I have to say that I'm loving Google Reader this past week. I had used the Safari or maybe Firefox RSS subscriber for all of ten minutes over the summer and ditched it quickly. If I recall, the problem was that I signed up for the EnGadget feed which was a mistake. Talk about a fire hose. EnGadget probably has a new post every five minutes and that quickly overwhelmed me. I was conscious of that this time.
What makes me love it this time around is that I've been reading four or five political website that get updated throughout the day by several authors. My previous killer feature had been tab browsing (circa two or three years ago) which completely changed the way I viewed the internet.
What I was doing with these politics sites was tabbing open The Swamp, Poltico, Swampland, Mudflats and ABCNews Politics. Next I would go down to where I thought I had left off and start reading from the bottom up. OF course as I went these sites would be giving me more links to recent article from the Washington Post, NY Times, Chicago Tribune, YouTube, the Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal and so on and so forth. You get the point. I usually did this at during my lunch time and usually I couldn't get through everything I wanted to read.
With Google Reader I'm able to see exactly how many new posts there are on each site and I only have to go to one spot for them. This greatly reduces my tab quantity and at the same time I am able to skip a few more of the articles because I get a list of their title and I can determine whether I want to actually read it.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Elgg'd
Wouldn't it be nice if every technology idea we had could be implemented... like, tomorrow?
This past week I investigated Elgg as part of the group work for CEdu534 and thought how great it would be for the school's sense of togetherness if there was a Facebook that was just the school. It could be accessed from within the school and used in many of the same ways. I won't belabor the point because we went into this in our forum discussion of the Think.com Podcast but I would add that my school is always talking about enhancing the community of the school.
At the moment, I am trying to push using Moodle in this way. We've created Moodle classrooms for clubs and we are talking about making a place for the Student Congress to collaborate on projects.
This past week I investigated Elgg as part of the group work for CEdu534 and thought how great it would be for the school's sense of togetherness if there was a Facebook that was just the school. It could be accessed from within the school and used in many of the same ways. I won't belabor the point because we went into this in our forum discussion of the Think.com Podcast but I would add that my school is always talking about enhancing the community of the school.
At the moment, I am trying to push using Moodle in this way. We've created Moodle classrooms for clubs and we are talking about making a place for the Student Congress to collaborate on projects.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Hit the Ground Running
We read about the use of blogs in our text book and I thought I would touch on how I could start using that right now. At the moment I have a weekly assignment that is a response editorial to an online newspaper article. Essentially, I have been asking the students to submit a weekly blog but they don't think of it in that way.
The thought I've been having is, Why not open it up? Essentially, I could give the assignment a swift kick in the relevance by having it viewable by their classmates in our Moodle classroom so that each individual would know that others were trolling their opinions and reading the same articles. This would allow others to see excellent examples of the assignment done right and it would make it easier for me to point to credible attempts. Further those who as of yet have been doing a substandard job might find themselves shamed into doing better since they will be aware of the bright white heat of the audience.
The thought I've been having is, Why not open it up? Essentially, I could give the assignment a swift kick in the relevance by having it viewable by their classmates in our Moodle classroom so that each individual would know that others were trolling their opinions and reading the same articles. This would allow others to see excellent examples of the assignment done right and it would make it easier for me to point to credible attempts. Further those who as of yet have been doing a substandard job might find themselves shamed into doing better since they will be aware of the bright white heat of the audience.
Monday, August 18, 2008
8/18/08
Change is an ephemeral thing. So ephemeral that is made me just type that absurd cliche. The reality of the world is that everything changes and people who are unable or unwilling to incorporate it into their plan are left by the wayside. I would imagine the road to Val Halla is littered with Nordic warriors whose skill sets became out-moded faster than their heroic destinies could adapt.
The Leadership class I was involved with offered a board game version of this change within educational institutions. In a bizarre twist on role modeling my group was quickly whisked into the world that had been created for us and by the end of the three hours we had barely noticed the passage of time. It is a testament to the game that this was possible.
