My presentation, ‘Communicating Online’ is ’a prezi’.

I had my PLN say hello via yammer and twitter during the workshop, there were some pearls of wisdom. The request for Yammer:

Yammer enthusiasts, I need your help, would you say hello to the DPs and tell them why Yammer is a great tool for us DET people? If you wish to wax lyrical about PLNs, blogs, edmodo, blogED etc. feel free to do so. #dpconf10

elicted 23 responses during the workshop.

Many more tweeps responded, from far and near, to the call:

Please say hello to deputy principals learning about social media at our conference in Sydney. Why do use twitter? Where are you? #dpconf10

You can see from the responses to my questions above that twitter and yammer offer different perspectives and deepen our PLN opportunities. Think global act local?

Yammer and twitter are complementary tools IMHO. I know that online colleagues I respect feel that Yammer is another symptom of the DET ‘walled garden’ but the reality is that over 5000 colleagues have now joined (there were only 60 in February). It is a great tool for DET employees to collaborate and is leading more to find Twitter too. The groups are active, especially MOODLE and blogED, with many yams everyday. We are leveraging our corporate wisdom and knowledge.

Here’s the conference hashtag at Yammer for DET staff and also on #dpconf10 on twitter

Antony Green was appearing on ABC 24 as we looked on

The panel of ABC staff: Simon Palan, Sue Stephenson, Anne Maria Nicholson  and especially Walkley Award winning journalist Tim Palmer, spoke insightfully and answered questions intelligently about their respective roads to working at the ABC, roles at our National Broadcaster and thoughts on the nature of news and current affairs in our hyper-connected age.

Some of the themes that emerged included:

-          The challenges of the 24/7 news cycle

-          Interpretating the events of the day when analysis must be made so quickly without, perhaps, full context

-          The challenges of maintaining the integrity of the ABC online services in this climate

-          The rise of social media and the challenges for ABC staff

-          The challenge of bias and objectivity for the ABC and reporters/broadcasters generally

-          How students should approach a career in journalism

Here’s the hashtag of some of my tweets and some teaching resource will appear here shortly.

The political uncertainty of the election ‘result’ that Australians watched unfold last night will lead to concerned discussion about what a hung parliament will mean for our democracy. There will be many at the moment worrying, including myself, about the NBN plan and what will happen to the Digital Education Revolution, if Mr Abbott is annointed. 

However, another interesting question is, obviously, how did a recently popular, first-term federal government manage to lose so many seats? The focus will be on the ‘knifing’ of Mr Rudd, ‘faceless’ power-brokers and the failure of the ALP to address ‘the greatest moral challenge of our age’. Many will point out that social progressives - especially those who want quality public education, sustainability and compassion for asylum-seekers – are deserting the ALP in droves and now look to The Greens. A friend asked the question, in relation to the collapse of support for the ALP, about how many commentators now consider the analysis of the much maligned (but incredibly well-read) Bob Ellis, prescient, especially where teachers votes and Public Education are concerned? What do you think? 

The Greens leader, Bob Brown, gave the most uplifting post-election interview and it was great to see him smile. The stunning image, of hope and renewal, of the first birth of a whale in the Derwent River, for almost 200 years, worked well as a clear opening message - that this is just the beginning for The Greens. Who could not agree with his statement, “we will measure everything in this parliament by…the dictum, if it is good for our grandchildren, it is good for us”? 

This all makes for interesting political discussion but one wonders how much of the debate will focus on the larger human saga that has unfolded in the context of what literature, philosophy and history tell us about ‘the state’, ‘the family’ and the ‘natural order’ of things? How important to our civil society is it to understand the human drama, not just the events of the day? 

The Greeks, Shakespeare, Chinese philosophers, poets and many other creators of our greatest works of literature, philosophy and history explore political issues concerning ‘right’ behaviour and action, or rather, what results when the proper order of things unravels. 

Shakespeare, in King Lear, his most challenging play, shows what happens to ‘the state’ when foolish decisions are made with no sensible consultation and flattery, for expedient reasons, exceeds common sense and goodwill. The state is torn asunder, families and individuals detroyed, the world is turned upside down. 

The ‘ALP family’ may well decide to add ‘Lear’, as a political primer, in their post-election analysis of what went wrong. Julius Caesar, I’m certain, is already on the list. 

