Tag:

leadership

SpeakUp Survey Is Open!

by Jennifer Bergland October 25, 2018

written by Jennifer Bergland

It’s time for students, parents, teachers, principals, librarians, technology leaders, superintendents, and more to Speak Up via the annual Project Tomorrow’s digital learning survey. Share your thoughts and experiences on education issues such as:

Learning and teaching with mobile devices, digital content, gaming, videos, and virtual and augmented reality
Internet access at home and in school
Importance of math and best ways to learn math
Digital citizenship
And much more!

The free surveys take less than 20 minutes to complete and are completely anonymous. Join more than 500,000 people from more than 10,000 schools to be sure your voice is heard this year! Your school or district’s data will be made available to each entity. This data can help guide your efforts to expand digital learning opportunities for your students.

2017 SpeakUp Data

Below is some the Texas data from the 2017 SpeakUp Survey:

speakup

34% of Texas 3rd-5th grade teachers indicated there were not enough computers for students to use at school.
48% of Texas 6-8th graders and 39% of students in grades 9-12 said they were not allowed to use their personal mobile devices at schools.
31% of school administrators and teachers said the availability of technology for student use at school was a challenge for technology integration.
44% of school administrators and 43% of teachers listed digital equity issues such as student access to technology and internet at home as major challenges.
46% of school administrators and 69% of teachers said that motivating teachers to change their teaching practice to use technology in their classrooms is something they still struggle with.
59% of librarians said helping teachers move from sporadic to sustained usage was one of their top challenges while 47% listed students not having enough access to computers or the Internet outside of school as one of their challenges.
48% of librarians indicated the integration of digital content components into a teacher-friendly system was a major challenge.
The number one issue (57%) for technology leaders when it comes to cloud computing is ensuring that the data is secure.
47% of the technology leaders consider the homework gap (students lack of access to the Internet at home) and teachers lack of understanding cloud applications are the next two biggest challenges in implementing cloud technology.
The next challenge facing technology leaders in this area is having multiple sign-ons with different products (41%).

Specifics

As you can see, we can learn a great deal about the technology implementation across the state from the SpeakUp Survey. Every school and district will be given access to their own data. If you have never participated in the SpeakUp survey, I HIGHLY encourage you to consider doing so this year. You can start small and only do a few campuses or a few grade levels. This is completely free and your data is never shared with others except in an aggregated form (i.e. Texas or national). It is a wonderful tool to use in your planning.

speakup

Surveys are open through January 30, 2019. They make it easy to promote your survey with their promotional materials. This flyer is an excellent promotional resource. Also, they are super helpful, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask them.

Credits:

Photo of data chart was created by rawpixel on Unsplash

Photo of students using laptops was created by NESA by Makers on Unsplash

October 25, 2018 0 comments

Five Steps to Leading Campus Tech Efforts

by Miguel Guhlin October 19, 2018

written by Miguel Guhlin

What happens when you blow people’s minds because what you’ve shared changes their perspective in a radical way? What happens when participants get a new way to see teaching, learning, and leading? That’s when counters are reset to zero and learning begins anew. It’s at this moment as you feel unsure about all that you know that your supervisor drops the request. “Can you take the lead in supporting blending technology into what we do on campus?” This blog entry explores five critical steps.

1- Shift Their Thinking

“My mind is reeling. It feels like I missed chances in the last fifteen years in my classroom,” said an ISTE Certification participant. A few moments prior, the workshop participant had completed an activity. The activity involved reviewing education frameworks like SAMR, TPACK, LOTI, and HEAT. I’d seen this reaction before with campus principals. We often get an ephemeral positive feeling about technology when it works. But that feeling doesn’t always align to actual teaching and learning. Observational frameworks like HEAT, when understood, shift people’s thinking.

H.E.A.T. is a four letter acronym that stands for Higher-order thinking, Engaged learning, Authentic connections, and Technology use. The H.E.A.T. focuses on assessing student learning experiences. Because it offers descriptors for classroom walkthroughs, you can use it for peer coaching/mentoring growing conversations.

I recommend shifting people’s thinking as soon as possible. It doesn’t mean people have failed as teachers. It could mean they may have missed teaching and learning opportunities. Some tips:

Analyze existing instructional activities with HEAT to get the conversation started.
Write new lessons as a team, discussing activities with the framework in mind.
Try a Four Corners approach with each aspect of the HEAT framework. Analyze a traditional lesson. Focus on the first three parts (H.E.A.) to get at whether lessons make a difference on an instructional continuum. This can give participants a clearer grasp of what should be happening.
Watch videos showing classroom instruction and then apply the framework to those videos. (You can find lots of example videos on YouTube.)

