1. Review the materials for my ISTE SecondLife presentation this afternoon/evening. I am really looking forward to this and hope that both the curious and the knowledgable about cloud computing and GoogleApps for Education attend. I promise to be both tall and blue. The event is free and open to ISTE members and non-members.

2. Work on my TEDxASB talk, slides for which are due next Monday. I am pretty nervous about giving this talk. (Reminds me of preparing for a graduation talk a couple years ago.) Why is it more difficult to do a 15 minutes talk than a six hour workshop?

3. Clean out my hard drive. If you don't read Blogg-Ed Determination by Steve Taffee, you should. His "Delete This Post" is a great example of his common sense, humor and thoughtfulness. Why clean up your data act?

And if you’re still not convinced that it’s time to give your hard drive a thorough scrubbing, think of this: Your hard drive has been subpoenaed by the district attorney, and all will be revealed in court! Or imagine your children having to go through all your files when you’ve passed on. Or perhaps the video crew from a new reality TV show arrives on your doorstep, and the host barges in, ready to do an “intervention.” Scary!

4. Move the electronic version of my book Machines are the Easy Part; People are the Hard Part to my website. Why? I'm going to do a little Seth Godin-type experiment. I will continue to give the book away for free in its electronic version and still sell the print version on Lulu for a modest mark-up over the cost of printing.

Almost no one has purchased the print version, I think, since the electronic version is so convenient. (This book is growing whiskers so I was not expecting any big sales - but at least a few!) What I think might be interesting is to see if the book sales increase if the electronic version is a bit less convenient although still free. I guess what I am trying to figure out is whether to work on a book published by a commercial publisher or self-publish. Of course, if I spend all my time dinking around writing blog posts, the question will be moot.

5. Get outdoors. The LWW bought us snowshoes for our anniversary. A walk across the lake to Dinosaur Island is definitely in order.

Stay warm. Hope to see some of you tonight in SL.

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?  Arthur Conan Doyle

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song? Sesame Street - Joe Raposo and Jon Stone

A technician is a basically a good detective. When a problem with any technology pops up, most of us run through a little mental flowchart, eliminating possible causes until we are left with the real reason for the trouble. (It is only on very rare occasion that I consider myself a technician -  I'm not that bright.)

The first question most of us ask is: Is the problem in the chair or on the desk?

It's human nature: If you are a user, you assume the technology is at fault (on the desk); if you are a tech, you assume the user (in the chair) is the problem.

I am guessing that in reality, tech problems can be divided pretty much 50-50 chair-desk.

User error (chair) can again be divided between "the dog ate my homework" excuses and lack of knowledge. Unfortunately, many of us tend to assign some sort of deliberateness to problems when we hear "I didn't get the e-mail telling me the report was due." As the Church Lady would have said, "How convieeee -nient!" While deep our heart of hearts we may think this is the case, such assumptions are unprofessional and accusations are never productive. Remember Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Technology problems (desk) are really much easier and more fun to explicate. If the problem seems to be happening to lots and lots of people on a regular basis, we look at the system. Chances are a simple search of the help forums for the product or service will turn out others who have experienced the problem and in a high percentage of the time, present a fix.

If the problem seems to happen rarely or only to a small percentage of people, then we look to see how these individuals differ from the masses. If the e-mail went to 100 people and did not get to two people, logic tells us that the there is something about the configuration of those individuals' computers or software or e-mail setting that is causing the problem. Or the problem is in the chair.

It's tough, but everyone will be happier if we who provide support eliminate any problem with the desk before we start pointing fingers at the chair. Even when the problems happen to our most incompetent, most unlovable users. Like tech directors.

________________________________________________

It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.

- Donald Rumsfeld

Henry Thiele posted this most excellent post, Exit Strategies and Google, yesterday. He writes:

Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery - creating a mixed reality. - Wikipedia

I'm currently reading Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta in anticipation of my trip to Mumabi in a couple weeks. Whether a longer work like Maximum City or Michner's Poland, or just a travel guidebook or hotel description on TripAdvisor, I always read about the places to which I travel prior to going there.*

Why? Because, of course, it "augments" reality.

