The 21st Century Principal

10 Signs You Are a 21st Century E-reader Reader

2012-02-04T13:18:00.000-08:00

The news is clear: the conversion to widespread use of e-readers and e-books continues apace. Textbook publishers and publishers of all types better have plans to offer e-book versions of their products or they will find their audiences limited.

Today, I personally discovered a phenomenon about this e-book transition while using a physical book. I actually caught myself trying to change the page in a book using the finger-slide method I use with my e-reader devices. That leads me to offer up this list of signs you are a converted E-reader Reader.

1) You try to turn the pages by sliding your fingers across the paper page or turn pages the way you would with your e-reader.
2) You try to highlight text by sliding your finger across the physical text in a book, and you actually wait for the pop-up selection box to appear that allows you to copy or highlight text.
3) You know you purchased a book, though you can't remember whether it was in e-book or physical form, but you look first in your e-reader device.
4) You do number 3, and you become disappointed to discover that it was a physical book which means you have to read it the old-fashioned way.
5) Someone suggests a book you need to read, and you become greatly disappointed when you go to the web site to order for you Kindle only to discover it isn't available as a e-text.
6) You buy a e-book version of titles you already have physical versions located on your bookshelves.
7) Months pass before you set foot in an actual bookstore.
8) When you do go to a bookstore, the purpose is to look for books to purchase for your e-reader.
9) You won't purchase a book until it is available as an e-book.
10) You fall asleep with your e-reader lying on your chest in the same place that once was occupied by your favorite, latest paperback novel.

The truth is I was like many out there, slow to adopt the e-reader. I had this fixation about the smell of pages, the touch of book paper between my fingers, and weight of a book on my chest when I would fall asleep. It hasn't taken long for me to get over all of that with all of the added functionality of an e-reader device.

Learning Real-World Civics: White House Contacts One of Our Students

2012-01-27T16:18:00.000-08:00

One of the best ways to teach students to become engaged as a citizen of our country, is to have them try to communicate with those in political office. One of our students did just that. A few months back, a student at our school wrote a letter to the Obama Administration, and in that letter she invited the President to visit our school. This week, she and my school secretary were surprised when we received a phone call from the White House. But allow me to let that student tell what happened:

When President Obama visited our state, the Catawba County Democratic Party Chair said that she would deliver some letters from those of us that wanted to write them. I jumped at the opportunity to have contact with the President of the United States of America. I got my letter in on time. Basically, I told President Obama that he has my support and my family’s support and that the Young Democrats of Catawba County are here for him. After signing my name to the letter, I had another thought. So, I wrote on the back: “P.S. You should visit my school.”

A few weeks later, I received a manila envelope in the mail with the return address of The White House. Inside this mysterious envelope was a letter from Michael McSwain, the Associate Director for Scheduling Correspondence from the Office of Scheduling and Advance, explaining that President Obama has a very busy schedule and cannot come to my school at this time. It said that he values each and every invitation he receives to see the country first hand, but it was with sincere regret that “the President is unable to visit your school at this time.” Also in the manila envelope was a picture of the President, the First Lady, and their two children. It just so happens to be autographed by none other than Barrack and Michelle Obama. Even if it is the electronic autograph, it is the thought that counts.

I hadn’t given it much thought recently until English class on January 25, 2012. Mrs. - - - -, our school secretary, came into my class out of breath saying something about there being a phone call for me. It was who was on the line that had everyone in shock. It was the White House. More specifically, the President’s scheduling coordinator. He told me that President Obama read my letter and appreciated it. He also told me that it was with sincere regret that he could not visit in the near future. While I was a little disappointed that he would not be coming, I was overcome with joy that the President of the United States of America READ my letter. Not only did he read it, he APPRECIATED it. It is things like these that make the world seem less large. It is things like these that make people feel less small.

All this talk about teaching our students to be 21st century citizens means getting them to engage and understand our government. While our student did not receive a phone call from the President himself, it is things like these that make our students believe they are heard and valued by those who lead our country.

Kindle Cloud Reader Adds Highlighting and Note Taking

2012-01-26T14:07:00.000-08:00

Kindle Cloud Reader just got better with 2 added features that make it as functional as a Kindle or as the Kindle iPad or PC App. Back in December, I listed the Kindle Cloud Reader as one of My 11 Favorite Chrome Browser Apps and Extensions. In that post, I indicated that there were 3 things I wished the Kindle Cloud Reader would give me the ability to do: 1) highlight text, 2) enter reading notes, and 3) access my newstand items.

Users of Chrome's Kindle Cloud Reader app can now:

Access their Kindle books from their cloud library.
Highlight text in those books.
Enter notes about the text.
Add bookmarks
Customize reading experience by adjusting things like the font and margin size and the backlighting of text.

Kindle Cloud Reader's Highlighting and Note Taking Features

Kindle Cloud Reader is a functional Chrome app that every serious Kindle user must have. To download the app, visit the Chrome Web Store.

Lessons from Our One-Year Experiment with BYOT

2012-01-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

Schools can successfully implement the practice of allowing students to use their own technological devices on school networks. Early next month, our school will mark the one-year anniversary of our implementation of a policy that allows our students to use their own laptops, tablets, iPods, and smartphones on our school WiFi. Last February, I posted "Lessons in Providing Students Wireless Access in Our School Building." In that post I described what we learned early in that implementation after three weeks.

Now, after almost a year's implementation, I would still stand by those lessons we learned early in the implementation process. Now, a year later, here's my revised list of suggestions for those considering a BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) initiative.

1. Educate your parents on the kind of access you're providing students. During the course of the past year, several times I've had to explain to parents that our school is still providing students with filtered access. Though they are using their own devices, our filter is set up to provide some level of protection. This meant a great deal for those parents who were afraid that students could access anything while at school. When you implement a BYOT initiative, it's important that parents understand what you mean by WiFi access and what actions will be taken should students access unacceptable content.

2. Educate students on responsible use of their WiFi access. Ethics and responsible use of technology should be part of what we teach students anyway. But as you implement a BYOT initiative, teaching ethical use of technology, even with their own devices becomes an integrated part of what the school does. Any new BYOT initiative should include an ongoing focus of ethical use of WiFi access and technology in general.

3. Be prepared for technology glitches, even after a year's implementation. Even though most kinks in the system work themselves out over time, there are going to be issues. For example, when we implemented the use of an iPad lab a couple of months ago, IP address assignments by the hardware and software was suddenly an issue. It's vital that school leadership and teachers work through these problems as they occur. Often all that's needed is a software adjustment, but be prepared for the need for additional hardware. As with any technology implementation program, expect problems and be prepared to deal with them.

4. Make sure students understand teachers control the classroom environment. Students need to know up front that when a teacher asks them to close their laptop or put away their iPod, they are to do so. While you want teachers to engage students in the use of technology, there are certainly times when students need to unplug. On the one hand, you want students engaged in technology use, but on the the other, technology-savvy teachers need to be able to guide that use. School leaders need to make it clear to students that teachers determine when use of their devices happens.

As I indicated a year ago, schools have no choice but become 21st century learning environments. A solid implementation of a BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) initiative should not be optional, but standard practice. We have had a year of successful, mostly-trouble-free implementation. Twenty-first school leaders no longer have to ask students to unplug when they walk through the front doors if they effectively implement a BYOT initiative.

