Dangerously Irrelevant

Three videos worth watching…

In Fall 2008, only 6 school districts in Iowa had a 1:1 student laptop initiative in place. In Fall 2011, as many as 90 to 100 districts (one-fourth of the state total) may be giving laptops to some segment of their student population. This explosive, grass roots growth has completely changed the tenor of many conversations here in the state and has fostered some very rapid innovations in learning and teaching.

Contest winners

Here are the winners of CASTLE’s first-ever Iowa 1:1 Student Video Contest. Congratulations to Matthew (Valley CSD, Elgin, IA) and Janae (Sioux Central CSD, Sioux Rapids, IA)!

Van Meter

The Van Meter Community Schools (Van Meter, IA) recently made a video highlighting its 1:1 learning and teaching initiative. Maybe next year CASTLE should have a school/district video contest too!

Kudos to the creators of all three of these videos. Nicely done!

If you’d like to know more about 1:1 laptop initiatives in Iowa, contact Nick Sauers (and read his blog, 1 to 1 Schools), check out CASTLE’s annual Iowa 1:1 Institute, and/or participate in the 1:1 Laptop Schools Ning. We also have a map showing all currently-known 1:1 schools in the state. If your district’s not on this list, please let Nick know!

[UPDATE: And the winner is… Suzie Linch, who submitted Nathan Barber’s blog, The Next Generation of Educational Leadership. Congratulations, Suzie!]

Just a quick update... Six days after announcing my goal of identifying 500 school leadership blogs, we’re up to 402 submissions. Removing duplicates, that’s a total of about 330 school leadership blogs so far.

As I noted in my previous post:

I know that many of you will contribute out of the goodness of your heart. But, because 500 blogs is a very ambitious goal, I’ll sweeten the pot a little. The kind folks at Lenovo are going to let me give away a Lenovo m90z all-in-one desktop computer to anyone in the world who submits a school leadership blog using the form below. I’ll choose at random from all of the submissions. You get an extra chance for each blog you submit; the more you enter, the better your chance to win!

The form is below. The deadline is May 16. I’ll clean up the list of contributions and share it back out so that we all can make good use of them. Thanks to everyone who already has submitted an entry. If you know of a principal or superintendent or school administrator association who is blogging, your assistance would be greatly appreciated!

[UPDATE: And the winner is… Suzie Linch, who submitted Nathan Barber’s blog, The Next Generation of Educational Leadership. Congratulations, Suzie!]

Does your local principal or superintendent blog? Do you read the blog of your local, state, or national school administrator association? Know of other blogs that are of interest to school leaders? I’m trying to collect 500 school leadership blogs in the next 10 days. Sure, there are some lists but they all need updating:

• CASTLE’s blogs for busy administrators
• Moving Forward: Principal / school blogs
• Support blogging: Principal blogs
• Support blogging: Administrator blogs
• Developing an RSS feed for principals

I know that many of you will contribute out of the goodness of your heart. But, because 500 blogs is a very ambitious goal, I’ll sweeten the pot a little. The kind folks at Lenovo are going to let me give away a Lenovo m90z all-in-one desktop computer to anyone in the world who submits a school leadership blog using the form below. I’ll choose at random from all of the submissions. You get an extra chance for each blog you submit; the more you enter, the better your chance to win!

FYI, the m90z is a pretty sweet machine (Lenovo sent me one to review first). The huge touch screen is very responsive. It would be a great home or classroom computer; my kids have taken to it like ducks to water. Here are a few pictures so that you can see what you might win and here are the technical specifications. Also, over the next few days check out these blogs for additional opportunities to score a m90z:

• Bud the Teacher (May 8–12)
• Kikolani (May 9–13)
• Geeks to Go (May 10–14)
• Chad Lehman (May 11–15)

The form is below. The deadline is May 16. Thanks in advance for helping out. I’ll clean up the list of contributions and share it back out so that we all can make good use of them!

I said in my previous post that I had a second big move to announce. Well, it’s now official. Starting in August I will be a faculty member at the University of Kentucky (UK). Here’s the quick back story (and why you should care about this move of mine).

