I try to answer questions about technology in education as directly as possible. That can be a challenge, as often some of the issues surrounding technology decision making are affected by a number of issues; bandwidth available to a school district, local culture regarding social media, parental awareness of technology use for learning, and the list continues. It’s easy to make decisions based on our own individual or classroom realities; it’s another think entirely when you consider the realities of dozens of classrooms across a building or school district. That having been said, I will stand my ground that all K-12 schools that have Google Apps for Education accounts should seriously consider creating just #OneDomain for their staff and students; the explosive uptake in collaboration, communication, and creativity that having all learners in the same "digital space" provides will greatly overshadow concerns and possibilities that often drive school districts to create two separate domains. As always, my opinions are up for debate, but I hope that you’ll enjoy much more than just Google issues to discuss in this week’s Tech Director Chat! Click here to listen to this week’s Tech Director Chat (or listen below) Click here to subscribe via iTunes (Mac and iOS) Click here to subscribe via Stitcher (Android and iOS) Time stamps for this week’s questions: :58 What has Pete been up to? 3:45 Wait, so we don’t have more laptops and devices coming from the bond? 6:14 Jason asks, what importance does Pete see in keyboarding skills? 8:00 So Pete isn’t the type of guys that read instructions? 10:30 Steve asks, why do some school districts separate Staff Google Accounts from Student Google Accounts? 12:15 Why do Tech Directors want to separate staff systems and student systems? 17:55 Mr Wolski wants to know, should Google Hangouts be open for student Google Accounts so they can video chat with experts outside of the school? 22:05 Stump Pete! 23:15 What was Pete’s first computer? Tech Director Chat - Fellowship of the Gmail

Up until now, most of what my Tech Director (Pete) and I have discussed during our weekly chats pertains to our school district. We’ve been fortunate to have active enough listeners elsewhere on the web to receive a steady stream of more generic technology questions, but we usually address issues that affect our school district. This last week we were fortunate enough to have a visit from the Michigan Department of Education; they were seeking input on our state’s Technology Readiness Infrastructure Grant (TRiG), a program designed to help better prepare Michigan schools for the digital testing environments coming down the pike. Professional Development, access to survey tools, and a pot of "reimbursement money" for approved device purchases are all part of the program, and it was a good sign that representatives from it have been out seeking input about the program. There’s been some good about the program, and some areas that need improvement (what large program doesn’t have that), so I’m glad to know that someone is paying attention to even us "little guys" that are a part of it. The rest of the podcast is a hodge podge of technical questions and we briefly touch upon the notion that Curriculum Directors may benefit from being the "go to" person when it comes to technology; not necessarily the tech support, but the driving force for integrated and purposeful blended learning in a school district. It was a fascinating topic that I’d love to come back to with a room full of educators….perhaps at MACUL or some other gathering. I find the more conversations I have on the "tech" side of education, the more I want to have them on the "educational" side as well. If I can continue to produce this show, which has become a rather easy process now that I’ve created an audio template for it, I may add on another one for next year that allows me to explore a lot of educational thoughts that I typically don’t share here on my blog. Here’s to hoping I can survive every project I have going to make it to next year! Click here to listen to this week’s Tech Director Chat (or listen below) Click here to subscribe via iTunes (Mac and iOS) Click here to subscribe via Stitcher (Android and iOS) Timestamps for this week’s questions: 1:13 What has Pete been up to today? 3:01 Someone from the state Department of Education came calling? 3:43 So what is TRiG, and why is it important to Michigan schools? 6:23 Do you see teachers getting more admin rights for technology, or control shifting to a centralized location? 8:08 People can wipe out their hard drives? 9:00 Matt wants to know, what can I do to my laptop to avoid the "spinning wheel" when switching between apps and websites? 9:35 Pete gives us an analogy, Ben thinks his is better. 13:56 When it comes to graphics cards, Nvidia or AMD? 15:21 Bob wants to know, do you see Curriculum Directors evolving into the "go to" technology people with Blended Learning becoming vital to the classroom? 18:23 Stump Pete! 19:15 Matt wants to know, what’s unique about the drummer from Def Leppard? Tech Director Chat - The State Comes Calling

