Image SourceWhen you are connected to a vibrant community of individuals, you know it.. .you feel are a valuable component in a network of high powered learners.People who aren't afraid to share their ideas to make Texas better.When your superintendent asks, "What's going on with digital textbook logins?" you don't worry...you start crafting an email to TECSIG. When you begin to plan your roll out of Windows 10, you know who might have a plan to share. When you need a web host provider, you can rely on people who face the same challenges and have overcome them.People who aren't afraid to share their ideas to help YOU be better.When the high-stakes test vendor says, "It's OK, there aren't any problems," you don't take them at their word. You ask other technologists in Texas, and they add those critical data points that empower you to say back to the vendor, "That's not right. These school districts have called you in the last hour about the exact same power."People who aren't afraid to hold themselves and others to a higher standard.When you find yourself needing RFP criteria for a project your Finance Director just mentioned, there's one group you reach out to. And, in a few minutes, you have a collection of documents that just shaved days off your task, allowing you to deliver faster than anyone else expected.Friends who reach out a helping hand, like Americans and Texans do.A TECSIG member isn't a corporation out to make a buck. Rather, they are a community of vibrant friends and friends you have yet to meet, who are waiting to lend you a helping hand, because, that's what Americans do. When you need help, we pitch in. When you need something done, we step up.TECSIG...friends who aren't afraid to shine and push back the dark.And, TCEA TECSIG will be meeting on April 14-15, 2016. Why don't you join us?Register for the TEC-SIG Spring MeetingThursday-Friday, April 14-15, 2016Location: TCEA, 3100 Alvin Devane Blvd; Building B; Austin, TX 78741Agenda: http://tinyurl.com/tecsigspring16TEC-SIG enables technology coordinators, instructional technology leaders, and other administrators throughout the state to stay in touch, to engage in community-based learning that supports and serves students, staff in a hyper-connected world. When everyone can be your teacher, it's important to have a few Texans you can trust and rely on.Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

On March 5th, I'll have the opportunity to participate in a Health Fair. Unlike the runners, the walkers, the health advocates, I'll be engaged in what some may see as a sedentary activity--sharing ideas about digital citizenship...encouraging people to play with their mobile phones even more. In this blog entry, I share some no-cost apps that promote the positive in our lives within the context of digital citizenship and being kind to others. I certainly welcome any suggestions you might have!A quick aside: Wow, it's been a long time since I've considered digital citizenship in this blog. It may be because I believe that developing strong relationship with your child is essential to the trust needed for conversations about this topic. The best content filter is between their ears, right? What Should I Call This Health Booth?I've played around with a few ideas for naming my booth at the Health Fair:Get a Blood Transfusion at the Digital Citizenship Blood BoothTattoos for Free - Digital Tattoo Designs Worth HavingLower Your Cholesterol, Your Blood Pressure and Enhance Your Life Well, you get the idea. It's kinda funny, right? Ok, maybe not so much.On a QuestIn my quest for resources, I wondered, what mobile apps are available to share with students, staff, and/or community members? You know, my phone is one device I always have with me--except, when I'm swimming although I hear some folks take their phone in the pool, too--so it makes sense to have easy access to mobile apps.Here are a few worth sharing with colleagues and young folks:No-Cost Apps that Promote the PositiveLearning.com’s Digital Citizen appDigitalCitizen App from Learning.com provides middle and high school students with instruction on online safety, the ethical use of digital resources, and cyberbullying. Through engaging videos, interactive games, and a quiz, the app ensures student understanding of these important concepts. Note: Requires Learning.com account code from your school district.Common Sense Media’s Digital Compass appDigital Compass is a choose-your-own adventure, interactive game for iPad and iPhone. Developed for 6th to 9th graders and available in English and Spanish languages, Digital Compass lets students step into the shoes of one of eight characters to experience the twists and turns of daily digital life. University of Kentucky’s iDriveDigital appThis is a companion app for iDriveDigital.com and the Digital Driver's License (DDL). This is an open source innovation lab project with OTIS at the University of Kentucky. iDriveDigital.com helps expose users (students & teachers) to content focused on valuable digital citizenship skills and concepts. Note: Be sure to get an account through their web site first.European Union’s Happy Onlife appThis engaging game aims at supporting children aged 8-12 — along with involving their parents and teachers — in initiating active mediation of digital technology. The game presents key messages about children's use, overuse and misuse of the internet, together with risks such as cyberbullying. It also presents simple and clear strategies of prevention, mediation or remediation of internet issues.iKeepSafe’s Incident Response Tool appThe increasing use