When a good memory works against you

I was visiting with a local Verizon telephone support person yesterday (we were both chaperones on a middle school field trip - great fun). She made an interesting comment about her job.

When someone calls with a question about his/her cell phone operations, the person providing support is expected to use a database to get the correct answer. If the support person does not go to the database but relies on memory instead, it will result in a negative performance evaluation. Things change so quickly in the field that not checking for the most recent "fix" is irresponsible.

A system that rewards good interpersonal skills and the ability to find and use information? A system in which a good memory is not only unecessary but possibly a liability?

The ability to memorize has always been a critical skill for success in traditional education. (Memorize the capitols of all the countries in Central America, the quadratic equation, today's Spanish vocabulary words, the three branches of government, the dates of World War II ... )

Are we rewarding an obsolete skill set when we give top grades to those with good memories? After all, wouldn't you want your physician, car mechanic, airline pilot, etc. checking for updates rather than relying on a good memory?

Painting - Dali's "Persistence Of Memory"

Top 10 interview questions

It's that time of year when the fescue starts looking pretty green on the other side of the fence. And that means many librarians and tech specialists are looking at new (or first) positions in schools. 

I'm regularly asked questions about questions - interview questions so I posted a list of questions we use in our department a few years ago and they are still available here. But recently one reader asked for a 'Top Ten" list:

1. If I were to visit your last school, how would the students, teachers and your supervisor describe you and what your job was?
2.  How do you help apprehensive users overcome their nervousness about technology?
3. What is the last new skill or new piece of technology or software you learned? When was that, and how did you go about learning it?
4. Describe a project or program that you have administered about which you feel proud.
5. How will you demonstrate that your program is having a positive impact on student achievement in the school?
6. What process do you use in creating policies for the use of your facilities and resources?
7. What kind of changes do you feel will happen in education in the coming years? What might your job will be like in five years? 
8. Describe a lesson or project that required collaboration with other professionals. What was your role and what made the effort successful or unsuccessful?
9. Describe your philosophy of the use of technology with students. How has or should it impact the teaching of reading, research and content area skills?
10. How does one create long-term, permanent change in a school?

When I look for new employees, I try to ask questions that bring out the best in the person being interviewed rather than playing "gotcha." I love it when people describe projects about which they were passionate. I love hearing how people took initiative and did things that went beyond the job description. I love knowing that a person has worked well as part of an effective team. And I love knowing that the person I am hiring is him/herself a genuine learner and excited about the future.

Were I applying for jobs this spring, I just might think about answers to the questions above and figure out ways to work the answers into the interview conversation.

Whether the questions are asked or not.

My kind of hike

A vacation is like love – 
anticipated with pleasure, 
experienced with discomfort, 
and remembered with nostalgia.

I think I may have found the hike designed just for me:

• Out of shape people are more likely to be successful on this hike than athletes.*
• Excessive flatulence is a good thing.
• Technical skills needed: putting one foot in front of the next.
• Douglas Adams once did this hike wearing a rubber rhino suit.

Believe it or not, this is what my research about climbing Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is showing.

Ever since hearing tales of my fellow Saudi-ARAMCO teachers doing this climb in the mid-80s, I have had it on my bucket list. And as soon as I found out that I would be speaking at the AISA conference in Nairobi this fall, I started doing some idle research about hiking Kili. I knew the altitude was the main reason most people don't summit and I was a little worried since the Inca Trail in 2006 left me literally breathless at only 14,000 feet. Kilimanjaro is over 19,000 feet. And I am not getting any younger - as the expression goes.

But fate placed a lovely newspaper article in front of me in February and that article put me in touch with a travel agency that specializes in hiking Kilimanjaro - located about 30 mile from my home. Karen and Innocent assured me over lunch a couple weeks ago that they had successfully guided an 80 year old man to the top. The hike will be 8 days and 7 nights, following the Shira Platea/Western Breach (also called the Lemosho route) - the least traveled, most remote, and reportedly the most beautiful of the multiple ascents to the summit.

Obviously, the universe wants me to do this hike.

I decided some time ago that the world is a more interesting place when one is not looking at it through the windows of a tour bus or from the lobby of a five star hotel. I guess all life is more interesting when you get right out in it. But you might want to ask me again after this adventure.

Any advice from other hikers of Kilimanjaro? (I'd prefer not hearing horror stories, thank you.)

Oh, and I am heading to Brazil in the spring of 2011. An hikes not to be missed in that region?

* People who are in very good shape tend to rush up the mountain, not giving their bodies time to acclimate to the higher altitudes. Slower people actually get there in better health. Gas is a sign your body is adjusting to lower oxygen levels (at least according to one source). This is a walk, not a real climb, hence no technical climbing skills are needed. And yes, Douglas Adams really did climb the mountain wearing a rhino suit for the Save the Rhino charity in 1994.

AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) is the biggest health hazard of climbing and no one takes it lightly according to my readings. It is not the lack of oxygen in the air, it is the lack of air pressure that causes problems. But human bodies adjust if given sufficient time for the blood to thicken. Or so they say.