Busman's Holiday

busman's holiday: a holiday spent in following or observing the practice of one's usual occupation. M-W.com

I guess you can run but you can't hide from technology. As much as I would like to leave "things that go beep" at work, they some how manage to follow me home. It's not all bad. During my brief time off this holiday season, I have:

1. Created the 2007 Johnson family calendar.

This is the fourth year I've done this for my small family.  Simply finding a few family photos and pasting them into a calendar layout with family members' birthdays so noted makes a nice Christmas gift. Technologies used:

• digital camera
• scanner
• photo editing software
• word processing templates
• pdf conversion
• e-mail (to get photos from my brother)
• flash drive to get the files to the printer
  

I still take the files to Kinkos to be copied rather than mess with photo paper, photo ink, etc. at home, but this is mostly a do-it-yourself project and a labor of love.

2. Learning to use the GPS system.

Since I was a good boy all last year, Santa (aka the LWW) gave me a Garmim StreetPilot i5 for Christmas. It's a happy coincidence that it is the exact same model that appeared on the web page URL I sent to her earlier this month!  After downloading the complete instruction manual, map update software, e-mailing the manufacturer to make sure a Mac OSX version of the software is forthcoming, and inserting batteries into the device, I gave it the acid test this morning. I asked it to find my office.

All in all, it was pretty darned amazing. The unit, about the size of a tennis ball, shows the road, the lakes and a small triangle that is me in my Ford Ranger pickup travelling down the road on its small screen. A female voice (I think I will call her Sacagawea) announces each upcoming turn about a quarter mile prior to it and then politely asks that I turn when I am at the intersection. I deviated from the route once and she quickly re-programmed the new route. She announced when I got to my destination. Very cool. I can hardly wait to use it in an strange place. Maybe Fargo this weekend. Technologies used:

• GPS unit
  
• Internet/e-mail
• Computer interface to download updated maps and manual
  

Getting acquainted with the Nova 5000

I was sufficiently impressed with this handheld computer when I saw it at the TIES conference last month that I thought a demo unit for the district was in order. It arrived last Friday. It's been great fun figuring this gadget out. So far I've discovered that the handwriting recognition works great, the built-in WI-FI connection plays nicely with both my school and home networks, and that the old keyboard and mouse I dug up worked with it seamlessly. I  am already wishing for a faster processor and a cord that attaches the stylus to the computer body (so stylus can't be used as a bookmark in the manual and left at work), but I like the computer.

When the cost of this device drops to about $300, it has some real possibilities in making 1:1 computing a reality for even average districts like mine. I am excited. 

So what's the point - if there is a point -to these observations?  I am guessing that those educators most likely to use technology at school also use it at home, use it for fun and use it for personal reasons. Ought we be less stuffy about letting teachers take school tech home to use for fun and personal reasons? When a teacher uses the school's digital camera to take wedding photos or one of its laptops  to crank out the family Christmas letter, s/he should not be treated as a criminal. It's off-the-job learning that may well be used on the job.

2006 Top Ten

Here's a dirty little secret - I really like reading my own writing. I really do. I am often amazed at my own turn of phrase, insight, or funny bit. How embarrassing and how, well, un-Minnesotan to be so full of one's self. Any who, this personality defect made picking a "Top Ten" list of this year's blog entries a challenge.

What criteria might one use?  Entries receiving the most responses? Some things I liked the best didn't get a single reaction. Entries seeming to be the most professionally "significant?" Well, others have better insights into education that I do. Entries that were the best written? Fewest spelling and grammatical errors?  Funniest? Gee, and I've only posted 176 entries this year - to date. And each a scintillating jewel of prose.

I did eliminate any blog entry that was the basis for a latter print article. I also didn't include entries that appeared electronically in other venues. Or entries where most of the writing was someone else's and I threw in a few comments  (ie. A subtractive education). 

