Old Advice: Johnson's Rules

 

Tim over at Assorted Stuff posted "Old Advice" - a summary of pithy statements by author Kevin Kelly to mark his 68th birthday. They're pretty good. 

While I have a couple months yet to go until I turn 68, I am happy to share some "Old Advice" myself. I certainly don't place myself at the same level of intelligence as Kevin Kelly, I do think all of us have unique perspectives and life experiences that are worth sharing with those who really don't care to listen.

Taking the form of rules and laws (in the spirit of Murphy's Law), all the statements below are original as best I remember, formulated over 40 years working in education.

Here you go.

1. Johnson’s Thoughts on Job Assignments: Give the worst jobs to the people who are unhappy anyway.
2. Johnson’s Library Mission: To get back the overdue readers, not the overdue books.
3. Johnson’s Observation About Public Speaking: You’re never bored when you are the one doing the talking.
4. Johnson’s Rule of Technology Reliability: It’s better to have one computer that works all the time than two computers that work 50% of the time.
5. Johnson’s Question About Fairness: If the cure only works for 80% should we withhold it out of fairness to the other 20%?
6. Johnson’s Observation About Office Climate: If the supervisor ain’t having fun, nobody’s having fun.
7. Johnson’s Rule of Sincerity: Compliments are always more sincere when accompanied by a box of doughnuts.
8. Johnson’s Rule on Coasting: Complacency is dangerous both in love and technology.
9. Johnson’s Rule of Creativity in the Workplace and Classroom: You can’t suppress it so you may as well channel it.
10. Johnson’s Disclaimer: Anything I’ve said that you don’t like, you’ve obviously misinterpreted.
11. Johnson’s Law of Literacy: If one can read but is not changed by reading, why bother?
12. Johnson’s Rule of Indispensability: If your job is eliminated, your boss should really regret it.
13. Johnson’s Rules for Spreading Manure: 1) Always check which way the wind is blowing 2) Never lick your finger to find out.
14. Johnson’s Technology Formula: T - t = 0 (Technology without training is a paperweight.)
15. Johnson’s Moral Imperative: Subversion in the creation of a good school is not a vice.
16. Johnson’s Rule of Technology Perspective: Every tech problem is a big tech problem to the person experiencing it.
17. Johnson’s Secret of Technology Deployment: Make everything up as you go along without letting anyone else know that you’re doing so.
18. Johnson’s Observation about Progress: There is a subtle but important difference between moving and moving forward.
19. Johnson’s First Rule of Effective Advocacy: Don’t advocate for libraries; advocate for library users.
20. Johnson’s First Law of Technology Integration: Use techology to make your poor units better, not your great units worse.
21. Johnson’s Three Commandments of a Successful Library Program: 1.Thou shall develop shared ownership of the library and all it contains. 2. Thou shall have written annual objectives tied directly to school and curriculum goals and bend all thy efforts toward achieving them. 3. Thou shall take thy light out from under thy damn bushel and share with others all the wonders thou doest perform.
22. Johnson’s IT Department Mission Statement: Helping people solve problems with technology they didn’t have before there was technology.
23. Johnson’s Observation on Internet Resources: The one thing the Internet will never have that your library has - is you, the librarian.
24. Johnson’s Kid Law of Cool Technologies: A technology is no longer cool once adults adopt it. Therefore, no adults will ever use a cool technology.
25. Johnson’s Law of Searching: It’s easier to find something than to find it again.
26. Johnson’s Caution on Collaboration: Treat collaboration, not as a goal, but as a means of achieving one.
27. Johnson’s Test Fairness Plan: Require no high school tests that the adults who insist on them can’t pass.
28. Johnson’s Worry about NCLB: We are creating good test takers who hate learning.
29. Johnson’s Reflection on Library Quality: The quality of the library is never greater than the quality of the librarian.
30. Johnson’s Common Sense Economy: It’s cheaper to buy a book for the library than it is to buy one for each classroom.