Knowing the stories of a place give visiting it meaning. A temple, a fortress, or a house is just building materials unless one thinks about the people that have worshipped, fought or lived there.**

Reader/travellers have always known that reality is better augmented with information. Even before iPods.

* I believe this trait may be hereditary. I sent grandson Paul a kid's guide to DisneyWorld a couple months before we visited. He had the facts about every attraction memorized before stepping foot inside the parks.

** The opposite holds true as well - visiting a place can augment reading. On leaving a tour of the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, my then teenage son turned to me and said, "I didn't realize Anne Frank was a real person." I'll bet he's not the only student who's had that misconception.

The 2007 version of augmented reality.

Savings by using Google Apps, really generally moving to a more cloud-based model of providing computer services ? Let me count the ways for our district (7200 students, 800 professional staff, 3000 supported computers in use (1000 staff, 2000 student).

• No internal mailserver and mail back-up costs (hardware, software, maintenance).$12,000 (We were due for a replacement and running out of storage capacity)
• No student/staff document file server costs (hardware, software, maintenance). $84,000 (28 servers and server OS at $3000 each on a 5 year replacement.)
• Less need to upgrade computer OS's since apps are browser-based. $150,000 ($50 upgrade x 3000 computers)
• Less printing -paper, copiers, toner, printer salaries, etc. $400,000 (Reduction of 20% in photocopying each year.)
• Less need for commercial productivity tools like Office or iWork (do elementary kids really need these?) and the cost of upgrading to new versions. $100,000 ($50 x 2000 computers)
• Ability to use lower powered computers (thin clients, netbooks) in more situations and a reduction in number of separate configurations needed for machines. $1,000,000 ($500 lower price of 2000 computers) Eventually resulting in...
• Reduction in tech support costs. Or more properly stated, slower increase in the need for more tech support. $250,000 ($50,000 position eliminated)
• Less tangible savings in time, portable storage/transport devices, mailing hard copy documents. Indirect savings to users.
• More work out of staff members when they are able to conveniently work from home. (I am SUCH an administrator!) Priceless!

These are rough and admittedly optimistic estimates, but I think you can see the general trend. Even if only 50% of my estimated nearly $2M in savings is realized, that averages out to close to $200,000 per year. (Out of a $1.2M budget.) I am not suggesting reducing tech budgets by this amount, but I can sure think of a lot more interesting things (like kids' computers, a more robust wireless network, and more bandwidth) to spend tech dollars on.

Yes, I need to pay $7 a year per administrative, possibily teacher, e-mail account for archiving and retrieval. Not bad, though, considering.

I was intrigued by Miguel Guhlin's suggestion that since GoogleApps has posted that it will require a recent webbrowser (Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above) that it is making some computers obsolete.

Hmmmmm, what sort of computer is needed to run Firefox 3.x? (Forget Explorer, boys and girls - the apps, tools and stuff are so much better for Firefox there is no comparison.) From the Mozilla site:

Windows Operating Systems

• Windows 2000
• Windows XP
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Vista

• Pentium 233 MHz (Recommended: Pentium 500MHz or greater)
• 64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater)
• 52 MB hard drive space

Mac Operating Systems

• Mac OS X 10.4 and later

•  Macintosh computer with an Intel x86 or PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processo
• 128 MB RAM (Recommended: 256 MB RAM or greater)
• 200 MB hard drive space

Might I humbly suggest that schools that have mission-critical computers that don't meet these minimum requirements are not practicing "sustainable" technology practices. (Dang, it's that management stuff instead of leadership stuff again.)

