand they are blocking one of the most important sources of the creativity (the read / write web) that they profess to crave for.

The role of the CTO must be to find balance, to embrace new technologies and guide others in the appropriate use of those, to provide support and enable fierce conversations about what we can do together with new tools. Invariably, the responses that came back focused on an EDUCATOR-background for CTOs. As an educator, I agree wholeheartedly with the tweeted perspective that "In K-12 Ed, I would prefer an education background and some tech experience, rather than the other way around, for a CTO."

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net

In an article in Learning and Leading with Technology (Volume 39; #4), the essential CTO skills include the following:

1. Developing a shared vision and big-picture perspective on a district's goals.
2. Share insights about ways in which the world is changing and the new technology tools that are available for teaching and learning...what will students need to know and do in five years and what changes are required in how schools operate to prepare students for that future five years hence?
3. Develop consensus and buy-in, ensuring communication is good "between the techies and non-techies and helping to empower stakeholders to shape and embrace a collective vision for the role of technology within the district."
4. Ensure equity for ALL users.
5. Convert vision for transformation into a long-range plan, reflecting budgeting.
6. Facilitate team building, staffing and knowing when to delegate and project management.
7. Facilitate data-driven decision making about students and staff.
8. Answer the question, "Couldn't we do it just as well, and less expensively, without this technology?"
9. Build effective partnership with businesses, universities, or associations that can offer financial and intellectual support.
10. Identify technology competencies for all employees and identify needs assessment process.
11. Participate in development of policies that clearly enforce privacy, confidentiality, and copyright law as well as assign ownership of the district's intellectual property.
12. Ensure success of technology-supported communications.

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Books_Research, Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net

One of my favorite movies is Cool Hand Luke. My favorite part? When Cool Hand Luke keeps fighting even though he's obviously whipped and earns the friendship of the big guy in prison. Who do you identify with--Luke, Dragline (character beating up on Luke), the onlookers, the warden, the guards, the public who benefits from having an out of sight, out of mind prison?