In the end, I just picked those little bits of writing that amused me the most. I picked the most personal things, perhaps, the things I've not read in other blogs. In a bass-akwards way, I am taking Don Marquis advice, "write the sort of thing that's read by persons who move their lips when reading." That would be me, the one  subvocalizing.

Anyway, here's the list: 

1. Lobbying for spare change - or real change? Jan  8
2. CPVPV Jan 24
   
3. Growing old or growing up? Feb  13
4. Is it possible to motivate a cynic? Mar  24
5. The Technology Agnostic or When Stories Aren’t Enough, Apr 30
6. How the grandchildren got a webpage, Apr 10
7. Becoming George, Apr 5
8. The joys of throwing things away, June  30
9. Bicycling lessons, June 25
10. The professional stick, Oct  24

The Blue Skunk made no "best 100" lists this year. It wasn't nominated for an Edu-bloggie. I've no idea what its ranking in Technocrati might be. But I sure had fun writing. And I hope some of you had fun reading.

The Plural of Ancedote

This request from the Minnesota Library Association’s legislative chair went out on our state school library and technology listserv about 10 days ago:

We've received a request for information from Rep. Mary Murphy. She is the incoming chair of the umbrella committee over all of the education funding divisions (early childhood, K-12, and higher ed) in the House. She indicated that she thinks libraries have suffered some neglect over the past few years and she wants to address that this coming session. She asked us to compile information about the impact of the lack of funding. Please also include any cuts or closures that you may be aware of in your school districts' media centers.

So far I have received information about cuts in about 30 school districts (out of 339 total in Minnesota).

A typical reply reads:

My library media position in the XYZ Schools was eliminated due to budget cuts.  There was always a librarian in all the elementary schools (past 50 years) but due to budget cuts the position was eliminated and presently the position does not exist.  Our elementary students do not have a librarian to help with the purchasing of books, teaching of library media skills etc.

You can download a complete list here.

As you can imagine, this has been sad and discouraging e-mail to receive. Fifteen years of stagnant/shrinking educational budgets, declining enrollment in many districts, expenses involved in meeting the requirements of NCLB, technology and the Internet being perceived by many educators as a replacement for libraries, and large numbers of retiring library media specialists have all taken a toll on library media programs - both on material budgets and on clerical and professional staffing.

And yet, what do such collections of anecdotes really tell us? (As the high school statistics teacher likes to remind me: The plural of anecdote is not data.) Were I a legislator I might be asking questions like these:

• Why did fewer than 10% of district report cuts?
• How do these cuts correlate to enrollment increases or decreases?
• Did you ask for information about districts in which library program funding increased?
• What evidence do you have that Minnesota schools with good library programs better prepare students than those that don’t?
• In reality, don’t most kids just use the Internet for research and books just sit on the shelves anyway?
  

I rather doubt any MN legislator reads this blog so I am not putting ideas into anyone’s head. All I am saying is that while stories like the ones collected are fine as far as they go, they are not enough. But our state does not collect data on school library programs on a regular basis. I doubt anyone in the MN DOE even knows how many school librarians are working right now and whether that number is larger or smaller than it was three years ago.

Bless the librarians who took the time to share their stories. My heart goes out to every one of them. Librarianship is an avocation, a calling, a mission. When our programs are diminished, those we serve, those we care about are hurt. The pain comes through in every story.

But maybe we should have asked for funding for data collection in our legislative platform. Of course, there is always the chance the data will show us something we don’t want to see. But I am more and more convinced we can't each survive in isolation. We need numbers to make our case - numbers we alone can't generate. We must get every library media specialist in the state involved in the legislative process, involved in MEMO, and raise our collective voices.

It will be a long legislative session….

(Oh, for recommendations which are unpopular but practical on how to reduce the likelihood of your library program being cut, see ‘The M Word” <http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/mword.html> and “If Your Job is on the Line." <http://www.memoweb.org/memorandom/MMjobonline.pdf>)