Thursday
May242007

Twenty (Five) Questions

 The best indicator of future performance is past performance.

sue1992.jpg

It is, hands-down, the least favorite part of my job - hiring a new person. Especially when it's because you have to replace an old (figuratively speaking) person. Your chances of getting a bozo are real high if you aren't careful.

Sue, our Computer Coordinator, is retiring this year. I recruited and hired her the second year I was in my current position - 1992. My relationship with Sue has been one of the best and longest lasting ones I've enjoyed in my life. In a lot of ways, I suppose we are like an old married couple, knowing, accommodating and accepting each other's little idiosyncrasies. And boy, does she have a lot of them. ;-)We seem to complement each other in the department. For example, Sue really likes to work and I don't. It works out pretty well.

The job description has been revised. The candidate applications and resumes screened. The interviews scheduled. The interview team selected. Additional antacid purchased for my stomach. Did I mention this is the least favorite part of my job?

These are the qualifications I am looking for. Walking on water and turning water into wine are desired, but not required. 

  1. Does the candidate have a master’s degree in library science or educational technology?
  2. Does the candidate have a Minnesota teaching license license?
  3. Does the candidate have three years successful teaching experience?
  4. Does the candidate have school district-level job experience?
  5. Does the candidate have a record of successful technology staff development experiences in K12 schools?
  6. Does the candidate show knowledge of current best practices in staff development and knowledge of current technologies including Web 2.0 resources?
  7. Has the candidate used technology and media resources in his/her own teaching?
  8. Can the candidate articulate a vision and/or philosophy of how technology is best used in schools?
  9. Does the candidate express passion/excitement about education and educational technology?
  10. Is the candidate an active member of any professional educational organizations?
  11. Does the candidate have a background in instructional design?
  12. Has the candidate held a position in education that has required…?
  •     planning
  •     budgeting
  •     supervisory responsibilities
  •     team-building skills
  •     interpersonal skills
  •     communication skills
  •     conflict management skills
  •     working to deadline
  •     initiative

So that narrows the candidate field. How do we find out if our candidates have any of these qualifications? Ah, the interview questions. How do these look? (Many were supplied by Dee Davis down in Iowa - thanks!) A little different than those I've long worked with when hiring media specialists.

  1. What do you see happening in educational technology in the next 2, 5 and 10 years?
  2. How do you see your role fitting into the NCLB goals? With district goals? With building goals? With departmental goals?
  3. What do you think is the most important technology tool available right now to aid teachers in improving student achievement?
  4. Looking at the previous question, if you did not have this tool what process would you use to convince the school/district to obtain this tool?
  5. How would you work with teacher-librarians, teachers and curriculum leaders to create a K-12 articulated information literacy curriculum that meets ISTE and MEMO standards?
  6. What are the most important components to consider when evaluating a software program that you are considering?
  7. Describe your ideal relationship with the network managers and technicians in the district.
  8. Teachers need flexibility in use of computer technology.  What is your thinking on what should be readily available to teachers? How “locked down” should systems be?
  9. Have you been involved in writing any grants to obtain hardware or educational software?
  10. What process would you use for hardware/software replacement?
  11. How would you to respond to in terms of solving the problems? A teacher requests that YouTube be blocked by the district filter. A teacher asks that ARD (Apple Remote Desktop) be removed from her computer. A teacher wants to use Eudora instead of Entourage (school standard)  for his e-mail. A teacher skips a required inservice. A department chair asks for new online resource that has a considerable cost.
  12. What experience have you had with: MacOS, WindowsOS, ARD,  Moodle/Blackboard, Interactive whiteboards,  Student information systems, Blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, podcasts, etc,  Gradebook programs, Datamining/data analysis systems, Web page creation tools
  13. What formal training have you had in technology applications?
  14. What you do use to keep current in you area?
  15. What would you like to teach teachers to do to cut down on “duh” kinds of calls?
  16. What kind of processes do you think is best in doing in-services for instructional technology?
  17. Describe a technology inservice you have done recently. What things made it successful?
  18. How do you deal with teachers who dislike or fear technology?
  19. How does a school best determine whether is teacher is technology literate?
  20. What process is most helpful to you in evaluating how well you are doing your job?
  21. What do you see as your role in addressing the problem of the ethical use of instructional technology, i.e., plagiarism, copyright issues, cheating problems?
  22. What experience do you have tracking software licenses?
  23.  What ideas would you have for involving parents in the new ways students are required to do assignments?  How would you help inform parents about their student’s safety when it comes to blogging, e-mail, etc.?
  24. What process would you use to keep in touch with building administrators in the area of educational technology?
  25. What professional organizations do you belong to and what work may you have done for them?

