Technology for Teachers

The following questions were posed to me recently in a grad assignment. I’m posting my response here to see what you as a reader think. I won’t try to sway you either way but I do wonder how these answers even sound. I know they can be a bit pie in the sky but hey, if you can’t think and try to be that way than what are we here for? Enjoy!

QUESTIONS:

• What are the characteristics and attributes of both successful and poor leaders?
• Which characteristics closely resemble your leadership style?
• What are my five greatest strengths?
• What are my five greatest weaknesses?
• What are the three things I value most in my professional life?
• What are the most important things I wish to accomplish in my school?
• How would I describe myself as a leader now?
• How do I want to be remembered as a leader? Does it reflect my personal vision (fair, just, caring, etc.)?

 

My responses:

Successful Leaders

So what are successful leaders? Are they those who motivated and crunched budgets? Well yes, but they are first and foremost, people. To me the greatest measure of a person and a leader isn’t what they’ve accomplished and what they’ve done but how they’ve done it. When it comes to truly successful leaders they are those unique individuals who could not only do what they’re job description said but do so in a manner that is much as Santa Clara University and the Tom Peters Group describe as they focus more on the moral character and work ethic/traits that leaders demonstrate.

• Honesty - Display sincerity, integrity, and candor in all your actions.
• Competent - Your actions should be based on reason and moral principles.
• Forward-looking Set goals and have a vision of the future.
• Inspiring - Display confidence in all that you do.
• Intelligent - Read, study, and seek challenging assignments.
• Fair-minded - Show fair treatment to all people.
• Broad-minded - Seek out diversity.
• Courageous - Have the perseverance to accomplish a goal, regardless of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
• Straightforward - Use sound judgment to make good decisions at the right time.
• Imaginative - Make timely and appropriate changes in your thinking, plans, and methods.

List from: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadchr.html

Leadership Style

My own leadership style illustrates many of the previously mentioned characteristics. One of the most important traits for me is that of honesty. Following along with that I believe myself to be a straightforward leader, and as Chief Joseph is credited saying, “it requires few words to speak the truth”. I believe the same holds true for leadership; demonstrate that you have come to a judgment after careful consideration and collaboration and stick to your point. I’ve always led by example trying to demonstrate what it is that I’m looking for through my own actions.

Strengths and Weaknesses

When it comes to personal strengths and weaknesses there are always those to be found. Along with finding the qualities you walk the tight rope of how much to share and wondering if you want it to sound like a session that you should have paid for.

First and foremost, I am an honest and straight forward person. It’s who I am and much of what I value in those that I work, live, and share my time with. As an instructional leader I have and work well with many groups of diverse workers. Part of that can go back to the many hats I’ve worn in my career. From bus driver to program administrator I’ve had my turn at quite a few areas of the educational institution. I collaborate well with many different types of people as well and am able to work through diverse and difficult situations. I also bring a timely sense of humor to the table. Not that I’m the class clown (anymore) but I have a knack of bringing levity to difficult situations in a way that doesn’t detract from the issues at hand or bring anyone down.

In regards to personal weaknesses I have a few, and don’t we all? Maybe it doesn’t necessarily go without saying but by acknowledging my shortcomings I’ve taken the firs step on the path to improvement. I am very hard on myself and my own worst critic. I expect much of myself and many times have higher expectations of those around me. I can also be a little impatient with those that do not follow through on their word or are unreliable. Trying to put the positive spin here, but I really do think that your weaknesses can turn into some of your greatest qualities if you take the time to work (improve) on them.

Professional Life

In my professional life I value most the relationships I’ve built and what I’ve left behind as I’ve moved from one opportunity to another. The relationships I’ve had the opportunity to build over the years with colleagues, students, and families I will always cherish. I know I don’t say it the best (probably because the water works start) but I think I do a much better job showing people what I think of them. A lot of that goes back to my high school hockey coach. He used to always say, “You tell on yourself.” Over the years I’ve added “… by the things you do, the way you act, and those you associate yourself with, you tell on yourself.” Probably because I had to really spell out the quote for younger children. It really holds true though. You can tell me all you want about yourself and who you are, but it’s in your actions that who and what you are is chiseled in stone.

Dovetailing here, maybe? I value quite deeply what others have to say about me and my work. I don’t look for the recognition nor do I toot my own horn but I do enjoy putting hard and quality work into something and watching what others are able to do with it. It was the same in the classroom, I took much joy watching others learn and grow as we worked together. The same holds true in my leadership. It’s what you leave behind that matters, did you leave things better than you found them? Do people know, care, and understand more for have known you. What are the three things I value most in my professional life?

