The computers we have in our classrooms could probably qualify better as doorstops than computers. They're about 9 years old and of course they're slow as sorghum (that's molasses for ya'll who were NOT raised in the south). As I'm going through the process of building a 3 year plan for the technology department, the single greatest desire our teachers have is working classroom computers. Thus, we're looking into laptops (for space savings) and most likely we'll be purchasing some of the new mini-notebooks. I especially like the Acer Aspire One. It is rated quite well by both CNET and the Washington Post. Plus, it's about $400! The Linux OS is awesome, but I worry about our kids being able to cross-platform in the lower grades, so I think we'll probably end out spending $50 more for the Windows version. This may even be our solution for our friends in Belize!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Mini Notebooks for the Classrooms
The computers we have in our classrooms could probably qualify better as doorstops than computers. They're about 9 years old and of course they're slow as sorghum (that's molasses for ya'll who were NOT raised in the south). As I'm going through the process of building a 3 year plan for the technology department, the single greatest desire our teachers have is working classroom computers. Thus, we're looking into laptops (for space savings) and most likely we'll be purchasing some of the new mini-notebooks. I especially like the Acer Aspire One. It is rated quite well by both CNET and the Washington Post. Plus, it's about $400! The Linux OS is awesome, but I worry about our kids being able to cross-platform in the lower grades, so I think we'll probably end out spending $50 more for the Windows version. This may even be our solution for our friends in Belize!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Outlook Upgrade
A colleague recently reminded me about the MEEC (Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium). It is an organization that aims to pool the collective purchasing power of schools in Maryland to obtain better pricing. That would be a fantastic deal for us, but the membership costs alone are $500 per year! We are considering upgrading all our machines to run Outlook email and calendaring. I've been resistant to moving in this direction because it's a few squeaky wheels that want the change, and the rest of the faculty and staff are quite comfortable with our web-based email system. I'm reticent to "fix" a system that most people feel work well. Here are my thoughts:1. It will be something new to learn. Judi Harris reminded me about Relative Advantage: Does this system allow me to do something that was not possible before, or to do something in a better way? There will be a large learning curve for our teachers, most of whom have not been in the corporate world, and many who have not been exposed to Outlook. It has to be plainly clear that this will improve their lives, and I'm not convinced that it will do so for them...just the administration.
2. Calendaring is a big plus. We can have a school calendar that will allow teachers to accept invitations to meetings, etc. The only issue I have with that is that it does not integrate with our online portals, which means it is yet another calendar to update. That's a relatively minor detraction.
3. It's a really expensive proposition. Although we do have the Exchange Server, it is currently set up for about 20 users. We'd need to purchase the CALs of course, but we'd also need to hire someone to configure the system, since neither myself or our network tech can do so. Consultants are expensive. We were quoted $750 for the initial install config of that server a couple years ago, and it came it at 3x the cost when all was said and done. I know that for some larger schools, that seems like chump change. It's not for us, when every dollar is important and accounted for. I'm getting a few quotes for the job, but half-heartedly.
Image credit: www.mobackup.com
Image credit: www.mobackup.com
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Whaaaa? But, it's OK to Fail
In the interest of improving the quality of faculty development at our school, we put a great deal of thought, money, time and effort into our plan for the year. Our first afternoon workshop centered on giving teachers time to explore online field trips and to find experts that might visit their classrooms virtually. We created a wiki so that teachers could post their work. Although this approach seems to be working, I've realized an important fact: Our teachers do not like to fail any more than our students do. Perseverance is something that is often taught.Example: One of our teacher teams found this exciting Bats field trip on eFieldTrips.org. This site is referenced on several other sites. You can imagine my surprise to find that the registration for the Bats field trip not only did not work (several times), but emails and calls to the company went unanswered. This morning, after three weeks of trying to register, I grasped at one last straw. I tried calling them one more time. This morning, there was an answer: a recorded message played over and over. What did it say? I have no idea because it was clearly in Arabic. Whaaaaa? See for yourself: 1. 866.287.6739
The message here is not that eFieldTrips.org is a questionable organization (although that is a submessage). The message isn't even that you have to work hard as a technology coordinator to help your teachers succeed when they try something new (although that's a submessage too). The message here IS that we need to help our teachers remember, just like we have to teach our kids, that it's okay to fail. That they must persevere in the face of obstacles. We're such a success and achievement oriented culture that we do not often value the journey, only the results. It's a message I believe we all need to remember to send to our teachers and to ourselves as well.
The message here is not that eFieldTrips.org is a questionable organization (although that is a submessage). The message isn't even that you have to work hard as a technology coordinator to help your teachers succeed when they try something new (although that's a submessage too). The message here IS that we need to help our teachers remember, just like we have to teach our kids, that it's okay to fail. That they must persevere in the face of obstacles. We're such a success and achievement oriented culture that we do not often value the journey, only the results. It's a message I believe we all need to remember to send to our teachers and to ourselves as well.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
23 Things
This year's AIMS Technology Retreat will feature Helene Blowers as the keynote speaker so my high hopes for Dr. Judi Harris have been dashed for this year...only for this year! Here's why they invited Helene Blowers: plcmclearning.blogspot.com. Apparently her 23 things list is a pretty popular way of getting teachers and other folks to try out Web 2.0 tools.
Illustration by Phil Marden
Illustration by Phil Marden
Activity Structures for Online Collaboration
The past three days have been a whirlwind of teaching and learning. Sunday was our school's open house, at which I highlighted our global ed program World Village, but also our approach to technology in general. Monday was the annual AIMS Conference, for which I am on the planning committee. Ross Wehner was there with the World Leadership School, the organization we work with to send our students to Belize to study Climate Change.
I hosted three speakers, two of whom garnered among the highest attendances for any of the workshops, and another who has become an informal mentor for me: Dr. Judi Harris. After learning about her on the NECC's online materials section, I contacted her (and blogged about it last year) about presenting not only at AIMS about Diffusion of Innovations theory, but also at my school for a professional development workshop. Today, Tuesday, she helped our faculty learn a framework through which they could examine possible online tools and activities for relevance and efficiency. She helped us categorize various kinds of online activities and taught us how to evaluate them. You can read about her categories and see sample activities for each category here: http://txtipd.wm.edu/ Our faculty members are absolutely raving about her common-sense, and can-do approach. I'm trying to get the AIMS Technology Committee to invite her to speak at the retreat. We'll see how it goes :)
I hosted three speakers, two of whom garnered among the highest attendances for any of the workshops, and another who has become an informal mentor for me: Dr. Judi Harris. After learning about her on the NECC's online materials section, I contacted her (and blogged about it last year) about presenting not only at AIMS about Diffusion of Innovations theory, but also at my school for a professional development workshop. Today, Tuesday, she helped our faculty learn a framework through which they could examine possible online tools and activities for relevance and efficiency. She helped us categorize various kinds of online activities and taught us how to evaluate them. You can read about her categories and see sample activities for each category here: http://txtipd.wm.edu/ Our faculty members are absolutely raving about her common-sense, and can-do approach. I'm trying to get the AIMS Technology Committee to invite her to speak at the retreat. We'll see how it goes :)
