Nudge mail

Have you ever had an e-mail that you are going to need in the future but do not want it to clog up your in-box until you do need it?  Well, I have an answer for you that I have started to use over the last couple of months.  It is called nudge mail.  Here is how it works.  Let's say that you get an invite to a birthday party on September 27th.  You do not really need that information right now but don't want to archive it and want it out of your inbox (I know most would just put it in your calendar and be done with it....but this is an example!)  The quickest thing I can do is nudgemail it to myself at a later date.  So, I would forward the e-mail to nudgemail.com by putting this in the to box.......sept25@nudgemail.com.  This means that on September 25 I will receive a reminder e-mail about the birthday party on the 27th.  After you send the e-mail nudgemail will send you a reminder e-mail as notification that they received it.  Now you can forget about that invite until it pops back into your mail box on the requested date.  This is very reliable and saves me a lot of time regarding things that I do not need until a later date.  Try this out by choosing an e-mail, forward it to nudgemail for the next day and see what happens.

Does anyone else have any time saving ideas like nudgemail?  Please share those ideas and help us all become more productive.  Also, if you try out nudgemail let me know how you liked it.

Using Twitter better

One of the goals with this blog is to help people become more tech savvy so that we can use all of this material we have at our fingertips in the most beneficial manner possible.  Over the last several months I have wanted to become more adept at taming the wild bird know as Twitter (don't let that simple, friendly looking symbol they use fool you).  So I started reading some articles on how to use Twitter better and here is the first one I would like to share with you.  It is titled How to Compete with the Tweet Elite and is filled with ideas about how to use Twitter better.  Subjects covered include retweeting so that the originator of a tweet can see that you retweeted their post, modifying a tweet so that you can add your own small comment at the end of a post, and pinning your favorite tweet to your profile page so that visitors to your profile page can see what you are thinking about right now.  I know this is a small step in the right direction, but everything we can learn about the technology that has been created for us to use to socialize and learn from each other is beneficial.

What are some Twitter use ideas that you could share to help us all use Twitter better?

Discovering Opportunity Through Building Partnerships

     In Chapter 11 of Eric Sheninger's book Digital Leadership - Changing Paradigms for Changing Times he talks about 5 different ways to create partnerships with organizations outside of the school walls so that authentic, ongoing, awesome learning experiences for students could continuously take place. The five partnerships he suggests that we take advantage of include:

• University partnerships
• Have university classes taught in the schools.  This will help plant dreams of moving on to higher education.
• Experiential learning partnerships
• Work on fostering relationships with organizations like Audobon Centers, Botanical Gardens, and The YMCA.  Look for experts in different fields that help maximize student learning.
• Intra-school partnerships
• Look for ways that schools can share resources through cooperation and communication.  Look for ways that this can be done in your own district and world wide.
• Corporate/Community partnerships
• Look for perrenial partnerships that will last.  The idea is to find partnerships where the roots between the school and organization can run deep.  Develop only those partnerships that will last.
• Mental Health Partnerships
• Find mental health organizations that come alongside the school and offer programs that will help meet the needs of students who are struggling with mental health issues and, for the older students, drug abuse.  We need to be willing to share space and instructional time so that these struggling students can be given foundational help that will allow them to perform better academically.

     The other idea that Sheninger presents in this chapter is that of learning to leverage social media.  Share what is being done at the school and in the district through Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets.  This could help lead to strategic relationships, authentic learning experiences, professional development opportunities, school recognition, professional recognition, and an influx of  opportunities for superior educational technology to be brought to our school and district.

     Our school and district need to decide exactly what it is we want to become known for in this diverse and ever expanding world of education.  What is going to be our brand, or what do we want to be known for?  What partnerships with organizations outside the school walls do we need to find so that this brand can be developed so we can give the students outstanding learning experiences?  These are all questions worthy of being asked and answered.