Shifting people’s perspectives involves creating a safe situation. You extend an invitation for them to change their perspective. That perspective may involve them re-assessing how they teach and see learning. That can be frightening. So make it safe.

2- Avoid The Expert Trap

“How do I decide what technology to get for the whole campus?” asked Jane. She was at ISTE Certification training for one reason. The leadership team had given her the task of making technology decisions for the campus. When she told me that, I had a gut reaction. “Set up a committee of stakeholders. Don’t get stuck making the decision yourself.” Avoid the expert trap. If you make all the decisions, you get all the blame. Worse, you’re the only one who does the learning that comes with the work. The work involves researching and trying potential solutions. It means developing a rationale why certain technologies are better. Chromebooks, iPads, Microsoft Surface Go tablets are all great. Yet that’s not all there is to it.

3) Mix and Match the Perfect System

If you don’t know how technologies fit together, you may want to avoid the mix-and-match approach. The reason why is that some districts with this approach dump everything on their staff. Then they wonder why usage is so low. Most teachers can’t handle navigating three ecosystems at once. Trying to remember your login and password for more than one system is a headache for some. For those districts that lack a single sign-on solution (SSO), it can be worse. I’ve seen teachers cry when trying to figure out what to use, when, and where. Every second staff spend in technology limbo, they aren’t impacting instruction.

Consider these key areas the campus team will need to make:

Decide on an ecosystem.

Are you going to use Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams? Will you use G Suite for Education, Microsoft Office 365, or Apple’s Classroom 2.0 and iTunes? This is a huge decision based on new workflows your people haven’t yet adopted. You must try these out ahead of time. They are all free. Put them through their paces. How people work varies and no one will be 100% satisfied. What you need is a consensus that, for work purposes, you will use ONE of these ecosystems. For goodness sake, no split decisions.

Decide on hardware.

Okay, you have convinced yourself one ecosystem is the way to go. Now decide on the hardware that aligns to that ecosystem.

G Suites? Get Chromebooks. They are easy to manage and deploy. Sprinkle in a few Windows 10 or Mac laptops for teachers. Throw in one or two iPads per classroom to assist with video editing, science probes, and more. Use the new Google Sites to house all your staff policy documents. Use Google Calendar for meeting and room tracking. Share your files via Google Drive. Issue Gmail accounts for both staff and students so they can communicate with ease. Introduce mobile apps for smartphones and tablets. Learn how to use tools like Seesaw and Peardeck. Make it easy for teachers to get add-ons and extensions.
Office 365? Get touch-enabled Windows 10 tablets. Use School Data Sync (free) to set up class rosters in Teams. Teams is Microsoft’s virtual classroom tool. Setup a OneNote Staff Notebook for all staff to share lesson plans, policies, and more. Get teachers and students using OneNote Class Notebook. Introduce Outlook email via the Office 365 portal site (portal.office.com). Get the right license (A3 or A5) so you get the Desktop versions of the Office suite (e.g. Word, PowerPoint, Excel). Introduce mobile apps for their personal and work devices. Load a browser like Chrome and/or Firefox to get past Microsoft Edge’s perpetual beta status.
Apple? Get a Macbook and iPad for each staff member. Make sure you have the right case and add a keyboard for secondary students. Show participants how to use Classroom 2.0, iTunes, and other critical apps. Adopt tools like Seesaw and Nearpod. Read the beginner’s guide to iPads in the classroom blog entry.

Set up professional learning with collegial coaching.

If you want to see changes happen, then embrace collegial coaching. This approach involves colleagues supporting their colleagues. Just-in-time learning can make all the difference. Create a culture where coaching about instruction and technology is safe and results-focused.

4) Get a Single Sign-On Solution (SSO)

This may be one of the toughest problems ahead. You aren’t going to get anything done unless you have an SSO in place. That’s because you may have many different online systems. It is unreasonable to expect users to remember account information for each system. Make sure you select an automated system that will ensure your users only need to remember ONE login.

5) Synchronize Your Class Rosters

“How do we avoid having to type in all our class rosters?” asked a teacher in a workshop. For Microsoft Office 365, I was quick to point out her district needed to use School Data Sync. Tools like School Data Sync, which is available for free to districts, make creating class rosters easy. This frees the teacher from having to create class rosters in various systems (e.g. Office 365) one student at a time. Similar systems for G Suites for Education are available, too. Put this solution in place and you save your teachers many hours of tedious work. This is time they can spend using technology to impact teaching and learning.