Many works of Chinese philosophy and literature explore what happens when relationships are not tended properly. If the parent, child or elders do not behave as they should, as in Lear, the natural order, the tao of things, is upset and our civil society disturbed. 

Hubris and ambition are two of the character flaws often explored in the writings that are our human, or cultural legacy. Xerxes’ whipping of the Hellespont, reported by Herodotus or the mistreatment of Hector’s body by Achilles in Homer’s, The Iliad being two of our most vivid examples. Has our ‘two party state’ and the ‘cult of personality’ led to poor collaboration, respect and less democratic processes taking place in recent decades? The parliament side-stepped on important issues like committing our nation to war or even proper debate within cabinet before decisions being made? 

Public reflection

I could continue…but last night, I wondered what public writing, as reflection, would be shared about the larger human drama that these texts explore. There will be an excess of analysis and one could seriously jest that political commentators are the only winners from the events of last night. 

Literature, philosophy and history are essential and this garden needs to be carefully tended along with our economy and public infrastructure. 

David Williamson has retired but surely some of our playwrights, film-makers, novelists and poets are scribbling, typing and thinking how to represent the events on our national stage to coming generations of Australians, as well as us all who watched last night. One wonders what sources they will draw on to weave their webs. I suspect, to paraphrase William Blake, that few, although in a rage, will predict the ruin of the state but dream of a stronger, more enlightened, healthier democracy. I can imagine Bob Ellis writing intertextually well. 

However, the above reflections, made last night, ended up reminding me of an anecdote about some of the attitudes towards our liberal arts tradition. 

On my first day of university I walked into the toilets and saw some grafitti that echoed what the deputy principal had muttered about my decision to study a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English and History. There was an arrow pointing to the toilet paper holder which said: 

 BA – PLEASE TAKE ONE 

I laughed but this image (wish I had a photo of this c. 1987) haunted me a little and various attitudes towards our education system seem to echo the sentiment. 

I suspect that, as the century advances, our society will need to benefit from being cognisant of our shared histories, philosophy and cultural influences. We need to do better at ensuring our citizens are widely read and attitudes towards an ‘old-fashioned’ liberal education are positive and valued. The debate about the Australian Curriculum, what learning looks like in the 21st century and what it means to be a teacher or a what a school looks like, are of fundamental importance to our civil society. 

One worries, when reportedly, such a large percentage of our fellow citizens made informal votes after some very public urging.   

I wonder if these people had a precedent, from literature, history or philosphy in mind when they threw away their voice? 

Image Credits

Cable noose courtesy of Don Solo 

*Painted by David Claudon based on Archaic geometric oinochoe designs. From Greek Art & Archeology by John Griffiths Pedley, p 118 and located here