Accomplish

There is much that I want to accomplish in life and in the professional arena. Much of it goes back to what I value in my professional/personal life. I want to leave this world (and academic postings) knowing that I’ve left my mark and that people and things are better when I left than when I came along. Even if it’s one child/person, I want people to feel that the world is a better place having known me. I’m not looking for a pat on the back or my own warm fuzzy feeling, I just want to know that when it’s all said and done that I’ve put more into the world than I’ve taken with me. You hear enough of the negative in popular culture and media so call it hope, call it faith, call it religion, I simply want to know that I’ve done good.

Me Right Now

As an educational leader right now, I think I can best be described as the unknown. I don’t think many know what I’m capable of accomplishing or where my sights are set. You can really read a lot into that sentence can’t you? It has nothing to do with not knowing my content or being lazy. It has much, much more to do with an observatory nature. I’ve been watching and learning about education. Seeing what public education is and how it works as I find my place. I don’t have all the answers but I have the map and am ready to work with staff to move them forward. Not change them, not bend them to my own goals, but move forward. What kind of life (or system) is it if the status quo is all we’ve got? We’re here; let’s use our time to get better every day.

Be Remembered

I spoke earlier about being remembered. But truly, it’s not enough to just be remembered. I remember many people that have had a hand in getting me where I am today. To be honest, there’s more than one person who’s remembered for the bad and the harm that they’ve done. I talked at length about this earlier, but I want to be remembered simply as a person who always left things better than he found them. I want students to look back and know that there was a person who cared. I want teachers to look back and remember a person who helped them always improve at life and work. So yeah, I want to be remembered.

[tags]technology, technology4teachers, seanmartinson, sean martinson, education[/tags]

I came across a great post the other day from a teacher questioning whether blogs or wikis would suit there purpose and why you’d use them at all. I’m posting my reply below. To view the original question/post head here: http://www.openteachertalk.blogspot.com/
MY RESPONSE:

An interesting post, you tackle quite a few topics! For starters it’s an excellent point to make about using a technology tool when paper and pencil and/or cut and paste will suffice. You really have to think through the essential questions and knowledge you want your students to gain and decide whether either of these tools will fit. I think you saved yourself quite a bit of hassle by reading up on wikis and finding out right away that in order to track student contributions you have to wade through an ocean of updates and track whose is whose, not very effective. Blogs may work as well showing postings and tracks to work, a little easier to feel the work.

If I may be so bold, you may want to think about running a companion course to your website through a course management system such as Moodle. This option at least allows you to offer wikis and blogs (haven’t tried blogs yet) in a one stop environment in which you can control access to. With Moodle you can also offer students discussion boards and chat rooms, again which you can moderate.

Doesn’t really answer your question but I think Moodle may be something worth looking in to.

Not to just offer a suggestion and leave you hanging…. if you want to I can set a course up for you at: www.edtechmoodle.org and let you tool around and see if that will work for you.

Again, great post! I love to see it when people question why we’d use these tools. There has to be a purpose!

Sincerely,
Sean M.
www.seanmartinson.org
[tags]technology, technology4teachers, seanmartinson, sean martinson, education, web 2.0[/tags]

Thanks to Jeff Mason for letting me know that ISTE has put out the podcasts for NECC 2006.  I used iTunes to find them by searching for NECC.  Enjoy!

Sean M.
[tags]technology, technology4teachers, seanmartinson, sean martinson, education, NECC, ISTE[/tags]

In the simplest definition, Flash Presentation 8 is a software tool that can be used to create interactive web content, including websites and presentations/slideshows.  It can be a powerful tool, keyword, can.  My experience and the time I spent wasn’t the greatest.  Most of that has to do with my experience with the program, which is little to none.  After looking at the program and downloading it I thought I’d take the tour to see if that would help: [Click to view link]  If anything it showed me again what the program can do and what at this time I can’t.  I also took a look at www.AtomicLearning.com to see if they had any tutorials, they had some for Flash 5 which again gave me a better idea of what I was looking at.  This is definitely a program where experience and training are a must.  The program was easy to download and install and there are ample help/tutorial sites online but this is a program where I’d need the book and some “face to face” time with someone who could walk me through it.

[tags]technology,   technology4teachers,   seanmartinson,   sean martinson,   education[/tags]

Someone in a class I took had said that they weren’t sure what Open-Source was…. some think of it as Freeware but it’s a bit different.  Freeware is exactly that, a program that is free.  But, freeware can change down the road and become something else including a program that you have to purchase.  So what is Open Source, well, a lot like the terms Distance Education, Open Source can refer to different things depending on the situation and whom you are talking to.