of technology in the classroom brings with it many new challenges for schools. From sexting to cyberbullying; privacy concerns to ethical considerations; schools are dealing with a growing number of digital incidents. The IRT is designed to increase school confidence and competence when handling a digital incident while minimizing the risks and impacts to student’s health and wellbeing. Australian Government’s Take a Stand Together appThe Take a Stand Together App was developed by all Australian education authorities, working together to create safe and supportive school environments free from bullying, harassment and violence.SAMHSA’s Know Bullying appResearch shows that spending at least 15 minutes a day talking with your kids can build the foundation for a strong relationship, develop their resilience to peer pressure, and help prevent bullying.UknowkidsSome apps to avoid that may lead to inappropriate usage or violations of digital citizenship:Kik - My son introduced me to this one. When I joined, he was overjoyed (not!). YikYak - This one needs to be banned on general principles. So much cyberbullying happens on YikYak from what I've seen. Of course, it's only an extension of the school culture...that's why restorative discipline is important.Snapchat - Short video shares. Still learning how to use this one.WhatsApp - Great app for communication. Consider Telegram as another alternative. Both are great for communication.Apps that are used to "keep" inappropriate content private or away from others...this is relevant because they may be used for sexting (View some sexting stats) or sending nude images of other students...most of these apps are explored in this Mashable article:Best Secret FolderFake CalculatorKYMSKeepSafe Private Photo VaultGallery LockLitePrivate Photo Vault VaultyAppify Digital CitizenshipAnother idea that I've been considering is creating a Google Site with all the neat stuff and then creating an app with Yapp to facilitate sharing with others. Of course, there are many web sites that have tons of resource links...would another really be worthwhile?Edutopia Digital CitizenshipEdudemic's Collection of Digital Citizenship Resources Example Yapp App...waiting on education pricing since number of installs (10!) for the trial won't work!Online CourseThere are tons of online digital citizenship courses, not to mention webinars and videos on YouTube. If you don't know about digital citizenship, it's probably because you haven't spent some time looking. One district made online digital citizenship course available to parents in their district. The main benefit? You can curate the barge-load of content available in this area, each competing for your attention.You might also jump into online communities via Edmodo, as well as visit the DigCitSummit.com event planner, that enable you to have more conversations with concerned folks.iDrive Digital, a Univ of Kentucky creation, features an online course that appears to be free for students, staff, and schools!A few courses for educators include the following:Digital Citizenship Open Access Course 2015 ISTE Digital Citizenship Academy ($243)Google Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum (Free)Common Sense Media's Digital Citizenship CertificationNetsmartz TrainingEdmodo Digital Citizenship CourseConclusionWhile numerous resources abound, I've found that the "reality test" involves real conversations with young adults, and helping them understand why they should avoid negative digital tattoos at all possible costs. Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Last week, a local school district suffered a phishing attack distributed by email. In addition, ransomware was also being distributed to district users via email. Several machines were infected, including servers, as individuals clicked on email attachments that made no sense whatsoever. Other districts have faced similar challenges:It's...thrown a kink in the school district's scheduled Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exams, which are "high-quality, computer-based K-12 assessments in Mathematics and English Language Arts/Literacy." The crypto-ransomware "has affected the district's entire operations from internal and external communications to its point-of-sale for school lunches. It also has prevented any students from taking the scheduled PARCC exams, which are entirely computerized." Source: Network WorldHere are some of the recommendations I offer districts and folks who encounter these issues:You are the best anti-virus protection District computers have. Follow these 5 steps to protect yourself and others from unnecessary loss of data. Help others you work with follow these steps. You are facing an imminent virus threat from "ransomware." BACKGROUNDEarlier this year, you saw how emails were being used to spread a web site that sought to steal your GoogleApps login credentials. Over the last few days, staff opening ransomware--a form of software that infects your machine when you double-click on it and encrypts your files, then demands you pay them for decrypting them--included in email attachments have unwittingly spread the virus across the District. STEPSTake these steps to safeguard your hard work in computer documents and files on your computer:Look before you click! Avoid clicking on email attachments that come from people you do not know. Email attachments with "exe," "zip," are suspicious. Also, do NOT go into your SPAM folder on GoogleMail and click on the email attachments. Those messages are marked as SPAM because they are unwanted, inappropriate, and/or may contain