These are my rough notes on the Microsoft one note session today.
One note is usable on any Platform. iPhone app here, higher Rez ipad app coming. Android
One note Mac is only available from skydive.
Top tips on one note.
In 2010 One Note became part of the office suite. FYI. Office 2007 one note won't sync to Skydrive Robyn Hrivnatz and Sarah ? the facilitators
Pages on the right. Subpages, subsections. Any file from anywhere can be inserted. Can type anywhere you want, margins don't exist on the page. Click and type. There is a math add in for one note just like for word. When you install the one for Word it installs for office and is used in One Note also.
On the fly tables. Just type and press tab! (This is cool!) Screen clipping is under insert but teachers should really use the snippet feature. Use Windows button + S it asks you where to put the notes. In 2007 it goes to unfiled notes. (windows + S is a cool feature.)
Snippet reference is pasted automatically. This cites sources very well as an active hotlink. One note documents where info came from. The difference between snippet and clipping.
You can tag things as important, to dos questions. Tags are searchable and reviewable.
You can show authors and see who put what in a document so you can work collaboratively. Every student needs to have a windows live id. Can access previous versions of the notebook and restore things that are deleted.
Some educators pushing back about sharing notebooks because "kids will copy." ( you can tell if they are but they are already, give authentic projects requiring learning.)
Search feature on right is powerful. To some extent it searches text inside images.
Community clips is a free download from Office Labs which let's you create screen captures into your one note notebook. You can password protect pages.
The ability to store files in one note is the differentiating factor. Grab file drag and pull in. It asks if you want a link to a file, no, you copy the file and it puts it in the notebook.A copy of that file is in notebook. Sync and carry. Put files on the page where assignment given so you have it.
It is kind of like the time my husband and I drove up on a horrible motor cycle accident that must have happened milliseconds before. The man had flipped over his bike and slid several feet on his face. I didn't want to look but I did and will never forget it. That is how I feel about the book Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker, legendary hacker Kevin Mitnick's personal memoir.
As a huge fan of Leo LaPorte's old show the Screensavers, I knew who Kevin Mitnick was but really had no idea how much effect he had on my own life or what he had really done.
[Video. Kevin Mitnick uses a computer for the first time after his sentence of being unable to use a computer expires on the Screensavers with Steve Wozniak and Leo Laporte]
Cyber-enemy #1: Arrested February 1995 I missed his arrest in 1995 because I had just had my first child and was on maternity leave but I had been working for telephone companies since 1991 for one of Kevin's targets: GTE, then, the nations second largest phone company. But now, I understand a lot.
Mysteries Explained Kevin Mitnick's book explained so many of the things that the "engineers wouldn't tell us" that I am glad I read it. I am only beginning to put things together of what must have been shaking the telecommunications business to the core and still does, but I wasn't at a high enough level to really know about in detail.
Questions like:
Why were telephone CO (central offices) so secure? (We weren't allowed to tour them.)
Why weren't more features on switches enabled and used? (call waiting/ caller id)
Then, when I worked on the cell phone side: how did people clone the ESN's (electronic serial numbers) and why was fraud so ridiculously high? How did that work? When I went on trips, why were such subjects taboo among engineers and not even talked about over dinner?
As market manager of a major city, I wasn't allowed into the company cell sites. I had a valid reason at one point but engineering and operations were very separate to the point of it being odd. Why?
When we asked questions about fraud why did the engineers go silent?
Why did that smart guy who could write in binary get hired and why did he work late into the night? The engineers said he had "special skills" but wouldn't explain them. Why did the engineers have secret meetings and not tell those of us in marketing and sales even what they were about? What was going on?
Kind of like when your Momma and Daddy are sharing that secret language about something important but not really letting you in on what it is. Why?
It makes sense now.
COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN Like the motor cycle accident, I couldn't look away.I really wanted to.
I feel like good people are being hurt with this book. Now that I have said that, I know that Kevin himself says he is glad he is no longer breaking the law, but my biggest problem is that he seems to still be doing harm.
Much of Kevin's ability to steal the source code of the prominent operating systems of the 80's and 90's comes from his uncanny ability to "social engineer" or gain people's trust through deceit to get them to tell him passwords and share whole files. He shares the real names and phone numbers of many of these "nice" people in the book.