November 2010. I get a phone call from UK. My colleague, Dr. John Nash, and I are officially targeted by the UK President, Provost, and Dean of the College of Education to be faculty members at UK. Not an open search; a targeted search (i.e., they want us and only us). Wow. Wasn’t expecting that!

December 2010. We go to Lexington with our wives to check out the university and the community. We’re given the red carpet treatment throughout by the Department of Educational Leadership Studies, including meeting with all of the aforementioned folks and the state Commissioner of Education (who happens to be a LeaderTalk blogger!). We’re suitably impressed with the support and vision these folks have around P-12 technology leadership. Plus we’ll get to work with Drs. Justin Bathon and Jayson Richardson, 2 of the other 6 to 8 faculty nationwide that care about technology leadership issues. Four of us in one place? Incredible!

January 2011. Lots of mental anguish in the McLeod household. The job may be the best professional setup I’ll ever get. But it’s not the right time to move our family from Ames, Iowa. What to do, what to do? Think outside the box! Pitch UK a ‘global worker’ proposal. 90% of my work is online / electronic anyway. Can I remain in Ames and fly to Lexington a few days a month to take care of the rest? We wait anxiously, fingers and toes crossed. UK says YES!

February 2011. A few logistical and contract things to work out. The job offer is signed; John signs his too. It’s official. We “See Blue!”

Okay, why do you care about this?

Well, for one thing, I’m walking my talk. This is an unusual setup for a tenured faculty member at a traditional (i.e., not wholly online) university. I’ve repeatedly said that knowledge workers are increasingly able to work for anyone from anywhere. Apparently I now get to live that statement.

More important, however, is this: For the first time ever, we’ve now got a critical mass of faculty in one place who care about the leadership side of school technology. The biggest limit to CASTLE’s impact and expansion has been the small numbers of people associated with the center. We now have four (4! I can’t believe it!) full-time faculty, all at the same institution, all focused in the same direction. We’re going to be the Skunk Works of tech leadership! With the support and vision that we have from the folks above us at UK and in the state department, the possibilities are nearly limitless.

The first beneficiary of the move? Our School Technology Leadership classes. Up and running in Spring 2012 (hopefully). 15 credits of wholly online awesomeness, aligned to the NETS-A, available to anyone who cares about technology leadership. Possibilities for a graduate certificate, Master’s, and/or Ph.D. in School Tech Leadership. Interested? Sign up here.

So that’s the story. More to come in the months ahead. Until then, it’s time for me to actually start writing for BigThink about technology, leadership, and schools rather than myself.

Let the games begin!

Image credit: University of Kentucky

Mark your calendars! The second annual Iowa 1:1 Institute (I11I) will be at the Polk County Convention Complex in Des Moines on April 20, 2011, from 9am to 5pm.

In our first year we had over 600 happy people in attendance. This year we anticipate 1,000 to 1,200 attendees (did we mention registration is FREE?!). We’ll have 120 different sessions, nearly all of which will be delivered by educators and students in the 40+ school districts in Iowa with 1:1 laptop programs. This grass-roots conference is a must-attend event; the conversations and learning are very powerful!

About the institute

The purposes of the institute are to:

• help Iowa's 1:1 districts learn from each other about innovative teaching, learning, and administrative practices that are occurring in their districts;
• build excitement and 'buzz' around 1:1 laptop computing initiatives in the state; and
• help others who are interested in 1:1 computing learn more about how to get started and be successful.

The institute is open to ANYONE interested in 1:1 laptop computing initiatives in P-12 schools, whether they currently are working in such a program or just want to learn more.

Since the primary purpose of the institute is for Iowa’s 1:1 school districts to learn from each other, registration and presentation slots are initially reserved for educators in those school organizations. We’ll open up any remaining registration slots on February 24. We’ll open up any remaining presentation slots on March 17.

Want to be a vendor?

We’ve got 20 precious tables for vendors. Learn more here if you’re interested in being an institute sponsor.

Can’t attend?

Follow along on April 20 with the #i11i hashtag and/or see presenters’ materials at the 1:1 Laptop Schools Ning.

Questions?

