Dangerously Irrelevant

Over the past few years, I mentioned several times to Keith Krueger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking
(CoSN), that CoSN was a great organization for larger districts that had CTOs or CIOs that
supervised large staffs but that technology coordinators in smaller districts
didn’t really have an organization that represented their interests. Keith
rightfully replied that many of CoSN’s resources (which are superb in my
opinion) also were relevant and applicable to smaller districts’ needs. I
concurred but still wished that there was an organization that better
represented these folks. As I
noted way back in August 2006 when my readership was about 12 people, there
really isn’t a national association that represents the majority of people in
these positions like there is for principals, teachers, counselors, school
business officials, etc.

Although my desire for an organization that comprehensively represents
technology coordinators has yet to be fulfilled, in November 2007 CoSN unveiled its Small School
District Technology Leadership Wiki. I can’t take any credit for this, of course, but I’m delighted. The wiki is chock full of information
for technology leaders in smaller districts and, of course, can be edited and
expanded by others. I encourage you to check out this
fantastic resource and to contribute and make it even better. Thanks,
CoSN!

P.S. Join Keith and me later today for an online
chat about PK-12 technology leadership.

Edublogs has come out with an online magazine. One of the articles reports on Aseem Badshah’s attempt to list the ‘top edubloggers’ (as measured by Technorati ranking). Although I’m delighted to be included, the blogs listed in the article are pretty heavily skewed toward educational technology bloggers. As both Aseem’s list and my own work on this topic show, there are lots of non-ed tech blogs out there that have pretty wide audiences. As long as we only promote ed tech blogs, we are missing opportunities to engage and interest educators who have interests in areas other than digital technologies.

As
Seth Godin notes, there’s a huge difference between this:

THERE ARE NO REFUNDS, NO
EXCEPTIONS.
THERE ARE NO EXCHANGES ON PLANTS.
ALL LISTED CONDITIONS MUST
BE MET IN ORDER TO RECEIVE EQUAL OR LESSER VALUE EXCHANGE. THERE ARE NO
EXCEPTIONS. MANAGER RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MAKE SPECIAL
EXCEPTIONS.

and this:

At Surroundings, it’s really important to
us that you be delighted (not just happy). Please keep your receipt and be sure
to bring it with you if there are any problems. We’ll be happy to exchange any
cut flowers that aren’t just right–we’ll give you a store credit or any other
item in the store of equal or lesser value. Unfortunately, we can’t exchange
plants. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask any of us for
help.

I think it’s safe to say that most of our school rules are written like the
former, not the latter. No wonder students grumble about the rules so much.
Couldn’t we find ways to make our rules, policies, and guidelines more
palatable, more positive, and more pleasant? They might go over better with our
intended audiences…

As a follow-up to the Education Week article, The Knowledge Gap, that I mentioned last week, I’m participating in an online chat with Keith Krueger, Executive Director for the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN).

Join us from 2:00pm to 3:00pm Eastern on Thursday, January 31, for a live chat about the technology knowledge gap among school leaders and what needs to be done to help them boost their knowledge and skills in this area.

Here’s the publicity blurb from Education Week:

In the Winter 2008 issue of Education Week‘s Digital Directions, released last week, Scott McLeod, the founding director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education, says that “The people who are in charge of facilitating schools’ transition to the digital global economy – superintendents and principals – are typically the least knowledgeable about the digital global economy.”

Why does this knowledge gap exist? What impact do you think it has had on the use of technology in schools? And what is the best way for superintendents, principals, and other school leaders to learn how technology can be used to improve schools?

Get a head start. Submit your questions in advance!

Occasionally I have a guest blogger here at Dangerously Irrelevant just to spice things up a bit. You can read past guests’ contributions by clicking on the Guest Bloggers category. Usually I invite people personally, but I thought it might be fun to put out a RFP (request for proposals)…

Want to blog here on a topic (or topics) related to K-12 school leadership or leadership preparation? Looking for greater exposure for some of your ideas? Read over my guest blogging page and then drop me a note with your ideas for a 5-day series.

You don’t have to be a blogger to participate. If you are, however, cross-posting is both allowed and encouraged. Also, you can blog about school leadership issues generally rather than just technology leadership issues specifically. And, yes, past guests are welcome to blog again…

Hope some of you are interested!

Behold the power of Web 2.0:

• My original post = 26 comments (that’s pretty good!)
• Pete Reilly’s follow-up post = 52 comments (and counting; that’s awesome!)
• Others’ follow-up posts (and all of their comments; incredible!)

Check ‘em out. There’s some darn good reading here.

We need to teach administrators about this stuff. Take a post like mine that gets some play (and also is of interest to school leaders) and show them how this works. Show them that the learning is in the dialogue and the interplay of ideas and that it’s not difficult to do. They need help seeing the power and potential. Lend a hand, won’t you?

Thinking about getting your Master’s or doctorate in K-12 school leadership or instructional technology? Have the ability to move to the super nifty college town of Ames, Iowa? If so, CASTLE has graduate assistantships available!

Contact me if you’re interested. Wouldn’t if be fun to work together to kick start school administrators into the 21st century?

This week's recipient of the crimson megaphone is Carolyn Foote, a high school librarian in Austin, Texas. Carolyn blogs at Not So Distant Future and is definitely someone that deserves a bigger audience (DABA).

Here are a few posts to get you started:

• Keeping It Real
• How About Some Wheat Bread?
• Desperately Seeking Engagement
• Getting Off of the Roundabout
• Changing Our Perspective?

Happy reading!

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• The Crimson Megaphone

There’s a new documentary about to come out: 2 Million Minutes: A Global Examination. It profiles 6 high school students from China, India, and the United States. Watch the movie trailer or read the article about it in Education Week. It looked interesting enough for me to pre-order a copy. I’ll let you know what I think after I view it!

Educon 2.0 begins today. Do I wish I was one of the attendees? Absolutely!

Follow along at the conference wiki, via RSS, via UStream, via Technorati, in Second Life, and/or at Flickr. Kudos to Chris Lehmann and everyone else who worked on putting together what looks like an amazing event. I can’t wait to see what shakes out over the next few days!