Planning Ahead

Now you’ve formed your stakeholder committee. They’ve made the right choices about hardware, software, and training plus coaching. What’s next? The toughest part, implementation. You will need to revisit the implementation, adapting your plans to new situations. Need help? Be sure to call on TCEA’s Professional Development team. You can reach us at 800-282-8232 or submit a logistics form to schedule onsite support.

October 19, 2018 0 comments

Leadership

Join Our Team in Serving

by Lori Gracey October 5, 2018

written by Lori Gracey

I remember when someone first asked me to serve on the TCEA board of directors. I was working as a tech director in Bastrop ISD and had attended the TCEA Convention and Exposition since 1982, often volunteering there. TCEA President Kathy Kothmann asked me to take over for the Area 6 Director who had to resign and I was so thrilled to be asked to join their leadership team. Every time I attended a board meeting, I was amazed and impressed at the other board members and their tremendous dedication not only to TCEA, but also to its mission and goals. I went on to work on the board for 13 years, eventually serving as convention chair and then president. I can quite honestly say that it changed my life, both personally and professionally.

TCEA Board Election

Because I know the value of working with an unbelievable team of individuals all working toward a common goal, I would like to invite you personally to consider serving on the TCEA board. Nominations are open now through November 2, 2018 and the election will be held from November 5 – November 16, 2018.

To be eligible to serve, you must meet the following criteria:

Be a member in good standing of TCEA
Be employed by an educational entity (public and private schools, colleges and universities, and governmental agencies concerned with education) in the state of Texas
Reside or be employed in the Area in which you are running for office
Have a servant’s heart and a strong dedication to the improvement of teaching and learning through the use of computers and technology

The board of directors meets four times a year and may also have some special virtual meetings. They also work the convention. In addition, they have other duties as designated in the Bylaws. These are not onerous duties; in fact, they are actually a joy to do as you help other educators become more fully versed in teaching and learning in a digital world.

Board positions up for election this year are directors from areas 2, 4, 8, 10, 12, and 16. Each of these who are elected will serve a three-year term.

Step Up to Our Team

TCEA is blessed to have so many fantastic members like yourself. Isn’t it time you took your career to the next level and joined our team of leaders? Fill out the online Nomination Form and follow with an email to nominations@tcea.org that contains a digital photograph (professional headshot preferred if available) of the nominee. I can promise you that serving as a TCEA board member will be highlight of your career!

October 5, 2018 0 comments

Content Areas Leadership Professional Learning

Three Tips to Help Content Leaders Become Tech Savvy

by Dr. Bruce Ellis October 2, 2018

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Content leaders have many strengths. They not only know the depth of their content, but they understand how it looks when sequenced both horizontally and vertically with their teachers. Pedagogy is a given when it comes to teaching their standards…possibly equal to or second to their teachers’ understanding the content themselves. But with all their strengths, many content leaders may be at least a little deficient in being able to identify relevant technology to support their content standards without the help of vendors. While vendors can be helpful, you run the risk of having a biased and/or limited view of what is available. Here are three tips to become a more tech-savvy content leader.

Listen to Your Innovative Teachers

It is easy to identify those teachers who are the innovative ones. This doesn’t necessarily mean they are the tech-savvy teachers, but they are typically the ones who have a firm grasp of the content and discipline and can focus on adding richness to their lessons to make learning more exciting (and possibly boost test scores). Consider creating a round table discussion that meets once per six weeks to ask this group for their input. Ask them to explore different apps, devices, and other tech tools that can be (easily) used to help differentiate the content, reinforce main concepts, or capture learning in a possibly better way than they are currently doing. Give them permission, and possible the challenge, to look at tools and apps that may be outside their content area but can be adapted with ease for a great fit. You may find that this feedback and insight will also be great information to share with the instructional technology department, especially if they are wanting to implement technology relevantly in curriculum areas.

