Blue Skunk Blog - Comments

Doug Johnson comments on What tech skills does a school CTO need?

Doug Johnson — Wed, 30 May 2012 15:11:27 +0000

HI Greg,

We may be an endangered species, however!

Doug

Nicole comments on The final TOC for Indispensable Librarian 2nd Ed

Nicole — Tue, 29 May 2012 23:28:56 +0000

Sign me up. This is totally going on my wish list.

Mary M comments on The final TOC for Indispensable Librarian 2nd Ed

Mary M — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:17:56 +0000

Congratulations Doug! I'm so pleased that you decided to do a new edition.

skip zalneraitis comments on The final TOC for Indispensable Librarian 2nd Ed

skip zalneraitis — Tue, 29 May 2012 14:31:18 +0000

Congratulations!!! Two in one year!!!!!!!!!

GregU comments on What tech skills does a school CTO need?

GregU — Tue, 29 May 2012 14:16:56 +0000

This portion of a sentence has always said it all to me:

"You want an educator in charge of the tech department..."

Doug Johnson comments on What tech skills does a school CTO need?

Doug Johnson — Mon, 28 May 2012 12:37:26 +0000

Hi John,

Congrats on the new job. You'll get a great chance to put some of these ideas into practice! You'll be terrific.

I agree it's about leadership, but too often people think leaders don't also need to know how to manage. It's not enough to have the vision - you've got to have the organization, strategies, and day-to-day skills to realize the visions as well.

Keep me posted on the work you're doing in your new job.

Doug

Thanks, Sara, for sharing the link to this post. The times are definitely a'changing for IT people!

Doug

Sara Carter comments on What tech skills does a school CTO need?

Sara Carter — Sat, 26 May 2012 21:21:53 +0000

This is an article to which I have referred many times.
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2785-the-end-of-the-it-department

@gitsul comments on What tech skills does a school CTO need?

@gitsul — Sat, 26 May 2012 13:00:02 +0000

Doug,
This seems to me to be a concise summary of what effective CTO:

"My primary job is planning, supervising, project management, communicating to staff and adminstration, policy making and budgeting."

And, it's all wrapped around making sure it is appropriate, efficient, and effective for learning. As you've written, machines are easy, it's the people that make the job challenging...and fun.

It's about leadership, not management.

Doug Johnson comments on Should students have hackable devices?

Doug Johnson — Sat, 26 May 2012 12:00:51 +0000

Hi Jean,

Very timely comment since I am working on a blog post about CTOs in schools. Thanks. I think I responded in an earlier post to Mr. Moore's ideas:

http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2010/11/16/the-changing-role-of-the-cto.html

But I will definitely review. I agree with the shade-tree mechanic analogy!

Doug

Doug Johnson comments on Fairness - remove it from your vocab

Doug Johnson — Sat, 26 May 2012 11:55:51 +0000

Hi Kenn,

Yeah, I'm not sure the fairness card would work in either situation. Expanded opportunity might be a better rationale. I've found that you eventually have to get more general about a problem until everyone agrees, then work back to the details. And even that doesn't always work.

Doug

HI Nathan,

Your comment made me think about how fairness is often equated with equity - and that all not all factors are considered when trying to make things equal. You can provide all the same types and numbers of devices to schools as you want, but as long as the skills and motivation of the teachers differ, there will be no equity.

Doug