We are excited to feature Benson Kwok, an Instructional Technology Coordinator at Glendale Unified School District, in California and a Microsoft Innovative Educator! Benson’s day job has him working closely with the IT department to meet technology instructional goals and oversees its implementation for a culturally diverse population comprised of 31 Schools, over 2,620 employees and 27,000 students in grades Kindergarten through 12. Benson will be joining NCCE community at this years conference in Seattle! Name: Benson Kwok Location: Los Angeles, California Current job(s): Instructional Technology Coordinator, Glendale Unified School District Current computer: Surface Pro 3 Current mobile device(s): Samsung S6 Edge, iPhone 6 One word that best describes how you teach or work: Activator What apps/software/tools can you not live without? Number one on my list is definitely OneNote. It keeps me organized and allows me to collaborate via digital notebooks with my colleagues.  I save time by not having to search through my entire cloud storage to retrieve a single item. All the files that I use most often are easily accessible and organized in a way that make sense. I use the OneNote and the OneNote app to manage travel, district business, staff meetings and professional development without needing to be connected in order to be productive. Paired with OneNote Class and Staff Notebooks, OneNote is a must have for all educators as it cultivates collaboration! My other favorite apps are Sunrise Calendar for all my appointments, Office Lens as a pocket scanner, Flipboard and the ESPN app for all my news. Other than your phone and computer, what gadget can you not live without? Microsoft Band 2 - It tracks my runs, bike rides and other physical activities. My favorite feature is its ability to download an entire workout plan. It then guides you through the exercise sessions. I also enjoy my Kindle Fire for reading and media. What browser do you use regularly? I like  Microsoft Edge -  Its simple, clean and fast.  I especially enjoy the reading view and being able to ink directly on websites then sharing those notes. What is your workspace/classroom like? I prefer not to sit at a desk all day. I often make site visits and  utilize my motorized stand up/sit down desk. My office has room to comfortably fit 6 people for collaboration. What is your favorite avenue to connect with social media? Twitter is a such a great platform for communication and learning from educators. It is simple, effective and I like being able to connect with like-minded people. I enjoy being a part of a network and I’m able to gain and share resources I want, when I want it.  @bensonk49 When you are not living the glamorous work life, what do you like to do in your spare time for fun? I enjoy being outdoors and being active. My favorite activities are playing ice hockey, bike riding and hiking with my puppy, Hanna. As a tech-savvy teacher, what everyday thing do you feel you excel with/at versus other teachers/administrators/mentors? I feel like my confidence empowers people and my presence reassures them that they are ready and capable of tackling assignments and playing key positions on a team. I think of myself as a human spark plug, inspiring and energizing colleagues or students to dedicate themselves to a task. I can typically stir people’s enthusiasm with my cheerful exuberance for life and share my joy in ways that energize those around me. What are you currently reading? I am currently reading Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchmen, the prequel to To Kill a Mockingbird. I also have George R.R. Martin A Storm of Swords, book number three in the Game of Thrones series on Audio. What fantastic tech-savvy educator would you like to refer to us? Jennifer Mitchell - Campus Instructional Technology Specialist at Lamar CISD, Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert - From Houston, Texas:  Twitter: @jenemitchell Any parting thoughts you would like to share with our readers? If you can think it, you can make it happen. Be inspired by the future and what it could be and strive to create the experiences you desire. Spend time creating innovative ideas about what will be possible in the months, years, or decades to come. Join Benson at these sessions at NCCE 2016! Blended Learning with Office 365 Build A Collaborative Classroom And Increase Productivity With OneNote Flip Your Classroom With Office Mix 10 FREE Microsoft Tools To Energize Your Classroom!   The post Meet a Tech Savvy Teacher: Benson Kwok appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

