Schools are places where learning is supposed to occur. Educators, including teachers and curriculum leaders, are the professionals who are responsible for defining what should be taught. They are also responsible for deciding how it will be taught. These comprise curriculum and instruction decisions. While many curriculum and instruction decisions are made for lessons that Read More
Category: Technology
#edtech for #edleaders: Properly Configured IT
It is the role of the IT professionals to ensure that technology is properly configured to both provide the services educators need, plus reflect the responsible configuration of the system. Remember, we do not want IT professionals running schools and we do not want educators to be running IT systems. Proper configuration of the IT Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Acceptable Use Policies
The leaders of all organizations take steps to protect them from liabilities and damage resulting from the inappropriate use of IT systems. At the highest levels, the organization’s governing body (school board are generally responsible for adopting policy) will adopt policies to protect the organization by ensuring they comply with relevant laws and regulations, and Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has been law in the United States since 1998. The intent of the law is to protect the privacy and the personal information of children, thus is requires the publishers of web sites that collect user information to have parental consent for those under 13 years of age. Read More
Another Take on Wicked and Tame Problems
In the 1970’s two professors of planning from California published ana important paper in which they defined “tame” and “wicked” problems. While each can be challenging, the two are differentiated by the how we approach problem and judge if they have been solved. Technology problems are typically tame problems, while teaching is a wicked one. Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has been law in the United States since 2000. The intent of the law is to protect the privacy and the personal information of children. In general, this is the law used by social media and other companies that restrict access to their platforms to individuals under 13 Read More
Elevator Pitch on IT in Curriculum Initiatives
Educators are constantly reviewing what they teach. Many regulatory agencies require curriculum documents to be updated, and professional organizations update curriculum suggestions as well. IT professionals are often expected to participate in some of these efforts. Although IT professionals will not make recommendations about what should be taught, they will be asked to participate to Read More
#edtech for #edleaders On Network Permissions
IT professionals know the danger of using computers when logged on with an account that has administrator permissions. When logged on with an administrator account, users have access to controls to change configurations, install software, and manage other users. All of these have potential to be set improperly. Most IT professionals have two accounts; they Read More
On Unions and School IT
Some folks asked me about unions and school IT jobs recently, I thought my response might be a good blog post: Schools tend to be highly unionized organizations. Often, the licensed educators in the school are members of one union (and covered by a different master contract) than non-licensed employees. Many factors affect whether an Read More
On Advertisements in School
Another overlooked aspect of IT use in schools is students’ exposure to advertisements. Many sources of online information used in schools, including mainstream media and journalism sites, the sites of professional organizations and edited periodicals, and especially social media sites (like YouTube) are funded by advertisements. When students access these sites, they are also exposed Read More