I took from this a deeper understanding of the angst I had at times felt when certain affairs within the school were not occurring quite as I would like them too. It also led me to question the motives of my colleagues. As school begins again I sit back in my meetings and realize how certain people are following along, ignoring the speaker, or displaying signs of obstinance. It can bee over generalized but I see the lay of the land more clearly than perhspas I did five weeks ago.
The Leadership class I was involved with offered a board game version of this change within educational institutions. In a bizarre twist on role modeling my group was quickly whisked into the world that had been created for us and by the end of the three hours we had barely noticed the passage of time. It is a testament to the game that this was possible.
I took from this a deeper understanding of the angst I had at times felt when certain affairs within the school were not occurring quite as I would like them too. It also led me to question the motives of my colleagues. As school begins again I sit back in my meetings and realize how certain people are following along, ignoring the speaker, or displaying signs of obstinance. It can bee over generalized but I see the lay of the land more clearly than perhspas I did five weeks ago.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
We Seek Answers
Loucks'd Mailbag:
Dear Loucks'd,
My mother is always telling me to "be a leader. Get out in front. Make yourself indispensable to your employer so that you are not dispensed with. Move out of the basement and find a wife." What do you think?
Loucks'd does not like to personally comment on the family life of its CEO but as communication's director for Loucks'd Unlimited International I can say our CEO does not live in his mother's basement.
Our CEO considers himself an unofficial leader in his current undercover position as a high school English teacher. As the youngest member of the English Department he is not likely to ascend to the position of department head any time soon. He has to keep that in mind when he steps out in front.
For our CEO, the more tenable situation for him is to make himself an unofficial - almost de facto - technology "go to guy." He is often sought out to solve simple problems that might otherwise go to the technology department's to do list (pronounced "next semester" list).
Also he has decided as of the end of the spring semester to try to counter some of the negative attitudes that are surfacing concerning meetings and expectations in the school. There is an old guard in the school that is continually and bitterly complaining about nearly every thing the school asks the faculty to do.
Oh, and I've just received a direct message from our CEO's Twitter account. He says move out of the basement but only find a wife if that is what you want. Marriage is not something to jump in to.
~Loucks'd
Dear Loucks'd,
My mother is always telling me to "be a leader. Get out in front. Make yourself indispensable to your employer so that you are not dispensed with. Move out of the basement and find a wife." What do you think?
Loucks'd does not like to personally comment on the family life of its CEO but as communication's director for Loucks'd Unlimited International I can say our CEO does not live in his mother's basement.
Our CEO considers himself an unofficial leader in his current undercover position as a high school English teacher. As the youngest member of the English Department he is not likely to ascend to the position of department head any time soon. He has to keep that in mind when he steps out in front.
For our CEO, the more tenable situation for him is to make himself an unofficial - almost de facto - technology "go to guy." He is often sought out to solve simple problems that might otherwise go to the technology department's to do list (pronounced "next semester" list).
Also he has decided as of the end of the spring semester to try to counter some of the negative attitudes that are surfacing concerning meetings and expectations in the school. There is an old guard in the school that is continually and bitterly complaining about nearly every thing the school asks the faculty to do.
Oh, and I've just received a direct message from our CEO's Twitter account. He says move out of the basement but only find a wife if that is what you want. Marriage is not something to jump in to.
~Loucks'd
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Critical Mass
Anecdote Hour: Ok this won't be an hour but I'd like to relate back an incident that the CEO of Loucks'd took part in several months ago.
Setting: Computer classroom -not to be confused with the computer lab because there is no computer lab, don't get me started.
Major Players: I dunno some teachers. Our CEO was nonspecific.
Story: The school in question is adamant about at least appearing technologically advanced even when it is clear that there is a old school mentality to most of the teaching methods, especially when it comes to technology. The new teachers were supposed to have made websites prior to starting school but they -including our fearless leader- had managed to slide by without it thus far. A new web design class teacher had been hired and he had been asked to hold an after school meeting to help remedy this.