In tribal organizations, influence often comes through kinship. It still does with certain royal families. In institutions, power is exerted through the hierarchy. It is positional. Even today, in a market-dominated society, many people are their institutional job title, and feel naked without it. But those who exercise power through markets can often throw off their job titles and not worry about their formal qualifications, as long as they deliver the goods (and services). [more on TIMN] Source: adapting to perpetual beta As we shift to a network-dominated society, we do not lose tribal, institutional, and market organizational forms. However, their relationships between each other will change. A person with strong network influence, with perhaps millions of followers on social media, can exert power through reputation, while still remaining inside an institution. But the power relationship inside that institution will have changed.  Bonnie Stewart alluded to this last night during her session at Mount Allison University on digital identify in academic scholarship. Bonnie’s presentation on orality and literacy in scholarship particularly looks at Twitter and how it is a written (print) medium, but works in an oral fashion. Bonnie calls this new space the intersection between "speech-based expectations" and "print-based interpretations" [see slides 41-44]. Image: Bonnie Stewart Marshall McLuhan was correct it seems, in that "At electric speed, all forms are pushed to the limits of their potential." On social media, especially Twitter and other short forms of posting, the written word gets pushed to its limit and reverses to a new form of orality. This shift in communication is of importance to all of us. Politicians need to understand it in order to connect with the citizenry. Our new Prime Minister is experimenting with different forms of communication even though I am sure he knows it is ripe for potential mishaps. Educators have to immerse themselves in social media in order to teach about them. Bonnie gave the example of Jim Groom and his domain of one’s own initiative where students are encouraged to claim their space online. Business executives have to understand this shift in communications, so they do not treat text-based social media like print media. Even well thought out ‘campaigns’ can get co-opted, as Coca Cola discovered. Social media are new languages and require mastery. Those who do not master them risk sounding like toddlers, or worse, villains who have offended some part of society. The medium is the message: we all need to learn how to use the medium, or our messages will be lost.

I want to give adjunct faculty a voice and make that connection with the university." As Dr. Stephani Cuddie leads the FacultyCare initiative in the College of Adult and Professional Studies, she couples an empathetic...Continue Reading »

The IWU learning management system, LearningStudio, is an organic driver of digital learning for thousands of adult learners.  With major updates scheduled several times a year, it is vitally important to apprise our faculty community as...Continue Reading »

(credit: Jalopnik.com) Recently, someone asked me what is the "game" part of gamification. It’s a great question, and it was asked by an enterprise that wants to integrate benchmark setting together with gamification: someone that is really "in the know". But the question remains - what is the "game" and why "gamification". We’ve written about the difference between games and gamification often - how gamification uses "game elements", how gamification is like a fitbit for work, and how industry luminaries are describing gamification. Yet, I was suddenly struck with the perfect metaphor for gamification: the ghost car. Gamification: be the best driver you can be This is a photograph of a car race game called Forza. The red car is the one I’m driving, while the greenish car (the "ghost car"), which is just ahead of me on the other side of the road, is where I should be. I am racing against myself.  What it really does isn’t just drive me to focus, since it acts as a benchmark - this is how I should be performing. Actually, the game is constantly teaching me how I can improve and what I can do to perform better in the game. Through practice, I get better and better at being where the "ghost" car is, until I finally get to the stage where I can beat the ghost car and be ahead of it. But it will adjust and stay ahead. We tend to think that we are competitive creatures, and that that means that we get the most satisfaction from beating fellow competitors. While competitiveness is definitely human trait,  research by Dan Ariely and Daniel Pink have discovered that we are even more satisfied when we are able to beat a personal goal that we have set for ourselves. The Ghost Car: It’s not just competition against yourself. It’s about the personal benchmark One of the often missed "tricks" about workforce gamification is the part that each employee gets a targeted, personalized benchmark. In OKR systems, which are focused on goal-setting for knowledge workers, goals are set for employees. In workforce gamification the name of the game is using analytics to set personalized benchmarks for each employee. This means that targets and KPIs for employees are set in accordance with their ability to achieve them - they are the ghost car.  Each of the benchmarks acts as a ghost car, egging employees to beat themselves. As employees get better, benchmarks are more demanding. If you look at our platform page, you can see that KPIs are actual achievement and the colored bar underneath them is the benchmark. Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose In his book, ‘Drive’, Daniel Pink outlines what he believes can explain what motivates us, and what we at GamEffective have seen that makes gamification so effective as a tool to create real change in the performance of employees over time. Pink states that Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose are the three elements that determine whether we are motivated or not. Autonomy is our desire to be in charge of our own destiny, Mastery is the urge to constantly get better at something that is important to us, and Purpose is our inherent desire to do something that is in service of something that is larger than ourselves. Racing against the ghost car is about autonomy, mastery and purpose. When we beat a benchmark that we have set for ourselves, we feel autonomy and mastery, and that makes us feel great in general. The psychological compensation we feel during an experience like this can’t be duplicated with financial rewards or with a competition set up against our peers. That kind of motivation, coming from external sources, only lasts for so long. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation, when we have the desire to achieve something because of an inner wish, allows us to stay motivated in the long run. That’s intrinsic motivation Gamification is Fitbit for work People who use Fitbit exercise more. They can set benchmarks for themselves and get immediate feedback about how they are progressing towards those benchmarks. This creates a virtuous cycle - users want to exercise more because of the goals they have set for themselves, then once they see that they are advancing towards those goals they are motivated to keep at it and set new, more ambitious goals for themselves and on and on. Gamification works in exactly the same way, just for work. We enable employees to see how they are doing compared to goals that they have set for themselves. Employees can experience how they are improving and advancing towards the goals they have set for themselves, and then set new goals which will take them even further. Gamification creates a way for employees to monitor their progress at the workplace and act from a place of intrinsic motivation. They do that by competing against their personal (and personalized) ghost car.

