Image Source: Color and Dust Gallery - http://tinyurl.com/h95eukuDoes your school cultivate a "culture of thinking?" That is, a culture where educators make their thinking visible to each other and students? We often expect our children to just "know how to think," but in our role as educators, we must make our own thinking processes transparent. Yet doing that only with our students, if at all, may not provide us with enough practice.This problem of getting educators to slow down, make note of how and why they are thinking, and then share that with others in a way that’s understandable can be solved simply with more practice. Solutions like Google Hangouts, Microsoft Skype, Blab.im, Appear.in, and Voxer chats all present opportunities for us to trot out our thinking in front of others and see what happens. Let’s look at Google Hangouts for Educators as one example of a technology that can help make our thinking visible.Read the rest.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

"We’ve had years, if not a couple of decades," says Tim Stahmer (Assorted Stuff), "of research questioning the effectiveness of technology in schools." In a previous entry, Can Education Keep Up with Tech World?, Tim asserts:...teacher-controlled delivery of information, paired with curriculum-approved context doesn’t work anymore, no matter how hard we work to graft technology into it. Our traditional system is not one that will prepare students for a world "moving too fast for the political and legal process".Jose Vilson puts it succinctly, when discussing education reform, and what is educational technology but a form of reform?...we’re all getting a little tired of this … crap we call education reform. Source: The Jose Vilson BlogWho isn't tired of the edtech arguments? Asking someone to pour new wine into old wineskins--that is, show teachers how to integrate technology--is ludicrous. Put another way,  "You can't put new ideas into old mind-sets. You can't get new results with old behaviors." (Source)These days, if you're a teacher and you're NOT getting connected and learning how to blend technology, you're just someone taking up space. That doesn't make you a bad person, but why should anyone waste their time?This are old, tired arguments. Either education isn't changing fast enough, or technology is being used to support old paradigms, or tech is a catalyst for change (usually, just big investments in hardware that lasts as long as the current administration needs it to).For some, it's about putting the power back in teachers' hands:A survey conducted by a teacher marketplace and an education technology "accelerator" found that while only 38 percent of teachers currently have a role in the decision-making process of ed tech, 63 percent want to be in charge of those decisions. Right now, almost half say those choices are decided by education leaders at the school, district or regional levels. Source: Dian Schaffhouser, THE JournalBut you know what? That's like putting the power to turn the lights on or off on the Titanic in the hands of the passengers after the ship has already hit the iceberg. The ship is sinking, and turning on the lights may work for awhile, but...so what?In spite of that fact, we have to persevere. We have to keep the faith.SourceEverything 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

Content curation is the process of collecting, organizing and displaying information relevant to a particular topic or area of interest. Source: WikipediaLooking for the right content curation tool to organize and maximize your own learning, as well as make content easily accessible to others? There are now many tools that we can take advantage of. In the early days, we relied on social bookmarking tools like Delicious.com, Diigo.com and others. Many of us also adopted Evernote--before they shut down their RSS feed feature for Notebooks, added complexity upon simplicity, making it cumbersome--and a host of other curation tools that allowed us to collect, organize, then share.Over the last month or so, I have been using OneNote as a content notebook. Here's how I do it:1) On Mobile and/or computer, I bookmark an item using Diigo for Education or Read It Later's Pocket. I'm increasingly going back to Diigo because it allows me to bookmark items, creating an RSS feed from a tag.2) Once in Diigo, IFTTT.com makes several other things possible:All my public bookmarks in Diigo are auto-tweeted. That's right, if I bookmark something, it is automatically dropped into my twitter feed. Depending on the one word description (e.g. tag) I add in Diigo, that blog entry ends up in my OneNote notebook in the appropriate section. That's pretty amazing, isn't it? You can see those show up online in the Tutorials section. It's pretty amazing...saves tons of work in trying to curate content for others.TCEA Connect! - http://ly.tcea.org/connect3) Diigo also gives me the option to drop content in a Diigo Group, which can make content curation a collaborative event for a trusted group of "sharers." While I realize that Diigo Groups is evolving into "teams," Diigo Groups represents the easiest way to build an online community that facilitates sharing. After years of looking for better ways, I haven't found one that is so easily done.Give Diigo a try again, don't turn your nose up at it even if it's been around for 10+ years! (Hard to believe!). Vicki "Coolcat Teacher" Davis has a great series of Diigo video tutorials. The benefit of old technologies like Diigo is that they are well-established but I bet most folks aren't taking advantage of its RSS feeds for tags and easy group sharing!Finally, Diigo Browser on your mobile device, as well as Diigo Annotate app--an add-on for your iOS Safari browser--is pretty awesome.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