Our CEO has pointed out how sorry he felt for this guy but nonetheless the meeting was a disaster. The Web Design teacher had the brand new staff members open up Front Page, told them it was a now defunct program that no one uses, and then starts to teach them HTML. Well first he assumed they all knew basic HTML. Of the seven teachers in the room three were under the age of thirty, despite being new hires. Of those three our CEO was the most tech-savvy and he did not at that time have a clue what he was doing. Teachers are the worst students. They are nearly always inattentive, individualistic, and self-starters. That means they are forging ahead -in seven different directions- before the guy up front can evaluate where to go next.
The meeting quickly turned ugly and the result was that each teacher did the minimum, put up 1994 looking websites and the web design teacher was left micromanaging problems.
During the course of this our CEO discovered that the WYSIWIG iWeb could be uploaded to the schools server and he shut off completely. It was not in the interest of his time and energy to continue down this path. Now what went wrong?
At the very top, the school's brass -much like our government officials- are committed to the advancement of technology, but they (or rather those at the top), do not understand technology's quickly evolving state. They've tied this poor guy down to a teaching session asking him only to help the new teachers make websites. They were nonspecific as to what that meant or what that might entail. Further, because they are not comfortable with the advancing technology they don't know that there are dozens of ways better to set up teacher websites. A CMS would be wildly more appropriate for these teachers who are unknowledgeable and unwilling to make HTML language writing a hobby.
At the web design teacher's level -he's new. He didn't fully know what the school atmosphere was but more importantly he assumed that because he had been in the IT business for several years that those in the room knew more than they did.
At the new teachers' level, they weren't prepared to work hard. The meeting was poorly timed in the middle of the school year making them unlikely to respond well to the proposition that they take on an added responsibility and predictably they responded poorly. The result has been a less than stellar web presence on the part of the school.
Why am I relating this to you today? Our CEO was recently asked the following: "Why is web design knowledge critical for instructional technology leaders in the K-12 environment?"
As this anecdote should highlight to some degree, teachers everywhere are being asked to web design. I do not need to tell you -the cultural and technological savvy reader that Loucks'd attracts- that teachers need help. If they do not have a ready resource that can provide them with easy and adequate direction, they're not going to do it. The meeting I have made you privy to highlights that need.
Setting: Computer classroom -not to be confused with the computer lab because there is no computer lab, don't get me started.
Major Players: I dunno some teachers. Our CEO was nonspecific.
Story: The school in question is adamant about at least appearing technologically advanced even when it is clear that there is a old school mentality to most of the teaching methods, especially when it comes to technology. The new teachers were supposed to have made websites prior to starting school but they -including our fearless leader- had managed to slide by without it thus far. A new web design class teacher had been hired and he had been asked to hold an after school meeting to help remedy this.
Our CEO has pointed out how sorry he felt for this guy but nonetheless the meeting was a disaster. The Web Design teacher had the brand new staff members open up Front Page, told them it was a now defunct program that no one uses, and then starts to teach them HTML. Well first he assumed they all knew basic HTML. Of the seven teachers in the room three were under the age of thirty, despite being new hires. Of those three our CEO was the most tech-savvy and he did not at that time have a clue what he was doing. Teachers are the worst students. They are nearly always inattentive, individualistic, and self-starters. That means they are forging ahead -in seven different directions- before the guy up front can evaluate where to go next.
The meeting quickly turned ugly and the result was that each teacher did the minimum, put up 1994 looking websites and the web design teacher was left micromanaging problems.
During the course of this our CEO discovered that the WYSIWIG iWeb could be uploaded to the schools server and he shut off completely. It was not in the interest of his time and energy to continue down this path. Now what went wrong?
At the very top, the school's brass -much like our government officials- are committed to the advancement of technology, but they (or rather those at the top), do not understand technology's quickly evolving state. They've tied this poor guy down to a teaching session asking him only to help the new teachers make websites. They were nonspecific as to what that meant or what that might entail. Further, because they are not comfortable with the advancing technology they don't know that there are dozens of ways better to set up teacher websites. A CMS would be wildly more appropriate for these teachers who are unknowledgeable and unwilling to make HTML language writing a hobby.
At the web design teacher's level -he's new. He didn't fully know what the school atmosphere was but more importantly he assumed that because he had been in the IT business for several years that those in the room knew more than they did.