malware email attachments.Connect before opening. Even if you DO know someone sending you a file, ask yourself, "Was I expecting a file from this person?" If yes, call and connect with them...ask, "Did you send me this file?" If the answer is "No," then delete it. If it's important, they will reach out to you again.Avoid clicking on email attachments via your personal email on a work computer, especially if it is a Yahoo email account given the types of malware spreading ads that find themselves displayed on that service.Scan files before opening them. You can right-click a file, save it to your computer, then choose to virus-scan it before opening it. If you don't know how, ask your campus technician or a tech-savvy person nearby.Backup your Data to GoogleDrive. If you plug-in your USB external hard drive or USB stick/pendrive and work from there, be aware that viruses spread via USB drives and ransomware will actually make your data unusable. Even worse, if you have cloud storage--like Dropbox or GoogleDrive Sync--(where your files are automatically backed up when you place them in a certain folder (e.g. Dropbox)), be aware that ransomware WILL encrypt those files and they will be auto-saved to your cloud storage provider. Better to turn those services off and manually back them up (i.e. go to the Dropbox or Drive web site, click on the upload button). Make backups of your computer's documents/files/data to Google Drive rather than just saving them on a USB flash drive. Watch this video tutorialJust a few moments ago, I received an email from Ramsey M. purporting to share some files with me via Dropbox, but...I hesitated and that made all the difference. Let's go through the process together...When you examine the "Click here to view" link, I found a link to a non-Dropbox web site in the UK.Knowing that Ramsey probably didn't send this email, I opened up a fresh browser where I'm not logged into anything and tried the link: It didn't work. Page Not Found error. That's good! But if it had been a phishing scam, something like this would have popped up:The goal of these sites is to steal your information! Don't fall for it!For Home Users who may be facing virus threats or fear they have been infected, use these tools. Note that this does not constitute a purchase recommendation since these tools are available for free, personal home use: Anti-Malware/AntiVirusList of Mac AntiVirus SolutionsWindows Solutions:Anti-MalwareMalware Bytes* - Great to use when you think your computer has been infected with malware/spyware and you need your computer "cleaned out."AntiRansomwareSpyware Blaster*- An easy to use "innoculation" program against spyware/malware.Spybot Search and Destroy* - Best part of Spybot is the TeaTimer which protects your computer's registry against contamination and immunizes your browsers (IE,Firefox) against malware.AntiVirusAVG AntiVirus* - A nice antivirus program. Sophos Home Antivirus (Free for Home Use)Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Looking for a chill tale to get your fear flowing on a winter night? Then Justyna Plitcha-Jendzio's ebook, Damned Children of Naor, may be one to pick up! On January 31st, Justyna sent me an email inviting me to crack open a copy of "High/Dark Fantasy book".My name is Justyna Plichta-Jendzio and I'm Polish writer of High/Dark Fantasy books. One of my books "Damned Children of Naor" has been recently published by a Canadian Publisher and is avaliable on Amazon Kindle. It is ananthology of three short high/dark fantasy stories, telling about people who had unpleasantness to meet demons in their life and had to fight for their souls.Justyna was kind enough to share a copy of the book, which was enthralling from the get-go. As I began reading the ebook, I realized quickly that the author had done a tremendous job eliciting images in my mind. For example, consider this passage:Sainal turned back toward the chapel. When she came to the small building, she saw the priest sitting on a deer skin, covered with a thick woolen coat. The shadows cast by the flames danced on the walls and on the statue of Ulse, the supreme god of the world of Naor..."Forgive me, Holy Father, but I need to see the remains of the wretched woman," Sainal said as she jumped to the ground.The priest was surprised by her request. "Death is not a trifle for the delight of the crowd."Of the 3 stories that appear in the volume--the first of which deals with a young woman who can wield lightning and must battle demons, the second which resonates as a vampire tale--the third is the most engaging for me. It features a female noble, forced into mercenary work returning from a contract through a small town, which has been plagued by mysterious deaths by a fire demon. The villagers believe it's the young woman but Sainal thinks differently...even as deaths continue to occur after she has spirited the girl away to a hiding place.Justyna, the author, has done a great job in building stories that slowly grip your heart, tales of horror and supernatural battles that are definitely worth reading. Be aware of Justyna's caution, however:To be fair I have to inform you that "Damned children of Naor" contains scenes of sex and violence, so if you are not comfotable with that, I'll understand if you decide not to read the book. Still, this isn't any worse than what you might find in a typical tale of dark fiction. I'd read worse at age 13, and the scenes of sex and violence definitely moved the story forward. Definitely give the book a read!Disclaimer and Note to Those Seeking Reviews: If I hadn't enjoyed the book, I wouldn't recommend it, no matter how many free copies I received. For others who would like me to review their books, ePub (non-DRM) is preferred over PDF or locked down books (I just delete those). Sci-fi/fantasy are invited.Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