Maybe we need to take a lesson from farming. There is an economic and ecological philosophy called “sustainable agriculture.” The folks who practice this method of farming believe that more should not be taken from the land than can be naturally replaced by it each year. By rotating crops, returning the used harvest to the fields (in usually a rather aromatic form), and having reasonable yield expectations, a farmer can leave the next generation a field in as fertile a condition as he found it.

Schools can and should practice “sustainable technology.”  This practice involves:

1. Not purchasing more technology than can be regularly maintained, upgraded and replaced.
2. Rotating the technology.
3. Having reasonable expectations.

More details on my theory of sustainable tech.

If I am missing something - big or little - let me know. Thanks!

The Progressive Farmer now Uses a Mechanical Manure Spreader to Increase the Productiveness of His Land.

I am delighted to say that thanks to Mike's urging, we've now created an updated version - "Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) Skills Curriculum Based on the Big6 Skills Approach to Information Problem-Solving." It's available here: http://www.big6.com/2010/02/03/infolit-experts-merge-k-12-technology-literacy-and-information-literacy-into-one-curriculum/

I hope you find it helpful in your work.

But I have lately been wondering why it seems that the older I've gotten, the happier I've become. I just assumed one was supposed to get grumpier and grumpier until you were parked in a nursing home with a drool bucket tied around your neck with only the paid help still willing to speak to you once or twice a day.

So I found The Geezers' Crusade, (NYT, Feb 1, 2010) by conservative columnist David Brooks about chronologically-gifted Americans very interesting. A few key points:

People are most unhappy in middle age and report being happier as they get older. This could be because as people age they pay less attention to negative emotional stimuli, according to a study by the psychologists Mara Mather, Turhan Canli and others.

Yes. "Well, shit happens" is probably the most common response I have to problems that I deem trivial. And an increasing number of problems seem trivial.

The research [on aging] paints a comforting picture. And the nicest part is that virtue is rewarded. One of the keys to healthy aging is what George Vaillant of Harvard calls “generativity” — providing for future generations. Seniors who perform service for the young have more positive lives and better marriages than those who don’t. As Vaillant writes in his book “Aging Well,” “Biology flows downhill.” We are naturally inclined to serve those who come after and thrive when performing that role.

One of my biggest pleasures is playing "mentor" to younger writers, speakers, librarians, techies, etc. In some sense, that is kind of what this blog is about, I guess. I thought it was an extension of being a teacher. Maybe it is just sign of aging?

The odd thing is that when you turn to political life, we are living in an age of reverse-generativity. Far from serving the young, the old are now taking from them. First, they are taking money. According to Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution, the federal government now spends $7 on the elderly for each $1 it spends on children.

I do my best to avoid politics in my writing and in my personal life. I find liberals only slightly less awful than conservatives. But I will say that Brooks is right when he suggests:

It now seems clear that the only way the U.S. is going to avoid an economic crisis is if the oldsters take it upon themselves to arise and force change. The young lack the political power. Only the old can lead a generativity revolution — millions of people demanding changes in health care spending and the retirement age to make life better for their grandchildren.

Watch it, politicians. I am voting in the best interest of my grandchildren. We geezers can take care of ourselves, thank you very much.

After all, we know "shit happens."

From the shameless self-promotion department....

Computing In The Clouds: Using Web-Based Applications To Trim Your Budget

Tuesday February 9, 2010 5PM SLT/8PM EDT

Have you been thinking about jumping into the world of cloud computing but don’t know where to start? Chances are you have already. Join host Peggy Sheehy (SL: Maggie Marat) as she dives into the details of cloud computing with Doug Johnson (SL: BlueSkunk Johnson), who has successfully integrated cloud computing into his school district. What do you need to get started? How do you respond to security questions? Is it too good to be true? Johnson will answer all these questions and you’ll leave inspired to take a new look at how you’re managing your own data.

Location: ISTE Broadcast Studio:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island%203/197/238/23

Doug Johnson
SL: BlueSkunk Johnson

Here is the thing -  I am hoping there will be others at this event who have implemented GoogleApps for Education in their district for staff, for students or for both who will be willing to share their experiences for the good of the cause.