Leadership & Vision

• Blake Skidmore (@blakeskid). Pick Up the Mouse Your E-Mail is Ringing. I will be gliding through building technology at schools, and how to take some concrete steps for “old dogs learning new tricks”.
• Carolyn Foote (@technolibrary). Stepping out of the bubble. How can we step out of our own bubble and dream?
• Chris Atkinson (@ChrisLAtkinson). What Kind Of School Will You Lead This Year? Use Doug Reeves’ Leadership Matrix to assess where you are as a school and where you need to be.
• Chris Lehmann (@chrislehmann). Leadership Day 2010: Be The Best Version of Yourself. Being a good leader means first being a good person.
• Dale Holt (@Daleholt). Be the shaker. The snowglobe is best when shaken. We we lead we need to not be afraid to shake things up.
• Damian Bariexca (@damian613). Leadership Day 2010: From the Ground Up. Not all administrators are leaders; not all leaders are administrators.
• Darren Draper (@ddraper). On Administrators’ Choice to Do Nothing. My take on why change is so hard to come by in leadership behavior.
• David Bill (@dcinc66). Requirements for change. What is needed to institute change in a school? In my mind, they include the following – vision, understanding and persistence.
• David Fleming (@mrdfleming). Reflections on Leadership. What I expect from administration regarding technology use in school.
• Diane Lauer (@MrsLauer). Stepping Up and Staying Relevant. Three years ago I sat in the audience listening to a speaker chide a group of school administrators with the prompt, “How many of you are on Facebook?” My hand rested in my lap, my eyes surfed the room. There were very few hands raised. The gauntlet was thrown. “Are you willing to become dangerously irrelevant?”
• Ed Allen (@horizons93). Leadership Day 2010 – The Time Is Now. Let’s adopt an admin and give them a supportive push!
• Fred Koch (@fkoch). Leadership Day 2010. Too many school leaders are wearing racehorse blinders – so they don’t know what they don’t see…
• Heather Hersey (@hhersey03). Tech Leaders, Don Ginty and Rob Mancabelli. A profile of two technology leaders and how they approached a school’s tablet program and 1:1 pilot.
• Jaime Dial (@DrDial). Never be afraid to lead. Be careful when making generalizations about leaders; you don’t have to be an administrator to lead.
• Jeff B (@jbtheater11). Leadership Day 2010 – A letter. A simple (but kind of frustrated) letter to any administrator with a few suggestions and book recommendations.
• Jeffrey L. Hunt (@jeff_hunt). We Need Educational Leaders Who Can Move Us to the Next Level — Forward is Not Far Enough. It’s time for leaders to take schools to the next levels, embrace digital technologies and focus on learning.
• Joanne Robert. Take Risks, Trust Your Staff & Inspire. A letter to administrators from teachers “tired of waiting” giving advice for a low-tech, baby step, non-threatening approach to high-techness; it really sounds like begging but then I’m frustrated with the slowness of it all.
• Joe Bires (@joebires). Learn by Doing. Schools should practice what they preach; learn by doing.
• Jon Becker (@jonbecker). Who are the thought leaders in educational leadership? Where I throw ed. leadership professors and school leaders under the bus, only not really.
• Jonathan Ferrell and Britt Pumphrey (@jonathanferrell, @brpumphrey). Moving Forward. Two young teacher’s perspective on what it means for a leader to be moving forward in the realm of technology and education.
• Jonathan Martin (@JonathanEMartin). Learner-in-Chief: Leading in 21st century education. Today more than ever, leadership is about learning, and those of us who aim to lead learning must be ourselves Chief Learners in order to be Chiefs of Learning.
• Kevin Creutz (@kevcreutz). An Administrator’s Responsibility. Administrator’s must be lifelong learners
• Kristen Swanson (@kristenswanson). Leadership Day 2010. Upgrade and supercharge your leadership with these ideas!
• Kristin Hokanson (@khokanson). Keystones the Cornerstones of Leadership. Lead, Connect, Innovate, and Explore, Turn up the HEAT and recognize that anyone can be a leader
• Linda Clinton (@Linda704). I’m Not In It to Win It I’m In It for You. A post inspired by a line from a pop song.
• Lisa Winebrenner (@EdTech4Me). Leadership Day 2010 Call to all bloggers. Reflection of last year’s post to this year and links on how far Google Apss Education Edition has come in 4 years.
• Megan Howard (@mmhoward). Leadership: Adapt, Innovate, and Inspire. Musings about verbs: adapt, innovate, inspire — and why walking slowly through the halls is a sign of good leadership.
• Michelle Baldwin (@michellek107). Leadership Is… In thinking about leadership, I wanted to be less preachy than I usually am, and instead concentrated on qualities of good leaders.
• Mike Meechin (@innovateed). Tough Conversations – Have Them! Calling all education reformers! I encourage you to find those in charge and have them sit for the tough conversations. The movement begins here, with us, and these conversations.
• Nathan Barber. Administrators as Technology Leaders: Is Being Tech-Savvy Enough? Administrators must understand not only the limits of their own tech knowledge but also when to empower tech experts to carry out the technology vision for the school.
• Pam Moran (@pammoran). Staying Relevant as Leader and Learner. I fear being dangerously irrelevant so I work hard to stay relevant as leader and learner- with a little help from friends, both F2F and virtual.
• Patrick Larkin (@bhsprincipal). Leadership Day 2010 – Two of My Goals For This Year. Resource sharing rather than resource hoarding.
• Pernille Ripp (@4thgrdteach). Do You Dare to Look in the Mirror? Reflection on whether you are a multiplier or a divisor.
• Queenie Lindsey (@tandemteaching). An Open Letter To Administrators| Leadership Day 2010. Dear Administrators: 3 teachers reveal exactly what they need from you to implement technology in the classroom.
• Renee Moore (@TeachMoore). Dear Angela. A heartfelt letter to one my former students, now an elementary principal, encouraging (not shaming) her to explore what technology integration can do for their school, especially for our high-poverty, digitally disadvantaged students.
• Rodd Lucier (@thecleversheep). The Three ‘R’s of Educational Leadership. Educational leaders need to take Risks, to conduce Research, and to build Relationships.
• Roger Crider (@rcrider69). Its not that difficult. Why doesn’t administration understand that with a little vision and commitment things would improve greatly.
• Roger Pryor (@pryorcommitment). Paintings in an exhibition: change metaphors and a couple of views on leadership. Sometimes we may feel the urge to charge into a battle for new ways of doing things, trumpets sounding and hooves thundering. There is a quite satisfaction to be had, however, from ‘leading from behind’ and seeing some of the more clever cows lead the herd to new grazing.
• Scott McLeod (@mcleod). “No thanks. I choose to do nothing.” Are school administrators guilty of ‘willful blindness’ when it comes to the societal transformations that surround them?
• Selena Ward (@thetechtiger). I Have Some Hope. This is my yearly letter to my principal.
• Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach (@snbeach). Leadership Day: A Day Late. Leaders “kill their TV” to make time for Design Thinking: Inspiration, Ideation, and Implementation to reculture and shift their school/district.
• Sylvia Martinez (@smartinez). What leadership looks like. “What works” is variable to an almost maddening degree.
• Tim Gwynn (@tgwynn). How About Some Walk To Go With That Talk? When it comes to technology in schools, leaders are talking about it all around us, but the talk doesn’t mean much until they step up and start using the technology as well.
• Tim Stahmer (@timstahmer). What Do You Do All Day? Does the leadership in your school have an “insanely great” approach to their role like Steve Jobs?
• Todd Williamson (@twilliamson15). Consistency, Vision, and Bravery. Three necessary values for any educational leader, in any century, with or without technology.
• Tony Baldasaro (@baldy7). Reflections on 2st Century Leadership. Reflected upon the 21st century leaders and offered three traits of high quality leaders, one of which a former boss of mine did not have.
• Tony Keefer (@Tonykeefer). Big Thinking: Leadership Day 2010. One teacher’s ideas that may help administrators think big about embracing tech.