Look for Open-Ended Apps and Technology

When asked what is a teacher’s favorite app for ___________ (fill in with content area), you may find that many answers are apps that are geared toward specific content standards they teach. That’s great when you are teaching those standards. For the rest of the time, consider what open-ended apps or tools are available that might allow you to support many of your content standards. Open-ended apps lend themselves to being used more often and are great when differentiating with students. Having a variety of these open-ended apps will help ensure that students don’t get bored. Even if you use Kahoot, you definitely don’t want to get to the point where, upon hearing that the next activity will be Kahoot, a group moan occurs and at least one student mumbles “Kahoot again?!” If you are new to using open-ended apps, consider looking for apps and tools whose main function is to record the student (video, audio, screen, etc.). You will find that these allow you to keep a freshness to your lessons that one-trick-pony apps and tools may not.

Learn at Educational Technology Conferences

Hardly any one will deny that conferences offer great learning experiences and provide more selection for the price of attendance. As such, many content leaders depend on regional or state conferences within their content area to help them keep up with best practices, updated content standards, and the latest trends. But with all those benefits, you are still limited to folks who are thinking within the box of your content area. You don’t have to give that up; those conferences are definitely helpful and provide like-minded conversations and connections with other content leaders. To assist in becoming more tech-savvy though, consider attending a conference whose main focus is learning with educational technology. There you will find people from all content areas sharing their ideas of tech tools to support their (and other) content areas. And, because the presenters may be ed tech enthusiasts, they may tend to present at these types of conferences as opposed to the content-based conferences, even though they are in favor and support that specific content area.

If you have not taken the opportunity to attend an educational technology conference, then considering attending the TCEA Convention and Exposition. For a great price, you will find more than 1,100 sessions offered with specific strands identified to help you follow the flow of sessions that will be most meaningful to you. This conference takes place during the first full week in February with very targeted, longer sessions offered on Monday and Tuesday, while Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday provide the full conference experience. You can find resources for attendees at https://convention.tcea.org/attendees/resources/ .

Become a more tech-savvy content leader this year by following these three simple recommendations. If you need help with any of the three, be sure to shoot me an email at bellis@tcea.org. At TCEA, we are here to support you and help ensure that you and your students have an amazing learning experience.

October 2, 2018 0 comments

CTO/CIO Leadership

Setting Your Staff Up for Success

by Dr. Bruce Ellis August 27, 2018

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

While we all want our staff to succeed, we need to admit that there is a major role that we play in making that possible. By doing (or not doing) specific things as leaders, we can inadvertently hinder their ability to succeed. And, when you think about setting them up to succeed, many of the same strategies that we use for students will also work with our staff. Daniel H. Pink summarized it best when he identified the three things that motivate creative folks: “autonomy, mastery, and purpose.” Let’s take a look at how these might play out on your campus or team as you set them up for success.

Give Your Staff Members Choice

Just as with students, allowing our staff some choice in various decisions or activities can help build buy-in to the activity. Granted there are some things that may have to be assigned. But if the end goal can be accomplished by a variety of folks, why not let them choose who will take responsibility?

Differentiate Your Communication

Sometimes we get frustrated with our staff because they don’t fully understand the vision, goal, or reason why we are doing something. When I find myself in this situation and take a step back, it is usually because I have failed to communicate clearly and adequately with my staff. Unfortunately, I’ve never had any mind readers on my staff! If you have a similar situation, then you might take a look at how you are communicating. To break it down further, think about differentiating how you communicate by considering the medium that you use. Some folks respond better if they have information in an email while others may not check their email regularly because they find texting their go-to method of communication. Still others may prefer the face-to-face communication that couples body language and tonal inflection for them to catch the “aha!” that you want them to grasp.

Provide Strategic Scaffolding

Whether you have new staff, staff that lack specific skills, or you are the new one to them, it might benefit them (and you) to think through how you can scaffold expectations for them. Those that need the additional support can take advantage of it while others that do not need those supports can bypass them, only taking advantage of fewer resources or procedures to meet your expectation.

Detail Your Criteria

Though you probably won’t have a rubric for folks to use that may be working on specific projects, it couldn’t hurt to write out your expectations in such as way that they understand what the minimum expectation is and what needs to happen to hit it out of the ballpark. With these, though, as with students, you need to review the indicators so that everyone understands what the various levels of quality mean. If not, you may find that everyone may share the same vocabulary, but have very different understandings of the definitions of that vocabulary.

Play to Their Strengths

You might consider doing some type of inventory with your staff to help them (and you) identify their strengths, preferences, and natural inclinations. There are a variety of personality tests on the Internet that are free. If using these, it is best to set the context of why you are providing the test and that there are not any right or wrong answers. Consider providing these at the beginning of the year as an ice-breaker or getting-to-know-you activity. You may find that putting these online in a Google Form can help everyone look at their (and others’) information. The better we know each other, the better we can support each other and move forward. Playing to each individual’s strengths can also increase the quality of their success and possibly connect with more intrinsic rewards.