RealTime Board

Over the last couple of hours I have playing around with a new application, to me, called RealTimeBoard.  This is a program that could be useful in a number of ways.  One way I can see teachers using it is through collaboration with lesson planning.  Administrators or teachers could use it to collaborate and work on specific projects that need to accomplished.  It can also be used to help create and carry out presentations.  It is basically an electronic whiteboard that can be expanded as much as you need it to expand.  There are specific templates you can choose from that will help you get started.  Just be ready for a lot of experimenting and watching of short videos to help you learn how to effectively use this product.  I encourage you to take a look and share any ways that you feel RealTimeBoard could be used on your campus, with your team, or in your classroom. Let's learn from each other.  CE, be ready to see this being used in a faculty meeting soon.  TJJ

ASCD Conference June 27-29

This last several days I have been at the ASCD Summer Conference at The Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Texas.  It has been a very good conference over-all.  On the Saturday of the conference I went to a presentation on something called TPACK which is a new way to understand, plan for, and assess curriculum-based technology instruction.  Basically it helps give the teachers a way to find appropriate technology tools to support what they are teaching after they plan what to teach.  There are two basic questions that teachers are encouraged to ask before they choose the technology they will use with the lesson.  The first questions is, what are you wanting to teach?  The second question is, what are the curriculum goals?  Figure this out first and then find the materials, the technology, that will most clearly help with the teaching of the lesson(s).  This material was developed at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia by Judi Harris and Mark Hofer.  Go to http://actvitytypes.wm.edu/ and find all of the activity type charts for the different areas of the curriculum that will help you start making smarter technological pedagogical decisions.  They can also be found at #how2tpack.  Check it out.  And oh, BYOD teachers, this is what we will be using this year to help plan out even better BYOD lessons.

Hope your summer is going great!  TJJ

Reflecting on the ISTE National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators

Boy do I have a lot to learn about being and educational technology leader. 
On a scale of 1-5 in relation to NETS*A this is how I have currently rated myself.
1) Visionary Leadership I am a 2 (beginning)
2) In digital-age learning culture I am at 2.5 (we are working hard at creating a digital age learning culture at CE)
3) Excellence in Professional Practice I am 2.5 because we are promoting and facilitating the use of technology practices on the campus.
4) Systemic Improvement I am at a 2 because we are looking for people who are tech savvy and are striving to maximize technology use and media-rich resources on our campus.
5) Digital Citizenship I am at 2.5 - because we are promoting appropriate use and are supplying equitable access to digital tools and resources.

I have along way to go.  But that is ok.  Everyone has to start somewhere.  I now have standards that I can strive to meet and to measure my growth.  I will begin to focus mostly on the local level of my school, but want to expand to a more global level of influence as time goes on.

Issues, Problems, Crisis

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day about how he became the leader that he is today.  During the course of our conversation he shared about three different types of leaders.  The first type of leaders are people who are visionary and look way out into the future.  The second type of leaders are the ones who see with more limited vision and see down the road only far enough to keep them from getting in trouble with their superiors.  The third type of leaders are those who are near-sighted and only have time to react to one situation after another, after another.  He shared with me that the visionary leaders deal mainly with issues.  Because they are looking down the road they see what is coming up and make effective plans that will keep the issues from becoming problems.  The limited vision leaders are still somewhat effective, but they are constantly dealing with problems.  They are finding themselves having to make hurried decisions and creating plans or taking steps that are not completely thought through.  They are skilled at steering away from crisis, but it does begin to wear them down after a while.  The near-sighted leaders work in crisis mode a lot of the time because the problems were not addressed soon enough.  These near-sighted leaders rarely plan and quickly burn out because they live in a reactive panic mode all the time.  My friend shared with me that you only ever want to live in the area of issues so that the problems and the crisis rarely occur.  I, for one, truly desire to be not only that type of leader, but that is how I desire to live my entire life.  So here it is put in very simple terms; look down the road of life and identify as many issues as you can and begin to plan how you will address them.  By doing this you will avoid problems, and surely avert many a crisis.  This is really not only for leaders, it is for anyone who wants to live an exceptional life.