While I like to think I know everything and often pretend I do, I can really use help on this one!

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

Thanks to AASL making a declaration that "school librarian" is now the official job title of our profession, the debate over what we call ourselves is raging once again.

I addressed this "non issue" back in 2005 in the column "Names Can Never Hurt Me." Excerpts:

However, job titles like “librarian” are really more symbolic than descriptive, and symbols work as much on an emotional level as a rational one. That’s why the topic is hotly and endlessly debated. Symbols have different cultural meanings that are legitimate. (Think of how Christians and Muslim may view a cross.)

The reaction to “librarian” says a good deal more about the person with the reaction than about the title itself. As I was growing up, librarians were the wonderful people who helped me find interesting things to read, helped me answer questions, and were in charge of an environment in which I felt comfortable. Our high school had a well-respected male librarian. So I have always felt quite proud to be considered a librarian.

Yet other poor souls have had very different experiences. Librarians to them were unreasonable authority figures who demanded quiet, had anal-retentive attitudes toward “their” materials, and may have been mean or even scary. Ardelia Lortz in Stephen King’s short story “The Library Policeman” iconifies this view. In other words, many people react to “librarian” like I react to “lawyer” or “proctologist.”

...

The only actual "research" that goes beyond opinion was a focus group study (A Report of Findings from Six Focus Groups with K-12 Parents, Teachers and Principals, as well as Middle and High School Students, KRC Research, January 2003) commissioned by AASL. It reported:

In terms of professional titles, “library media specialist” is a more positive and professional label than “school librarian” – especially looking to the future. “Library media specialist” brings to mind a younger, more professional computer literate person who can consult with students and teachers alike on their modern day information needs. This title also tends to make students of both genders more interested in the possibilities of the profession.

Let's move on or undertake a real study on job title perception by our constituent groups. Or better yet, spend our time improving our services.

Before we have to accept the job description "Unemployed."

What did the snail say riding on the turtle's back? Wheeeeeeeeee!

This morning we did inservices for about 150 elementary teachers on GoogleDocs. Taught by our computer coordinator, our library media specialists and myself (those who got the short straw), we spent about an hour and a half:

• Explaining why one would want to use GoogleDocs (ease of use, ubiquitous access, ability to share, co-editing, cost savings etc.)
• Demonstrating 10 GoogleDoc basics.
• Playing "guide on the side" for about 45 minutes while teachers completed a task requiring the use of GoogleDocs.

The vibes were very positive. I was pleased. You could just see the little light bulbs popping on over lots of teachers' heads. A very fun morning.

Oh, the certificate for Continuing Education Units (needed for recertification in MN) was available ONLY as a GoogleDoc template. I think this is called competency-based assessment.

There are certain technologies that hit sort of a "sweet spot" for teachers. GoogleDocs seems to be one. Interactive whiteboards, another.*

I think of these as transitional technologies. Ways of doing stuff with computers and such that move teachers toward a different reality without totally changing their reality all at once. The new stuff looks enough like the old stuff to not make people too nervous. But the new stuff really does change things whether teachers realize it or not.

We can talk about Vygotsky's Proximal Development Theory but let's not, other than to say it holds as true for adults as it does for kids. The expression "You can't leap a chasm in two bounds" seems to be sort of a mantra of our radical change gurus. I would say that you can't get a lot people to "leap" the chasm at all, and that our job as librarians and tech specialists should be to build bridges across that chasm.

Not to push teachers and just hope they can fly.

I feel our district moves at a snail's pace in changing how we do business using technology, especially when it comes to making the classroom a more engaging environment that meets the needs of all kids. But I do take small consolation knowing that at least we are moving.

* Yes, I know the critics of IWB are out there. Now that we have installed over 300 of them throughout the district, I get these little anonymous photocopies of an opinion piece in Teacher magazine. Come'on people - have the cojones to talk to me!