Start Small and Build

Granted that you may have had a lot of expectations dumped on you that you are now expected to pass on. That doesn’t mean that dumping them all at once on your staff is the best way to go. While you may be able to handle it, you may have staff that find themselves overwhelmed and become shut down or distracted from the end goal, therefore unable to perform up to expectations. Consider how you can start small and add expectations as you go along. It’s like when you see a skilled juggler that is able to juggle seven sharp knives successfully; it’s good to remember that that’s not how he started. He most likely started by juggling silk scarves or just two small balls and then worked his way up.

So, whether you are an educator at heart or have a heart for your staff being incredibly successful, consider implementing these strategies. You might be surprised at the outcome! There are many other strategies that could be listed when brainstorming what you can do in setting up your staff for success. Jump in the comments below and add to our list. We’d love to continue the conversation.

August 27, 2018 0 comments

CTO/CIO Leadership

Back to School Ideas for Leaders

by Dr. Bruce Ellis August 8, 2018

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Ready or not, teachers and students are about to come back to school! Why not be a little creative in welcoming them back? Depending on what assets you have (time for planning, talent on staff, etc.) may determine if your efforts are a solo act or more of a group effort. Either way, your staff and students are sure to feel welcomed and happy to be back. Here are a few ideas that you might want to consider that won’t break the bank or require you to recruit Disney.

Introductions

Getting to know others is a great way to build camaraderie among your staff. Sometimes, though, the back-to-school to-do list is too full to allow you the flexibility to build in all the activities you’d like to do. Why not use Flip to introduce yourself to the group using this template: share your name and what you do, one thing you are excited about this school year, and one fun thing you enjoy doing when not at school. Here is a sample Flip Intro sandbox that you can jump in and record your own and see what others say that join in (be sure to use the guest password Leadership to access the sandbox).

Microsoft purchased Flipgrid (now Flip) and made it completely free to everyone! Educators can enjoy all the great features without having to worry about freemium issues. This has to be one of the best free tools for educators and leaders to use! And, since each Flip has to be password protected, you don’t have to worry about outsiders accessing your activities or seeing videos of staff and students. To find more great ideas of using Flip, consider searching on Twitter for #flipgridFever or take a look at their blog to more ideas.

YouTube Welcome Back to School

You don’t have to have Broadway in your background to create a great YouTube video that welcomes students and teachers back. It helps if you are creative, but even that isn’t always a requirement – just identify the creative folks around you and ask for their help. Here are a few YouTube videos that might serve as inspiration for a video you might do for your folks. As you will notice, some are more involved than others. But don’t feel that you have to achieve this on your first go round. Let it start a tradition of communicating that “we enjoy being together and working with students.”

Inspire to Make a Difference

Even if you find that you are not one that likes to be on either side of the video camera, you can still find resources that can inspire your staff to make a difference this year like never before. You can find a variety of inspirational videos at http://bit.ly/educatorsinspire. My favorite inspirational video for educators – whether in the classroom or in administration – is by Rita Pierson as she clearly gives a call for action to make a difference with those we serve.

What Will You Do?

How will you start the school year for your staff, teachers, and/or students? Will you design activities that help them focus on the critical nature of their job in supporting students? Will you help them grow in trusting their peers so they are more likely to look for inspiration and great ideas around them to emulate? Or will you use a video to evoke humor amidst the hard work that is already starting for the school year? However you choose to start this school year, we’d love to hear your story and possibly pass it on to encourage and inspire others to do the same. You can drop me a line at bellis@tcea.org and let me know.

August 8, 2018 0 comments

Leadership Professional Learning

The Year of Developing Leaders

by Dr. Bruce Ellis July 24, 2018

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

You have checked your list twice as you prepare for school getting ready to start again. You have planned with your team and prepared your agenda for the first meeting back. You are ready to motivate and inspire as teachers and administrators begin a fresh year. But have you planned to look for teachers and administrators who show qualities that would make them great leaders?

When I was teaching junior high, a friend of mine who was an instructional specialist asked me to consider applying for an opening they had in the Instructional Technology Department. They had asked me to apply for prior openings, but my response was always the same, “I’m enjoying teaching in the classroom. Why would I leave it?” Somewhat convinced that I was planning to retire in the classroom, my friend said he wouldn’t bother me any more about job openings, but still thought I would be a great asset to help a wider audience. Needless to say, I applied and got the position and later rose to be director of the department. In that experience, though, I realized that they had been looking at me for a while and saw something more in me than what I saw.