 What else needs to be asked beside "Tell us a little about yourself" and 'What questions might you have for us?"

Personally I like giving people in interviews a chance to tell us about their successes, challenges they've faced and overcome, and show a bit of their personality. A bad fit of person with job is tough on everyone.  Did I mention this is the least favorite part of my job?

Sue will be missed, but it will also be fun having a new person on board, full, I hope, of energy, vision, and optimism about technology and education. Enough to compensate for his/her idiosyncrasies at least. 

Tuesday
May222007

23 bites of elephant: Using the social web to support PLCs

Our schools are deeply invested in the philosophy and practice of staff development through Professional Learning Communities. Here is my question: How can read/write web tools support the work of PLCs and how might teachers gain the understandings and skills necessary to use these tools in the context of applying them to their own professional development? Eat the Web 2.0 elephant in small bites?

 One description of a professional learning community is: (underscoring is mine)

"teachers in a school and its administrators continuously seek and share learning and then act on what they learn. The goal of their actions is to enhance their effectiveness as professionals so that students benefit. This arrangement has also been termed communities of continuous inquiry and improvement... The requirements necessary for such organizational arrangements include:

  • the collegial and facilitative participation of the principal, who shares leadership - and thus, power and authority - through inviting staff input in decision making
  • a shared vision that is developed from staff's unswerving commitment to students' learning and that is consistently articulated and referenced for the staff's work
  • collective learning among staff and application of that learning to solutions that address students' needs
  • the visitation and review of each teacher's classroom behavior by peers as a feedback and assistance activity to support individual and community improvement and
  • physical conditions and human capacities that support such an operation (SEDL, Issues About Change, Vol 6. No 1, 1997)
(See also Richard DuFour's ASCD Educational Leadership article "What is a Professional Learning Community?")

 
Reduced to its simplest definition, a PLC is a group of professionals working collaboratively to discuss and practice effective professional strategies in order to increase student performance. How can this discussion and collaboration be enhanced and extended using Web 2.0 tools?

Modeled after CSLA's School Library Learning's 23 Things and Charlotte Mecklenberg Public Library's Learning 2.0 23 Things (which was inspired by 43 things), the plan below is a set of activities designed to help PLCs learn to use online tools that will enhance their efforts. It is my belief that once teachers experience the educational benefits of these tools personally, they will be more likely to use them with students in their own classrooms as well.

Month One - Blog reading and reacting
Tool: Technocrati

1. Read: Two articles defining and describing Web 2.0. Read the past month's entries for two educational blogs.

2. Participate: Use Technocrati to locate two blogs of personal interest and three blogs of professional usefulness, related to the topic of your PLC.

3. Do: Write responses to two blog postings.

Month Two - RSS feed aggregators
Tool: Google Reader

4. Read: Read the description of RSS and RSS feed aggregators. Read the instructions to Google Reader.

5. Participate: Set up a Google Reader account. Subscribe to the blogs located in the previous month.

6. Do: Monitor the Reader daily. Add five new feeds and respond to three blog posts.

Month Three - Blog writing
Tool: edublogs

7. Read: Two articles on blogging use by educators and about blogging ethics.

8. Participate: Set up a edublog account for your PLC (group activity)

9. Do: Each member contribute an entry and a response on the PLC's each week.

Month Four - Wikis
Tool: pbwiki

10. Read: Two articles about wikis, Wikipedia and/or the theories of collective intelligence.

11. Participate: Use pbWiki to create a document that articulates your PLC's norms and goals. Distribute the password to each member of the PLC. (group activity).

12. Do: Edit the group norm document. Review changes by other group members. Add additional documents to the wiki as needed.

