Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Tweeting - A Paradigm Shift - Tues., Feb. 14, 2017

Since today's the day for love, I have to say that I have never loved "tweeting."  I was briefly introduced to it in the last class, but never really was motivated to really "tweet."  Personally, it's a humility thing.  My ideas are important, but are they important enough to share with the world?  Maybe I'm too "old school" and that I had to wait to be called on by the teacher to share my thoughts.  That's a paradigm shift to think that my ideas are valued and that others can learn from me.  After watching the videos assigned for class, I've got a much greater understanding of WHAT it's for.  I loved George Sieman's words "combinational creativity" and that knowledge is a network project.  I've always looked at it as "one more thing to do," but the value is more evident now.  I can even see where a # for my school could help with communication and knowledge sharing.  I'm definitely more motivated to start using it as a tool in my daily life. When I set up my account years ago, I set it up with a lame account name because I didn't know any better.  Here's my twitter LINK.

Monday, February 13, 2017

Change Project Pitch: Technology Fluency - Feb. 10, 2017



"There is NEVER enough time in the school day to do the things that you HAVE to do."
It's understandable that when you ask staff to ADD anything to their day, the elephant absolutely bucks the rider right off its back.  And that's quite a height to fall from.  

I've created a draft of my my pitch for change in my little school.   Our change action would be supporting the long term change of students being fluent with technology in our school.   The audience and/or stakeholders are the teachers.  What I want from them is to have 15 min. a day dedicated to tech time.  In order to motivate the elephant, I will provide teachers research that shows the need for computer skills for students.  To direct the rider, I would limit it to just 15 min. a day.  To create the path, I would have the students use 15 min. from their current 70 min. lunch (40 min.) and 30 min. (recess).   By preparing the students in tech class how to use the programs, they will just use that time in class to reinforce their Keyboarding and Coding skills.  

Here's my PITCH FOR 15 MIN. TECH TIME.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Understanding Leadership - Tues., Feb. 7, 2017

This week's assignment was to make a visual representation of my thoughts on the leadership readings this week.  Though I used the topic "Leadership" as the center of my mind map, I really wanted to put lightning bolts out from all sides with the word CHANGE written on each lightning bolt.  Change effects leadership every second of the day.  It's like the weather in Vermont, wait 5 minutes and it will change.  

Learning about mind maps and visual note-taking on was not a new concept, but not something I had a great deal of practice with.  I spent hours researching different sites that I could use.  I wanted to do just good old pencil and paper, but forged on to find "Mindmeister."  I liked the samples and thought I could make them work for me.  One of its greatest strengths is the video instruction that comes along with it.  Truly mind maps for dummies and it was advertised for free!  BUT free has a cost as I couldn't download a JPEG or PDF, so I'm linking the map.  

My very rough draft  ViSUALIZATION of the Article:  Leadership Past, Present and Future , and two different resources on the Diigo group about leadership theory, traits, and styles was created on MindMeister's free application.  

I used "Bubbl.org" for another Mind map I made, but wanted to try something new for this posting so after scouring the links provided this week, I decided on MindMeister.   I didn't buy it, as I'm not sure it's the best.  I need to experiment with it more and try it out with teachers to see what they think and then I might get the school professional subscription.  

Using mind maps and visual note-taking "digitally" is a paradigm shift from whiteboards and old-fashioned overhead projectors.  As a science teacher, I was always creating mind maps, but doing it digitally is world-altering different.  I'm excited about learning this new tool.