We have the opportunity to work with so many people on a regular basis. Many of them show great potential in becoming leaders if they had someone to walk along side them and help develop those skills. As Carnegie noted, “The older I get, the less I listen to what people say and the more I look at what they do.” So as you start this new year, here are a few items to add to your list as you go throughout your day.

Look for Talent in Future Leaders

Many folks can talk a good talk, but may lack the skill to put their words into practice. Others, though, may not say much, but are excellent at their work. Make note of these people and what they are doing that is making a difference. For many, it may not be that they received special training, but that it comes naturally to them. These may also be the people who just assume that everyone has these same skills and therefore doesn’t consider themselves as special, gifted, or talented.

Have Open Conversations

When you see skills in others, be sure to let them know that you recognize those attributes and encourage them in using those skills. You may be the lone voice that ignites a desire for them to make a difference on a larger platform. If you have an idea of where that skill may be needed or may be a great asset, then say something like, “You are really good at explaining complex problems in a way that is understandable. Have you ever thought of a job in ____?” By articulating the skills that you see in them and sharing what a possible career trajectory might be for them in making use of that skill, you may inspire them to start considering additional growth opportunities.

A Peek Behind the Curtain

Sometimes we might tell someone that we would like them to come work for us or be in our department. We may even assume that they understand what our department does and many of the details on which we spend our time. Consider being more direct and invite them to shadow you or one of your staff members. You might ask them to help out on a particular project or initiative to give them some exposure to the job and connect with others already in those positions.

Mentor and Connect

When you find someone with skills and talent to develop even further, consider making it a more formal relationship. Let them know that you would be willing to help them gain additional skills and/or develop those skills you have noticed even further. If they are interested, then start considering how you can be a meaningful mentor. And if you find that you would like to mentor, but just don’t have the time or flexibility, the best thing you can do is to be a conduit for the person and help them connect with others that might be interested in their skills. You have contacts that you’ve made throughout your career and can refer them with confidence to specific connections to help them advance and grow.

Who Will You Develop This Year?

Just as you have made it a priority to be aware of other things that are important to you, think about how you can be aware of talent you come across this year and how you can help those folks develop and grow into leaders. So, who will you develop this year? We’d love to hear about how you’ve grown leaders in the past, as well as who you might be working with this year. Email me at bellis@tcea.org and let me know.

You can also share with them some of the events we have going on at TCEA to help them hone various skills, make connections with other like-minded educators, and get “in the know” of additional opportunities that come available. A few of the events include the Technology Acceleration Academy, Innovative Learning Strategies Conference, and the SysAdmin Conference.

July 24, 2018 0 comments

Announcements/Important Dates Leadership Professional Learning

Where Instructional Technology Heroes Gather

by Peggy Reimers May 20, 2018

written by Peggy Reimers

Coach. Guide. Partner. Hero. Words that they use to describe your just-in-time support.

These are the words your co-workers use to describe you and their relationship to you. Job titles come and go, but your functions remain the same. If you bear the responsibility of any of the accompanying job titles, then know that TCEA is your guide on the side. Digital Innovation Specialist? Campus Technology Specialist? Instructional Technology Facilitator? Instructional Coach? Join us at the academy for heroes, the TCEA Campus Technology Specialist Academy. The Academy takes place November 15-16, 2018.

The backside of my colleague Diana wearing a Wonder Woman cape while holding a google adapter bag and computer.

Powerful Toolkits

Eager to make positive change a reality in your situation? Ready to develop rockin’ toolkits that will serve you and those you serve? Then look no further than the 2018 TCEA Campus Technology Specialist Academy. At the Academy, you can share your hard-won insights and wisdom. You can also learn with others who serve and make a difference in schools. The Academy isn’t just about new technologies. Instead, it is focused on how to best engage K-12 and adult learners.

Call for Proposals

When the call for help goes out, you are the one that answers. Answer the call for proposals available online.Click to submit a proposal now. The deadline is May 31, 2018.

Past Workshops

Here are some of the sessions shared in previous years:

30-Day Challenge for Professional Development
Teachers Train Teachers
PD Like a Ninja
Our Journey Toward Increased Teacher Leadership
Motivating Unmotivated Teachers and How to Inspire Teachers to Adopt Technology

Where Heroes Gather

Don’t delay! Come to where heroes like you gather. The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2018.