If you have questions, please leave them below or e-mail Nick Sauers, CASTLE’s go-to guy for all things 1:1!

I am absolutely delighted to announce that the Connected Principals blog is now a member of the CASTLE blog family. Connected Principals currently has 22 school administrators blogging about technology leadership and other topics. We are extremely excited to have these insightful school leaders join us!

Here are a few posts to get you started:

• Principals ARE teachers
• Who owns it?
• “They don’t get it”
• Khan Academy: Where does it fit?
• In schools of the future, students learn best by doing, vigorously and digitally
• Parents as partners

FYI, you can visit each of CASTLE’s blogs individually or you can subscribe to them all using our overall CASTLE blog RSS feed.

Next up for the CASTLE blog family: a Leadership for Social Justice blog. Happy reading!

For an upcoming CASTLE research project, we’re going to do interviews of multiple years’ worth of the winners of eSchoolNews’ technology-savvy superintendents awards. We are soliciting input regarding our interview protocol. These superintendent interviews will be done over the telephone, recorded as podcasts, and made available online to the public as a free resource.

What changes / additions / deletions would you suggest to our draft interview protocol? We’ll take a look at anything left in the comments area by Sunday, September 19!

Interview protocol

1. As we get started here, would you confirm verbally that you received the consent form that was sent to you and that you also recognize that this interview will be publicly available on the Internet? [pause] Thank you.

2. Where are you currently a superintendent and how long have you served in that role?

• eSchoolNews identified you as one of the nation’s most technology-savvy superintendents. Are you still in the district for which you won the award?
• Would you share with us your previous administrative and teaching experiences?

3. Why do you think you were selected for the eSchoolNews award?

• Can you describe some of the most important technology initiatives that your district implemented?
• What do you think was the most important initiative you implemented (and why)?

4. In general, what do you think is the difference between a regular superintendent and a ‘technology-savvy’ superintendent?

• Are there particular leadership mindsets or behaviors that would help outsiders identify a superintendent as one that was ‘technology-savvy?’

5. How do you ensure that digital technologies are used as tools to enhance learning and not just as ‘technology for the sake of doing technology?’

6. What are some of the challenges to being a ‘technology-savvy’ superintendent? What gets in the way of doing this well? [ask follow-up probes about any/all of the items below as necessary]

• Staff?
• Resources?
• Parents / community members?
• Time?
• Professional development / training?
• Lack of organizational vision?
• Other?

7. Why do you think most superintendents struggle when it comes to being effective technology leaders?

• What can be done to help superintendents in this area?

8. Did your superintendent licensure program - or any of your other administrative licensure programs - help prepare you to be an effective technology leader?

• Did your administrative licensure programs incorporate coverage of technology leadership issues into their curricula?
• Did your administrative licensure programs help you develop your own personal technology proficiencies?
• What recommendations do you have for preservice preparation of superintendents and principals when it comes to the technology side of leadership?

9. What kind of learning opportunities do you have to enhance your own development as a technology leader? What, if anything, is being done by each of these entities to help you become a better technology leader?

• School district
• State and/or national leadership associations
• State department of education and/or regional service agencies
• Universities
• Other entities

10. What are some ways that you personally use technology?

• What do these technology tools do for you?
• How do you keep up with the current trends in education as a whole and, more specifically, the ever-changing world of technology in education and society?
• What are some must-have technology tools for superintendents?

11. We’ve been focusing on the superintendent side of all of this. What do building-level school leaders need to be doing when it comes to technology implementation and integration in their schools? What role do they play in all of this?

12. What kinds of professional development do you think are most effective when it comes to technology? Let’s start with teachers. What training do they need and how should it be structured?

• Okay, and now how about for administrators? What training do they need and how should it be structured?
• Should technology-related training for administrators be different than what is given to teachers? Why or why not?

13. So far we’ve been talking a lot about effective technology leadership. What does ineffective, or bad, technology leadership look like?

14. Here’s our next-to-last question: What advice do you have for school leaders who want to be more ‘technology savvy?’

15. Thanks so much. Is there anything else you want to say on the topic of effective technology leadership? Anything that we should have discussed but didn’t?

Image credit: Do you remember?……Call