6 Tips for Engaging Readers of Your Educational Blog

2012-01-18T18:29:00.000-08:00

Let's face it. One of the reasons we blog is because we want people to read what we have to say. In order to do that, we have to provide readers with engaging content. In my years as a blogger, I have stopped puzzling over why some blog posts get over 5,000 page views and why some are ignored. It has to do with giving your readers engaging content, and author's Andy Beal and Judy Strauss offer solid advice for doing just that in their book Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online.

While Beal and Strauss's advice seems to be specifically geared to businesses seeking to develop an online reputation, it also offers educational bloggers some solid advice on providing engaging content that captures readers' attention. Here's their six tips, liberally modified for the edublogger trying to engage others with blog content.

1. Remember it's about the reader, not you. How many times have you stumbled upon those educational blogs that seem to be more about promoting a person or consultant, instead of providing engaging, useful content for readers? Bloggers, including myself, have egos, and often we want to bluster about ourselves, but the truth is, our readers want content. they want new ideas and fresh content; they don't necessarily want to know our life stories and past successes. Make sure your content is for your readers, not for yourself.

2. Offer something new. All of us who blog regularly are guilty of regurgitating links and what others say and what everyone else is linking to. It's the blogging "echo chamber." But the truth is, those posts that are most successful are the ones that say something new, or offer some fresh insight on an ongoing topic of interest. According to Beal and Strauss, if you want your blog to be a "trendsetter" and one that everyone connects to, you have to offer fresh content or new insight. Educational bloggers that want readers, have to give them something they haven't seen before.

3. Be a passionate poster. Just as Beal and Strauss suggest, "Clearly state your opinion in your area of expertise and do it with gusto." Who wants to read content from bloggers who aren't passionate about their expertise? If you want your readers to be engaged in your content, then you must be passionately engaged yourself. Share what you think and what you you believe to be true. Don't worry, if someone disagrees, that's what comments are for. Educational bloggers who want to write engaging content, have engage their emotions in what they write.

4. Be yourself, or "Show your personality." To be "radically transparent" as Beal and Strauss suggest, you have to reveal your true nature when you write. Be authentic. Readers love writing that comes from authentic people. Write in "textbookese" and you'll lose readers. As you write as an educational blogger, don't be afraid to show yourself in your writing.

5. Invite participation. In the blogging world, this means writing in a manner that invites your readers to comment. A great deal of content invites no response. In fact, it is written in such a manner that suggests that comments are forbidden, or at minimum unappreciated. As a educational blogger, give your readers content that invites them to share their thoughts and ideas as well.

6. Give your readers lists. The reality of the blogosphere is that readers love lists. (Hence this list.) Web readers don't like paragraphs; they like short scannable lists. As a educational blogger, it you can put your content into a list, you are giving web readers what they want, easily accessible content.

The bottom line is that if your want people to read what you have to say, then you have to provide them with the content they want to read in a format they want to see. One of the challenges I have found as a blogger is to repeatedly provide content that readers might want to see. Ultimately, anyone can provide content, but to provide what Beal and Strauss called "engaging content" means giving readers something they haven't seen before.

Using the New "Send to Kindle" App to Read Any Files on Your Kindle or iPad

2012-01-17T18:41:00.000-08:00

Amazon now offers Kindle users still another tool that makes using a Kindle even more functional. They now offer a "Send to Kindle" app that lets users upload any document to their Kindle. This means users no longer have to read those lengthy MS Word and PDF documents from a PC. Users can add functionality by installing this simple application to their PC.

Once installed, Send to Kindle Shows up like a printer. Simply select it as your printer, and a dialogue box appears and users, like myself, who have multiple Kindles and an iPad, can choose which device to send the file to. Once uploaded, users can read that document on either of the devices.

There are any number of reasons to install this app if you are a Kindle user. You can upload journal articles, school improvement plans, and entire PDF reports. Where were these kinds of tools when I was in college?

To download the Send to Kindle app, check out The Send to Kindle Web Site. Chrome users might want to download the Send to Kindle Extension for their browser too, which I wrote about here last month.

Send to Kindle App Interface

Advice for the New Administrator & Educator Using Social Media

2012-01-10T16:30:00.000-08:00

During a conversation today, I was asked, "What advice would you give to the new administrator just beginning to use social media in his or her new role?" Becoming an administrator is a challenge in itself, which means there are enough issues to deal with without making mistakes using social media. Added to these challenges is the fact that most often new principals or assistant principals are left either with no mentor, or the mentor they have probably doesn't know a great deal about technology in general much less social media. This means the novice administrator is often left to her own devices when it comes to engaging stakeholders in social media.

As an administrator and experimenter with social media for most of the last six years, I have learned a few things about it, mostly by trial and error but also from others. Right now, I would place these five suggestions at the top of the list for new administrators and educators engaging in social media use in their new roles.

1. Think before you post. There is a bit of common sense in this suggestion, but with all the news stories about educators getting into trouble because of some careless posting on a blog or on Twitter, it is certainly worthwhile to repeat and emphasize it. Crafting a social media message for your school or district should be a deliberate process. Careful thought should be put into Twitter statements or Facebook posts. Reading the post from the perspective of your reader or the community is vital. That Twitter message might only have 140 characters, but a lot of damage can result from those characters if worded improperly.

2. Know the limitations of social media. Social media is an excellent way to engage stakeholders, but it isn't always the best way. It is vital that you take time to think about the message and whether the message you want to deliver is suited for your school's Facebook page or a Twitter post. Some announcements still might need to be made through your school's automatic phone messaging system or through a meeting with your parents. Social media is a relatively easy way to deliver a message, but it can leave a lot of room for interpretation, and there are times when all that interpretation is not wanted.

3. Be aware that you may still have to use a blended approach to communication that involves using social media and other media too. It has been my experience that not all parents are plugged in yet. This means I have to make sure stakeholders that aren't using social media, get the message too. Also, it might mean we also have to provide training for parents and community members too so that they can get plugged in and receive the benefits of being connected through social media.

4. Make sure the message fits the medium. This is an old time adage about communication in general, but in some ways, social media is much more powerful, and that means that not everything that needs to be said needs to be done through Twitter or Facebook. Delivering bad news or serious news is probably best left to the older media such as phone messaging systems or even a more formal press release. Be careful of trying to communicate sarcasm or humor. These don't often translate well in social media.Administrators and educators would do well to be very careful with making sure media and message are the best match.. After all, as Erik Qualman, author of the book Digital Leadership writes: "Keep in mind there's no hiding from anything in the new digital world. Your best course of action is to assume whatever you post will eventually be seen by millions." Post only those things you wouldn't mind your mother seeing.

5. Set up school-based and personal-professional social media accounts separately. If you are going to be communicating with others as your own agent, then you need a separate account. Any accounts set up with the name of your school implies that your are speaking as an agent of the school. Whether it is a Twitter account or a blog, if you give it the appearance that you are speaking in your role as principal or teacher, then any posting that you do may be perceived as posts from an agent of the school or district. By having separate accounts, there is no implied relationship. Still, even with separate accounts, it is important to think and post prudently.