Hello Doug,

 

I've read enough of your writing to imagine that perhaps you're the person to relieve the cognitive frustration I have experienced in trying to get discussions going around the idea of students utilizing the Cloud via our district network.  I saw your response in the most recent issue of Learning & Leading* to a writer expressing fears as I mention below, and am hoping you can expand on this a bit.

 

Forgetting about universal netbooks for the moment, this is just about making Google Apps available to students.  There is a great deal of fear (paranoia?) around the idea that students might actually find themselves subject to the entire suite of what can be encountered via the Google domain.  Discussions always devolve to fears of CIPA violations and the inability to effectively filter student access and monitor student interactions on the web.  When I mention Postini or other web-filtering systems, the fear of powerful student-generated workaround strategies generally brings discussion to an impasse.  Yes, some students are very, very proficient at finding workarounds, often in the context of our own locked-down network, so I completely understand the fear of the public perception that we are opening the floodgates to corruption if we were to move into the Google environment.  There is also fear expressed over our inability to effectively monitor email interactions should we establish such a thing here.  With the onset of student behaviors like "sexting," there is widely-held belief that minor students would use their access to free interaction on a district-provided web environment in such a way as to open us to enormous liability.

 

With tech heading rapidly toward using the tools of social networking to make education systems relevant to students again, I am intensely interested in exploring more aggressively this perception that loss of total control over student access to the web equates to district CIPA violation.  I am confused, because I attend conferences where district tech leaders have jumped into the Google domain with both feet and a yelling "C'mon in, the water's fine!", then I come home to the fear outlined above and read endless accounts of reasons to "Step away from the Google!" The iPhone has already rendered our attempts to control them obsolete, but what changes when we provide the signal?

 

So Doug, is there a body of discussion that has involved people responsible for CIPA enforcement that can shed light on the darkness here?  Our students are leaving us behind a light speed, and I fear our fears of CIPA non-compliance will leave our educational systems even more irrelevant than we already are. 

 

Thanks for your work, by the way.  I, too, am working from the non-tech side to get people to ask the right questions of their machines. 

 

Best regards,

1. The basic set of tools in GoogleApps for Education are Gmail, Chat, Sites, Groups, Video (limited) and Docs. Each of these tools can be made available or not made available separately for each domain - it's not an all or nothing proposition.
2. Access to the materials in these tools can be limited to those within the school's domain. In other words, if so configured, no one without a school account could access a student's e-mail, Docs, websites, chat etc.
3. While user classes (teachers, elementary students, secondary students, etc.) cannot be defined within a single domain, sub domains can be created that give those in them specific access. In other words, one could allow secondary students access to e-mail, but not elementary students.
4. Monitoring and archiving e-mail, to my knowledge, IS problematic unless a secondary service is used. Google's Postini, GaggleNet and others can provide this service, but at a cost. One can, of course, view e-mail, docs, etc. of any individual if one has administrative rights.
5. Can students use these tools to bully, harass, send naughty pictures, etc. to each other. Of course. Just like they can use paper and pencils to do so.
6. The use of our Internet filter has not changed - its configurations remain the same. Yes, kids find work-arounds to blocked site via proxies etc., but this has no relationship to GoogleApps for Education. Access to the Google Seach engine and other Google sites and tools are neither greater nor less because of the adoption of Apps.

Thoughtful school districts will review their AUPs (I'm liking the term RUP - Responsible Use Policy - more and more) to make sure it covers something like the use of GoogleApps. There will need to special training on responsible use as a part of the introduction of the tools to kids. And sensible districts will continue to collaboratively develop good guidelines for the implementation of this service, like any technology, getting input from a wide range of stakeholders in the school and community.

Unreasonable fears should not be an impediment to any technology adoption. Some risk, considered and acceptable, is a part of any change.

Deal with it.

Image source <http://meppol.deviantart.com/art/The-Boogie-Man-75013278>