Cards Against Humanity is irreverent, fowl, absurdist, and generally raucous. So why would you want to use it in the classroom? You wouldn’t! But the formula that the game follows is a brilliant mixture of both structure and player agency, a formula that works well in the classroom. Many successful veteran teachers create spaces in which students are free to work with materials, ideas, and learning processes towards a common learning goal. Learning centers at the elementary level, project groups throughout K-12, and problem or challenge-based learning allows for students to tackle common learning tasks through a variety of methods. Much the same can be said for Cards Against Humanity, or the more education-friendly Apples to Apples. In both games, there’s a shared goal by all players to complete a phrase by matching the dealer’s card to a card in their hand. Everyone has a unique set of cards in their hand, and thus the phrases can vary wildly from humorous to grotesque, depending on the preference of the player. That sort of "controlled chaos" is appealing to learners, and teachers, that appreciate the journey as much as the destination. We all value getting to the same place (winning the game, achieving the learning target), but there are many paths to take in getting there. That’s why I was excited to find the Cards Against Humanity Custom Card Generator. You can create your own phrase matching game based on just about anything! Have your students practice creating goofy gerund phrases (Mad Libs style), or attempt to draw connections between the modern world and antiquity by answering questions about famous events in history with modern day happenings that arose under similar circumstances (parallels between the Great Depression and the Great Recession). The sky’s the limit when it comes to what sort of fun you can have, especially if you turn the card creation over to your students, and let them invent their own learning games based on the popular "phrase completion" formula. These questions were particularly popular at a playtest last weekend at the Nova Now conference in Grand Rapids, MI. Oh, and for those that are curious, I decided to create my own version called "Keynotes for Humanity". It’s a funny, slightly silly and irreverent (completely safe for school) version that lets teachers make light of overly complicated conference session titles and keynote talks that are more bluster than substance. I created the questions using the Education Jargon Generator, and then modifying the card templates produced by the Cards Against Humanity Custom Card Generator with Preview on my Mac, I was able to produce and print out my own cards. The Cards Against Humanity folks are nice enough to publish blank answer cards, and have offered their entire game under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License (that means you can repurpose and remix the game to create your own as long as you aren’t selling it!). If you don’t want to use the Teachers Pay Teachers link above to download the entire game, you can download it directly below as a PDF. I highly recommend printing it at a Fedex Office store on 80 lbs. card stock. You can print the questions and 20 copies of blank answer cards for less than $5.00. Keynotes for Humanity (PDF)

It’s no secret that I have a very high-minded approach about how educators who blog should conduct themselves; blogging is a reflective practice that allows the world small windows into our lives. If we open the curtains a bit, we can encourage others to learn from what we’ve observed, share experiences and resources, and create communities in which discourse and disagreement can live happily (relatively speaking) alongside positive cheer-leading. If we’re inviting the world to peer into our lives, we as educators need to understand, and find ways to appreciate, that we don’t all have the same methods, thoughts, and attitudes when it comes to working in a professional environment. Push back is a good thing; stepping back from back-patting to ask difficult questions (in respectful ways) is a good thing; it brings out the reality that learning (and growing) is an active, messy struggle. It emphasizes the reality that great things can come from people who disagree, but can find meaningful ways to work together. That conversation deserves to be public. I’ve discovered that my single-mindedness comes at a considerable professional cost in the new media landscape of "InstaTwitterVine." The questions I ask myself, and the push back that I offer to those in public spheres cause others to question the value of my disagreement, or worse yet, will cause people to blindly ignore the critique, and respond only in a negative light. My goal is not to denigrate, but to better understand why we share with the world, and the value of our thoughts. We all share for different reasons, and how we share matters immensely. To accept the prevailing wisdom that "we share to improve the lives of learners" is poetically pleasing, but can be trite, overused, and hides the unintended consequences and motivations of why we share. I don’t intend for this to be a post devoted to overwrought navel gazing, so I’ll get right to the point: I share resources that I’ve created and researched for the staff I support in my school district. I share curiosities and creations that give me pause, and force me to rethink my world view. I share because I know I’m better when I work with others. I share because I often have much more to learn from those who disagree with my thoughts, than I do from those who agree with me. Why do you share? There are NO wrong answers, and if we disagree about why we should share, that’s a point to celebrate! The art of handling professional disagreement is not something many educators are prepared for, but would be better off being equipped to tackle. The diversity we have as a greater educational community, and the conversation it invites is a strength, not a weakness to avoid. Our discordant thoughts are not a reason to shrink back in the face of opposition, or to discount someone else’s thoughts as trivial. Those ARE the wrong answers, if there are any at all.