Lists

• Darcy Moore (@Darcy1968). #leadershipday10. Quotes and the inevitable list of 10 ideas contained within…
• Dave Meister (@phsprincipal). Leadership Day 2010 Practical Steps to Promote Technology Integration. You too can be an administrator that is leading technology integration in your school!
• Dolores Gende (@dgende). Leaders Among Equals. The six BEs that educational administrators demonstrate while BEing Leaders among Equals.
• Harold Shaw (@hshawjr). Leadership Day 2010. What I think we need from admins
• Justin Tarte (@Justin_Tarte). What should busy administrators be reading (or watching)? – Leadership Day 2010. Top ten for aspiring, new, current, and retired administrators who want educational and technological reform in an educational setting.
• Mark Carbone (@markwcarbone). School Administrator To Do List. School admins are busy and wear many hats, they should focus on a critical ‘to do’ list.
• Mary Beth Hertz (@mbteach). My Top 10 To-Do List for Administrators. A (hopefully) succinct checklist of things Administrators can do to make sure they are leading their school into the 21st Century.
• Morgan Kolis (@Room5Friends). “Leadership Day 2010″ (What would I want my administrator to know about technology?). This post provides a list of 10 things I would LOVE for ANY administrator (principal, special ed. director, curriculum director, Superintendent, etc.) to know about TECHNOLOGY IN REGARDS TO SPECIAL EDUCATION (Yes, the two really can go hand in hand!).
• Nancy Caramanico (@ncara). 7 Ways for Leaders to Stay on Top of Tech. Emerging tech trends can serve as a ‘crystal ball’ into the future of learning
• Natalie Wojinski (@mswojo). Leadership Day 2010: Dear Administrators. Administrators, just follow these five simple steps to a happier, healthier technology integrated school.
• Steven W. Anderson (@web20classroom). Some Questions To Ask… What questions should educational leaders be asking in their buildings for districts everyday?

Online Learning

• iNACOL (@nextgenlc). Leadership Day 2010: Online and Blended Learning. This post provides a quick summary of how blended learning models can be beneficial, as they provide learning opportunities that may not exist elsewhere.
• Michael Barbour (@mkbwsu). Leadership Day 2010 – Advice On Virtual Schooling. A letter from a K-12 online learning researcher to administrators advising them, “Don’t believe the hype!”