Being an administrator is a challenging job and using social media effectively can mitigate some of those challenges. That means engaging in social media in effective ways. New administrators and educators can take advantage of the power of social media by keeping these suggestions in mind.

Top 10 Tips for Using Social Media for Administrators & Other Educators

2012-01-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

According to Andy Beal and Judy Strauss, authors of Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online, “Shifting from traditional to social media requires new skills, new tools, and an understanding of social media platforms.” Any school leader bringing an archaic understanding and knowledge of old media to social media is in danger of looking foolish and perhaps in danger of getting himself in major trouble with stakeholders.

For school leaders looking for information about social media, business and industry have several organizations providing this valuable information. The Digital Influence Group, a social media marketing expert group, provides a “Top 10 List for Using Social Media” obviously directed toward business and industry. (See their list here.) Obviously, business needs are different from the needs of schools, but there is still much that can learned from their experiences with social media. For that reason, I have taken the liberty of revising and updating this Top 10 List for Using Social Media” so that it might better reflect the things school leaders need to consider as they struggle with this 21st century media.

Top 10 List for Using Social Media for School Leaders & Other Educators

1. Educate your entire school community and all stakeholders about what social media is, what its benefits are, and provide them ideas on how to best use it. Many of the problems and misuse of social media result from both a lack of understanding of its power, and the features inherent in it that make it a way to engage 21st century audiences. School leaders need to first learn all they can about social media. This means attending professional training, reading relevant books and articles, and engaging in conversations with experts. While it is impossible to learn everything about social media due to its continually evolving nature, school leaders who set policy and direct a school community's use of the 21st century media need to know all they can. Once they have that knowledge base, they are responsible for seeing that their educational community is educated on its nature, its potential, its hazards, and its power. This means taking an active role in educating all stakeholders on how to use social media appropriately and effectively.

2. Establish policies and procedures that guide individuals in your school or district in the use of social media, and provide a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities with using social media. School leaders need to enlist teachers, parents, students, and community members in the establishment of policy and procedures to guide social media use for the educational establishment. However, this is not an effort to control content and usage of social media, but merely to set guidelines and policy that direct staff members and students on how to engage in its use for the school or district. For example, policy needs to make it clear when posting to social media is as an agent of the school or district. That same policy needs to delineate who speaks for the school or district in social media communities. It should also define roles and responsibilities of those engaging in social media use. It is important to establish these policies and procedures, not as a means to try to control content, but to protect the school, district, and its stakeholders.

3. Set clear goals for how your school or district is going to use social media. The question of how the district is going to use social media is important. What is the school going to use social media for?Which types of social media tools is the school or district to use? All these questions focus on what the district plans to do with social media. It's time for 21st century school leaders to move beyond bragging about having a social media presence and actually engage in its use to benefit school or district. Having a Twitter account or Facebook account for your school simply isn't enough anymore. It's now time to move to the question of "So what?" which is a 21st century question.

4. When school leaders and other educators participate in blogging, social networks, and online communities, it is important to be transparent. As school leaders move to full engagement with stakeholders using social media, being transparent is important. This means engaging in open, sincere, and honest dialogue with stakeholders through the media. It is a movement from using social media as just another way to make announcements and news updates, to actually engaging in conversations with constituents. To do that effectively though, school leaders and staff need to be authentic and seek to genuinely establish relationships with their communities. By doing this school leaders actually are engaging in social media in the manner in which it is designed.

5. Constantly evaluate the school or district's use of social media. This simply means examining regularly whether social media is being used in the manner desired, and whether the school or district is obtaining its goals and a positive reputation from social media engagement. This process for schools and school districts has to be ongoing.

6. When engaging in the use of social media use plain language, be sincere and candid. Effective social media engagement is on a conversational level. Engaging others means speaking to them about the things they care about, using language all can understand. Posts to social media aren't dictates from on high. They are efforts to engage constituents in discussions of what they care about.

7. Provide valuable content and information to engage and educate your stakeholders and community. Social media is an opportunity to provide stakeholders with information and content that is valuable and by doing so, schools and school districts enhance their own online reputations. Providing parents, for example, information about an opportunity for students to participate in a national study program is valuable information. Again, this means going beyond "just having a social media presence" to effectively using it to communicate and engage the school community.

8. Welcome feedback whether it is positive or negative and respond to it quickly. Social media is an opportunity for schools and school districts to allow for feedback on how they're doing. This can be rather tricky, but allowing your constituent groups the opportunity to speak about the issues that bother them is important. It is equally important for school leaders to respond to that feedback in a timely and appropriate but honest manner.

9. School leaders who want to promote their schools or districts need to participate in other online communities. It is vital that school leaders engage in the wider conversation about education and all the related issues. It is the 21st century school leader who sees participation in larger communities like Twitter's weekly #edchat or discussion boards like those sponsored by national and international educational organizations. School leaders need to engage the global community about their school or school districts too, which means using social media to engage in global conversations.

10. Use rich media (such as animation, video, audio) and humor to engage stakeholders. Using just text announcements posted to Twitter or to Facebook misses the real potential social media has to promote a school or district to the wider world. Schools can post moving videos or photos to a Facebook account. A school district can establish a YouTube account to showcase visually what is happening in the schools rather than just with announcements posted on its home page. Social media is much more than text and school leaders need to take advantage of the strengths of other media in their efforts to engage their communities.

It is truly the 21st century school leader who brings a twenty-first century understanding and knowledge to using social media instead of using it simply as a 20th century media to post textual announcements and news. Social media is so much more than a 21st century version of an intercom system. It is a tool that allows for engagement not passive consumption. Perhaps these ten tips will be a starting point that school leaders and educators can use to engage social media as it was intended.

Learning from Verizon's Experience: 5 Lessons for School Leaders About Social Media

2011-12-30T13:59:00.001-08:00

Verizon’s decision to not charge customers a $2 convenience fee is a lesson about power of social media, for all of us, including 21st century school leaders.(See MSNBC’s Article “Verizon Drops $2 Convenience Fee.”) As authors Randy Beal and Judy Strauss write in Radically Transparent: Managing and Monitoring Reputations Online, “The Internet provides a megaphone for the disgruntled---with no entry barrier, little legal accountability, instant commentary, full multimedia communication, and a free distribution channel to millions worldwide.” Verizon heard that megaphone and decided to let customers know they were listening.

When Verizon decided to announce a $2 fee, they ran right into thousands of consumers yelling loudly through the power of social media. As a Verizon customer, I even joined in a bit myself. Ultimately though, Verizon did what is probably the smartest thing they could do. They issued a statement that said, “At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers. Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute a fee at this time.” That is probably a textbook answer and response to a crowd empowered by social media. The company did not continue to try to defend the fee. They immediately acknowledged a change in course. That alone demonstrates one important principle described by authors Beal and Strauss, and that is: Your customers have to feel like you are listening to them. By announcing their plans to not charge a fee they clearly demonstrate their willingness to listen. Verizon should gain more positives from this response than any 2 dollar fee would ever give them.

The whole Verizon incident illustrates perfectly what Beal and Strauss say in Radically Transparent about the 21st century medium, “Social media are like word-of-mouth on steroids.” Businesses have known for a long time the power of plain word of mouth. Schools and their leaders would do well to pay attention to this power too.

Besides some great lessons for those studying the power of social media and marketing though, there are lessons for 21st century school leaders from the Verizon Incident too.

