I’ve seen the requests from many desktop support teams: “Before you add technology to grants, please include us in your planning.” I understand their rationale. They are responsible for installing, configuring, and managing it. It must integrate with existing systems and be reliable, robust, and secure. I would be sensitive to their requests and I Read More
Category: Leadership
A Story of Updating School IT
The candidate for a vacant technology coordinator position, that filled the role of CIO but also spent a good deal of time sharing the work of technicians during high-demand times. When asked, “How would you respond to the teacher who returned from a conference and asked for help configuring systems to use a tool they Read More
On Educators’ Reluctance to Change
In biology, exaptations are those structures and functions that evolved for one purpose, but then were applied to a different purpose. The typical example is feathers, which were originally structures adaptations that allowed for thermoregulation, and later were adapted for flight. An analogous process occurs with technology; it is used for purposes unimagined by the Read More
A Technology Decision-Making Case to Consider
Let’s consider a situation that illustrates how proper, appropriate, and reasonable configurations of IT can influence teaching and learning. I was asked to help resolve some “network problems” in a school. Math teachers had complained that students could not access the online grade book from the computers provided under the recently begun one-to-one initiative. It Read More
Leader Speak: “This is a collaborative effort”
In recent years also, collaborative problem-solving has become an expected practice in educational planning. When a leader explicitly indicates the effort is collaborative, that is a sign that the leader expects the decisions will be unpopular and the leader is likely to displace blame to the group.
Dealing with Conflict
I’ve worked in educational institutions since 1988. My jobs have been in public k-12 schools, public community colleges, and various universities as an adjunct faculty member. In addition, I have participated in (and been a leader of) multiple educational organizations. Almost all these organizations have been marked by have some level of workplace conflict. In Read More
John Dewey Was Right
I found a slide from a presentation I gave about 10 years ago. It contained three quotes from John Dewey. It seems relevant today, although I am curious what John Dewey would say about the current efforts to ban books. One must wonder it that really represents a “social interest in education” or is it Read More
IT Systems: Appropriate, Proper, and Reasonable
My blog has frequent posts with different takes on the three aspects of sound IT design within organizations. This post is a version of a summary of my ideas I prepared for a group of newly hired leaders. For IT to support efficient and effective operations, it must be appropriately designed so that it meets Read More
Design Your Teaching
In education, we are taught to plan our lessons. In more progressive communities, we are taught to “backwards design” our lessons and units. Begin with what you want to accomplish, decide how you will know if you got there, then make sure you take your students through a series of activities that will allow them Read More
On Myths in Curriculum
Increasingly, we recognize many of the things that are “true” in society are myths. In education, we hear lots of folks promote “learning styles,” but that idea is a debunked myth. In education, we also hold that curriculum and teaching should not be political. It is reasoned teachers’ job is to teach the facts and Read More