Month Five - Social Bookmarking
Tool: del.icio.us

13. Read: Articles about social bookmarking, tagging and folk taxonomies.

14. Participate: Create a personal del.icio.us account. Add three bookmarks related to the topics your PLC is studying.

15. Do: Distribute the URLs for each member's del.icio.us account. Create an RSS for a topic search and add it to your Google Reader page.

Month Six - Shared media
Tools: Flickr, TeacherTube/YouTube , LibraryThing

16. Read: Introductory material for each of these sites.

17. Participate: Locate and watch a video from TeacherTube or YouTube. Search for and download a photo from Flickr. Do a search on Librarything for recommended books.

18. Do: Create a Flickr account and upload three photographs that show a teaching practice or upload a video to TeacherTube showing an effective teaching practice.

Month Seven - Personal networks
Tool: Ning

19. Read: The FAQ for Ning.

20. Participate: Create a Ning account for your group. (group activity)

21. Do: Post a message and feedback to your Ning group.

Month Eight - MUVEs
Tool: Second Life

22. Read: Two articles on MUVEs and their potential in education.

23. Participate: Create an avatar and attend a professional development opportunity in Second Life.

Here is where I need your help, dear readers. In your experience, before I start fleshing this out with instructions, links, and assessment measures:

  • Is this a good selection of tools (given strengthened collaboration and communication is the goal)? (Ning still does nothing for me. Does Second Life really support the work of a PLCs?
  • Can teachers be expected to complete these tasks independently, with minimal F2F instruction? Is there enought variety in the activities? How can one encourate reflection in these activities?
  • Any ways you can see to make this more palatable to already busy, even over-whelmed teachers? How might one sustain the use of these tools?
  • Are there better ways to teach these technology tools or support PLCs?
  • Other comments?

I need help here!

tiara.jpg
http://www.kamalii.k12.hi.us/EBC2005/images/Spider/tiara.jpg

Monday
May212007

Odds and Ends - Miscellaneous edition

It's time to clean out the digital closet. A few odds and ends here...

__________________________________________________

 hlib.jpg

Coming soon to a theater near you... The Hollywood Librarian. Premiering at ALA this summer. (YouTube trailer). I suppose if they can make an Al Gore PowerPoint interesting....

I grumbled on hearing this, asking the person who sent me the information, "I wonder how many school librarians are represented in the film?" I mean after all school librarians do represent the glamorous side of the profession. He got the director to write me back and this is her response:

It's an excellent question and I am proud to say there IS a school librarian in Act 1 of the film.  I was clear with myself from the beginning this film had to have a diversity of librarian positions in it, *especially* a school librarian, the most overlooked piece of an overlooked profession, in my opinion.

She comes onscreen at about minute 31 and says, "My name is Marilyn Martin, and I'm a Library Media Specialist in the Denver Public Schools.  And I'm in the best job in the world!"  [That can be heard in the trailer - she's the one wearing purple.]

She is just lovely and smart, and it's an interesting, heartwarming interview.  I also show a current student (a boy about 6 years old) and a former student, now in high school, who talks about Mrs. Martin being a loving presence in her life.  Also, there is her principal talking about how indispensable she is, and how well she knows children emotionally and psychologically.  I think school librarians are going to be very pleased with this segment.
Best,
~ann
Ann M. Seidl
O V E R D U E  *  P R O D U C T I O N S

The Hollywood Librarian, a documentary film
www.hollywoodlibrarian.com

Ann asks that I send folks to her blog at: http://hollywoodlibrarian.wordpress.com

I'm looking forward to seeing movie.

But it will need to be good to live up to the other librarian documentary, "March of the Librarians."

Good luck, Ann, and thanks!

 _________________________

eismisc.jpgI finished David Weinberger's book Everything is Miscellaneous this weekend. While I found the book very interesting and most readable, I had this sort of "so what" feeling at the end. I couldn't think of one thing I will do differently as a result of having read Mr Weinberger's thoughts. I am disappointed since it was his message at NECC that got me interested in the whole Web 2.0 - information as conversation - thing. Maybe my expectations were too high.

Did I miss something?