A superintendent in a small school district gave a talk at the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) Midwinter's Conference a few years ago. She moved her hands quickly in the air, her hands almost blurring, parallel to each other. "This is the kind of change we need in schools," she exclaimed. "But this," and she moved her hands ever so slowly, " is the change we're getting. We need this change [moving her hands quickly] because our children can't wait." I was impressed with her talk...and I wasn't alone. "You know," I said to the tech director in that district, "I wouldn't mind working with her to achieve that vision she articulated." At last, an administrator who gets it. A superintendent who will bring about change. Less than a year later, she had been ousted from her perch and the community had mobilized against her. Whether she was bought off, resigned, it didn't matter. Everyone wanted her gone. Riding the coat-tails of her defeat, the very people she cited as the problems rose to power. The balance swung in the opposite direction. What she had hoped to accomplish was laudable, but how she went about it scarred the District, not to mention her career. When I stub my toe on the "rocks" that block the way to successful change in school districts, I remember the story of the Superintendent mentioned in the story above. Change is necessary. Who we serve, not change itself, requires us to move quickly. As I get older, I notice that I get increasingly impatient with the slow pace of change in K-12 education. Yet, change has occurred. My son, on the way home from school, answered the mobile phone. "We're on highway 604," he told her. I was shocked...he had never shown an awareness of where he was by street name or the name of the highway. "He's growing up," I said to myself. Then, I heard him say, "No one told me it was 604." He was acknowledging that he had grown up enough to know where he was. That's how change occurs. But, it can also be an auto wreck, like the one that left a Putlitzer Prize writer suddenly, unexpectedly, dead. Which is better? I've seen both in education, and been grateful for both. In one district, upper administration was cleaned out as if by a plague. Prayers, some say, were answered and change happened. Other times, change is a dawning realization. Nature allows for both sudden and gradual changes...shouldn't we? Note: An oldy but goody blog entry from LeaderTalk days.Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Note: The following is an interview done with me back in 2013! Read the original here, or just read below.Welcome, and thank you so much for taking some time out of your day. Let’s start with you telling me a little about what you do!I am an avid blogger and writer, publishing in a variety of venues. You can find much of my writing online. I also prepare workshops and deliver keynote presentations. I also hold the title of Director in Technology in a school district.Fantastic! So, what motivated you to become so involved with educational technology?What motivated me was a keen interest in bridging what I was passionate about-computers that I’d been using since I was 13 years old-and teaching, particularly, facilitating the writing workshop with grade 5 students. As a 13 year old, I would use my Apple computer to write and publish content. I wanted my students in Cotulla, Texas to have the same opportunity.What prompted your transition away from the classroom?My transition away from the classroom began when I started teaching 6th grade in an urban school district. To be honest, I had a bit of a "stacked deck" in terms of students who were trouble-makers and had been labelled so the previous year by that administration. Fortunately, I had an awesome vice-principal who backed me up. She also would ask me to help out with analyzing test scores, since I was the only person on campus (if not multiple campuses) who knew how to use Harvard Graphics Chart making software.My role as campus technology coordinator began at that moment, and was expanded as I started providing professional development for faculty and staff, as well as modeling the use of technology with students. As time went by, I learned how to work with classroom teachers at various campuses, different districts, and my responsibilities grew over time with each move. In those days, I often felt like the Lone Ranger when I went into a school district. This "lone ranger" approach solidified in my days as a regional education service center education specialist in the San Antonio area.So based on all of your experiences as a tech coordinator - what would you say is the biggest challenge facing campus technology coordinators today?The biggest challenge facing campus tech coordinators today is irrelevance. Many campus tech coordinators spend most of their time on technical rather than instructional modeling, and are increasingly finding themselves made irrelevant by the belief that technology training is unnecessary. And, there is some truth in the idea that because we have easier technologies, easy availability of how-to videos via YouTube, online tutorials posted by every Tom, Dick, and Louise out there on the web.  