Featured image photo by author.

May 20, 2018 0 comments

Leadership

Tech Tools for Leaders

by Dr. Bruce Ellis May 15, 2018

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Being a leader, whether it is part of your title or given to you by those you support, can sometimes be challenging. With a wide variety of tasks and skills that you have to manage, you may find that it is sometimes downright daunting…unless you have some help from selected apps, websites, and gadgets. We’ve curated a few tech-related tools for leaders that are related to gathering information, sharing information, and focusing on work without distractions for you to try out.

Gathering Information

As a leader, it is important that you are up to date on so much information. Here are a few tools to help you in that endeavor.

Flipboard – This customizable e-magazine allows you to identify topics and sites you would like to follow. Unlike in the “old days” where you had to gather RSS feeds and put them in your aggregator, Flipboard allows you to easily search and identify resources in a very user-friendly way. Then, each time you open Flipboard, it will have gathered the most recent blogs, websites, videos, and news based on your identified interests. And it can even learn nuances of your interests as you like different pages.

Paper.li is a similar tool that does the gathering for you and puts it in a nicely presented newsletter format. With a paid subscription, you can upgrade the look of your paper from a newsletter to a full blown website. You may choose that you don’t want to start your own paper, so here are some that others have already been started to help you gather information on a variety of topics: edtech, students, classrooms, technology, and virtual reality.

If you are searching for information that is no longer posted on a website, then you might try your luck using the Way Back Machine. Enter the url of the site you want to review and check to see if there are any archived snapshots of it. If so, you can review the website on those specific dates and possibly find the information that you need.

Though many folks use digital tools to take notes (such as OneNote, Google Keep, etc.), you may prefer to take notes the old fashioned way with paper and pen. If this you, then check out the Rocketbook Wave Smart Notebook. Write notes and draw sketches in the notebook. Afterwards, you can use their app to digitize the information and sync to your favorite tool. When your notebook is full, just pop it in the microwave for the recommended time to remove all the ink. Voila, you now have a clean notebook ready to be filled again! You can refill a notebook up to four times.

Sharing Information

Whether you are sharing information with someone now or making it available for them to access at their convenience, you are sure to find these tools a handy addition to your toolbox.

Video conferencing doesn’t get any easier than Appear.in. This tool is great if you have virtual office hours or need to have a video chat with someone on the fly. If you think you would use it often, you can reserve a room name to make it easy for everyone to remember. There’s only enough “room” for four participants so it’s not the ideal solution for larger meetings. But if you are like me, many of my meetings include only one or two other folks; I’ve reserved the room https://appear.in/tcea for such meetings. This is a great tool, especially if you are meeting with tech-challenged coworkers or stakeholders since there is no learning curve and they can access through any web browser.

For instances when you need to share how to access or do something on the computer or internet, I highly recommend Screencastify. This go-to tool allows you to record your screen casts with or without your webcam inset. This is one tool that is worth paying the low yearly fee to remove the watermark and the 10-minute time limit. When done, you can easily share your cast via YouTube or Google Drive. If you have the paid version, you can download the video as an MP4 or animated GIF, as well as crop/trim your video.

Flipgrid allows you to create asynchronous video discussions. Again, this is another tool that is worth the annual fee to have the premium features. If you decide to purchase several licenses at once, you can get a discount! Think of this as an easy way to share your video without putting it out on YouTube, Vimeo, or the like. Then folks can respond and keep the conversation going (by text comments with the free version; by text or video with the paid version). Not only is this a great tool in the classroom, it’s a powerful tool for busy leaders.

Focused Work

We all hit times where we need to close the door and get the job done without any distractions. These two tools will help you be more aware of how you are using your time and block out some of those annoying distractions.

Timular, mentioned in a previous blog post, is an eight-sided die that lets you easily track the time you spend on various tasks. This is great for leaders who find they have more tasks than time to complete them. Knowing exactly how you spend your time can help you make positive decisions on where to make adjustments. You can review how your time was spent within the app or on a calendar that you’ve synced to it.

Noisli is robust noise machine with 16 different sound scenes that you can combine to make the perfect background noise for you…and you can save up to five favorite combos. One of my favorites is a little pink noise, some wind, and a modest thunderstorm. You can also set a timer and, if you need to do some writing, open its distraction-free writing tool. Whatever your recipe for helping your focus, you’ll find that Noisli is a great tool to have handy.