Some definitions that may help and offer a look as to how I look at open-source:

• Computer software source code that is released under an open-source license or to the public domain. Open source licenses include the GNU General Public License. Popular open-source software includes: Apache, PHP, Mozilla Firebird and the Linux kernel.
• www.aardvarkmedia.co.uk/glossary.html
• In general, open source refers to any program whose source code is made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit. (Historically, the makers of proprietary software have generally not made source code available.) Open source software is usually developed as a public collaboration and made freely available.
• home.comcast.net/~mtsonata/FinalProject/glossary.html

Open-Source refers to programs who are placed in an environment in which the application will always remain free of charge to use and distribute… what makes it open is that the source code used to write the actual program is open and available for anyone to look at and work with… so now you’ve got programmers around the world able to work on the application.  Companies such as Microsoft have always been very vigilant in keeping their source-code “closed”.  Some of the stuff is good and some not so good.

Many look at Open-Source as a “no cost” alternative to their mainstream competitors.  Not SO!  The program may be free but there are still the costs of training the users, any installation and maintenance, etc.  There can be some huge savings but open-source is still not for everyone.

There’s a lot to open source applications, I’ve found most to be excellent tools with which I can train and familiarize myself without purchasing their commercial partners.  But, I don’t tend to work with those programs that are in any kind of development stage.  Moodle would be a great example, I can’t afford and don’t have access to the teacher/administrative side of Desire 2 Learn, but I have been able to install and work with that in the Moodle environment (www.edtechmoodle.org).  This environment which I already own allows me to leverage the tools I already have/own and the cost then boils down to the hours I spend working with the program.

Is this making sense yet?  Maybe this will help.  Here are some applications that I wanted to use and then the open-source version that I used/looked at.  The commercial version is the first listed, the open-source version is after the “>”.

Microsoft Office>Open Office

Frontpage>Nvu

Looking at my desktop computer, forgot I had all of these!

Internet Explorer>Firefox

Macromedia Captivate/Camtasia>Wink

Adobe Photoshop>Gimp

Garageband>Audacity

Norton Antivirus>Clamwin

Nero? Not sure, but a program to rip CDs>Audiograbber

I’ve posted links to these before in D2L, you can also google the program name and find them almost instantly.  Another thing that I like about these applications are the user forums and add-ons that are available.  As I alluded to earlier, some are good, some are not.  It’s interesting though, almost any open-source application will have (on their main website) documentation, screenshots, example sites, download areas, extensions, and most importantly: users forums.  The forums are usually the first spot I check when I have any kind of problems be they installation or general use.  The forums also give you a look at how many people are using the program and how active the “community” building and working with the application is.

So how do the programmers and/or community make money?  Well, the most obvious ways are through donations which you can usually make where you download the program.  Money is and can also be made through applications, themes, training, consultation, and templates that are available through 3^rd party sites for purchase.  I still think most do it as it’s a community environment.  A look at the user forums and if you ever have to ask for help are a testament to that.

Earlier I had said that Freeware can change along the way…. I’ve heard it said that some commercial products can/are built off of Open-Source applications…  not sure though..

Ask 20 people what open-source is and you’ll get at least that many answers.  That’s just my 2cents.

The Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software

[tags]open source, technology,   technology4teachers,   seanmartinson,   sean martinson,   education[/tags]

Here’s a shot at Moodle and Desire2Learn. Before I get too far it may be of interest/honesty to note that I lean towards Moodle as an open-source option. Some say no cost but as those who have used any tool and/or application they know that there is at least time involved in setting up and training that’s included when introducing and/or moving to a new application. Even in my own use I know that I’ve spent countless hours using Moodle and as they say time is money.

First of all the feel and layout. Both are similar and allow for administrators to tweak and modify they layout, with that said the standard formats are somewhat different. D2L spans the most frequently used points of information across the top of the screen in an easy to find/use position. Moodle installations spread content around the outer most panels into “blocks”.

My educated guess is that Desire2Learn and Moodle are similar in offering multiple language packs depending on your region. Moodle offers at least two English options (US and UK) offering region specific spellings of words such as install/instal. Users may become confused with the language switching option of Moodle in that it switches navigation and button titles not the actual text of courses and areas typed by the administrators and teachers.

You can’t really spend too much time on the aesthetic looks of Moodle (and probably Desire2Learn) as they can be switched by changing the themes. Moodle however allows users to specify the theme they want to view as they pick from a list of templates previously installed by the Moodle administrator.

Although some may think of it as aesthetics, one of my gripes against Moodle is in its’ organization of discussion forums. Desire2Learn allows users to view threads by topic and keeps many discussions on one page. Moodle is a bit different, allowing users to specify their own avatar or picture of themselves. This adds much space to the discussion area and makes it more difficult to view the discussion threads. Desire2Learn highlights those that the students/user has viewed by bolded and well, not-bolded text. Moodle offers something similar but at this point Desire2Learn is just plain easier to follow. I think this may come from a couple of different reasons. First it would be my guess that many of our younger students prefer avatars and the sense of the person added to posts when utilizing pictures. Secondly it’s probably something I as an administrator in Moodle have the power to change but have yet to work on.

Moodle is also different in the sense of logging in. With Desire2Learn the student logs in and sees courses which are available to them. Moodle users choose their course then log in, most often being able to view the titles of all the courses currently being offered through the platform. Listing each course on the main page can lead to disorganization but this doesn’t really present itself as an issue in Moodle as you are allowed to categorize courses. In the Moodle environment students can register themselves for courses or depending on the administrative setup may have to be registered by their teacher or administrator. So a bit different than Desire2Learn in that students can register and (as Melanie mentions) pay for courses on their own.

Even the student and data management are similar. Desire2Learn and Moodle both allow teachers and if turned on students the ability to track the habits of students and everything that they do in the environment. Something I wasn’t aware of until taking a Desire2Learn workshop was the ability of teachers/administrators to login as a student. I found the Moodle offers exactly the same option. The cynic may see this as an option for teachers to pretend to be a student for malicious purposes… although I guess this could happen the purpose I’ve really seen is the option to view what the student sees and view some of the chat/IM transcripts as to what the students have and are doing. Not to pretend to be them but to allow teachers and administrators the option to track what the student has been doing. Getting back on track to the assessment side, my experience has been that the Moodle side of management/assessment works just as well as Desire2Learn if not better with more components available all of the time.

I know that the people at Moodle are working on an e-mail component much like Desire2Learn offers but with the proliferation of e-mail account providers I just don’t see how that can be seen as a big advantage. Some areas that I’d like to know more about would be the virus protection that Desire2Learn says it offers. If you are running your Moodle on a server with that type of protection would/does it matter if Moodle itself doesn’t offer it? Some other components that are discussed as benefits of Desire2Learn are components that in 30+ credits with D2L I have never used. Such is the chat option, when it’s been the case we’ve always used Skype. With that thought, outside of the multiple windows, I just can’t justify moving towards a tool that offers specific advantages over another when those advantages are freely available and in some cases better than the pay-for option. An idea would be all of the tools our BSU class has implemented and used outside of D2L. Tech support, stability, I know…..

Knowing that Desire2Learn has more advanced features (do we even use them all?) in the end I still lean towards Moodle and the open-source community behind the project. Moodle allows you to add your own (if you have the skill) or download add-ins, components, and themes, when they are available and not when the next version comes out. I guess my final analysis is this: it’s a safe bet that experts knowledgeable in each system can advocate and sway us either way.

A sample: http://www.edtechmoodle.org

[tags]moodle, desire2learn, technology, technology4teachers, seanmartinson, sean martinson, education[/tags]

So apparently I’m really behind the ball here.  I hadn’t heard of or paid attention to a product out by Microsoft called Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint.  The program works as a free addition to PowerPoint… and well, take a look at the link at the very bottom of this posting to see what it does.  My hope is that it will stay free but you never really know.  It’s not that the program does anything that you can’t already do, it’s that it does it all in one spot seamlessly.

The reason I said that I was behind comes from viewing one of the examples that Microsoft had listed on its site (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/technologies/producer.mspx) of what some are doing with Producer.  A Wylie school district nerd has his own explanation of what producer is, just a shade under 10 minutes and a very quick definition and example of Producer.  He makes reference of using something coming up in the Summer of ’02… so it’s safe to say that I’m a bit behind the game. http://www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/producer/demos/Wylie150/E-LearningProducerI_files/default.htm

The first thought I had of Producer was a cross between Microsoft Movie Maker and Powerpoint.  Being familiar with PowerPoint that portion of the project was much quicker than the rest.  The wizard made putting things together easy that is until I couldn’t get my webcam to show any video.  Now this goes to this program being commercial and catering to a much different community than the open-source where everyone lends a hand and helps each other.  It was impossible to find help for my particular problem.  I tried to update everything, get new drivers, pull out my hair… wait no hair….  I tried my new digital video camera but it didn’t work for this type of application.  It took more time trying to get video to work than all of the other portions (including writing this) combined.  Suffice to say the community supporting Microsoft stinks….

Why is it that the thing that finally works is always the last thing you try?  The way I worded that…. I know….  ;-)  Well, I tried an older camera that I have and things worked like a gem.  So once it was all working it was quick and easy!  View the show, it’s a bit over three minutes and shows what the program is much better than me writing about it.

Can you see the many implications?  For me it leveraged the prior purchases of all the network/hardware equipment including the camera and PowerPoint… so for this one there was no additional cost for me other than all the time troubleshooting.

Sample File:

http://www.seanmartinson.com/files/final_show.htm

You have to use Internet Explorer… nothing like Microsoft to offer something free but then make sure it only works with their programs.  I use Firefox but keep IE for things just like this.

Sean M.

[tags]technology,   technology4teachers,   seanmartinson,   sean martinson,   education[/tags]