We must ask, "Why do we really need to pay someone full-time to be a campus technology coordinator?"It’s not that we lack an understanding of what needs to be done, but rather, the political will to make it so. When was the last time a district superintendent said, "Let’s require ALL district-level curriculum specialists, as well as campus principals and their leadership team, to use technology for more than data analysis. Let’s set the expectation for them to create virtual learning environments for teachers, parents, and students to use. Let’s set the expectation-and then follow-up and hold them accountable-that they will develop PLNs of their own to accelerate teacher learning and achieve escape velocity…leaving those tired approaches that disconnect students, teachers, and parents from engaging opportunities to connect, collaborate, and create in ways that are meaningful and achieve state learning objectives."That’s why I see real value in subsuming technology within curriculum departments, burying it like particles of yeast deep in the educational dough. Our focus is on high-stakes testing, on doing things the way we’ve always done them and hoping that if we can tweak our approaches, we’ll get better results. Unfortunately, blending technology into this kind of environment is just a way to add technology on in a way that is unproductive. If we want technology to be a catalyst for transformation, then we have to be willing to be transformed.If you could share one sentence of advice to other campus technology specialists, what would it be?The time for technology and curriculum specialization is over. Now, I encourage you to pick a content area, a particular set of strategies, and ask yourself a simple question: "What would teaching, learning and leading look like in this area IF technology was the only way you could get the job done?"What one tech tool or web 2.0 tool can you not live without?GoogleDrive.Fantastic ! Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me tonight. This has been very enlightening, and I think my readers will benefit from reading your responses.Thanks, and thank you for sharing and blogging.Update: I just noticed www.TexasISD.com has picked up this blog entry...thanks!Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Are you a trans-device educator? That is, have you managed to transcend your device's limits to work anytime, anywhere? If yes, then this blog entry is for you.And, note that you probably need to have an iPhone or iPad handy for some of the apps mentioned but you can certainly get it done with an Android device.Copyright Notice [fake]: As far as I know, I made up "trans-device educator" phrase. As such, it is copyrighted and you can pay me royalties. If I'm not the original author, please leave comment with source. ;-)Tip #1 - Organize Your Email"Hundreds of emails flow into my inbox," shared one principal. "I'm always on the go. How am I supposed to figure out what to do with each one?" Whether you use MS Exchange, Hotmail, Gmail, you now have access to some easy to use email clients that work quite well.CloudMagic--which works on Android, iPhone and iPad--or Readdle's Spark (iOS only) are two great mobile email clients. Both it make it easy to sort your messages into folders and/or forward to somewhere else, like Centrallo to house your email content. In fact, CloudMagic Cards offers some even more exciting features, like saving content to favorite locations. Centrallo uses--here's a video overview--two organizational principles, including List and Note. You can create a list that contains various notes, group notes according to lists. The interface is quite simple and easy to work with and fast on mobile devices!Tip #2 - Collect and Organize Critical Documents"Every day," shares one administrator, "I have to manage a ton of documents, some of which are digital, others that are mostly paper. What tips do you have for me?" Whether it's business cards, invoices, permission slips, you can easily capture these documents with an app like Readdle's Scanner Pro and save them to the cloud (e.g. Dropbox, GoogleDrive, Centrallo). Another great app--which also happens to be cross-platform--is Microsoft's OfficeLens, which works on Android and iOS devices. Going on a field trip? Scan all the student permission slips with parent/guardian contact information in! Need to share a notebook or a single note with others? It's easy to share the link, all from your mobile device or desktop computer.But what to do with all these scans/pictures? I like to place documents in Centrallo because it's easier to search for them, but you aren't limited to that. For secure documents, I encrypt them first. Then, I put those documents online and add a short description to make them searchable. To scan a lot of content, it's as easy as running the stack of papers through a copier-scanner then emailing that document to yourself with your mobile device (Centrallo accepts emailed content) or saving it straight to your cloud storage. I no longer recommend buying a separate device when using an app like the free OfficeLens is available on Android and iOS! And, saving to the cloud is so easy with a more dedicated app like Scanner Pro.Tip #3 - Manage Parent Contacts and Questions."Parents will email me, or catch me in the hall and ask me questions," said one assistant principal. "The thing is, many of them are asking the same question and I'm giving the same answer." Instead of answering the same question a thousand times, why not conduct a short interview or record an infocast that you can share via a Tweet, SMS or blog entry later?  