The 6 tech skills expected of all incoming freshmen - one

In 2005, I outlined five skills classroom teachers should expect all incoming high school freshman to have mastered. Eight years ago. Time for an update. I'll look at each skill, one per day, and add a 6th skill area - Managing one's online presence. Each skill is accompanied by a set of expectations, a performance task, and an evaluation checklist. Changes to the 2005 document are in bold.

1. Word processing

A suggested performance task to assess the level of competency of incoming high school freshmen:

Expectations:

I can use the word processor, Word, GoogleDocs, or OpenOffice, to complete assignments when requested: reports, essays, and other written work. I can compose a document in a word processor and edit it using commands like copy and paste, find, undo, and “save as” to create multiple drafts. I can spell check, and change the format of a document. I can paginate, preview, and print my work. I have a system to store, organize, retrieve, and share my work using a cloud-based tool or tools. This system will form the basis of a digital portfolio of my best work.  I am able to perform the following tasks when using a word processor:

1. Identify a word processing program and open a new word processing file.
2. Set preferences/options to show special formatting characters such as spaces, carriage returns and tabs.
3. Type in text and delete text by letter, word, sentence, and paragraph.
4. Insert text at the beginning, middle, and end of a document.
5. Cut and paste text. Copy and paste text.
6. Use select all and undo commands.
7. Format text by changing font, size, and style.
8. Change paragraph justification and line spacing. Change the margins for a document.
9. Use the program’s spelling checker and thesaurus.
10. Create a footer that includes an automatic page number.
11. Preview a document and print the document.
12. Save the document as a pdf file.
13. Save a document under another name.
14. Save document to a specific location/folder.
15. View multiple documents at the same time, and switch between multiple documents on a desktop. Copy and paste between documents.
16. Restore an older version of a document.
17. Share a document by giving viewing, commenting, and editing rights to selected individuals or groups.

If you have questions about any of these skills, please contact your library media specialist for help.

Assignment:

Compose a 3-5 paragraph 500 word personal essay on a topic of your choice (or as assigned by your teacher)

using a word processor. Print a copy for submission or share the document online. Your printed or shared copy will be assessed using the following checklist.

Assessment checklist:

• Name of the file, along with your name, your teacher’s name, class name and hour is in the upper left corner of the paper.
• First paragraph is pasted at the bottom of the document, separated from the main text by several blank lines.
• Body of paper is printed in 12 point Times New Roman font, and is double-spaced. 
• Each paragraph is indented, using the tab function, 5 spaces.
• Title of paper is centered, in bold, and in 18 point Arial font.
• Paper has one-inch margins with one paragraph inset to a 2-inch margin.
• At least one word is underlined that was flagged by the spell checker.
• A word replaced using the thesaurus is in italics and bold.
• There is a page number in either the footer or header.
• The document is shared with the instructor who has been given commenting rights.

The international school challenge

As readers of this blog know, I get a chance now and then to work with international schools and organizations. These opportunities are probably both the most challenging and the most fun work I do. Over the past few years I've worked with a whole alphabet of international organizations including NESA, EARCOS, ECIS, AASSA, AISA, and CEESA as well as individual schools. 

Selfishly, I often combine these engagements with a short vacation as well. Doing so has allowed me in the past few years to hike the Inca Trail, climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, clamber through Angkor Wat temples, dive the Great Barrier Reef, and camp in the Wadi Rum. (My bucket list of world-class hikes is still far from full!)

In about a week, I'll be packing my rolly-bag and triple checking for my passport as I head for Beijing to work with librarians at the ACAMIS (Association of China and Mongolia International Schools) spring conference. I'm looking forward to connecting with some friends (Hi Jeri), but this is basically a new organization and group with whom to build a relationship.

While international school libraries are more similar than dissimilar to U.S. libraries, they often face challenges and opportunities that we do not. These, in my experience, include:

• Host country Internet restrictions may limit available resources.
• Unreliable, slow or non-existent Internet connectivity is common in more remote schools.
• Slow or restrictive customs processing of books and materials keeps libraries from getting timely titles.
• A wide diversity of language and cultures in the school population - both in staff and students - creates the needs for collections of multiple languages.
• Small school populations often lead to multiple leadership responsibilites in the school.
• A highly mobile teaching staff creates special staff development needs.
• Special attention paid to the International Baccalaureate Program in many schools places heavy demands on libraries.

I would not hesitate for a heartbeat to have my grandchildren attend any of the international schools with which I've worked. They are among the most high-quality schools in the world.

But they are different.

We in the US have a reputation, probably well-deserved, of being very US-centric. My experience is that Cairo taxi drivers have a better handle on world events than most college-educated people with whom I work in Minnesota. I see this as a blind spot in our own culture and being mindful such a blind spot exists, I make an extra effort to learn something about the school or group with whom I will be working when I travel abroad. Creating a mailing list, sharing links, and opening a dialog with workshop participants is always my objective before I ever step foot in the airport. 

Anyway, while I won't get a chance to play tourist much in Beijing (been there, done that, got the hat - see below), I do want to keep working with international schools and groups. And for us "independent consultants," we're only as good as our last job. If I do screw up, it won't be for lack of preparation.

I still have a lot of room for new experiences in my bucket...

Another stab at desktops

In his recent post The "Car" Decision Metanoia, February 22, 2013, Ryan Bretag explains how choses the type of automobile he purchases. Thoughtful, but not radical considerations like reliability, safety and mileage factor in. My guess is that the size of Mr. Bretag's family and amount and frequency of stuff that gets hauled about are also at least unconsciously factored in. Bretag's my kind of pragmatist. And then interestingly he ends his short post, "Just thinking about devices a lot these days…"

As have I.

Once again I am going to propose that we try to reduce the number of laptop computers the district assigns to the staff. Two years ago, I made this pitch to our administrative team - see How to be unpopular: no teacher laptops, February 9, 2013 -  and I was resoundingly rejected. (Luckily, my social life had prepared me for rejection.)  

In the post, I observed that laptops:

• Have historically been more expensive to purchase than desktops even with less memory, speed, etc..
• Have higher incidences of repair and maintenance, with each machine requiring two new batteries during its life span and often a new power adaptor.
• Get lost, stolen, dropped.
• Grow obsolete more quickly (as teachers tell it), needing replacement every three years instead of every five.

A growing concern is that when teachers take them home and then call in sick the next day, there is no computer in the classroom for the substitute to use for running the IWB, doing attendance, etc. As the use of GoogleDocs grows in the district, the need to store, access and work with files on individual machines is declining.

And these conditions haven't really changed in the past two years. Except...

With the iPad and other tablets, we can now offer another mobile computing option and perhaps get the best of both worlds - the low-maintenance of the desktop and the portability if a laptop - for a reasonable cost.

Here's the plan. Instead of the desktop iMac for $1000, we purchase iMac Minis, monitors, keyboards, and mice ($700) and an iPad Mini ($300) for teachers.  The desktop stays in the room connected to the projection system, sound system, and ethernet network while the iPad serves as the teacher's go-to-meeting, move-around-the-room, take-it-home device. 

In going back to Mr. Bretag's analogy, we will be offering our teachers a Civic and a moped instead of a Suburban.

Wish me luck. 

Image source