There is a conversation online about you or your school/district and you may not know it is even happening. Beal and Strauss advocate for taking steps to listen to this conversation. In a previous post, (The Oft-Ignored 21st Century Leadership for School Leaders), I offered some suggestions on how to do that. Yet, too many school leaders, from the district level to the school level, are still ignoring social media and considering it a fad. They spend too much time finding ways to limit access to it and dismissing its impact, when they should embrace and accept it as a fact of life. The bottom line to this one is simple: ignore that online conversation to the peril of your school and perhaps yourself.
Even though there is a conversation about you or your school/district online, you can’t control its direction. Too many school leaders and policymakers still think they can control the direction of this online conversation. They create all manner of rules and laws trying to keep the conversation at a minimum. They even try lawsuits when something is said that is objectionable. Ultimately, neither rules, policy, nor lawsuits are going to stop that conversation. Instead, 21st century school leaders need to learn how to respond effectively to social media. They need to fight fire with fire so to speak.
You cannot control that conversation; the best you can hope for is to effectively respond to it. What does an effective response to a less-than-flattering social media posting look like? Well, those using social media don't like spin. They don't like attempts to hide behind the law or authority. The best way to respond is perhaps to open up and be what Beal and Strauss call "being radically transparent." That means being honest with people and not looking like you are still trying to hide something. That means being as honest as possible and avoiding "educationalese" or jargon.
Be careful of your response to that conversation. As Beal and Strauss point out, “The Internet community comes down hard on those who employ conversation spin, control, manipulation, or spam.” Should we find ourselves in a "Verizon-like-situation," a careful, well-thought-out response is a must. Social media has created a “no-spin zone” of sorts where spin is at your own risk. Taking time to plan a response is a must. There is no room for knee-jerk answers.
As Beal and Strauss emphasize repeatedly in their book, “Be radically transparent or risk your reputation and top line.” This means using plain language, being sincere, and being candid. No generic marketing messages allowed. Welcome responses and feedback. As school leaders you have to work hard to build relationships with your community through social media, and that means being transparent.

Recently quite a few people and organizations have run headlong into the power of social media. Besides this event with Verizon, Bank of America found out firsthand the power of social media when it proposed additional fees on its customers. Then there was Lowes and its decision to pull ads from the Muslim American reality show. They also found out about the "steroid-effect" of online communication.Finally, ask Governor Brownback of Kansas, his staff, and the poor principal who tried to force student Emma Sullivan to write that letter of apology. In every single one of these instances, an organizational or personal reputation was on the line.The one thing in common is how the organization or individual responded and resulting effect on their reputation. Social media is here to stay, and school leaders who learn to effectively use it will be more successful communicators to their stakeholders and they may perhaps head a reputation crisis too.

5 Common Sense Twitter Tips for School Leaders & Educators

2011-12-29T18:34:00.001-08:00

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach writes in her book, The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age, "We can reach out to our network, harvest the collective wisdom found there, and then bring it back to the school." Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach is right. There is a great deal of collective wisdom on the web, and those in a position to tap into that network of wisdom and expertise are those who know how to engage effectively in 21st century social networking tools. School leaders who continue to ignore or dismiss this powerful microblogging tool, are literally missing out on an excellent opportunity to join in the collective wisdom of thousands of educators who are already connected. Setting up a Twitter account is rather easy to do, but using it as a networking tool is a complicated process that takes time and effort.

To administrators who have added getting their Twitter account established to their 2012 Things to Get Done Resolution List, I offer these 5 Common Sense Tips to help in that endeavor.

Establish separate Twitter accounts for your personal-professional use and for your school or district. I realize many administrators and educators establish Twitter accounts using their school name or district affiliation, and that is the only account they use. This practice is not an issue as long as the Tweets generated using this account represent the business and interests of the organization. I prefer having separate accounts for my school and for myself, and I try to make it clear that any Tweeting done with my personal-professional account is not as an agent of my school. I might refer to my school or colleagues occasionally, but my @21stprincipal account is not the official account for my school. My school has its own account, and all communication that issues from that account is official school business. For me, at least, it is an important distinction. Having separate accounts is a way for me use Twitter more effectively.

Establish very clear purposes for each of your Twitter accounts. Once your Twitter accounts are established, it is important to make sure each has its own clear purpose. To be honest, my personal-professional Twitter account, @21stprincipal, came about as I began experimenting with Twitter. I’ve had the account as far back as 2008, and my purpose in setting it up was not to serve as a way communicate in my school role. It was established, at least initially, as a way to experiment with the medium. Its purpose has evolved over the subsequent years to become a way to engage other educators in a professional learning network, and to engage individuals elsewhere in a discussion about education and other issues of interest. My school Twitter account has two main purposes. One is to share events and happenings at the school. It is a communication tool that allows me and my teachers to communicate quickly and easily with the community. Secondly, it is a promotional tool as well. It allows me to promote our school to an ever growing and wider community. My two Twitter accounts serve two entirely different purposes based on my role either as an agent of the school or as an interested educator and individual engaging with others outside of the school.

Engage in meaningful conversations through thought-provoking Tweets. Once you have establish a Twitter account, you have to use it. I would suggest posting more than your current location or what you’re eating for lunch though. Often, being thought-provoking just means posting an interesting quote from a book you’re reading, or a statement made by a public figure. These kinds of statements, or questions, often engage others who comment back. In a short time, it is easy to get caught in a two, three or many-way conversation with other Tweeters. Engaging, thoughtful tweets go a long way in getting you connected with others on Twitter.

Participate in Twitter chats such as #edchat or #leadershipchat. There are actually a large number of events called “Twitter Chats” happening throughout the week, and at different times. To participate in these events, you need only include that chat’s hashtag with your tweet and those in the chat can follow your contributions too. (Here’s a description of hashtags and how they work for those who’ve never used them.) Many Twitter chat events, like the weekly #edchat that occurs every Tuesday at 12 noon and 7 pm, engage a sometimes rather dizzying number of participants, but the fun is in engaging in the conversation, not to mention that once the chat is over, you can obtain a copy of the entire conversation to review later. Twitter chats are opportunities to engage others in conversations that matter to you.

Share your thoughts, resources, and reading with your followers. As I mentioned earlier, thought-provoking tweets are important. But engaging others using Twitter is rather simple. You can use it to share your thinking on the latest reform efforts. You can share some web resources you’ve found. You can share favorite quotes from a book you’re reading. You can even retweet (which means to resend) those tweets that you find useful or otherwise worth sharing. The truth is you have to share a bit of yourself with others to grow a professional learning network. That means sharing more than what you had for lunch.

3 New Year’s Resolutions for 21st Century School Leaders

2011-12-28T19:32:00.001-08:00

As 21st century school leaders, the New Year gives us the opportunity to declare the direction we are going to move as 21st century educational leaders in our schools and districts. While there are certainly other areas to consider as we make New Year Resolutions as school leaders, here's three I consider imperative.

Social Media
In the coming year, it’s time to begin a genuine examination of the place social media has in your professional life and practice. Maybe it’s time to quit thinking narrowly of all the negatives that can happen when educators engage in social media use, and begin to look at potentials. Social media is here to stay in one form or another. It is time to move beyond trying to find ways to keep social media out, and engage in its use and encourage others to do the same. It’s time to quit wasting energy trying to keep social media out of our schools and embrace it as just another way to engage our students, parents, and community.

WiFi Access for Students
As bandwidth has become more available, it is time for us to look for ways to provide WiFi access for our students. As 21st century leaders, we need to provide an environment where our students and staff can remain plugged-in and powered-up rather than unplugged and powered-down. We need to make it a priority to find ways to give our students WiFi access within our school buildings and connectivity with their own devices. It takes a special, creative, 21st century leader to provide this access, keep our students safe, and teach students how to connect responsibly.

Explore and Move to the Cloud
One of our goals as 21st century leaders is take the limited resources we have, and provide the most with those resources. The cloud provides us the biggest opportunity to do that. The 21st century leader fearlessly explores cloud-based services and opportunities. Allowing Google to maintain email services or Microsoft maintain Office apps online is the future. We have a responsibility as 21st century leaders to deploy our resources in a manner that makes the most sense, and that gives us the biggest return for our investment. This school year, all 21st century school leaders need to commit to exploring the possibilities of cloud-based solutions and engage in their use whenever possible.

Being a school leader in 21st century schools is exciting. There are so many opportunities to for our own growth and exploration. As you make your New Year's resolutions, what areas would you add to this list for 21st leadership resolutions?

3 Alternatives for TweetDeck as Your Twitter App

2011-12-26T19:08:00.001-08:00

Ever since Twitter updated TweetDeck into its current manifestation, there have been many, including me, who have been disappointed with the new product. I immediately began experimenting with several alternatives, yet none of them have completely replaced the ease with which I used TweetDeck. In my explorations for an alternative, I have used more than just the three below, but these three seem to be the ones I personally have continued to use. It seems, being able to modify Hootsuite so that it has the feel of being a desktop app, makes it my go-to Twitter app for the time being.

Silver Bird (Twitter Extension for Chrome Browser): Silver Bird offers users access to Twitter by clicking a button on their browser extension toolbar. Users can do everything you can in the other apps. They can receive real time updates. They can choose between three themes for the app. There are even update notification options on the browser button and in the window when receiving a mention. This is a simple, but highly functional app for accessing and using Twitter. Check out Silver Bird in the Chrome Web Store (Silver Bird Page in Web Store).

Chrome Extension Silver Bird Interface

Seesmic Desktop: Seesmic offers a fairly straighforward interface with this product. It is as easy to use as TweetDeck in my opinion. Users enjoy many of the same features such as realtime updates, adding custom columns, adjusting font size, and customizing backgrounds. There are even desktop notifications. The interface for this app is similar in layout to the old Tweetdeck in some ways, with the input bar at the top, with the columns arranged underneath. Adding a search column for chats such as #edchat is rather easy too. The only issue I’ve had with this product is an occasional unexplained app crash, so it suffers for me just a bit in the reliability department.

Seesmic Desktop Interface

Hootsuite: When I was experiencing crashing difficulties with TweetDeck, several other Twitter users tweeted, “Use Hootsuite.” I’ve used Hootsuite on all of my devices before, but the one thing I did not like about the app was that it was a browser-based app, and there are times when I close my browser, I like to have the Twitter app running separately. I could have simply opened Hootsuite as a separate tab in its own browser Window, but it turns out you can make the browser-based Hootsuite look like a desktop app by following these simple instructions from Hootsuite. (Making Hootsuite Look Like a Desktop App)

Hootsuite Converted to a Desktop App Look

Out of the three options, I can easily see that by modifying Hootsuite into a desktop like app makes it the most attractive option for me right now.

New Kindle iPad App Just Got Better! Must for Every Educator

2011-12-23T11:41:00.001-08:00

The new Kindle iPad app just became even better. After the latest Kindle iPad app update, Kindle owners and Kindle app users will be pleased with these two additional features.

Read your magazines on your iPad in your Kindle. Before this update, I was unable to access my magazines on the iPad Kindle app. Now, users can access their Newsstand items too.
Send documents to your Kindle and now read them on your iPad. Before the update, I was only able to do this on my Kindle. Now, users can access any documents they send to their Kindle account. Add the Chrome Extension, Send to Kindle, and you can easily send Web items to read later using your iPad. I now can easily read those PDF reports right in my iPad Kindle app.

New Kindle iPad App Document Interface

Those two added features add a great deal of functionality to the iPad app. Great job Amazon! Thanks for giving users more and more features in your Kindle App.

Twitter Releases More Stable TweetDeck Update: No More Crashes!

2011-12-22T18:35:00.001-08:00

TweetDeck crashes seem to be fixed with Twitter’s update to version 1.1. Earlier this week I posted that TweetDeck fans might want to wait before downloading and installing the new TweetDeck native Windows app. It constantly crashed when I used it on my Windows 7 64-Bit laptop, and it crashed on the Windows XP computer I used at work as well. As of today, I have installed the updated version that came out today and have not had any crashes. Still, there are some features from the old Air version I miss. Hopefully, Twitter will find a way to include them in their new desktop app. Here’s just a few that I and others have stated they would like to see included.

The input Windows at the top of the screen is gone and is replaced with a button, that when clicked, a pop-up window appears. I personally liked the input window at the top and would like to see it placed there again. There are times when I need to look back at a Tweet as I am posting one. I can’t do that now because the pop-up input screen is in the way.
There is no right-click menu. I miss this one, especially when I want to paste a link in a post. I have to resort to using Ctrl-V for pasting, but I suppose I can get used to that.
The size of the columns and window are fixed and can’t be adjusted. I often adjusted the column sizes to fit the screen when I had multiple windows open for multiple apps. That’s not possible with the new fixed TweetDeck window and columns.
Some have complained about not being able to customize the colors of the new TweetDeck interface. Honestly, I rarely used this feature, but we all like to personalize things, so I could understand some missing this feature.

New TweetDeck Screen

Ultimately, I am happy I can now run TweetDeck without it crashing every five minutes or so, but Twitter, needs to realize that besides stability, there were other features that made TweetDeck a fan of so many.

The Oft-Ignored 21st Century Leadership Skill for School Leaders

2011-12-22T14:50:00.001-08:00

There is one 21st century leadership skill very few have considered: managing and monitoring a school or school district’s online reputation. Most of the time, administrators are in “reactive” mode when it comes to sudden, unwanted attention to their schools brought about due to some online Web posting to a blog or social media. This often means the damage is already done way before they were even aware that there was a problem. It is the 21st Century School Leader who uses technology to monitor their school or school district's online reputation.

Authors Andy Beal and Dr. Judy Strauss write in their book Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online, “There’s a conversation about you online right this minute and you are probably unaware of its contents.” This truth extends to schools as well. We have constituents posting and talking about our schools online . In fact, because our constituent groups probably among the highest users of blogs, YouTube, and social media sites, we are perhaps even more likely to have people engaged in “conversations” about us online. That makes monitoring what our students, parents, teachers, community members are saying about us even more important.

While we can’t control what people say about us online, we can monitor it and perhaps proactively address it when it happens. In the book, What Every School Leader Needs to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media, Will Richardson and Karl Fisch write, “Among the myriad duties most school administrators have is reputation management, keeping an ear to the ground to stay apprised of issues that concern their school community and intervening when necessary.” This task can be monumental considering the massive amount of information being published on the Web daily, but here’s 4 suggestions school leaders might use to keep at eye on what is being posted and published about their schools or districts online.