Voxer Pro on the WebOr, better yet, invite parents to get the free Voxer app, then add them to your school's Voxer broadcast chat (Voxer Pro required for you)! Then, you can share periodic updates. I like to record into Voxer's MyNotes (a.k.a. Notes to Self) then forward that to the right Voxer broadcast chat (they receive it but have to respond to you) or chat (interactive with parents). Another approach is to quickly record the audio directly into Centrallo (it is saved in m4a format on an iPhone, but you can convert that to the popular MP3 format easily), then share the link to your audio note. This will enable them to listen to you. Take these and make them into a series of blog entries--that can be shared online. I have asked Centrallo if they would consider making an RSS feed of shared notes, and they are considering it!Tip #4 - Check That Off Your List!"What I like to do every morning is make a checklist of what I need to do each day." She held up her phone and waved it in front of me with a smile. "If I run into new items, I just add them to my digital checklist and keep going!" A lot of us have "To-Do" lists but it's so easy to see them as a list of items that never gets worked through. With Centrallo, you can put all your To-Do items in a list, inserting checkboxes in front of each. Funny thing, though, it puts the checkboxes at the top of the document, above the title (e.g. "Critical Checklist"). As you finish them throughout the day, simply tap on the checkbox to place a checkmark. What a great visual way of working through your To-Do list or a long checklist. I have to admit that I also like Google Keep for short-term to-do lists and checkboxes.Tip #5 - You are the Storyteller-in-Charge!Image Source: Social Branding via A Principal's ReflectionsWant to better engage parents, community, students and teachers? Assign yourself the job of "Storyteller-in-Chief" at your campus. This is your job, after all, and you can take advantage of various apps on your smartphone or tablet to capture pictures of great things teachers are doing, whether it's a lesson or coaching a child. You can also capture student work, ask them to share what they were thinking and record that reflection as an audio note. One approach is to use one of these iOS apps to create a "digital story" of what is going on at your school just using your phone (this is drop-dead easy, so don't put this off because you're worried you aren't "techy" enough!):Adobe Voice - This is an easy to use, wonderful tool that allows you to blend music (they provide it in the app), pictures, and your audio narration into an easy to share narrated slideshow.Shadow Puppet - Another easy to use, perhaps even more wonderful sans music in Adobe Voice, tool that lets you take pictures, add audio. Take pictures, drop them into Centrallo, and add some short text and audio recording to make it accessible online to others! In minutes, you've added another multimedia element to your school's digital wall.Tip #6 - Problems, Problems-Document!Above: Picture in CentralloAbove: Shared via Centrallo to the Web for Others to look at!"The wiring in this cabinet," pointed out a colleague, "is a mess. And, look at those cardboard boxes!" I picked up my iPhone, snapped a picture into Centrallo, shared the Room # and campus, then passed the link on. This was fun because it enabled me to quickly document issues that we needed to address as a department with the right people. And, I could always come back to it later.As a school administrator, I run into problems daily. In the old days, I'd write a long email. Now, I snap a picture of the problem then quickly "Share Link" from Centrallo to the person who can get the job done. If necessary, I add some audio to the note so that way, the other person knows what I think needs to be done.Tip #7 - Track Your MeetingsAs an administrator, if you're like me, you have to attend an endless parade of meetings. As much as I love meetings, there's no way to keep track of them all. Many of the meetings, you're going to type notes--or write them out longhand--that won't make sense to others. I like to start up Centrallo and tap on the microphone. This enables me to record the entire meeting, even as I take notes with a keyboard or pad-n-pen. In addition to saving my notes, audio recording of meetings, I also quickly snap pictures of meeting paper materials, including business cards, meeting agendas, and handouts. You can then share the meeting notes and materials with others.Are you a fan of pad-n-pen? Think better with a dry erase marker in your hand and a wall-size canvas in front of you? Me, too! I like to snap pictures of my notes so I always have them with me and even if I lose the notepad, fresh ideas are still stored in the cloud!You can also track vendor interactions. Any campus or district administrator knows that vendors are going to come calling. One of the challenges I face is limiting those vendor contacts, while keeping track of whom I've spoken to on the phone, received emails from, etc. Before, I would sort them into company folders in my email. Problem with that approach is that I'd have to remember who I was talking to, their company, etc. Now, I can organize by project and match vendors to the job. All of this information--including business cards--allows me to dig up the names of people matched up to projects.Tip #8 - Track Travel ReceiptsIt's amazing how little I travel now as an administrator. That said, even though I spend a lot of time at work, there are times when I do travel. Managing receipts has always been a chore. These days, I don't bother with trying to keep all the paper copies. After checking with the Finance folks, I snap pictures of my receipts for food, pictures of my odometer, to