Odds and Ends - Rainy Fall Sunday

After a very nice trip to do workshops and presentations at the Washington/Oregon Joint School Library Conference in Portland last week, it's great to be home to enjoy Minnesota's fall colors, muted by rains this quiet Sunday. Life is good.

A few things that caught my eye this past week and you might find interesting as well:

It's not what you know but who you know...
When my superintendent showed an interest in podcasting and asked for examples of other educational administrators who were creating these things, I turned to Scott McLeod who put the question to his readers of  Dangerously Irrelevant and they generated a nice list. Thanks, Scott and your groupies.

Another post of Scott's made me stop and think a bit. In Messianic arrogance, Scott asks "Passionate, visionary leadership or self-righteous, messianic arrogance?" Is there a difference? Hmmmmm... Do you you offer Kool-Aid to your guests?

In print
It's always fun to see one's article published in a print magazine, especially a magazine like School Library Journal. I'm kinda proud of ’Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad (c)?” - it's controversial and good for kids, teachers and librarians. The topic has been great fun in the conference presentations I've given about it these last two weeks. I'm pleased SLJ put it online. Illustration at right by Mark Tuchman from SLJ Oct 08

Are you willing to get fired for your beliefs?
I've extolled the humor of Librarian Wham on the Books, Bytes and Grocery Store Feet blog before. But this week his How Firm is Your Stand? post tells the story of the economic and career consequences of being a principled person - about standing up to one's supervisor and getting fired for it.

Most of us talk a good game about going to any length in upholding our ideals, acting in the best interest of our students, playing David against the administrative Goliaths. But I suspect that niggling self-doubt and mortgage payments combine to trump principle in all but the true heroes among us.

Oh, speaking as a supervisor, principled people can be scary to have working for you too.

A short list of technology competencies
Senator McCain has infamously admitted to his lack of Internet(s) savvy. Knowing how to send an e-mail probably isn't crucial to being the Leader of the Free World, but it does seem a bit anachronistic. Heck, my mom does e-mail and she's even older than McCain. But then she doesn't have an aide at her beck and call either. Except my brother.

Anyway, Seth Godin has a pretty good list of technology competencies in his post The growing productivity divide. David Pogue has some similar basic tech tips. How would your teachers do if given a test on these?

A good question
How would you answer this question that popped up in a workshop last week during a discussion on evaluating web resources:

But what do you do when you've steered your students to "authoritative" sites and the good sources don't all agree? I had students use three reliable sources to find the maximum speed of a cheetah and they came back with three different answers!

Average them? Give a range?

Hell, just use Wikipedia.

What gets tested, gets taught
By way of my friend Mary Mehsikomer:

ON THE WAY: NATION'S FIRST TECH-LITERACY EXAM, eSchool News
For the first time ever, technological literacy will become part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation's Report Card. Beginning in 2012, the test will measure students' proficiency with technology in addition to reading, math, science, history, writing, and other subjects. The new test will mark the first time students' technology literacy has been assessed on a national level.http://benton.org/node/17652

Is this what it will take to get schools to address the tech skills kids need? How sad.

Off to Montana this week
The LWW and I leave this Wednesday for Missoula in the great state of Montana. I'm working at a conference on Thursday, visiting with our friend Sally Brewer on Thursday evening, and then heading to Glacier Park for a long weekend.

I'll tell the grizzly bears you said hello.

Fall Odds and Ends

This was the perfect fall weekend here in God's Country - aka southern Minnesota. Highs in the 70s, blue skies, light breezes. Trees and shrubs are beginning to turn color. I had no writing assignments due nor presentations for which to prepare. So other than mowing the lawn and puttering a bit, I read, I napped and I ate.

Is this what retirement will be like one day?

Anyway, a few things caught my eye and here they are...

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Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain has a downloadable comic book, Bound by Law?, that tells the riveting tale of a documentary film maker tying to figure out the in's-and-out's of Fair Use and copyright in her work. The authors do a good job of presenting a balanced assessment of both the need for and excesses of copyright law from the views of both the consumer  and the creator. 

One of the problems they examine is the "permissions culture":

...the belief that copyright gives its owner the right to demand payment of every type of usage, no matter its length, or its purpose, or the context in which it is set.

and observes

One of the under-appreciated tragedies of the permissions culture is that many young artists only experience copyright as an impediment, a source of incomprehensible demands for payment, cease and desist letters, and legal transaction costs. Technology allows them to mix, to combine, to create collages. They see law as merely an obstacle.

Hmmmm, echos of The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy that shows the same impact in education.

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In working on a column on RSS feeds, I found this list of imaginative uses compiled by Christina Laun at VirtualHosting.com -  “Top 25 (Non-Obvious) Ways RSS Can Make Your Life Easier”.  She suggests tracking everything from job openings to overdue library books to television schedules. Go RSS!

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For other manly readers out there, Stephen King has a short essay on "manfiction" titled What a Guy Wants on the EW website.  King pays homage to Travis McGee, but writes "The best current manfiction writers? I'd say Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Richard Stark, and Lee Child." I concur - pretty much. But I'd add:

• John Burdett
• James Lee Burke
• Stephen Hunter
• Daniel Silva
• Martin Cruz Smith

Other manly writers?

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Jennifer McDaniel in her article The Case for PEDs in Teacher Magazine intriguingly begins:

For the first time this year, my entire 9th grade class is on task.