Set Up Google Alert for Mentions of Your School or School District: Google Alerts is a simple, free tool from Google that allows you to monitor specific search words and have the results delivered to your email inbox or to your Google Reader. (Here’s help for those wanting to learn how to set up Google Alerts.) With Google Alerts you can monitor Web Content, News Items, Blogs, Video, and Groups at the same time. You simply enter the name of your school or district into the alert, and Google will deliver the results to your email inbox or to your Google Reader. In theory, if someone published an article or blog post that mentions your school or district, you will receive a link to that post and be able to review it yourself.
Use Google Search to Capture Key Words Related to Your District and Subscribe to That Search as RSS Feed: This strategy works in much the same way Google Alerts does, but the difference is you enter your school or school district name into Google Search and subscribe to the results in your RSS Feed reader. You only need to check your reader when new results are delivered. This allows school leaders to monitor using Google's powerful Web indexing to listen for specific mentions of their schools or districts.
Conduct a Search in YouTube for Your School or District and Subscribe to That Search in Your RSS Feed Reader: Just like the other tools, this one delivers those search results to your RSS Feed Reader. It is important to be sure to subscribe to variations and other nicknames of your school. When someone posts a video somehow tied to your school, you will be notified through your RSS Feed. When I used this search, I immediately found a couple of videos created by students at my school. Though they were harmless, and actually quite creative, I am glad to know they're there.
Use the Search Tool IceRocket.com to search blogs, the public Twitter stream, Facebook, images, and the general buzz about your school or district. This one is new to me. It is basically a search engine that allows to search for words or phrases in blogs, Twitter, Facebook, images, or elsewhere. I searched for a local high school using this tool and got immediate returns in all these categories, including recent Tweets and Facebook posts. You can check out IceRocket for yourself at http://www.icerocket.com.

As our schools and districts move further into the 21st century, it is imperative that our school leaders develop the skills to manage and monitor their schools and school district’s reputation online. There was a time when word-to-mouth talk about a school was limited to the local community. But as Beal and Strauss indicate in Radically Transparent, “Word-of-mouth was previously spread among friends and families, but now extends across continents to the masses with a click of a mouse.” Furthermore, “Social media are like word-of-mouth on steroids.” Today, what people are saying about our schools is not limited to local chatter, but extends globally. As 21st century school leaders we must listen to what our constituent groups are saying about us in our community, but also what they are saying about us online too.

You May Want to Wait Before Using the New Tweetdeck by Twitter

2011-12-20T08:59:00.001-08:00

If you are thinking about upgrading your Adobe Air Tweetdeck app to the new Desktop Tweetdeck from Twitter, WAIT! This is one time I think it will pay to hold on to your old Tweetdeck until Twitter has had time to work out all the bugs in their new version of Tweetdeck that ditches Air and operates natively in Windows.

I downloaded, installed and tested the new Tweetdeck on my Windows 7 machine, and like a lot of Tweetdeck fans, I immediately noticed a number of my favorite features gone from the new version. Others have better captured those missing features than I. (“The New Tweedeck Is Tweet Trash”, “Twitter Buys Tweetdeck, Takes Several Steps Backwards”.) Some have even posited some interesting theories as to why Twitter has so drastically changed Tweetdeck, Four Unfortunate Ways Twitter Is Killing Tweetdeck.

Personally, I am a Tweetdeck fan from way back. It is one of application always running on my desktop, but that did not happened with this new version. It CRASHED so many times over a week’s period I lost count. I tried all the usual fixes. The uninstall/reinstall routine, the anti-virus setting adjustments, the desktop adjustments, etc. It still crashed. I looked for help and support online and found none. I messaged the @Tweetdeck developers through Twitter and two days later I got this message, “Thanks for the information; we’ve filed this bug with an engineer and hope to have it resolved soon. Stay tuned!” Meanwhile, Tweetdeck the New will not run on my 64-Bit Windows 7 laptop. So I reinstalled Tweetdeck the Old and have not had a single problem since.

Tweetdeck the Old Screen

I’ve relearned an old lesson you would have thought I knew by now, “New does not necessarily mean better.” That is perfectly illustrated in what Twitter has done to my beloved Tweetdeck app.

What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media

2011-12-19T14:49:00.001-08:00

For the administrator who would like a general, not-too-technical overview of digital technology and social media, the book What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media, edited by Scott McLeod and Chris Lehmann is the answer. It provides answers to the administrator who feels just a bit lost when someone starts talking about blogs, wikis, or Twitter, or who isn’t quite sure about all this talk about 1:1 initiatives, open source software, or using mobile phones in the classroom. What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media is an excellent, easy-to-read resource for every administrator and teacher-leader’s library.

This book is an extensive odyssey through all of the hot topics in instructional technology right now. Readers are provided with a complete overview of the field, in short-easy-to-read chapters. Various authors, most of them techno-gurus in their fields, write chapters that provide concise descriptions of digital tools like blogs, wikis, social media, RSS Feeds, online courseware, and many others. In each of these chapters are practical take-back-to-your-school tips, guidelines, and ideas for integration and implementation. There are also links to many of the most well-known digital and social media tools. At the end of every chapter, are lists of resources for those who would like to explore further.

There are other books available that provide a survey similar to what is offered in What Every School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media, but none of them are written just for administrators and focus specifically on the technology as this one does. It is a small book that provides big answers to both administrators and teacher leaders wanting to see what possibilities digital technologies and social media offers the educator and school leader of the 21st century.

Migrating to Cloud-Based Online Tool Suites Is a No-Brainer for School Districts

2011-12-18T11:34:00.001-08:00

Would your school district like to save money and cut down on technology-related and technology support costs? Think about what a school district IT department could get accomplished if they never had to worry about administering or troubleshooting your district email server again. Or, what if there were no need to purchase all those office suite PC licenses again? There are a growing number of cloud-based “Online Tool Suites” available to school districts, and "going-to-cloud" makes a great deal of sense for school leaders looking to save money, increase the number of online tools available to staff, and to bolster security.

There are quite of few reasons for moving to a cloud-based “Online Tools Suite” as opposed to using locally installed and maintained applications. Here's three good reasons to move to a cloud-based online tool suite from my perspective since our district moved to Google Apps well-over a year ago.

Cost savings can be enormous. When a school district moves to the cloud for email alone, there's savings in maintenance and hardware costs for such things as email servers and network infrastructure. Such a move also eliminates the need for maintaining and troubleshooting these services too. With a service like Google Apps, backup of email is also less problematic, and as applications like Google Docs continue to improve, there may be even less need to pay for software licenses for office suites as well, not to mention no need to worry about updates and troubleshooting for these applications.
Using cloud-based online tool suites allows for more streamlined collaboration and sharing. Online tool suites offer a variety of collaboration tools within their applications and the ability to easily share projects. Our district's use of Google Docs has meant using the online tools to share things like meeting agendas, schedules, and address lists. Also, it has meant being able to collaborate online in the creation of other documents like school improvement plans and handbooks. Sharing documents without attachments has also been greatly simplified. Online tool suites like Google Apps adds an entirely new dimension to collaborating as professionals.
Online tool suites like Google Apps offer users an increasingly wide variety of tools highly suited for education organizations. Email, Google Talk, Google Sites, among many others that make up the Google Apps suite make communication within and without the organization more seamless. Google calendar with its sharing feature makes scheduling school and district events much easier. Google Docs is perfectly suited for the education organization where collaboration and team work have become even more important. More importantly, as Google refines and introduces more and more apps, our district is in a perfect position to take advantage of them.

Of course, one of the biggest concerns many have with a move to a cloud-based online tool suite is security. One reason for this is that once someone starts talking about moving data out of the physical proximity of the central office servers, a sense of panic begins to rise up. There's some kind of comfort in having the actual storage of data on your own real estate. Then, questions begin to arise like this one: “What do we do if someone gets our data, especially data that would place our district in violation of FERPA?” That is a legitimate concern of course. However, if the truth be known, companies like Google have much better resources for maintaining the security of data than school districts. Their resources for maintaining cloud security are almost unlimited, whereas in times of declining budgets, school districts do well just to maintain what they have. Maintaining security is ongoing and requires both ongoing monetary and physical resource costs to keep data systems secure and current. It just makes sense to allow a larger company who make it their business to keep data secure and store it. Besides companies like Google can’t afford massive data breaches and violations of data security so you can count on the fact that they consider security of the utmost importance.

I am not necessarily promoting Google Apps over other online tool suites. There are others available such as Zoho and Microsoft Office 365. Since I am most familiar with Google Apps I refer most often to its features, and offer the list of resources about Google Apps below.

Google Apps for Education Web Site
Google Apps for Education Community
Google Apps for Education Training Center

Perhaps others can suggest or express their experiences with other cloud-based online tool suites. How have these solutions worked in your district or organization?

In the 21st century moving to cloud-based online tool suites just makes sense. In the age of declining budgets and limited resources, it is the very thing a 21st century leader will do.

Free and Easy to Use QR-Code Generator for Chrome Browser

2011-12-17T10:49:00.001-08:00

Earlier in the week I posted “My 11 Favorite Chrome Browser Apps and Extensions” and several posts this week about my favorite Chrome apps and extensions. After that posting, someone suggested another app to that list: the QR-Code Generator app. (See the Chrome Web Store Link.)

Chrome Web App: QR-Code Generator Screenshot

There is a great deal of excitement recently about the possibilities of using QR-Codes as an instructional tool in the classroom, especially with the proliferation of mobile devices such as smartphones and iPads that give users the ability to read these codes. Still, I’ve been pondering just how I might incorporate the use of QR-codes in my role as administrator. I have experimented by posting links to outside documents using a QR-code before but that is about the extent of my experimentation with them at this point.

The QR-Code Generator App has me again pondering how to use these codes because it is so easy to use. This app allows users to generate QR-Codes for free text, URLs, phone numbers, SMS (text messages), and contacts. It is simply a matter of entering the information, and the app gives you a QR-Code, ready to be read with code-reader software.

Guess Who?

So, applications for 21st century administrators? Some ideas that come to mind include: contact lists for students and staff, schedules, and URL sharing as a start. I’ve just began to experiment with the QR-Code Generator, so I’m not sure of it’s uses yet, but I do enjoy playing with it. Maybe some readers have ideas on how to use QR-Codes in the role of administrator.

Our Test-Centric Approach to Education Reform Ignores the Real Problems

2011-12-17T09:03:00.001-08:00

The one lesson politicians should have learned from No Child Left Behind, is that when all of your energies and resources are turned to just improving test scores, failure is the result. As education historian Diane Ravitch states eloquently in her book, The Death and the Life of the Great American School System, ”Our schools will not improve if we rely exclusively on tests as the means of deciding the fate of students, teachers, principals, and schools.” Sadly, I’m not sure our current political leaders have learned the lesson yet that schools will not improve by solely focusing on using test scores and standards to improve them.

Our national education policy is still dominated by a “test-centric” approach to reform that ignores so many other factors that impact education such as poverty, inadequate health care, and lack of gainful employment. According to education scholar Linda Darling-Hammond, “The United States has the highest poverty rate for children among industrialized nations,” (The Flat World and Education, Linda Darling-Hammond, 2010). We want to “Race to the Top” but we’re looking for short cuts to get there. We want standards and “better tests” but we don’t want to engage in the hard, difficult work of addressing poverty, lack of health care, lack of good, affordable housing, and lack of opportunity for jobs with living wages. As long as national education policy is driven by a blind belief in test results and national standards, 10 years from now, we will be either staring at the same dismal conditions both educationally and economically if we’re lucky, or we will be much worse with a society with an even wider gap between those that have and those that have not.

What then is the answer? Just how bad are things in different parts of the country? This morning I stumbled upon a 5-year initiative by the American Federation of Teachers and partners like Cisco, Blue Cross Blue Shield, College Board, among many others, that focuses on the educational improvement of an entire community ravaged by unemployment, lost opportunity and lost promise. McDowell County West Virginia has not fared well at all since 1980 and that community is the focus of this initiative.

While it is easy to become entangled in the debate about the role of teachers unions in education when debating education policy, I think it is admirable that the AFT and its partners are putting into practice what they’ve been trying to make politicians understand all along; education reform must do more than focus on test scores and standards. It has to also address the dreadful conditions some of our fellow US citizens find themselves living in.

With this post, I am not taking sides in the debate about unions per se. I do believe, after 20+ years experience, and seeing countless students struggling to live in forgotten communities without the basics most of us take for granted, that the answer to our problems as a country lies, not in investing in more and different tests, or in national standards, but in focusing on the crushing problems facing our poorest students.

After watching the video below about “Reconnecting McDowell” I was reminded of an incident that happened in one of the schools where I once worked. I walked by a table during lunch one day, and a young 11 year old girl sat there with her head down. She had enormous tears in her eyes. I walked up, leaned down and asked her to step out the lunchroom for a minute. Once out of the hearing of others, I asked, “What’s wrong?” Through her tears, she blurted, “I don’t have any lunch money. My parents didn’t have any to give me.” She proceeded to tell me that when she went through the lunch line, the cafeteria took her plate away and refused to serve her lunch because she owed so much money. I took her back through the lunch line and told her to get anything she wanted, and that it would be taken care of. You can debate all you want about why a child does not have money to eat. You can accuse her parents of not taking care of her, but the reality for her is she was not going to be able to eat that day, and a focus on raising her test scores was not going to change that reality.

As I understand it, Reconnecting McDowell is an effort to try to improve the education of a community, and not do it by just focusing on test scores. It is an effort to focus on poverty, healthcare, housing, and a broken community. I have been to McDowell County West Virginia and have seen firsthand all that the video describes. That is why this effort caught my attention. Poverty is real, and those of us who have worked in schools where it exists know its faces.

Link to Reconnecting McDowell Web Site.

5 Indications Your Leadership Is Obsolete for 21st Century Schools

2011-12-15T18:47:00.001-08:00

In October, I posted “Top 10 Signs Your School Is Caught in a Time Warp: List for School Leaders.” Of course the whole idea behind that post was to call attention to those leadership proclivities that are actually hindering movement toward a 21st century learning environment.