help me keep track of everything that has to do with travel. What a relief to not have to manage little pieces of paper!Tip #9 - Protect Confidential NotesWith Centrallo, you are able to "protect" sensitive notes that may contain confidential information. I always recommend encrypting sensitive data before putting it in the cloud but you can also add another layer of protection by choosing "Protect" on a Centrallo note. This allows you to add a password and that note can't be opened without it. Here's what "Protect Item" looks like in Centrallo.ConclusionWhat other tasks that you are involved in that can be made easier with digital tools? With only a few apps, you can streamline your work! A quick review of the apps:MultiPurpose AppsCentrallo - Great, easy to use, cross-platform note-taking, document archiving app that allows you to add audio, images, and files to notes, as well as organize them into nested lists of notes.Capture Apps OfficeLens - Capture pictures, whiteboards, documents and save them to your iOS Camera roll then use them in one of the narrated slideshow tools below.Readdle Scanner Pro - Easily scan documents (or anything) to the cloud storage of your choice.  Narrated Slideshow AppsAdobe Voice - This is an easy to use, wonderful tool that allows you to blend music (they provide it in the app), pictures, and your audio narration into an easy to share narrated slideshow.Shadow Puppet - Another easy to use, perhaps even more wonderful sans music in Adobe Voice, tool that lets you take pictures, add audio. There are many other choices, but these are a few that impact my work flow daily.Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Cool, just run across this old Teachercast video featuring PBS TeacherLine advocacy by Miguel Guhlin and Dr. Bruce Ellis: Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Doing a bit of navel-gazing, I took a moment to google my name to see what might come up. I'd completely forgotten about this THE Journal interview done in 2010, "How To Get Started with Open Source in K-12." The article's lead is as follows:For K-12 IT directors, the major appeal of open source software (OSS) generally focuses on savings in licensing fees and access to software that would not otherwise be affordable. Many also are finding that OSS simply is the best solution for their school districts--even compared to commercial versions.Here are the parts where I was quoted: Miguel Guhlin, director of Instructional Technology & Learning Services (ITLS) in San Antonio Independent School District in Texas, said that the system has not changed--even as views toward proprietary software are shifting. "We're still, as a movement, facing the habits of yesterday, which involved vendors wooing school officials," Guhlin said. "You have to get the latest and greatest, when the fact is the latest and greatest is very expensive." 2. Miguel Guhlin, San Antonio ISD, San Antonio, TX For Guhlin, at San Antonio ISD, the time to adopt OSS came when the district's proprietary database was changing to a new version. He was not familiar with the technology and was going to have to learn something new anyway. OSS Implementation Filemaker Pro Server's shift from CDML (codes placed in HTML Web pages that interact with the database) to XML resulted in Guhlin implementing MySQL. The main advantage, he said, was the variety of solutions that worked with MySQL--solutions that were themselves free. "While I knew CDML fairly well having worked on it for a few years, I hadn't a clue about XML," Guhlin said. "This made switching to PHP/MySQL easier because I could use [Adobe] Dreamweaver to do the 'coding' for me." Guhlin's district also set up a Red Hat Linux server after finding that the district's Windows server could not handle the latest version of Joomla and kept crashing. The new server was set up with Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Joomla. Another OSS experiment was the selection of a CMS. Teachers were expected to maintain Web sites, but Guhlin realized that most would not achieve even a low proficiency at designing their sites. They needed a CMS that used a simple word processor. The first CMS the district tried was Plone for two department Web sites--Advanced Academic Services and Reading/English/Language Arts. Staff members in Advanced Academic Services, in particular, found it easy to update their sites without using Dreamweaver. "They were impressed they could go in and make the changes themselves," he said. IT staff used Plone for a few months, while researching solutions that would be even easier for end users. Early on they selected Mambo, the precursor to Joomla, which had been in place for a year and a half. When the Mambo development team split off to form Joomla, Guhlin decided to follow the Joomla team."The old approach was a Webmaster at the center who had control," he said. "We had campuses with years of information that was completely out of date." The new approach can be seen in a series of video testimonials from principals who now maintain their own sites. For a learning management system (LMS), Guhlin selected Moodle, which the district runs on a Mac server, though he said the optimal solution would be to run Moodle is on a GNU/Linux server. He wrote an article about setting up Moodle servers on his blog. He selected Moodle because it is easy to support and has a large support community, he said, as well as opportunities for professional development. Still, to develop the level of complexity that was needed for a large organization, the district hired a vendor for support, Alchemy. Another OSS project