Even More Resources…

If you would like additional tech tools for leaders, be sure to check out our longer list (PDF or PNG). As always, we would enjoy hearing some of your favorite tech tools – whether apps, websites, or gadgets – that you find helpful. Just add them to the comments below.

May 15, 2018 0 comments

Leadership

Three Ways to Increase Your Productivity

by Dr. Bruce Ellis March 8, 2018

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Regardless of your job, you probably find that you have more on your to-do list than you can actually take care of. Many of us in that boat look for ways to work smarter throughout the day so that we can check off more of those items. Consider using one or more of these strategies to help you so that you can change your to-do list to a ta-da list!

Strategy 1 – Find Out Where Your Time Is Going

Before you can address some of your habits, you may have to identify them and discover which ones are taking up more time than you realize. In doing so, I highly recommend Timeular ZEI°. It is an eight-sided die in which you write up to eight different task categories, one on each side. Once you’ve installed the software and connected the device to Bluetooth, it begins tracking your time. The hardest part may be deciding which categories you want to identify. My categories include: Working on presentations; Blogs/writing; Break/Lunch; Brainstorming; Meetings; Email/communication; Social Media; and Miscellaneous. And because it syncs with my Google Calendar, I can take a look back at my history and see how I did. Or, if I want more stats, I can view how I’ve done in the app installed on my computer. I find this process similar to tracking my steps using my smartwatch. If you find that you are not ready to commit to the cost of the ZEI°, you can still download the app and manually choose your categories to track your time.

Strategy 2 – Rethink Your Time Management Philosophy

I came across Starre Vartan’s blog post several weeks ago and found it very interesting. Instead of focusing on my time management skills, she suggests that I consider taking a look at my attention management skills. How well do I set up my environment so that I can concentrate on tasks that require my attention? Do I let myself get distracted and actually undermine my own productivity success? Consider doing the following to help you give more [extended] attention to those heftier tasks:

Only check email at specific, planned times during the day. This means not jumping into your email every five minutes, but instead establishing a system in which you, for example, check email between 10 AM and 11 AM in the morning and then between 2 PM and 3 PM in the afternoon. Be sure your boss and coworkers are aware of your system; in case their need for you is urgent, they may need to call you or knock on your door. Taming the addiction of checking email most likely also includes not even having email opened in your browser when it isn’t email-checking time.
Quieten your phone or smartwatch that might alert you when you receive a text or email (or when a distant acquaintance posts something on Facebook, Twitter, Slack, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.). During these times, if you have multiple social media tools vying for your attention, consider just putting your phone on silence…and possibly in your desk or away from you.
Consider adding background noise to help drown out the distracting ambient noise of your office area. For an adjustable tool, I like using Noisli. It is a free resource that allows me to mix different sounds to create the perfect background noise. When I’m not listening to straight white noise, I’m listening to this special mix. Listen to it and then share your special Noisli mix in the comments.

Strategy 3 – Consider Unique Headphones

Many people find that wearing headphones helps them tune out distractions so they can be more focused on their tasks. But if you work in an environment where you need to hear your surroundings or have to answer the frequent questions of your coworkers or customers, you may find that wearing headphones is not worth the hassle…or worse yet, sends a message that you don’t want to be bothered. In that case, I have a nice solution for you: bone conduction headphones. The technology has actually been around for several years, though it is just now improving to the point of making them mainstream for the public (at least, those that are nerdier or geekier than their neighbors).

Bone conduction works on a similar premise as how you normally hear. Normally, sound waves (vibrations) enter your ear and are translated by your inner ear. With bone conduction, though, sound travels through your bone (skull) to reach your inner ear. While this process sounds like something from science fiction, it works very well. You actually don’t feel anything unless you have your music turned up on high.

I picked out a pair of AfterShokz Trekz Titanium for my birthday gift last fall and have really enjoyed them. I can easily pair them via Bluetooth to my phone so I can listen to music (or take phone calls). They do not go in my ear like traditional earbuds or over my ears like traditional headphones, but in front of my ears covering my sideburns; this allows me to enjoy listening to my music while still being able to hear and respond to conversations around me. Without the buds in my ears, my mind is tricked and tells me that the sound is in the room and can be heard by other people. There are several bone conduction headphone makers on the market. I recommend going to a brick-and-mortar location where you can try a pair on and see if you like the feel and sound. But if you are a little more daring, then jump online, read some reviews, and order a pair.

These are three very different strategies to help you become more productive.

March 8, 2018 0 comments

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