 
__________________________________________________

An insightful comment by Josh205 on Is there a problem here?:

I am a college student, looking to graduate in 2009 with an ED degree. Just recently I have been grasping the importance that technology has in the classroom and the effect it has on student learning. I know that tools like blogs, MySpace, and Facebook are overwhelmingly used by K-12 and college students. The statistic you gave at the beginning of your post is shocking, yet understandable. Teachers know what the future holds for education and the path by which it will follow, but are scared, I think, of accepting it and using social networking technologies to their advantage. There is an odd pause that takes place between students and teachers in this area, similar to two people standing on an elevator: each one knows the other is there but they do their best to not make eye contact and, of course, never move in the other person’s direction.

Most teachers and students view these new trends as "non-school" activities. Students don't expect their teachers to be looking at their blog postings and teachers don’t really care about what is being said on the postings. I'm taking an online course right now titled “Computers In Education” and am amazed at how effective technology can be in education. I see it as being really powerful. But yet, there remains a large, large gap between the online society and education. It is a shame. Worse yet, I'm not sure how to close that gap. The truth still stands that technology (including teacher aid technology) is increasingly going to have an affect on the way students learn and the way teachers teach. I’m interested to see how it all unfolds. 

Thoughtful writer. I hope he applies to the Mankato Schools for a job.

_________________________

 And you thought Second Life was only for sinners... From the infoisland blog:

May 19th marked the official opening of Peace Park on InfoIsland. A 3D religious resource area, it is a place where people on Second Life can come to learn about all religions, to meet and talk with others, or a place to quietly reflect. Several other uses were mentioned for the area at the opening and we hope to implement these soon, they include discussions of religious publications and interfaith discussions of today’s real life religious issues.

The variety of Second Life continues to amaze me. Can I buy a halo for my avatar?

_________________________

Always up to something, Miguel Guhlin asks Blog the Resume

 Is Around the Corner a worthy resume or should I scrap it?

Were I giving a career climber advice, I might very well suggest that s/he NOT blog at all. I only say this based on knowing that I've hesitated hiring people in part because of letters to the editor they'd written to the local paper. I suppose it all depends on the job, but how much does any public, conservative organization really want to hire a boat-rocker or even a person who is willing to publicly state strong opinions? (Of course you may not want to work for a public, conservative organization like mine. Check out the local charter schools.) Don't we advise our students that their MySpace account content may someday be seen as a negative by employers?

Miguel, please don't stop writing your provocative comments. Just make sure your vitae also has a list of solid accomplishments to go along with your cover letter.

 _________________________

OK, this falls under "Blogging the Cat" but here goes. I am extremely excited about going to Orlando this fall to speak at the FAME conference. And while I've always enjoyed working with Florida school library folks, one thing that makes this trip especially exciting is that I am taking my six-year-old grandson Paul and his mom with me for a Disney World experience. And I get to go play when the conference is over.

dougdsI have to admit I am a real Disney World fan. While every moment I am there feels like a giant mouse is holding me upside down by the ankles, vigorously shaking every last nickel out of my pockets, I still love the place. I took Paul's mom there in 1984, not long after EPCOT opened, and have taken my son a couple times more recently. Yes it is artificial, expensive and crowded. But the smile never leaves my face while I'm there.

What I have learned is that one needs a strategy and the best ones come from a book (and now website) called The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.  The book includes these little plans that say things like "Get to the park 1/2 hour before opening. Head directly to Space Mountain. Ride three times. Go directly to Big Thunder Mountain. Ride. Go to the Dumbo ride. " You get the idea. It's a studied means to minimize time in lines by hitting the most popular rides when the park is least busy. The book is also objective about rating hotels, restaurants and rides.

See you at It's a Small World. 

 _________________________
The publishers have my number. It seems nearly all my "guilty pleasure" authors are coming out with new novels soon. These include"

  • John (Sonchai Jitpleecheep) Burdett, Bangkok Haunts.
  • Lee (Jack Reacher) Child, Bad Luck and Trouble.
  • Michael (Harry Bosch) Connelly, The Overlook.
  • Stephen (Earl and Bob Ray Swagger) Hunter, The Master Sniper.
  • Daniel (Gabriel Allon) Silva,  The Secret Servant.
  • Martin (Arkady Renkno) Cruz Smith, Stalin's Ghost.

Hmmm, six titles, $20 each. $120 for a summer's worth of entertainment. Plus I can give a couple to my brother for Christmas if I don't spill anything on them...

Any authors that I forgot? Remember, I like my mysteries with violence and intelligence. A tough combination to find.