The single most uttered phrase in education is most likely "it’s all about the kids!" That’s a great sentiment, but the reality is that it’s not. It’s about funding, it’s about accountability, it’s about grown up adult fears and anxiety over making poor decisions and throwing thousands of dollars away while chasing some educational pipe dream. When it comes to technology, and its role in education, the situation is no different. Everyone has an opinion on how technology should be used, and the reality is not one that many teachers would like to hear; implementing, supporting, and maintaining a wide variety of devices and technologies is not something most school districts have the resources and expertise to handle. This week’s episode of Tech Director Chat covers that, as well as whether content specific technology could be an actual thing; the jury is likely still out on that one, but it’s an interesting conversation to have. Click here to listen to this week’s Tech Director Chat (or listen below) Click here to subscribe via iTunes (Mac and iOS) Click here to subscribe via Stitcher (Android and iOS) Timestamps for this week’s questions: 0:50 What has Pete been up to today? 1:30 Pete shares some of the conversations he’s having with teachers. 1:50 Why don’t we outfit classrooms with technology based on the content taught within it? 4:30 Is the way we’ve been doing technology in education even relevant anymore? 5:30 How do we engage the tech staff to bridge gaps between teachers and the tech department? 7:14 We were on track to have Yosemite ready to go, what happened? 11:00 What about Chromebooks? 16:15 If you were a student in High School right now, what would frustrate you the most? 18:28 Stump Pete! 19:30 Who invented the mouse? Tech Director Chat - What About Chromebooks?

How do you take the time to slow down, and catch your breath in the middle of a busy school year? Do you carve out your own "creative time?" Do you blog? Do you relax by the fire with a mug of something warm and a good book? Do you follow a sports team religiously? Do you take time to play outside with your kids every day? I create short digital vignettes. Small moments of life captured through images and videos that often don’t have much value to others, but bring me a sense of calm. I have DS106 to thank for that. Recently, I’ve been using the slow motion capture on my phone a lot (yes, cheesy, pedantic and literal of me, I know). It forces me to step back and try to find something peaceful, calm, and serene to focus on for a few moments each day. I don’t post many of them, but today I felt compelled to post my snow shoevelling in response to John Spencer’s recent post. Thank you, John.

My "Monday on a Wednesday" mood captured and immortalized as a GIF. This animated GIF brought to you courtesy of phhhoto. It’s been an interesting new social space/app for creating and sharing animated GIFs. There’s a lot of really creative art there, and I hope the community that continues to embrace it keeps it classy. I’ve seen a lot of other animated GIF apps come and go, permanently sidelined to the "not school friendly" portion of apps and social spaces I explore thanks to the average teenager doing what average teenagers do best….be obnoxious. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…we were all teenagers once. Update: Nevermind, it looks as though they’re aiming to be "the perfect party app"….so much for a productive school tool.

This Friday we’re going to have 300 fourth graders participating in a day long "tech camp" for kids. Led by the fourth grade teachers and some tech-savvy colleagues from our county-wide instructional technology group, the students will have a chance to explore applications, create digital stories, and "play with a purpose" with a lot of the technology we have in our district. Special thanks to Matt Karsten for having the idea to give it a try, and leading us all through the experience. To be fair, there’s a lot of nervous energy floating through the elementary building that will play host to the event, as we’ve never tried to tackle something like this before. It’s positive nervous energy, and we’re hoping the students and the teachers all come away with some good experiences. Personally, I’m hoping that it will serve as a catalyst for conversation surrounding technology in the building, and our district; how far do we push technology for the sake of using technology, and how do we create regular opportunities to explore new tools and tech in a playful manner. I’ve led lunch and learns, after school gathering, and small conversations during planning times, but they’ve all been met with limited success. As for the rest of this week’s Tech Direct Chat podcast, we address some Chrome vs. Firefox questions, wrestle with how to permanently delete Google Docs (hint, don’t do it if you’re not sure who is still using it), and we have a moment of silence for the passing of Leonard Nimoy. That and the usual half-witted banter between Pete and myself takes place. Click here to listen to this week’s Tech Director Chat (or listen below) Click here to subscribe via iTunes (Mac and iOS) Click here to subscribe via Stitcher (Android and iOS) Timestamps for this week’s questions: 1:05 What has Pete been up to today? 3:00 What are your thoughts about the upcoming 4th grade technology day? 5:50 What is Pete going to be teaching students during the 4th grade technology day? 7:20 Should Ben evaluate Pete’s ability to teach? 7:38 Is it in the works that all high school classrooms will have interactive whiteboards? 9:17 Pete just can’t answer a straight question. 10:05 What’s the difference between Chrome and Firefox? A listener is having a hard time making Chrome their "go to" browser after years of Firefox use. 13:18 Can I delete items from my Google Drive? If so, how so I go about doing it? 15:20 Be careful before deleting files in Google Drive that you’ve shared with others! 16:40 How does someone get added to the MCS Classifieds email list? 17:23 Why does Pete get to bring his dog to school? 18:23 Stump Pete! 20:13 A moment of silence for Leonard Nimoy 20:24 JW asks, what is your favorite guitar intro, and can you play it for us?   Tech Director Chat - Live Long and Prosper