My wife, Katelyn Nesi, co-hosts this first episode of 2016 and we give insight into how we live life to the fullest on two educator's salaries!   Follow Katelyn Nesi   This episode of House of #EdTech is sponsored by:   Audible.com   Domain.com   Listeners Like You! Become a Patron...   Segments:   (5:30) EdTech Recommendation   (8:30) EdTech Thought   (13:40) Main Content   (55:30) House of #EdTech VIP   Complete show notes: http://www.chrisnesi.com/2016/01/nclb-no-cash-left-behind.html   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: mrnesi Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: @mrnesi Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com

A rare guestless episode where I talk about the awesome shows on the Education Podcast Network, share listener feedback, and TWO recommendations!   This episode of House of #EdTech is sponsored by:   Audible.com   Domain.com   Listeners Like You! Become a Patron...   -- Segments --   (1:58) Episode 52 Feedback from Stacey Lindes & Dani Kennis   (12:15) NEW Segment Proposal! Get involved today!   (14:19) Education Podcast Network Podcast Lineup   (22:45) Grad School & Professor Nesi Update   (26:20) How to Write a Thank You Note   (31:22) House of #EdTech Recommendations   (35:40) House of #EdTech VIP - Amanda C. Dykes     Complete shownotes at: http://www.chrisnesi.com/2016/01/updates-feedback-and-recs-oh-my-hoet053.html   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: mrnesi Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: @mrnesi Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com

Student tips to keep track of your online courses https://t.co/HSOZR3v2xQ https://t.co/V6eboqlouj

I had the honor of speaking at #LISDCIC in Leander ISD in Texas today. Below you will find the resources I shared and ways to stay updated on my work and Choose2Matter. I look forward to […] The post Mattering IS the Agenda! Resources shared at #LISDCIC appeared first on Angela Maiers.

Sylvia Duckworth is a #AIMlang French teacher and excited by the creative & collaborative aspects of technology who likes to think outside the box. She is a Google Certified Innovator in Toronto, Canada and you may have seen her amazing sketchnotes in the wild for us!Find out how Google Apps for Education (GAFE) can automate your workload and simplify your life.Learn how to give immediate, effective and ongoing student feedbackDiscover the amazing collaborative features of GAFELearn how to empower your students with GAFE toolsExplore how your students can get creative with GAFENetwork and meet other teachers in your community who are excited about education.Get inspired by international and local speakers and presenters.Get Googley in the Photo Booth with old and new friendsBe dazzled and entertained with the Demo SlamsFind out how you can disrupt education and make a significant difference in your students’ lives