Planning & Implementation

• Becky Searls (@beckyjoy). Leadership Day 2010. How one district provided laptops for teachers…with a catch!
• Justin Bathon (@edjurist). Rubber … Meet Road: Leadership Day 2010. Lessons and challenges from leading a real statewide education reform effort in Kentucky.
• Maryna Badenhorst (@marynabadenhors). Visionary Leadership and e-learning. The roles and responsibilities of schools in the integration of e-learning:  Where will we hide in this e-learning storm that is brewing on the horizon?
• Taber Akin. Leadership Day. A small list of technology successes in ISD 191.

Professional Development

• Cheryl Oakes (@cheryloakes50). Leadership Day 2010 call to action be part of this! A group of administrators and technology coordinators went into action, collaborated and designed a summer professional workshop for any administrator involved in evaluating staff, in Maine, presented by local teachers who are already demonstrating the NETS-S standards in their classrooms.
• Jon Orech (@jorech). More Than Just a Spark. The start of a new school year brings optimism and new ideas; how do we sustain them long term?
• Kyle Pace (@kylepace). PDopia: Planning The Perfect PD. Want to evoke real change and move forward with educational technology? It all starts with providing quality PD to your staff.
• Mau Buchler (@maubuchler). Only After You’ve Done Your Homeplay! A more effective way of doing PDs for teachers who want to start using technology.
• Paula Naugle (@plnaugle). Leadership Day 2010 – My Take. I suggest 10 ways leadership can “walk the talk” about integrating technology when doing staff development.

Safety & Security

• Kevin Hodgson (@dogtrax). Leadership Day 2010: A Webcomic Message. I went the route of creating a webcomic to add a touch of humor to the message that teachers need the support of administrators (and sometimes, administrators need a little help from their teachers)
• Mark Barnes (@markbarnes19). Mr. Education Administrator: tear down that wall. Ronald Reagan may have said it first, but it’s worth restating: Mr. administrator, tear down that wall — the firewall that is.

Standards

• Beth Still (@bethstill). ISTE NETS for Administrators: How Do You Measure Up? This post goes through the five NETS for Administrators and provides some insight from the perspective of a teacher as well as provides a jumping in points to help administrators become tech-savvy.
• Doug Johnson (@blueskunkblog). CODE 77Rubrics for Administrators. 10 Rubrics to help the brave administrator judge his/her competence with technology use in schools.