What miracle has Ms McDaniel used to create such a learning environment? She allowed students to use PEDs (personal electronic devices) - their MP3 players during Friday independent study time. It was against school rules, she has since conformed to the rules, and adult needs have been met.

Sigh.

When will educators learn to use these tools to meet instructional goals rather than simply give the knee-jerk response of banning them?

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Taken last evening, this is a photo of Pirates' Tree on the boat cut between Middle and Big Jefferson Lakes, about a quarter mile from our house. Pirates Tree is so named (by our family anyway) because we have always told the grandsons to keep a sharp eye out for pirates ready to leap from its limbs and commandeer any pontoon boat passing through the cut. So far we've been lucky. Very lucky.

The boys also know about Dinosaur Island which can be seen from our dock. Happily for humans, the dinosaurs that inhabit the island can't swim and hibernate in the winter so they can't walk across the ice.

I believe I once had my son fairly well-convinced of the presence of the nearby Lake Henry Monster whose tentacles could reach well onto the country road and drag unsuspecting cars (and small boys)  to Lake Henry's watery depths.

It is an important job for adults to impress a sense of fantasy on the children in their charge. I doubt either Frodo or Dumbledore would exist were this not the case.

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Odds and Ends - midsummer 2008

Sorry folks. Summer is half gone. Didn't it just start last week? A few odds and ends and random thoughts.Too lazy to think too hard. Too bored not to write at all.

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I've expressed my feelings about cold sales calls and how to deal with them in this blog before.  But this was a new experience:

I picked up the office line the other day after the secretaries had already left for lunch:

Me: District Media Services. How may I help you?

Caller: Who is this?

Me: This is Doug.

Caller: Heeeeeeyyyyy, Doug. How ya doin'?

Me: I was just about to leave for a noon meeting. Who do you represent and how can I help you?

Caller: Say, there must be something in the Muh-Ka-Toe [not Man-Kay-Toe] water there that makes you so energetic.

Me: Listen, I really am in sort of a hurry. How can I help you?

Caller: You know what? You don't sound like someone I would enjoy working with.

Click.

I didn't even get a chance to say, "It's mutual, I'm sure."

Just what was the magic phrase that got him to hang up?

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The family and I went to see the Science of Star Wars exhibit at the Minnesota Science Museum in St. Paul yesterday.  Given that my son-in-law and grandsons are huge Star Wars fans, it really was must see. The exhibit was great and our Science Museum is always a fun place to visit.

But what rocked my world, however, was the cost. And I am not complaining, only commenting.

There were seven us attending. Five adults, one elementary age student and one pre-schooler:

Exhibit, museum and OmniMax movie tickets: $180
Souvenirs: $60
Lunch at the museum: $80
Gas and parking: $50

Total: $370

Now I am genuinely blessed to have the discretionary income that allows me to treat the family to an occasional outing like this. I would happily spend twice this to give my children a memorable experience, and there is absolutely nothing on which I would rather spend my money.  But I really worry about just how many families can do these sorts of trips anymore.

What richness and conversation is being lost when most of kids' experiences come cheaply online through virtual field trips, videos, or not at all? Field trips seem to be an "easy" budget cut to make. Should they be? How is the real museum, the real zoo, the real theater experience different from their digital versions? Are we taking the easy way out or should we be fighting for funds?

I remember my then teenage son's first words after walking out of the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. "Dad, I didn't realize Anne Frank was a real person."  Hmmmm...

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My grandsons are certainly popular culture addicts - or at least aficionados.  I wonder how great the museum attraction would have been had it not been the "Science of Star Wars," but the "Science of Space Travel" or something? On our regular trip to the book store, both boys' self-selected book acquisitions had movie tie-ins (Indiana Jones, WALL-E, and Star Wars.) Lunch was chosen on the basis of the best movie tie-in toys with the kid's meal, not the quality of the French fries. Spiderman and Batman adorn the BVDs.

I was startled by Consumer Reports WebWatch study, "Like Taking Candy From a Baby: How Young Children Interact with
Online Environments" published last May, on the degree of commercialism experienced by even very young children online. For example, one observation made was:

Logos and brand names are ubiquitous. Not a single [web] site or service observed for this study was completely free of brand names, logos, licensed characters, underwriters or sponsors. Even nonprofit content providers such as PBS KIDS and Sesame Workshop display logos of sponsors or underwriters, though not always in areas of the site designated for children.

Hey, these are MY grandchildren's eyes we're talking about here!

How many schools rely solely on the "free" commercial web to meet their students' information and learning needs? Is a bombardment of advertising too high a price to pay?

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One of the latest "manifestos" from ChangeThis is "People Don't Hate Change. They Hate How You're Trying to Change Them" by Kanazawa. A couple interesting quotes from the 13 page tract:

Because so many of these [change] programs fail, some executives and managers start to believe the old saying that “people hate change” must be true. That is not true. In fact, employment surveys reveal that the top reason good employees leave companies is over a lack of new opportunities and boredom with stagnant, never-changing, dead-end jobs.  People don’t hate change; they hate corporate change programs. How can we fix that?

and 

Think about this… is your goal to get the most out of people or the best out of people?  You typically can’t get both.

Worth a read...

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Our granddog Willie is part Basset hound. My daughter pointed out that the breed was used for tracking "slow game."

It doesn't get much slower than this...

 

 Stay cool. Get rested. School will start sooner than you expect.