31. Johnson’s Observation on the School of Hard Knocks: I don’t mind learning from my mistakes. I just don’t want to earn a PhD.
32. Johnson’s Drill Bit Rule: You don’t buy a drill bit because you want a drill bit; you buy it because you want a hole. You don’t buy technology because you want technology; you buy it because you want a more effective school.
33. Johnson’s Observation on Multimedia Content: You can put all the pretty clothes on your dog you want, but he’s still a dog.
34. Johnson’s Rule of Technology Neutrality: Tools are neither good nor bad. The same hammer can both break windows and build cathedrals.
35. Johnson’s Policy Mantra: Technicians do not make policy. Technicians do not make policy. Technicians do not make policy.
36. Johnson’s Observation on Visitors: The number of students in the media center is in inverse proportion to importance of anyone visiting.
37. Johnson’s Philosophy on Implementing Large Technology Systems: I’d rather be optimistic than right.
38. Johnson’s Observation of Policy Making: Rules only work with the rational.
39. Johnson’s First Rule of Change: Change is inevitable - except in human nature.
40. Johnson’s Second Rule of Change: Change is good - you go first.
41. Johnson’s Third Rule of Change: The dinosaurs were pleased with themselves right up to the time the meteor hit.
42. Johnson’s First Law of Effective Supervision: Hire people who don’t need to be supervised.
43. Johnson’s First Sign of Technology Literacy: Knowing when to use technology and when not to use technology.
44. Johnson’s Law of Network Capacity: You can’t be too thin, too rich or have too much bandwidth.
45. Johnson’s Law of Consultants: Go with the person, not the firm.
46. Johnson’s Rule of Projects: A project not worth doing, is not worth doing well.
47. Johnson’s First Law of Presentations: Show your audience pictures of happy, productive children and they will believe anything you tell them.
48. Johnson’s Second Law of Presentations: Audiences would rather see your face than your backside.
49. Johnson’s Third Law of Presentations: A misspelling in 48 point type is more noticeable than a misspelling in 12 point type.
50. Johnson’s Fourth Law of Presentations: PowerPoint doesn’t bore people. People bore people.
51. Johnson’s Rule of Technology Implementation: What technology first makes possible, it soon makes imperative.
52. Johnson’s Rule of Restructuring Education with Technology: Machines are the easy part; people are the hard part.
53. Johnson’s Law of Staff Development: We can no longer afford to only work with the living.
54. Johnson’s Antibiotic Law of Educational Change: If you can’t afford the whole cure, don’t even start it.
55. Johnson’s Law of Assessment: You’ll only get what you want if you can describe what you want.
56. Johnson’s Library Rule Rule: Never have more than three rules for your media center: 1. be doing something productive, 2. be doing it in a way that allows others to be productive, 3. be respectful of other people and their property.
57. Johnson’s Three Rules of Policy Writing: Never write a policy unless it is absolutely unavoidable. Never write a policy from scratch that you can borrow from someone else. Never write a policy that does not describe how it benefits your patrons.
58. Johnson’s Law of Taking Responsibility: Even when hiding feels better, don’t do it.
59. Johnson’s Law of Project Evaluation: Never evaluate a project during its first year of implementation.
60. Johnson’s Observation About the Importance of Teacher Quality: I’d rather my children had a great teacher with mediocre technology than a mediocre teacher with great technology.
61. Johnson’s Observation About the Importance of School Quality: There are great schools with poor teachers. There are great teachers in poor schools. Select the teacher, not the school, for your children.
62. Johnson’s Update of Aesop: The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on learning.
63. Johnson’s Homily on Beta Testing: The early worm gets eaten by the bird.
64. Johnson’s Technology Planning Rule: The stuff is not enough.
65. Johnson’s Relationship Advice to Children: Marry for wealth; repent in leisure.
66. Johnson’s Law of Stress Management: If you can’t find someone to pass the stress on to, you’re struck with it.