Teaching & Learning

• Alynn Coppock (@ACoppock1). Driving Toward a New School Year. After reading Drive by Daniel Pink, I was inspired to blog about this thought-provoking read and how it relates to leadership and the 1:1 environment.
• Amanda Dykes (@amandacdykes). Time To Step Up. I am not a leader, far from it, but I have a big mouth and not afraid to use it!
• Barbara McCormick (bmccormick65). Leadership Day 2010. Going Global with 1:1 inspires a community.
• Becky Fisher (@beckyfisher73). Educational Leaders Must Be Self-directed Learners. “Nobody told me I had to…” is not an excuse for a leader.
• Brad Flickinger (@bradflickinger). Exploit Their Passions. A How-To Guide to Exploiting Your Teacher’s Tech Passions.
• Brian Ford (@bf_teach4chnge). Marx and School 2.0: My Leadership Day 2010 Post….In Time for Happy Hour (somewhere)… Using Marx’s idea of liberating the means of production as an analogy for school and tech leadership.
• Bridgette Wagoner (@B_Wagoner). Pragmatism is Not the Answer, Part II: Tech Integration. We are so concerned with fast, practical results that we’ve forgotten that real, substantive, lasting change happens as a result of changing the underlying belief systems of individuals.
• Carl Anderson (@anderscj). An Invitation Letter to Parents. In this post I show how online Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) can be leveraged to effect change in your school and increase parent involvement in support of student, teacher, administrator, and systemic learning.
• Catherine Victoria Parsons (@vgloucester). Make Learning a Quest. Learning should be more like questing in an MMORPG – embrace the process and not the target.
• Cathy Stutzman (@Stutz01). Collaboration and Lemon Pancakes. What would school be like if every teacher could engage in meaningful conversations with school administrators about curriculum and educational pedagogy and if every student could learn alongside teachers and administrators?
• Chris Lindholm (@clindhol). Projected slides is not tech integration. Stand and deliver teaching with tech is still bad teaching…
• dan greenberg (texasbuckeye). Leadership day 2010. How can we get administrators to make honest assessments about technology they, themselves, might not fully grasp?
• David Edwards (@davencvps67). Are We Helping the Trophy Kids Learn and Grow? Are we meeting the expectations of the “trophy kids” (the net generation) with the learning environments we build?
• Dominic Giegerich (@Giegerich). Aretha said it best – “R E S P E C T” Sit teachers down like 3rd graders in PD or treat them like adult learners and give them the respect they deserve?
• Edna Sackson (@whatedsaid). Learning Principles. Know what you believe about learning, before you think about implementing change!
• Eye On Education (@eyeoneducation). What role does technology play in differentiated instruction? Some administrators feel that if classroom teachers use technology in their classrooms that their classrooms will “automatically” differentiate. What role does technology play in the differentiated classroom?
• Jonathan Cassie. Technology and Education 1.0. The Greeks got it right; our use of technology has to catch up with what they taught us 3000 years ago.
• Josie Holford (@JosieHolford). More Educator Luddites Please. A call to reclaim Luddism and to build a class of educator Luddites who can learn and lead against the grain of narrowing definitions, factory school and standardization and toward what it means to be an educated citizen in a networked world.
• Michael Shepherd (@smichael920). Curriculum Design. What does our pedagogy look like? What would you like learning to be like?
  At a recent staff meeting we asked these questions of staff and the result was more questions!   But questions that have helped us move the curriculum forward.”
• Paul Bogush (@paulbogush). Acoustic Teaching. It’s the songs we write and sing as teachers that make a difference, not the instruments we play them.
• Rich Haglund. The 1908 ISTE NETS, or, how chalkboards revolutionized teaching. The ISTE NETS-T could have been written 100 years ago, and teachers who haven’t mastered their subject don’t have room in their brains to contemplate using (or letting students use) new tools to teacher (or for students to learn) the material.
• Rob Jacobs (@eduinnovation). What Do You Think You “Hired” Your Technology To Do? When leaders put education technology into the hands of students they discover that new tools, in new hands, creates new and often unanticipated results.
• Robert Dillon (@ideaguy42). Hitting the Target, Missing the Point. Winning the testing war is great, but truly preparing children for the future is morally responsible.
• Ryan Bretag (@ryanbretag). Walk in the Shoes of Your Students. On this Leadership Day 2010, I issue this challenge to school leaders: walk in the shoes of your students for a day.
• Sean Nash (@nashworld). Principals as Teachers. An invitation to bring principals directly back into the fold of teaching through the use of modern digital tools.
• Sean Nash (@nashworld). Principals as Teachers Part II – Early Feedback. Part two of an getting an idea “on paper” about employing principals to become intimately empowered in a digital teaching landscape.
• Stephen Lazar (@SLazarOtC). Technology is a Tool. Administrators need to remember that technology is a means, not an end in itself.
• Steve Moore (@stevejmoore). What Are You Building? Whether we use TNT or a telegraph, we need to learn how to use technology to break down the barriers of learning and relationships.

Tools & Technologies

• Cheryl Robson. Beyond Techno-Bling: When Boring is Good. Let’s get past the bells and whistles and really put the technology to work for us.
• David B. Cohen (@CohenD). Tech It From The Top! If you’ve lived this long, and you believe in lifelong learning as one of your professional principles, then it’s time to do more than use email and Facebook:  isn’t it about time to retire the “aw, shucks, I can’t use any of that new-fangled technology stuff the kids use”  excuse?
• Frank Buck (@drfrankbuck). Leadership Day 2010: Why Blog? For the principal who wants an easy way to communicate with faculty and staff that is fun for both reader and writer, a blog is the way to go.
• George Couros (@gcouros). #LeadershipDay2010 – The Tools I Use. I am smarter because I found a bunch of smart people.
• Ian McCoog (@imccoog). plain and simple, the blog. It’s nothing fancy but blogging is one effective and not “too high tech” means of communication.
• Jacob Williamson. Good Intentions. Why good intentions aren’t enough.
• Joquetta Johnson (@accordin2jo). What Tools Are You Carrying In Your Digital Briefcase. Briefcase, backpack, or brown paper bag… It’s not about the container, but its contents.
• Karen Weil (@KarenTBTEN). In the Clouds: Cloud Technologies… and Start Pages. Can a well designed ‘start page’ link elementary students with engaging (and safe) technologies?
• Larry Fliegelman (@fliegs). Leadership Day 2010. How to keep with it all as a busy principal: RSS helps us “know it all.”
• Lyn Hilt (@l_hilt). Leadership Day 2010. Reflecting upon the things I’ve done as an administrator to help my teachers “rethink” their practices.
• Monte Tatom (@drmmtatom). #LeadershipDay10. The value of staying current with 21st Century Leadership Skills.
• Pattie Thomas (@pthomas1). This Blog Belongs to YOU! Parents and the community deserve to know what happens behind the doors of the school house. A blog does just that!.
• Susan Carpenter (@SusanF95). Have Terabyte…Will Travel. This is the most amazingly convenient way to have access to everything you need, all of the time, from anywhere!

Check out the hashtag!

• #leadershipday10

Posts from past years

• Leadership Day 2007 – Summary
• Leadership Day 2008 – Summary
• Leadership Day 2009 – Summary spreadsheet

Excuse the ‘outcome speak’ but, so you can help me out, this Teacher Education Visit (TEV) to Shanghai aims to:

• enhance NSW DET teachers’ knowledge and understanding of China, its people, country, contribution to world civilisation, history and future
• improve and enrich teaching and learning about Shanghai, China, and the Asian Region, in the school curriculum
• develop formal and informal education partnerships between Shanghai and NSW DET schools and teachers

It is intended that participants of the Shanghai TEV will, by the end of the program:

• identify and analyse issues or events in China that have current interest and relevance
• critically analyse the perspectives from which these events and issues are being reported
• counter stereotypical views of Chinese peoples, culture, society and organisations

Your Ideas?

Now that you know the broad objectives of the 10 day visit, English teachers, and others, what suggestions have you for a ‘unit of work’, derived from my experiences in Shanghai, that would truly be exciting for students and their teachers? How should it be delivered? What tools? What content? What angles can you think of that will excite?

Of course, I have a a few ideas already to pursue and am particularly interested in visual literacy (Nikon D90 and lenses will be handy at all times).

I am particularly excited to be travelling to a city that is a truly global hub of fashion, industry and finance with such technologically savvy residents. From what I already know, it seems Sydney could learn a great deal about how to actually deliver on rail infrastructure from the Shanghainese.

I am also very excited to have the opportunity to attend World Expo 2010.

Image credit: TEV Program Cover

Image credit: The wonderful shot featured, of Shanghai at night, is courtesy of latigi

How would your child’s teachers fare if asked these questions:

1. What is your educational philosophy?

2. How are you assisting our child to become a self-directed learner?

3. What professional reading are you undertaking at the moment?

4. What are you reading for fun?

5. How do you use technology as a tool to leverage learning in the classroom?

6. What online resources have you created for your class?

7. How do you assist students to learn about digital citizenship?

8. What professional networks and associations are you involved with regularly?

9. What observations can you offer about our child’s happiness at school?

10. What reflections can you make about our child’s growth as a learner and citizen this year?

Image credit 

What questions would you like to be asked or ask?

#leadershipday2010

Scott Mcleod has organised Leadership Day, since 2007, by requesting that bloggers post their ideas on a range of pertinent edtech topics.

The 30th July has dawned and some reflection is in order.

Last year I wrote a response and quoted Seth Godin suggesting that leaders must be prepared to be ‘incompetent’ for a while in order to learn:

It doesn’t take a lot of time to change … to reinvent … or to redesign. No, it doesn’t take time; it takes will. The will to change. The will to take a risk. The will to become incompetent – at least for a while.

This year, it feels important to be more strident in choice of quotes, as the pace of change sees many falling so far behind that it becomes ’dangerous’ - in the sense that Scott titles his blog, “Dangerously Irrelevant” – for our educational institutions. It is ‘dangerous’ for our systems and student learning opportunities but also, for the individual professional themselves. It is dangerous to sense of self if individual learners are not engaged in, and modelling, life-long learning and appear to be moribund or neo-luddite in attitude.