People Behind the Pain I think the thing that bothers me the most, though was when I tweeted about reading the book, a close friend who has been at a major software giant for a very long time dm'd me on Twitter.
"Read the book, but don't make Mitnick out to be a hero. I owned a computer hacked by him in the 80's."
I wanted the back story and reached out. He worked for DEC programming the operating system (OS) when Kevin stole a copy of their code.
In the book, Kevin asserts that his hacking didn't cost the companies any money. He is wrong. According to my friend, DEC's development calendar was delayed over a month while the 70-person OS team audited every line of code of DEC's operating system.
"Just because a hacker says he just copied the code because he could, doesn't mean we could afford to believe him. We had to audit every line of code because as a company we had to make sure that our product was safe."
As a person hired to find and help fix security breaches, Mitnick should know that breaches, even if a person doesn't do something, cost money. Hacking cost companies money. I feel like he marginalizes the harm he caused.
I don't buy that people who hack in this way really help make us safer or provide benefits of any kind. (Note: There are many "white hat hackers" who do us a service through protecting us. I am talking here about the hacking described in this book before he began his security business.)
Mitnick's mutiny- a last revenge. Kevin was truly sorry for the pain he caused his Mom and Grandma. Early in the book he mentions that he has an uncanny memory.
He names names and phone numbers in this book of the "nice" and gullible people who gave them their passwords and data files. The "nice" government officials that he conned into giving out social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, tax records, and all kinds of personal information relating to his targets including how he hacked voice mails. (Sound familiar?) This was in the 1980's until 1995: just a few years, later these people are still around.
What is social engineering? Social engineering is another word for conning or lying. Period.
The thought of good people losing their jobs because they were duped and now those good people having the whole world know they were duped because Kevin used their names in his book...that makes me feel like he is still doing harm. Some may not even know it until the book comes out.
What good comes from your reading this book? So, in this book, he embarrasses people and companies by relaying phone numbers, names, and exposing security flaws for major companies like Pac Bell, GTE, DEC, OKI, Nokia, Microsoft, the IRS, the Department of Motor Vehicles, government agencies of all kinds and more?
Why should I read this book, Vicki?
If we need something to make us more paranoid, this is it. If you are in charge of an IT department or security, you need to understand what Kevin did and that every Mitnick-wannabe will probably be trying this in the future.
I will never view any phone conversation the same ever again. I will never even view any open wifi connection the same again. One of the top tweeters, Ashton Kutcher had his wifi device hacked and fake tweets posted to his account, for goodness sakes.
You know, we know that hackers are there, but this book makes them real. It makes me paranoid. Maybe that is a good thing.
What do I feel? I really don't know what to do with this book. I see the man who just had his nose rubbed off by the pavement looking out at me with blood pouring out of the hole where his nose used to be.
This is probably the first disgusting thing like that you've ever seen me write. But it is the only way to tell you what I feel.
I know that because this book inhaled me and I read it in 4 days that other people will look too, but I am horribly in pain for those Kevin has double hacked by putting their naivety on display. I am sorry.
I don't know what to think except that we all need to wise up and teach our students to have secure passwords that they don't write down and they never share with each other.
It is time to grow up and realize that bad people are out there and just because a nice guy calls on the phone doesn't mean we need to be helpful. I just don't know how I like living in a suspicious world but I guess that is where we are.
I just wish Kevin Mitnick would rethink the harm he could do to nice people. I guess us nice people are dumb and he is so smart that we dumb nice people deserve to be humiliated but I just don't buy it. I don't think the names and phone numbers were really necessary.
Nothing nice to look at. I don't even like the fact I am reviewing it in some ways. I feel sick.
Why didn't someone engage his talent in a positive way? I have to also be upset by the school system that didn't give him access, the people more interested in "catching him" than giving Kevin a positive way to use his talent. In another conversation, I learned how a computer science teacher found a kid who had started hacking and he put him in charge of school security. Now he runs security for a major university.
Sure, Kevin bears responsibility for his action, but I think that it is our job as educators to help talented people like Kevin use their talents in positive ways.
So, as I fly to Microsoft headquarters to one of Mitnick's former hideouts and finish up this post on my iPad (ok, I know the irony, it is ok.) I have time to think over this before I hit publish.
I keep seeing the guy on his face in the street.
It is going to be an important and much discussed book in all IT circles, an unpleasant journey but one that is going to attract interest no matter what we do.
UPDATE: I feel like if I don't write about it someone else will and perhaps deify Mitnick's story. Maybe he will read this post and comment he did change some names and numbers, but here it is. The ugly truth about a book I wish was fiction but if it was, I'd accuse the author of writing sci-fi.
With friends like Kevin Poulson (another former hacker) , Steve Wozniak (author of the foreword of this book) and Leo Laporte, a lot of buzz will circulate about this book whether my 2 cents goes in or not and I bet movies and headlines will hit as people begin to doubt the security procedures of the tech companies who dominate our lives.
This week I am at the Microsoft Partners in Learning serving as a US judge for the International Competition and am blown away from the amazing innovations.
What is most impressive is that although many incredible uses of Microsoft products are included that anything and everything is here. Oddly enough, I have seen Google, Apple, and just about anything as part of a classroom with many learning experiences.
The purpose as judges is to recognize the best 21st century learning in the classroom based upon the current research. I can personally attest that the rubrics have no product bias, although every teacher here uses Microsoft in some way. (but honestly, who doesn't use Microsoft something in their classroom)
I am finding that there are tons of one note uses and the new office 360 has some pretty amazing things built in! Ok, more from me later.
I asked Microsoft Teach Tec Blogger, Rob Bayuk to write a guest post about what is happening here. Here goes.
"Today 100 educators from 25 states arrived in Seattle for the Microsoft Partners in Learning 2011 U.S. Innovative Education Forum (IEF). The IEF is part of a worldwide program designed to shine a spotlight on some of the world's top educators and provide them the opportunity to collaborate, exhibit and share innovative tech-infused projects they've done with students. Over the past year educators applied and these 100 educators were chosen representing all K-12 subjects and grade levels. While attending the event educators will also participate in a number of unique professional learning activities.
Ten finalists from this U.S. event will be chosen to represent the United States at the Partners in Learning Global Forum in Washington, DC in November. The global event is expected to attract more than 700 teachers, school leaders, press and education thought leaders from more than 75 countries.
On the agenda for these teachers over the two day forum hosted on Microsoft's main campus in Redmond, WA will be project exhibitions evaluated by a panel of judges from education and education-related fields, learning excursions to some of Seattle’s best known historical and cultural landmarks such as the Space Needle and Pike Place Market where collaborative teams of educators will create project-based activities based on their experiences, and hands-on technology workshops using Microsoft’s latest programs for education.
The group will also hear two inspiring keynote speeches on Thursday and Friday by Dr. John Medina, author of the New York Times bestseller "Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School and Dr. Jane McGonigal, world-renowned game designer and author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World will deliver the closing keynote.
Both of these keynote presentations will be streamed live through the Partners in Learning Facebook page. "Like" the page to watch the streaming and get the details on when these will be streamed live as they will not be recorded. We will also stream them through our IEF web site and if you'd like to follow along on Twitter follow me @TeachTec and watch for #msftpil.
For a summary of the projects that will be exhibited this week checkout this post.
Thanks,
Rob Bayuk Microsoft U.S. Partners in Learning Team (aka @TeachTec)"
Cool program. I hope all you innovative teachers out there will consider applying next year!
It is exciting to be at the 2011 US Innovation Education Forum as a judge this week. To see who the judges are, what we're doing, and more about the process Rob (@TeachTec) has given an overview of what and who.
Download GOOP on August 2nd and get Cram for Mac or iphone for FREE. Here are the details. Mark your calendars.
We are giving Cram for Mac (usually $24.99) and Cram for iPhone (usually $3.99) FREE on August 2nd to those that download download upcoming iPhone/iPod touch game Goop (intro price of $0.99). Here are the specifics: http://simpleleapsoftware.com/blog/back-to-school-deal-cram-for-mac-or-iphone-free/800/ Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks again Vicki.
An excellent document from Andrew Churches explaining the evolution of Bloom's Taxonomy into Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. This is an excellent reference for educators and is very easy to understand.
This well written post should be a must read for every principal, administrator, or teacher that wants to lead in their school and classroom. arrogance can keep us from our best. we see it in Washington, let's not see it in the classroom. excellent read! I highly recommend it.
"It is so exciting that you are publishing a book! I already signed up for the e-mail list. I can not wait to buy it.
By the way, does Westwood teach a film class? I think I remember you telling me that you have a class based around video production, but it is only a semester long. If such a class exists, I would love to sit in on one of your lectures. Also, keep up the good work!
Others will come around eventually, and when they do, you will be admired and rewarded for your astonishing ability to think into the future rather than think about the future... Each day, you pushed the bounds of my mind to question the impossible, dispute the certain, and reach for the unreachable.
You will always be remembered, revered, and respecting in the minds of the young men and women that you teach. Our success is your success. Our achievements are your achievements. Thank you for all that you have done, are doing, and will do."
I do friend former students on Facebook. I got permission from a former student who is now at Full Sail University to share today's Facebook message to me. He is from my "early years." We were doing cool things but he was around when I was just beginning this Cool Cat Teacher thing.
His email brought joy to my heart. Such messages also bring meaning to my life.
I particularly wanted to re-share this:
"Our success is your success. Our achievements are your achievements."
Oh, it would be nice to take credit but we know deep down that we cannot.
If we can find that kernel of greatness inside every child and water it with love, nurturing and practical knowledge we can be a gardener.
Great teachers are really just great gardeners.
Don't let the dirt under your nails hold you back
The tough thing about teaching is that I think most of us (me included) see where we fail. I fall short of the ideal "Carpe Diem" Robin Williams style teacher who just has it all together. My students see me at my worst: when I'm tired, cranky, and have a million people pulling on me. Even reading his letter, I still doubt myself.
I have a folder in Evernote and my filing cabinet where I file these called "At a Girl." Someone told me early in my career to keep any letters and positive reinforcement and I have them going back to 1991 when I was a senior in college. They help me. They give me "validation" as I was mentioning in yesterday's post.
Remember that you will never have all of the students love you. You will sometimes make mistakes that still make you cringe and you know that those kids (and their parents) may talk about you one day as something NOT to do in teaching.
The Iron Law of the Universe But the iron law of the universe is that you do reap what you sow! (Parents need to remember that too!)
If you sow kindness, thought provoking assignments, meaningful discussions, challenging projects, and real learning experience into your classroom, you will get letters like this. I get more of these the longer I teach. Maybe it is because I've been teaching now for 10 years at the high school level. Or maybe (I hope) it is because I'm becoming a better teacher.
So, take the time to do this:
Make an "at a girl" or "at a boy" folder in Evernote and your filing cabinet. Put things in there that you receive.
Look at those letters when you have a tough day and...
Know Your Customer Every day think about what you can do today that will cause kids to thank you in six or seven years. That person is your customer. Right now, they'd rather you let them sleep or go makeout behind the outfield fence but that is not what you're there. You're not there to be popular, you're there to be a great teacher.
Be a great teacher. And know that you never know who is going to send you the "at a girl" that you least expect.
Thank you, my student, for this message. You have no idea what it means to me.Thanks for the validation.
Remember your noble calling teacher (and parents)...find those kernels of greatness and get to watering!
Interestingly most Google+ traffic is PRIVATE not public which means people are using it to communicate between themselves. When it comes out of Beta and everyone can join, it will become more useful for me. I don't like anything that leaves out "certain" people.
For those of you already developing educational apps, this might be a great way to win some money for your school (or yourself) and a Sony Tablet. Here's the information: "On July 13 Sony and Adobe launched the Adobe AIR App Challenge, Sponsored by Sony. The goal is to get developers to create quality Android apps using Adobe Flash tools and optimize their apps for the new Sony S1 and S2 Tablets with AIR 3.0. We’d like to get your help to promote this in any relevant campaign activities.
More details and entry forms are on the contest website: www.airappchallenge.com .
In addition to cash prizes (up to $130,000 for the Grand Prize winner!), 10 finalists can also win an a trip to MAX to showcase their apps and all winners will get ‘premium promotion’ on the new Sony devices."
How it was written Over 130 of you took the time and energy to share your thoughts. Your passion to teach and do what is right took my breath away. NONE of you asked for no accountability. You want to teach well and you want to be held accountable but you believe that the assessment of your proficiency as a teacher is unfair.
The overarching theme If we told students that we would give them ONE test a year and that their entire grade for the whole year rested on that ONE test, nothing else. What would we see?
We would see parents yelling. We would see students crying. We would see legislators acting against those "horrible teachers" who don't teach.
Well, right now we're not teaching and it is because the assessment of learning happening in schools is not fair either. Some respond to unfairness with the nobility to do the right thing anyway. Applause. You are remembering that teachers are noble.
Others respond by cheating. It is human nature. It is wrong, but the harder and more impossible the task and the higher the stakes, the more the temptation to cheat.
Let your voice be heard The amazing thing is that by Tweeting, liking, Digging, tumbling, etc. articles that you like, teachers, you wield a lot of power that you do not know that you have. You have the ability to put articles (like mine) on the homepage of the Washington Post! That is what you did - you've already done it.
Are we just now figuring this out?
Do you know that through social media you can make a difference for the causes you believe in? Your tweets, your comments, your Facebook likes and blog posts linking to the article are votes about what is important to you and what needs to be heard. (Even delicious bookmarks, Tumblr posts, and Diggs count in their algorithms.) Interact with what you think is important: this or anything.
Time to BE Teachers and Show our nobility in our actions I do hope you read the article, but even more so I hope that if you like this article or any article that you do something with it.
I hope that on all articles that when you are talking about teaching that you comment with respect and dignity befitting your profession, even when unkind, disrespectful people crop up like have come up in the comments. (not many but a few)
I also hope that you make it a habit of BEING a professional and defending the profession. I had said something the other day about a judge and I was taken to task by someone via email for insulting a lawyer - a professional and all the reasons being a lawyer were important and why they were a great profession.
My only thought was this: when someone insults teaching what do we do? We run for the hills? We cower? What! The problem I have with most people who defend teachers is HOW they defend us. We must be noble but we must BE. We must speak.
I just think that it is high and mighty time for us to begin defending our profession in deeds, in words, and in the nobility that everyone sees shining forth in who we are and how we conduct ourselves. We aren't whiners. We love our students. We work hard to treat them with dignity. We don't mind accountability, but we do want fairness because unfairness to teachers in the way they deliver teaching trickles down to the classroom and ultimately our students.
We need meaningful discussion not partisan banter and most of all we need to start focusing on our children. They are growing up way too fast and our system is not preparing them for their future.
One final note I was excited to be asked to write the article. I must admit that at first I was a bit overwhelmed and had a list of names to deflect the opportunity to and even broached the subject with the editor. However, I knew that if I asked those of you IN the public school system that you would tell me what you thought. I also know that by your tweets and follows that you have "voted me" as part of this conversation. As a US citizen and as your friend you are emailing me every day about the heartbreaks you are feeling and your problems.
So, my friends, I decided to write and dedicate this to all of the teachers in US public schools. My friends, you are noble, keep working, there are many people who are listening and echoing your thoughts.
This amazing student in Evansville Indiana was transformed by his senior project and a netbook. This is why we need MORE than standardized tests: senior projects and high school portfolios belong in the mix.
STEM jobs are growing but our proficiency is not. This means that we'll have the jobs but not the people to fill the jobs within our borders. Time for STEM careers to become cool - they definitely pay well.
I do wish STEM would become STEAM - add some arts into all that science technology and math.
Tip from this story is that if you're getting ready to graduate and want to get a job, get a paid internship during college:
""While there have been some modest signs of improvement over the past few months, statistics show the employment situation for college graduates and other young adults remains difficult." Unemployment among youths in their early twenties has improved somewhat from a low last year, but at 14.5% remains above the average unemployment rate. While choosing an in-demand major tends to improve the odds of getting a job, the employment difficulties affect almost every field, experts said. They added that "getting an internship - particularly a paid internship" during college can be very helpful when students later begin their job search. A recent survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that "60% of paid interns working with for-profit companies received job offers compared with 38% of people with unpaid internships."
My goal is to encourage and inspire teachers and part of that goal is to speak out for the nobility of our profession. I've been posed a question by a major media outlet and after a bit of back and forth (during which I disclosed that I'm a private school teacher NOT a public school teacher), I was reminded that beyond my own classroom I am a writer and encourager of teachers of all kinds.
Because of this, I need to URGENTLY hear from some of you US public school teachers. I know what you've told me. I know what you email me, but now, I want to hear from YOU. Everywhere everybody is writing about teachers but how many of them actually teach in any location or anywhere?
This is about what can be done to improve teaching IN YOUR CLASSROOM. (I'm not going to hit the political footballs here, let's get real about the classroom environment.)
You have the choice to be anonymous or not. I plan to summarize and also quote anonymously or directly those who share information here. If I quote you directly, expect an email today. If I can't reach you, I may have to remove your name as a direct quote. Use the survey's direct link or it is embedded below.
The Survey
Thank you for your time. Speak, I want to share your thoughts along with my own. Remember your noble calling, teacher. Please share and retweet like crazy. Note: This post relates to US public schools of all kinds.
Tinashe edited and posted each question separately to make it easier for her readers to dive into the appropriate question of interest.This is one of my favorites about the Flat Classroom book, why we created it and how we hope it will be an experience to help connect and engage teachers. - just pardon the lovely look on my face in the thumbnail. ;-)
I spent some time with Tinashe Blanchet and she recorded using FaceTime from my iPad. This is a one minute pull out of the interview that she called her "1 minute inspiration" - I'm not sure if the glitches were Facetime but I suspect it is my wireless as school! It is fascinating to see all the ways we can now record and communicate!
Another free place to give tests and exams online. Let computers do what they do best. What I do is IF I have a few multiple choice, etc. I may do them online BUT I also do other ways of assessment with my test. I just don't think the bubbles can get it all. That said, if you have to do it, you shouldn't have to grade it unless it is open answer or essay and this is a free tool to help you.
This fascinating tool is something I am going to test. It has a Facebook app that lets your students receive course updates on their facebook pages WITHOUT having to friend their instructor or each other. NOW THIS sounds useful.
Create an edible school garden. I like this model that lets the school buy it or offers to set up a custom web page to help the school fundraise for it.
We have a garden at our school that the students run and they LOVE IT.
Office hours in open sim and jibe to get help in either of these tools. Reactiongrid is my favorite place for such tutorials - they are very education friendly.
Spent some time with Kyle Gomboy, Chris Hart, and John Lester to learn about Jibe. Jibe is sort of a hybrid between the Google Lively functionality and the full Open Sim. We're going to be doing some things with this in the future.
Imagine this: students build a transportable world full of their legacy of life and carry it with them to their own server anywhere they wish and leave it behind as a legacy of the things they created.
Listen at the very beginning, you here someone quickly snipping at the beginning:
"How anticlimactic."
They were wrong. What emerges is a phenomenal on-building animation that will take your breath away even half a world away here in Camilla, Georgia.
Do we jump to conclusions and prevent learning?
This reminds me of a Tweet Jon Becker made at ISTE where he stated that he overheard a conversation from a teacher who said something like:
"I give a presenter two minutes to get my attention and then, if they don't give me what I want, I'm out."
Fast food learning.
We want a big Mac learning experience with a greasy side of 80 tools that provide us with very little nutrition but a satiated feeling that we've packed in everything we can.
This fast food mentality is what has gotten our waistlines in horrific shape and this mentality can also harm our learning.
Sure, we have boring presenters and need to do a better job of it. But to honestly think that you can sum up what you will learn in the first two minutes is taking it to an extreme!
As Jon replied back to me:
"What if that teachers let her students do this?"
We'd probably have one or two packed classrooms and the rest might be empty!
Social Media Doesn't Mean Social Skills There are people behind presenters. All of us start off pretty rough. But presenters are presenting for a reason. (We hope?) If you want to kill their self confidence, walk out.
We need to have social skills. If one or two people exit a room it is disconcerting. But, you literally sap the energy from a room when you leave en masse.
En Masse Keynote Exodus The ISTE 2010mass exodus was embarrassing but I heard it happened again this year as well. I'm sorry, but if you go hear a keynote, unless you're about to embarrass yourself in a more primeval, physical way, you should stay to hear the keynote. It is rude to those who are around you and the speaker. How much learning are we missing by sucking the energy from the room? And what are these prominent people going to think about educators because of our unbecoming behavior?
I can say this because I was one of the people who left the ISTE 2010 keynote and I was later ashamed that I did. I should have stuck it out even though the presenter's slides were unbelievably wordy and impossible to read from the back of the room.
Two Faced Tweeters Harm their Credibility When you tweet behind someone's back - IT ISN'T BEHIND THEIR BACK. Say constructive comments that help a person improve and learn. I have had one person who truly treated me in a nasty way as I was speaking. He tweeted out over 20 tweets during my speech berating me for my thoughts to teachers and how they should face the future in education. The fact was he wasn't and has never been a teacher but his comments were over the top, but it is OK, if you do anything in this world, someone won't like you - and some people don't like anybody. It is OK.
But when I got offline and tried to re-address what he'd said on Twitter, his terse response was,
"This debate is too long for being on Twitter."
So, he can insult me on Twitter all day long, but will not do anything to be accountable for his actions? Is it any wonder when he dm'd me several weeks later to beg for a retweet to help him get an award, I wouldn't retweet. It isn't that he disagreed, it was how he disagreed (in a way intended to humiliate) that I had a problem with. He wouldn't even engage in a discussion so I could right the misquotes to his audience. Such a person is not admirable and I do not respect him for it. In every disagreement is a learning experience. I learn a lot from those who disagree with me and often email them when it happens. He denied me and others a learning experience and only intended to act ugly.
I'm fed up with rudeness. Technology is no excuse.
Protect those you love with your habits.
Protect Your Family's Privacy Online I know of a prominent tweeter in educational technology who often says disparaging things about his sister in law, his wife's food, and the company he keeps. If the people he is face to face cannot trust him, then why should I? He is making them a laughing stock on Twitter and when they see it, he is going to permanently damage the relationships he holds most dear.
My husband could tweet and thousand dumb things that I do a day! (Well, maybe not a thousand but a lot!) I trust him to love me anyway -- perfect love is really when imperfect people love each other anyway.
When we were on vacation in June, the kids kept saying "is this going to be on your blog?" Because they wanted to be themselves. I told them NO - they are protected. I didn't even tell anyone we were going.
Don't Jump to Conclusions: Stay the Course So, when I heard the person on the video above immediately say:
"How anticlimactic" before the show even started it hit me wrong.
It is a symptom of fast food thinking.
Fast Food Actions Don't Fix Problems Caused by Long-Term Habits Every major problem in my life that I've had to tackle: my weight, my debt, being a good mom, managing my time, organizing my office, organizing my home and classroom, managing the over 20 roles I play in my life - it has taken concerted work. Study. Habits. Hard work.
I'm working on understanding and putting habits in place to help me with my email problem. I'm on my fifth book. I've spent hours doing Inbox Detox and Bit Literacy and every concept I can take that will help me with this problem.
If something took a lifetime to mess up - you can't fast food yourself out of it.
Schools do this all the time. Teachers tell me that if the front office would do ONE thing it would improve learning at their school:
Never use then all-call intercom during class.
(At our school you can only go on the intercom the first two minutes of class or during the last five. No one breaks that rule.) This one thing is messing up the flow of several dozen classrooms. It is a fast food mentality. I need them now, I'll get them now. In a school, front office efficiency is not as important as learning efficiency. Class time should be SACRED. STOP IT!
Fast Food Learning Doesn't Work Everyone wants a quick fix to education. They have one class to implement a new strategy and someone tries it once and says
"oops, it doesn't work, try something else."
You haven't given it a chance. You haven't stuck to it.
Teachers are sick of the "flavor of the month" tactics. Oh, now we're going to emphasize this and next month it is going to be that. Change happens with consistency.
Don't Confuse Tactics with Strategy Dr. Adler my prof in strategic management stressed that a tactic is less than a year and a strategy is over the course of a year or more. It isn't a strategy if you're hopping from thing to thing. You are fast fooding your problems and it DOESN'T WORK. Your tactics add up to a strategy of NOTHINGNESS. Zip.
This blog and my Twitter account and Facebook account and even Tumblr - these are things I WORK on. I consistently apply myself every day to sharing in the very best way that I can. To improve the lives and classrooms of teachers. I have certain things I do every day.
Do something long enough and you reap it. The iron law of the universe is that you reap what you sow. (Brian Tracy and the Bible.) Whatever you do, you reap the results of it.
Don't balance your checkbook and you'll overdraw (most likely.) Don't exercise and eat right and you'll get fat. Think short term and you'll not like your long term.
Time to Think Slow, Steady, and Consistent It is time for some consistency, some staying power, some manners, and some hard work.
I'm sick and tired of fast food living in any area of my life. Are you?
Another great local press coverage of how our amazing Flat Classroom teachers are collaborating. This is a story that our communities are hungry for. Social media is great but social learning is transformational. The best teachers are attracted to the Flat Classroom projects - apply now at www.flatclassroomproject.net
Colleges are struggling because incoming students aren't ready for the rigors of college. Here is a clip of a press release about how some colleges are using Knewton.
"Today, educational technology company Knewton announced that its award-winning Adaptive Learning PlatformÔ has been selected by Penn State University (PSU), University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), the State University of New York (SUNY), and Mount St. Mary’s University to power college readiness courses that will help condition incoming students for the rigors of college-level academics and identify and address academic areas of improvement for each student. Recognizing the successful implementation of blended learning at ASU, both state universities with large student bodies like SUNY, Penn State, and UNLV, and small selective private universities like Mount St. Mary’s are turning toward Knewton’s Adaptive Learning PlatformÔ to power their college readiness programs.
College preparedness continues to be an issue that impacts students across the nation and can hinder a student’s chance of completing a four-year university program. According to the Alliance for Excellence in Education, 50 percent of students who enter college remediation programs fail to reach graduation. "
Nice write up on how Brad Flickinger is running his elementary classroom with a lot of high-quality technology equipment where the students serve as mentors for each other. Love this model.
Got a note that if you want to go to the 140 character conference for education and are an educator you can attend for $1.40. Here is the application, it is coming up August 2/3rd.
"Your readers / subscribers may join us for a special price of $1.40 (seriously) if they apply here and prove they are part of the education community. Otherwise, participation is $140.00 for the two-day event. "
Membership study of Discovery Educators network and the impact on their professional development. While I have just become someone that you CAN book through Discovery for speaking (to be on their website soon) I do learn a lot from DEN.
A teacher is working on a global world history project and is looking for friends and partners. If you teach history in high school, he's looking for more partners.
This isn't related to teaching but IS related to managing a household and saving money. I have some friends who are going crazy about how the krazy coupon lady is saving money. Times are tight and I think my teacher friends out there will like this website.
Visual bee looks at the words and text on your slides and helps "soup up" your powerpoint presentation for you. There is a free plug in for PowerPoint. If you've gotta use it, perhaps some of the intelligence in here would be beneficial for you
Apps are emerging like marble jar to help give children rewards and promote long term behavior improvements. This may work for some kids. I prefer the hug and kiss method myself. ;-)
I love this! Apply to spend a month at the museum and win $10,000 in the process. Here is the info:
"The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago is once again holding a nationwide search for a live-in roommate for Month at the Museum 2, an innovative experiment where one curious and adventurous individual will have full reign of the Museum for 30 days and win $10,000. Last year’s roommate captured the imagination of people around the world. "
Excited about the LED wallpaper and the potential it has for making learning spaces more powerful and engaging. This self-luminating wallpaper takes "mood lighting" to a whole new level.
"Big news for little people" this website is targeted news for kids aged 7-14 and may be something you can use in your classroom. What a fascinating discussion you could have about July 13th's topic the "crazy basketball court."
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and every concept I can take that will help me with this problem.