At the new teachers' level, they weren't prepared to work hard. The meeting was poorly timed in the middle of the school year making them unlikely to respond well to the proposition that they take on an added responsibility and predictably they responded poorly. The result has been a less than stellar web presence on the part of the school.
Why am I relating this to you today? Our CEO was recently asked the following: "Why is web design knowledge critical for instructional technology leaders in the K-12 environment?"
As this anecdote should highlight to some degree, teachers everywhere are being asked to web design. I do not need to tell you -the cultural and technological savvy reader that Loucks'd attracts- that teachers need help. If they do not have a ready resource that can provide them with easy and adequate direction, they're not going to do it. The meeting I have made you privy to highlights that need.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Perfect Worlds Do Not Exist
Community Submitted Question: In a perfect world what would be the best website solution for the school that you work at?
This is a threefold issue for Loucks'd International. As we at Loucks'd see it, there are the business interests, the parent interests and the teacher interests to serve. Of course this is not to say there are no student interests but we believe these three serve the greater interest of our students.
The school website as stated in a previous interview is the front door of our shop. The business end of our organization cares about this. Having too much of a serviceable site that is cluttered with schtuff will look less professional. We'd rather not spend too much time on that though.
Instead lets focus on the parent interest for a few words. I think that it should be the goal of high schools to encourage communication between parents to come increasingly through the net. It is easier to record and store. In a perfect world then we could store terabytes of information at ease. Further, in a perfect world the Internet would never fail. So I would like to see the school using a website based VOIP system. Yes, this can be done by apps like iChat, ooVoo, and the most popular Skype, but a net based one would be interesting because it wouldn't have the barrier to entry that often stops users from adopting VOIP. Parents could call the school and the Skype-like interface could push it to this website based system. This is just one in a myriad of opportunities we'd have with the emerging cloud-computing and thick client movement.
As for the teachers, our sites needs to be easy to update from home and work because many of us work... FROM HOME. That was in caps so that maybe our new tech director would hear us... Ahem. Now I think the thing that teachers need to do with their sites is make them destinations. That is really the goal for any site. What keeps students coming back? What does your site that makes them want to load it every day? Any site solution that we undertake must have something that allows, nay, encourages, teachers to always be adding content and engaging our audience. When teachers start to think like web developers they will get what we at Loucks'd mean.
In our heart of hearts this means a WYSIWIG as simple as Apple's iWeb with an easy to upload system that is as intuitive and straight forward as .mac's upload ease.
~Loucks'd
This is a threefold issue for Loucks'd International. As we at Loucks'd see it, there are the business interests, the parent interests and the teacher interests to serve. Of course this is not to say there are no student interests but we believe these three serve the greater interest of our students.
The school website as stated in a previous interview is the front door of our shop. The business end of our organization cares about this. Having too much of a serviceable site that is cluttered with schtuff will look less professional. We'd rather not spend too much time on that though.
Instead lets focus on the parent interest for a few words. I think that it should be the goal of high schools to encourage communication between parents to come increasingly through the net. It is easier to record and store. In a perfect world then we could store terabytes of information at ease. Further, in a perfect world the Internet would never fail. So I would like to see the school using a website based VOIP system. Yes, this can be done by apps like iChat, ooVoo, and the most popular Skype, but a net based one would be interesting because it wouldn't have the barrier to entry that often stops users from adopting VOIP. Parents could call the school and the Skype-like interface could push it to this website based system. This is just one in a myriad of opportunities we'd have with the emerging cloud-computing and thick client movement.
As for the teachers, our sites needs to be easy to update from home and work because many of us work... FROM HOME. That was in caps so that maybe our new tech director would hear us... Ahem. Now I think the thing that teachers need to do with their sites is make them destinations. That is really the goal for any site. What keeps students coming back? What does your site that makes them want to load it every day? Any site solution that we undertake must have something that allows, nay, encourages, teachers to always be adding content and engaging our audience. When teachers start to think like web developers they will get what we at Loucks'd mean.
In our heart of hearts this means a WYSIWIG as simple as Apple's iWeb with an easy to upload system that is as intuitive and straight forward as .mac's upload ease.
~Loucks'd
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