Here’s some quite pointed wisdom from Eric Shinseki, as quoted by Tom Peters, which has occasionally led to robust debate about leaders and technology with delegates/workshop participants in my sessions:

If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less

The best advice to any educational leader that can be given, IMHO, is to do the following, to personally stay engaged, in the quest to ‘stay relevant’ and engaged in learning:

1. Talk incessantly to students with your ears about the tools and lifestyle they live with technology and what they want to learn about
2. Walk the walk and smile; create opportunities for the enthusiastic at your place of learning. To do this one needs to read, read, read
3. Set personal edtech related learning and sharing goals eg I want to have a school leadership blog to share my journey and professionally grow colleagues or I want to master Photoshop to help me represent ideas better (even better, help someone else on the team to achieve their goals)
4. Learn about and organise RSS feeds into a reader from an ever-growing number of sites, blogs and professional sources. This leads to ongoing awareness of what changes would be best at your learning establishment
5. Learn how to (and actually) use social media tools. My favs are Flickr, delicious, twitter and/or yammer - what are yours?
6. Spend time online every day to establish routines
7. Get a smartphone which allows one to stay in touch with the above in any spare moments to effectively manage time
8. Publicly discuss/blog your errors and areas you just did not intellectually ‘get’; make it ok to fail at your place of learning. Facilitate authentic dialogue.
9. Present about your journey and more interesting things at conferences to stay in, and help make, the loop
10. Mentor and nurture those ‘above’ and ‘below’ you in the leadership pyramid and seek the same in return, wherever possible, to keep learning from others

At our school we talk about, “who can I help, who can help me?” This is due to our belief that a sound approach for leaders is to have the fundamental responsibility to help ‘create more leaders’. We need more educators willing to take on formal and informal leadership roles; it is really important as our profession ages comparative to the workforce.

To conclude this post for #leadershipday10 I need to reiterate, it is all about life-long learning and my favourite quote for us educators is from the late Garth Boomer, who said:

We teach others by teaching ourselves anew

Thanks to Buffy Hamilton*

After my post, Twitter Literati for English Teachers, some discussion arose about the reasons why teacher-librarians are so engaged with twitter, social media and digital technologies generally.

Colleagues on Yammer had some good ideas:

Darcy, in schools TLs are one of a kind. We have therefore needed to look beyond our schools for support and guidance. We needed to develop strong networks and participate in listservs etc. Yammer is a natural progression.
Another reason I believe that we seem as prevalent on Twitter and yammer is that we are interested in supporting all curriculum areas, all staff and students,accessing, evaluating and providing all different formats of resources for all the different learning styles. It means we have our hands in many buckets….constantly scouring for valuable snippets.                                                                                                  

Audrey Nay

 

I suspect there’s a comfort-zone divide between English and Maths-Science-Technology. Certainly not universal, but I reckon some people don’t find experimenting with technology interesting. They have not done it much and see no reason to start. But Librarians have faced a revolution over at least 40 years where they have constantly faced technological change in order to keep their libraries cutting edge and relevant; especiallly teacher-librarians who have to make libraries appealing to youth. They’ve seen their role as making available media more broadly, not just books. They’ve gone through reel-to-reel tapes, video tape, casette tapes, DVDs, internet in libraries changing from card catalogues to computers, bar codes instead of borrowing cards etc etc. Their whole life has been adapting to new technology every couple of years. English teachers (to over-generalise) haven’t formed such habits. Gutenburg’s technology has pretty well met their needs.                                                                         

Michael Waterhouse

 

Some would also say that T/L’s have had the benefit of being able to see “the big picture”..that comes partly from supporting ALL the KLA’s…and I suspect also that people attracted to librarianship are generally people who enjoy exploring the full range of human knowledge. I would posit most teacher-librarians as creators of the revolution rather than just reacting to change.                                                                                          

Jim Richardson

 

My librarian at school is the hub of the school. And she has mentioned a strong library network. She is always getting emails regarding new ideas and things to share. Being cross-disciplinary and sharers of information they more readily seek to better all KLA’s and don’t have one focus. They are the best!

Jess

Your theories?

There are many who have been tweeting and blogging about technology trends, as well as books, for years. Judy O’Connell is a favourite and one of the longest running blogs where I read almost every post.

The Bright Ideas blog also has many many great posts and tweets too.

You also find that teacher-librarians are especially friendly, obliging tweeple, like Victor and Audrey.

Here’s a lengthy list of Australian teacher-librarians on twitter.

*Photo Credit: Thanks to Buffy Hamilton