I have no problem putting myself in front of a camera and acting, performing, "hamming it up", or delivering other recorded performance. It seems many Millennials are comfortable being YouTubers as well, putting themselves in front of the camera for school work, personal projects, or just sharing thoughts. However, I’ve also noticed that a large number of students and teachers can become quite shy when asked to get in front of a camera and perform. The number of students that are uncomfortable with it dwindles each year, but many teachers are still firmly in the "don’t put me on camera" camp. I’ve tried a few tricks to get them more comfortable when recording video; filming some "ice breaker" questions for interviews, so by the time we get to the good stuff the camera is already rolling and they’ve forgotten about it is one of my favorite tricks. I’ve also had a good amount of luck with encouraging students to perform multiple takes, so they can select the best one later, rather than be stuck with one embarrassing shot. Then last week I decided to turn on my video camera while my kids were playing around in front of my podcasting microphone. This is the result. It was a great example of simple unstructured play; Dad’s microphone sounds awesome when we plug headphones into it, so let’s see what our voice sounds like when we make goofy noises, fart sounds, and other vocal tricks (mostly variations on fart noises and songs from hit movies). I captured 30 minutes of the video, and cut it down to just about 2 minutes. My hope is to use it to lighten the mood for future video and media workshops. I might be biased since they’re my kids, but I think it’s a humorous video that would help remind those reluctant to step in front of a camera that confidence comes through play. Playful learning is essential in establishing a more comfortable environment, and has the potential to help shy and reluctant video participants become more comfortable with being in front of the camera. I’ll keep you posted on the reaction to it, but feel free to use it in any workshops you need to help lighten up.

A few weeks ago I shared a small game I had developed for a conversation-based conference session. It was a riff on "Cards Against Humanity," and utilized the Education Jargon Generator found on Science Geek to provide the kind of stereotypical edu-jargon that makes up most large conference session titles. The answer cards were all blank. I realize now that was a mistake. While I intended the game to be farcical, it was a bit too open ended; some people took to it immediately, while others were a bit lost. That was a mistake I’ve hopefully rectified with version 2.0 of the game, which I’ve now officially titled "Edu-Jargon." The game now includes close to 45 "fill in the blank" edu-jargon conference session titles, and close to 50 answers taken from the more lighthearted side of teaching. In other words, the game is now a mash up of the more stiff collared side of educational theory, and the more "real world" nature of educational practice. I’m bound and determined to turn "Edu-Jargon" into a full fledged card game, but it still needs a few more months of development, refinement, and a lot more play testing. It’s going to be worth it too, because every time I play test the game with a new group of people, the laughs are louder, the card combinations are funnier, and I see people really click with it. I knew last Saturday at EdCamp OAISD that I had to bring this game to life when one of the players created the following line of edu-jargon with three cards: "The global reality of forgetting to feed the classroom pet over break, and mystery meat Monday in the cafeteria." My plan is to have this in full playable form by the summer (275 cards), with a small run (perhaps Kickstarter) of professionally printed cards, complete with original logo, graphics, and colors. I also plan to make it absolutely free (in the spirit of Cards Against Humanity) as downloadable PDFs for those that don’t want a shrink-wrapped copy. It’s strange bringing something like this into the world and sharing it on my blog; I’m fearful someone with more resources than I have will find the idea, print off a few hundred copies with a custom card print house, and sell through the tiny market I feel there is for it. Then I remind myself that my readership is infinitesimally small, the idea is most likely NOT that great, most people only come here looking for "tech tips," and I don’t exactly play nice with the big names in Education Technology circles, which means it won’t be getting the kind of overly gratuitous shares on social media. In other words, my ego is far bigger than the reality of how far my thoughts wrap around the globe, and how good the game actually is. If you’d like to download the game in its current form right now and play test it for me, please do! You can download the PDFs below, as well as the instructions for how to play. There are two full sheets of black "question cards" and two full sheets of white "answer" cards, with one blank sheet of answer cards for players to fill in their own answers. It’s still a work in progress, but if you play it and like it, or want to offer me feedback, please leave comments! Edu-Jargon Instruction (Google Doc) Edu-Jargon - Black Cards Sheet One (PDF) Edu-Jargon - Black Cards Sheet Two (PDF) Edu-Jargon - White Cards Blank (PDF) Edu-Jargon - White Cards Sheet One (PDF) Edu-Jargon - White Cards Sheet Two (PDF)