Now, let me be just a bit more direct in this post. Here’s the list of indications that your school leadership is obsolete and in need of a big upgrade.

1. You actually find yourself defending school policies that ban the use of cell phones in your building. Cell phone bans need to go the way of the slate and chalkboards. Instead of prowling the halls to catch students with cell phones out, how about getting students to use them constructively? Besides, if a cell phone disrupts class, it is the user that actually disrupts the class, not the phone. Cell phone bans are a waste of administrative energy and time.

2. You defend adamantly the use of Internet filters on your school networks. I know all about the CIPA compliance issues and all, but perhaps your leadership is just a bit outdated and your knowledge of computers inadequate if you actually think filters work. Let’s face it, most districts put filters on their networks, not because they work, but because they allow them to keep their funding. If you really want to know whether your Internet filters are working, just ask a student. The smile on their face says a great deal. Heck, some of them might even show you one way they use to get to Facebook even though it’s supposed to be blocked.

3. You brag about the number of computers, smartboards, or iPads you have in your building. I have to point the finger to myself a bit on this one. It’s darn hard to resist boasting about your computer-to-student ratio when a fellow administrator brags about his, but the truth is, it really doesn’t matter if you have 3 computers to every student if no one is using them effectively for learning. Administrators have historically boasted about needing an iPad for every student or a laptop for every student. I’ve even heard school principals boast about having Smartboards in every classroom. Truth is, it’s not the numbers that matter; it’s what students and teachers are doing with those devices that matters.

4. You see Facebook and other social media as one of the biggest menaces of modern society. Granted, I will admit I’ve dealt with enough “Facebook-connected issues” that I sometimes think “Zuckerberg” should be a bad word. But, social media is our reality; it’s our students’ reality. We can’t keep blocking it out with the hopes that it will go away. It will, in some form, outlast us all. Instead, let’s figure out some way to use social media educationally. We all might learn something.

5. You think learning occurs only within the confines of your building’s classrooms under the direction of your teachers. Our students are learning about things they care about in spite of us. Classrooms are not the only places where student curiosity is satisfied (if they ever were). Our students are engaged in massive learning on their own while sitting with digital devices wherever they happen to be. It’s time to measure learning by something other than seat time and length of class periods. Perhaps we could even figure out a way to channel all that energy to learn to accomplish our educational goals.

School leaders suffering from “obsolete leadership” really do prevent schools from becoming 21st century learning places. Perhaps someday we’ll quit trying to defend the rules and question why the rules exist in the first place. That said, I am positive there are others indicators that could be added to this list.

Clearly from Evernote: Collect Web Content for Your Evernote Notebooks

2011-12-14T17:30:00.001-08:00

Clearly from Evernote is yet another one of those quite useful Chrome browser extensions, especially for those who have an Evernote account. One click of the button and a Web article is transformed into a simplified and uncluttered read. Four basic functions make this browser extension and addition to the must-have list for your Chrome browser.

The basic function of Clearly is to transform blog posts and Web articles into a format that is easy and clean to read.
By connecting Clearly to your Evernote account, you can make that Web content available on any device either connected to the Web or that has the Evernote application installed.
Tag articles sent to your Evernote account so that they are easily accessed and retrieved.
Change the theme and the font size to make the article or Web page more readable.

Clearly Interface

Evernote users who want to capture Web content without all the distractions and make it available in all their devices, will love Clearly. For more information, check out the Chrome Web Store.

21stprincipal to Be at NCTIES Conference 2012

2011-12-14T15:40:00.001-08:00

Every year for the past four or five years I have attended the North Carolina Technology in Education Society (NCTIES) Annual Conference. The NCTIES Conference this year will be held at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, North Carolina on March 7-9, 2012. This is the premier educational technology event in the entire state. NCTIES is the North Carolina affiliate organization to ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). Looking over the NCTIES Conference web site, it promises to be as engaging as ever, with tech experts like Ken Shelton as keynote speaker, and sessions conducted by two others well known in tech circles, Richard Byrne and David Warlick.

I have presented during the concurrent sessions just about every year I have attended, and this year I am scheduled for two concurrent sessions.

On Thursday, March 8:
Becoming a 21st Century Leader: Engaging in World-Wide Conversation on Education: Participants in this session will explore what it means to be a 21st century leader in public education, and the tools that can be used to begin their transformation into 21st century leaders. Focus will be on using Twitter, Google+, Blogging, and other social media to become connected and engaged leaders not just locally but globally.

On Friday, March 9:
Web Tools for Busy School Administrator: Participants in this session will explore web applications such as Evernote, Diigo, Dropbox and others as tools to help administrators carry out the tasks of school leadership. A complete overview of web apps and their potential use in the administrator will be explored.

Just as it has in the past, the NCTIES Conference promises to North Carolina’s best opportunity to engage in an intense but fascinating three days of learning and networking. If you want to go, check out the Conference Web Site.

Easy-to-Use Screen Capture Tool: Awesome Screen Shot

2011-12-13T18:03:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, I posted about the “Send to Kindle” extension and how useful it was to Kindle users. Amazingly, there are quite a few other extensions in the Chrome Web Store that are just as useful. One of those versatile Chrome Extensions is the Awesome Screenshot Extension. This is another must-have Extension for the Chrome browser user. (Firefox and Safari users can add the extension to their browsers too.)

The Awesome Screenshot Extension is a tool that allows users to do three basic things: 1) capture a Web page image, 2) annotate and edit that image, and 3) save or share that image. Because Awesome Screenshot can be synced with your Diigo account, you can upload those captured screenshots to there and share them with your groups or followers.

To begin capturing a Web page is as easy as clicking on the Awesome Screenshot button located in the top right-hand corner of your Chrome Browser.

Awesome Screenshot Button

Once you click the browser button, you have three capture choices: capture visible part of the page, capture the selected area, and capture the entire page. Once you select what you wish to capture, it immediately appears in another browser window or tab. From this screen, you can edit, annotate, add arrows, and add shapes. Once you are finished annotating, you can either save the map locally on your computer, save it temporarily on your clipboard, or save it permanently in your Diigo account.

Awesome Screenshot Annotation Screen

Awesome Screenshot is another extremely useful extension for your Web browser. It is available for Firefox and Safari browser users too.

“Send to Kindle” Extension: Easy Way to Send Web Content to Your Kindle

2011-12-12T19:19:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, I posted my favorite Chrome Apps and Extensions, and there was one of those extensions that I just have to mention again, the “Send to Kindle” Extension. I am a converted Kindle user and anything I can employ to increase its functionality, I will use. The “Send to Kindle” Extension is one of those extensions every Kindle user must have.

The “Send to Kindle” Extension basically allows users to read web content on their Kindle devices. For example, suppose I discover a rather long Web article that I would like more time to peruse later. With the “Send to Kindle” extension, I click the browser button, and immediately the article is transformed into a simple form, without the border ads or graphics. I only then need to click the “Send” button, and the article is on its way to my Kindle. It is that easy to use! Tools like this make me think guiltily about the all paper I used to make copies of articles during my research. Just another way to go paper. "Oh the possibilities!"

Send to Kindle Screen

The “Send to Kindle” Extension is a must for those who always have their Kindles close by. Check it out in the Chrome Web Store.