was to find a solution for surveys. Collecting data was not difficult, but designing the surveys and then analyzing the data was challenging. Now they use the OSS UCCASS (Unit Command Climate Assessment and Survey System), as well as Moodle's Questionnaire module to collect information. For a frequently asked questions (FAQ) database, he found a variety of systems that are based on PHP and MySQL. The best resource for finding software during the process, he said, was Sourceforge.net, which features solutions for PHP/MySQL. He also put a list of recommendations on his blog. Ultimately, the district decided to use Moodle. Other experiments were not as successful. B2evolution and WordPress did not take off, partly owing to account management with 3,000 teachers and 54,000 students. "We let these initiatives die because of support issues. If they had become popular, it would be overwhelming for a small staff," he said. "We've jumped into several different solutions," he said. This is possible with OSS--to experiment and find the right solutions, since there are often fewer funding approvals needed and no licensing fees. The only thing lacking from the OSS has been support and the ability to hold a business accountable, he said. Still, this was only an issue when a change in staff left his department short-handed. To do a district-wide upgrade, he paid a local company to upgrade all the sites over a five-month period.  Cost Savings "We're saving the district tons of money," Guhlin said. However, while there is cost savings between Blackboard and Moodle, for example--and elimination of the annual recurring licensing fee is a major savings--that is not the whole picture. "I couldn't give you an estimate on total savings of all free open source software solutions because we just wouldn't have implemented the solutions unless they had been free," he said. "We simply wouldn't have done anything." The San Antonio ISD has about 92 schools, including 52 elementary, and approximately 54,000 students.Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

My best ideas arise from questions others ask.The problem is, there are so many questions and only so much time. How do I stay focused to get things done? One approach is to create to-do lists.To accomplish that, I'm depending on Centrallo, a note and list-making tool that allows you to house documents and other content in it, to facilitate idea collection, marination, and preparation:Image Source Reduce by Copying-n-pasting the smallest unit of information. Beguiled by pictures, colored text, some times it's easier to go back to the written word in black and white, grasping for simplicity. As John Maeda reminds us, "The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. When in doubt, just remove. " Rather than depend on a web clipper, copying and pasting requires you to be deliberate and "reduce" the content you are collecting to the bare essence. After all, what you are looking for is the germ of an idea, the smallest unit of information that will spark your own writing.Organize your ideas through the use of hierarchical lists of notes. With Centrallo, you can quickly organize concepts.As John Maeda says, "Organization makes a system of many appear fewer." Not only can you quickly organize notes into lists with Centrallo, you are able to color code your lists and/or notes, making important items jump out. And, with organization and prior planning, you can begin to make many appear fewer.Capture relevant content to build context. Centrallo allows you to store audio notes, images and other types of documents in its notes. Instead of overwhelming you with the ability to capture everything, you choose to focus on what is needed to achieve your goal. You can add context to your notes by including documents such as images, and more.Be open and share your ideas. Closed systems make it difficult for others to interact with content, to see it and gain their own insights. "With an open system," points out John Maeda, "the power of the many can outweigh the power of the few." Centrallo enables you to easily share a link to your notes with others via social media or copy the link to share via SMS or email. Minimize dependence on paper notes. While we know that taking notes by hand aids our cognition and memory, there's no reason to hang onto the paper after we've completed the tactile act of note-taking. In fact, we can move to the next level by using Centrallo to minimize our dependence on paper notes. "More appears like less," say John Maeda, "by simply moving it far, far away." This means that as we move our paper-tracking into the cloud (far far away), we are relieved of the burden of managing bits of paper.Note: For fun, I decided to adapt this article about Evernote, while revisiting an old favorite book of mine, John Maeda's Laws of Simplicity. I hope you enjoyed the result!From the Amazon web site:Finally, we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. We're rebelling against technology that's too complicated, DVD players with too many menus, and software accompanied by 75-megabyte "read me" manuals. The iPod's clean gadgetry has made simplicity hip. But sometimes we find ourselves caught up in the simplicity paradox: we want something that's simple and easy to use, but also does all the complex things we might ever want it to do. In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda offers ten laws for balancing simplicity and complexity in business, technology, and design -- guidelines for needing less and actually getting more.Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure