Lesson Learned from My Attending the 2014 NCTIES Conference

The North Carolina Technology in Education Conference is one I look forward to attending every single year. There are tons of things to learn and a gaggle of educators to connect with. It is very difficult to leave each year without learning something you are dying to try out upon your return to your school. There are also always those unintended lessons you learn by attending and participating in the concurrent sessions too. In the classroom, we call that the "hidden curriculum." Today, as I prepared to present during a concurrent session, I was hit hard, right between the eyes with this "hidden curriculum."

The hidden lesson NCTIES 2014 taught me this year was simple: No matter how much care you take in planning your presentation, you can't prepare for everything. I knew that before I presented obviously, and being an "Old Dude" as my wife affectionately refers to me, I've know it for quite sometime. Yet, I had a powerful reminder today. No matter how carefully you prepare, something unforeseen is probably going to happen. Today, it did.

At NCTIES 2014 this year, I planned to try to use my Apple TV device to air-play my presentation and to demonstrate apps from the iPad. Issue one was discovered when I found that I inadvertently forgot my Apple TV remote at home. Without the remote, an Apple TV device might as well be a paperweight and or a brick to throw at someone. But I recovered, because with plan B, I had enough HDMI cables and an iPad display adapter along with my laptop to carry on.

When I arrived in my concurrent session room, I immediately began setting up. I connected my iPad and the display worked. I connected my laptop, and it too worked. I began connecting devices to the WIFI, and immediately noticed the WIFI connection I needed was not to be seen. I could not even select it to connect because it wasn't even visible after refreshing and wishing for it to magically appear. I even tried two or three others connections, hoping that one would work, but still I found no internet connection. There I stood in front of a group of educators with a prepared presentation saved in Google docs, and a plan to review Chrome extensions and iPad apps but no Internet connection. While I did have the foresight of downloading the presentation to my desktop, so much of my plans involved demonstrating apps and extensions that required working with the Web, my whole presentation was really in jeopardy. After all, if my presentation is all I had, the participants could download that, and I was no longer needed.. The problem was major: I had no Web access, and the WIFI connection I was told to use was not even visible as a choice.

Most would have panicked at this point, and I would probably have ten years ago, but age has a way of providing perspective, so I did not panic. Through my ongoing mindfulness and Zen training I was reminded of what Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg once wrote: "Life is just as it is despite our protests." Strange that these words came to me, but they did, and they reminded me that I had no reason to panic, to be angry, or to get frantic, even though my plans A, B, C, and D were apparently for naught. Life was just not working as I intended, but it was as it was despite my own protests!

After fiddling with cables, phantom WIFI connections, and standing there dumbfounded, I was caught in thoughts about how I should carry on, when a fellow principal offered the use of his Hotspot connection so I could continue the presentation.

Now that the presentation is over, what can I honestly say I learned from it? What are my own takeaways from my own session? Here's perhaps two points of the "hidden curriculum" I gained from my NCTIES presentation this morning.

1. It's foolish to think we can prepare for every eventuality. That's not an excuse to avoid planning. We obviously should try to have alternate plans at conferences or in the classroom. But remembering that we can't plan for everything means we can let ourselves off the hook a bit when things don't go just as we intend them to go. Preparation yes, obsession with what went wrong no.
2. Sometimes we learn more from what happens in the session rather than what someone says or does. We can turn every circumstance in life into opportunities for learning. But everyone knows that I am sure. Today, I was just reminded of that once again.

NCTIES 2014 has once again provided valuable learning and personal affirmation about why I became an educator in the first place. There's nothing like being in a room of like-minded educators who are passionate about technology and its place in our schools and classrooms, and a broken WIFI connection to teach you that.

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2014 NCTIES Presentation: My Favorite Apps, Hacks, and Tech Tricks for Educators

As a teacher and now as an administrator, looking for shortcuts and easy ways to manage aspects of the job has become second nature. I must confess that I began my job as an educator when desktop computers were rare, and mobile phones were too large to really be considered mobile. I didn't even have a phone in my classroom in those days. The only thing that connected me to the office was a button that activated a buzzed through the school's intercom system.

The 21st century has brought forth so many apps and tools, it is easy to get lost in the technology. As a school administrator, teacher, and now a doctoral student, I have found some applications indispensable in my role as lead learner. This week I have the privilege of sharing my favorite apps, Chrome extensions, and open source programs with those who attend my concurrent session at the annual North Carolina Technology in Education Society Conference. I share my presentation below. I will confess, however, a portion of this presentation was from an earlier presentation I shared on Evernote earlier.


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OpenEd: Free Online K-12 Educational Resource Site Now Includes Tablet Apps Too

OpenEd, which bills itself as "the Largest K-12 Educational Resource Catalog," announces the availability of public courses on its web site. Users can now publish any course they have created to the OpenEd community. Here are some of the most notable features of this online instructional resource.

• Users can use courses already created and located at the site. 
• The site offers the ability for users to search for the course they want. 
• There are courses for every grade level in mathematics, language arts, and science. 
• Each course offers every single Common Core Standard and they are grouped in logical topics.
• Resources are assigned to each topic.
• Start your own courses on the site as well.
• Now with their iPad and Android app, students can enter a code for the course assigned by their teacher.

OpenEd also offers teachers over 1 million standard-aligned educational videos, games, and assessments, and all of it for free. Check out OpenEd for yourself here: OpenEd Web Site

OpenEd's Course Listing

NC Should Hold Everyone for Pearson PowerSchool Implementation Malfunction Accountable

In two previous posts, "Pearson PowerSchool Disasters in NC and Tech Lessons to Be Learned From It" and "Update! Pearson Sees Most of NC Users as Satisfied with PowerSchool---Huh?" I outlined the major issues North Carolina public schools are navigating due to Pearson's malfunctioning PowerSchool software. Based on yesterday's Charlotte Observer, it seems now state education officials are trying to get money back from the partially failed one-year implementation of PowerSchool, (See "NC on Troubled School Data System: Give Us Money Back"). This is the least Pearson owes educators in the state of North Carolina.

What was also of interest in the Charlotte Observer article was the fact that there was at least one superintendent in this state who saw this "trainwreck" coming. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Heath Morrison reportedly "asked state officials to slow the timeline and help with local costs, but was refused on both counts." It appears that state policy-makers were bent on taking the Pearson discount to implement in one year, rather than trying to do what was probably expedient and implement more slowly.

At the end of the day, what is important is that both Pearson and the state officials who pushed through this rushed implementation be held accountable for their mistakes. We talk a great deal in education about holding teachers, principals, and even schools accountable in education, but when major mishaps like this Pearson PowerSchool implementation happen, few seem to talk or want to talk about holding those who rushed this accountable. It is refreshing to see that the state is now going to at least hold Pearson somewhat accountable for the mess their software has caused.

I would also suggest that those who decided to push this one-year implementation be held accountable as well. Pearson should also pay for all the lost time districts and schools have spent dealing with the mess their software has caused. In addition, Pearson should also be mandated to provide proper training for everyone. Just paying for the times their software was down does not take into account all the times their software may have been available, but was malfunctioning and unusable. Perhaps the state should seek a refund for that as well.

If accountability is good for the school level educators, then companies that sell our schools products, and those who direct the implementation of those products need to be held accountable too.

OpenEd: Deliver Content and Instruction to Your Students Through iPad

OpenEd, the world's largest K-12 education resource catalog that, according to their web site, contains over "million Common Core aligned videos, games, and assessments," just released their student iPad app in the iTunes App Store.

With OpenED, educators can create a course for free. Each course is assigned a unique code which then can be shared with students. Students then enter the code into their OpenEd iPad app to access the course. OpenEd now includes over 1 million education resources that includes content from PBS,BrightStorm,  EdCite, and BrainGenie. Best of all, OpenEd is Free to Use!

Here's the link to OpenEd.

Check out the OpenEd app in the iTunes App Store here.

OpenEd's iPad Interface

Daybook Pro: An App to Help Teachers Deliver Instruction and Content Through the iPad

Daybook Pro, the iPad app that allows teachers to deliver lessons and teaching content through their tablets, has just gotten better. Users can now directly add files to the app from their Dropbox account. Their website also offers a new set of video tutorials that will get users started with Daybook Pro. If you want to see how this app can meet the needs of classroom teachers, you can check out their onsite introductory video here.  Daybook Pro is also quite affordable at $10 a year or $1 per month.

Daybook Pro Interface

I experimented with Daybook Pro, and it is an excellent option for teachers looking for a content and instructional delivery system using their iPads.

Time for School Leaders to See Teaching as 21st Century Profession, Not Assembly-Line Work

School leaders and policymakers have a serious misperception about the role and job of teaching that undermines teaching as a profession and perpetuates the view that the role of teaching is akin to being an assembly-line worker. It is no wonder American politicians, policymakers and corporate reformers have bought wholeheartedly into the idea of value-added teacher evaluations. When you hold a deep-seated view that a teacher’s job is simply to “add value” in the form of knowledge as students roll through the classroom assembly line, then the perception is that the “physical act of imparting knowledge"---or teaching in this view---is just about being physically in front of students and nothing else.

Americans have long held the belief that teachers aren't doing their jobs unless they are in front of kids. Planning periods and professional development as well as tasks like grading papers are never calculated into the teacher workday, and that demonstrates fully that the American education system stubbornly holds on to a dated and ancient view of both what exactly is the act of teaching. In short, we just can’t give up the view that teachers should only be paid for the actual time they are in front of kids. We then expect them to spend hours in the afternoon-evenings and on weekends grading papers, lesson planning and attending to their professional development.

It’s time for school administrators and policymakers to remember that good teaching starts with all those things teachers do outside of the classroom too. It’s too bad we can’t let go of this factory model view of teachers and start to discuss some real 21st century solutions that will allow teachers to increase their professional capacity by restructuring both the time and amount of time teachers spend in front of students. After all, are our teachers babysitters for parents while they work, or are they professionals who are actually engaged in one of the noblest of professions?

In his book, Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland, Pasi Sahlberg writes:

“In lower-secondary schools, on average, Finnish teachers teach about 600 hours annually (i.e., 800 lessons of 45 minutes each). This corresponds to four teaching lessons daily. According to the OECD, in the United States the average annual total teaching time in lower-secondary grades is 1,080 hours, which, in turn, equals six or more daily lessons or other forms of instruction of 50 minutes each.”

In other words, the Finnish education system sees teaching much more broadly than we in America do.  They see those activities---professional development, tutoring, grading student work, providing remediation---as much a part of “teaching” as being in front of the classroom. For years, American education has expected teachers to do these things on their own time, even with paltry efforts to provide planning period time during the school day.

If we wanted to do one thing that would have the greatest impact on teaching and student learning, perhaps we need to more broadly define “teaching” as the Finns do. For example, we might:

• Consider teacher planning times as sacred and not fill them up with mundane and mandated meetings. Allow teachers to use that time for planning, grading, and even re-mediating students.
• Rethink our views of “teaching” to include all the things effective teachers do---planning, creating new learning activities, grading/providing feedback, tutoring, professional development. We really do need to stop thinking of teachers as only doing their job when they’re in front of kids.
• Hold professional development during the regular workday rather than expect teachers to sit in the afternoons after spending all day teaching. I still remember how scattered and tired my mind was at the end of the day was after facing multiple classrooms full of students. Professional development need to be melded to the act of teaching. It should be included as part of the workday.
• Look at how we can restructure our school days to allow for more time to do all the things required to be a good teacher instead of expecting that teachers do these things on their time, at home or after school. It’s no wonder teachers burn out and tire of the profession. How many other professions are expected to work without pay? We need to create schedules that allow teachers to devote time to all the tasks of teaching.

We Americans, especially school leaders, politicians, and policymakers have a mistaken perception of what should be included in the act of “teaching” when it comes to how we structure compensation and what teachers do day-to-day. We like to boast about 21st century schooling and teaching, while at the same time we hold on stubbornly to a 20th century perception of the teaching profession. Maybe it’s time we let that go. We need to redefine teaching broadly in how we manage our schools and include time for teachers to do all that teachers do in their school day.