OK, I can only think of 66, Tim. Help me out.

Here are my Bicycling Lessons for the terminally bored. 

On this page are the collected "laws" of quite a few Blue Skunk Readers

The secret to in-home productivity

I have written of nine books, about 150 articles, 250 columns, and nearly 3100 blog posts (see My Autobibibliography). All from home. All while also working a fulltime job. All while having a life of family, travel, paying bills, and the usual recreational stuff of reading, watching movies, etc.

So I have some cred when it comes to in-home productivity - the improvement of which is now of great importance to a growing number of at-home workers. 

The secret is pretty simple - get a good recliner.

I do 90% of my work from my faithful lazyboy. (A mass shudder from chiropractors just went up worldwide - could you feel it?) I spend usually three to four hours each day in my comfortable old friend writing and reading with a laptop computer. The chair's padded back support, adjustable positions, elevated leg rest, and leather-like covering allow me to focus on my work rather than aching shoulders, wrist twisting, or leg cramps from sitting bolt upright, slouching, or excessive standing at a desk. I do get up to get coffee now and again.

Small tables sit on each side of the recliner. One for coffee and paperwork; one on which to sit the computer and lapboard when I get out of the chair. A floor lamp lights the keyboard when needed. I do have a very old desktop computer in my spare bedroom that also serves as an office where I do printing, scanning, and task that are more easily done on a larger screen. But my real office is my chair.

I recognize this secret does not especially help those who may have small children or a loquacious spouse at home, but physical discomfort does not need to add to the distractions you may already face. 

Reject the stereotype that the recliner is the refuge of the old, the passive, the senile, the indolent. Your new home office awaits.

BFTP: 7 brilliant things teachers do with technology

As a greater percentage of our teachers now use technology daily helping students learn from home, the brilliant uses of this technology are growing more quickly than the virus itself. Add those brilliant new uses in the comments below!

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Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Marianne Williamson

Last week I listed seven stupid mistakes teachers make with technology. Easy marks, these teachers.

But to be fair, I see just as many brilliant teacher uses of technology. Here are things i see teachers do that just make me marvel and feel proud to be a part of the profession.

1. Empower kids with technology. Technology is an amplifier of natural abilities. Brilliant teachers see that good writers become better writers, good debaters become better debaters, good French speakers become better French speakers, good mathematical problem-solvers become better mathematical problem-solvers etc. by helping their students harness technology. They do not see technology as a crutch, but as a propellant. Brilliant teachers have experienced the empowering power of technology themselves. Brilliant teachers use good assessment strategies to rigorously determine the quality of technology-enhanced projects.

2. Creatively find and use resources. I can't believe the technology found in some teachers' classrooms. And it was provided by neither our department nor was it stolen (I don't think). Through personal purchase, through PTOs, through grants, through business partnerships, through parental contacts, through fund raising, through classroom supply budgets, brilliant teachers amazingly amass digital cameras and doc cams and clickers and sensors and such. One of our brilliant teacher McGyvered his own doc cam out of an old video camera, plastic pipe and duct tape - and calls it his Grover (not his Elmo).

3. Make conferencing real-time. Brilliant teachers don't wait until parent-teacher conferences to communicate with homes. Through e-mail, websites, online gradebooks, blogs, wikis and even telephone calls, technology gives teachers the ability to help make parents partners who help assure students' timely, quality work. They post newsletters, spelling lists, assessment tools, assignments, grades, calendars, discussion lists, and tips. They read and respond to parent emails. Parents want to be involved, but they like knowing how.

4. Put kids in touch with the world. The classrooms of brilliant teachers *hokey metaphor alert* have no walls. These teachers "get" the flat world metaphor, understanding that tomorrow's citizens and workers will have an advantage if they can work successfully with other cultures. From "keypals" back in the day to Flat Classroom Project to today's One Globe Kids, brilliant teachers give even the most remote and least advantaged students a glimpse and dream of the bigger world - and help them both communicate and empathize with those in it.

5. Accept the role of co-leaner. One of the best signs of intelligent people is that they tend to willingly admit when they don't know something. Brilliant teachers, not only accept the dismal fact that they will never know all there is to know about technology, but turn the condition into a classroom advantage by having their brilliant children teach them how to do something techie now and then.

6. Use the kids own devices to teach them. Brilliant teachers understand the old Arab proverb, "It's easier to steer the camel in the direction it is already heading." Students are increasingly and unstoppably bringing in personal communication devices - cell phones, cameras, game devices, iPods/mp3 players, netbooks, laptops, and PDAs. Brilliant teachers know how to use cell phones to poll their classes; create podcasts of lectures; use games to teach difficult concepts; and make "Google-jockeys" of wireless laptop owners.

7. Delight in the discovery, the newness, the fun technology holds. It's not about technology. It's about finding out and doing "cool" things. We knew that ourselves as kids. Brilliant tech-using teachers have never lost the thrill of doing something "cool" with the toys. They are pleased with their tech-using students and pleased with themselves. Brilliant teachers use technology's engagement (not entertainment) power. Technology is not "just one more thing" but a vital experience that brings discovery, excitement and, yes, fun to the classroom.

I hope you all know teachers who make brilliant uses of technology. What do you see them doing?

Original post 12/11/08