"The attitude of "why can’t we all just get along?" has no place in the academic community: validity of arguments come from questioning and the constant, rigorous challenge of debate."Source: Geoff Cain's blog entry on Siemens and DownesIn exploring the academic disagreements between George Siemens and Stephen Downes (I regret I found the kerfluffle boring, a sure sign of my roots in practicality or at least, shallow thinking), Geoff makes the point shared at the top of this blog entry. There's no reason why debates and disagreements can't be civil, but I know that the more violent and flowery language that is used, the more interesting reading it is. Consider this excerpt from an engaging piece by Carol Morgan:Elections have consequences and unfortunately those consequences are leading to the death knell for Texas’ public education system. Texans have thrown away their right to a public education system (which is guaranteed by the Texas Constitution) because they elected fools and charlatans like Dan Patrick, Donna Campbell, and Larry Taylor to the Texas Senate.These three political prostitutes got where they are today through the love and determination of a teacher and free public schools. How dare they criticize the institution that bestowed the opportunities they enjoy today! They should be thanking teachers rather than criticizing and belittling with the words "godless" and "monstrosity". Source: Carol Morgan, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal OnlineAside from that dramatic open line, I loved the fun implied in the next paragraph about political prostitutes, daring criticisms asserting godlessness among Texas public school teachers. Now, that's discontent you can sink your teeth into! Reasonable discourse isn't necessarily a goal when it comes to politics, which is why it should be kept as far away from education as possible...but facts--like those Carol Morgan cites--can illuminate aspects of the conversation:Around 8.2 percent of public school campuses are classified as failing, but nearly 17 percent of charter schools are designated as failing. In fact, within three years of being included on the low-performing list, only seven out of approximately 8,500 traditional public schools are still designated as failing. If you are mathematically inclined, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all Texas public school campuses are rated IR or AU for more than three years. I find it a great jumping off spot for revisiting something the authors of Crucial Conversations describe as The Sucker's Choice.Either / or choices are Sucker’s Choices. The best at dialogue refuse Sucker’s Choices by setting up new choices. They present themselves with tougher questions that turn the either/or choice into a search for the all-important and ever elusive and. In Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler write about how to search for the elusive AND. (Source: Refuse the Sucker's Choice)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

I stumbled on Jay Greenlinger's blog earlier today and bookmarked his blog to revisit and subscribe via Feedly.com. In his blog entry on 5 Things We Have to Stop Pretending, he writes the following:1. Teachers should be completely in charge of student learning.2. Technology is the answer to our problems. (Yes, I am a Tech Director)3. Large scale testing provides us meaningful information about a student, classroom, or school.4. We need to have an adopted curriculum in order to have a coherent curriculum.5. Change in pedagogy and curriculum can be incremental.I immediately had a knee-jerk reaction because I read these as assertions of what Jay supported. Then, a moment later, I realized, he meant the opposite of what was written:Teachers should NOT be in charge of student learning. Instead, students could be.Technology is NOT the answer to our problems, but probably should be a significant part of MOST solutions.Large scale testing does NOT provide us with meaningful information about a student, classroom, or school, but there's no reason why meaningful, authentic assessments couldn't do that...right?A quality curriculum that makes sense doesn't have to be an adopted one.Changes in pedagogy and curriculum happen suddenly.What are your thoughts about his points? I wonder if they aren't obvious. Since, as we all know, being obvious doesn't mean that people still won't continue to fail to change. For example, and I apologize in advance, people know when they are overweight, but fail to make the changes needed to lose it (hey, before you get mad at me, I fall into this group of jolly happy people (rolling eyes)).Still, if I had to pick ONE of these items, I would hope that people stop pretending that large scale testing provides us meaningful information. High stakes testing is the greatest boondoggle perpetrated on school systems.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

"The mission of the public education system of this state is to ensure that all Texas children have access to a quality education that enables them to achieve their potential and fully participate now and in the future in the social, economic, and educational opportunities of our state and nation." [TEC Sec. 4.001]Source: Dealing with School Vouchers Growing up, I attended private Catholic schools. The effects of Catholic education on my life can't be overstated. For example, consider these long-lasting changes:Praying for deliverance from strict, ruler-wielding nuns helped me develop a healthy respect for clergy, especially nuns. One of my favorite movies is Lilies of the Field, showing how one can play with humor with people who have committed their lives to the service of others.My wardrobe usually falls into "uniform" type dress. I like to wear the same shirts and pants, and if they are all alike, I'm OK with that. It definitely prepared me for a life of uniformity.Being organized, having a plan to bring order to the chaos of human life...well, that's definitely a plus coming out of private schools.Obviously, there's much to find humor in as a graduate of grade school and high school Catholic schools. But I often wonder what my parents were thinking when they made every effort to keep me out of public schools.As much as I respect private, Catholic/religious education, my wife and I chose to send our children to public school. As a public school educator, I felt that it would have been wrong to send my children to private school when I knew public school offered much that private schools did not. Charter schools, I imagine, try to bridge the gap between private religious and public schools. The former is too poor, unless parishioners donate funding. The latter is too profane and obscene. My son learned his first curse words in public school. He fought his first fight in a public school. The same for my daughter.Both are richer for those experiences. Would I do it differently? I continue to believe that the public schools my children had access to were the best. But having worked in public schools, I know that some aren't as good as others. 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

Sitting in the audience at the movie theatre, an audience I hadn't really noticed was mostly female, my 17 year old self slipped lower in my chair. The movie was The Accused, and if you saw it, you probably know why I started to feel that males are lower than bottom-dwelling slugs, if only while watching the movie:The Accused is a 1988 American drama film starring Kelly McGillis and Jodie Foster, directed by Jonathan Kaplan and written by Tom Topor. Loosely based on the real-life gang rape of Cheryl Araujo that occurred at Big Dan's Bar in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on March 6, 1983, this film was one of the first Hollywood films to deal with rape in a direct manner, and led to other films (including TV films and shows) on the subject. Jodie Foster, for her portrayal as Sarah Tobias, earned the Academy Award for Best Actress.... Source: WikipediaThe film, which I was totally unprepared for as a sheltered young man at seventeen (you know, you don't realize how "sheltered" you are until you encounter a situation like this), made me feel ashamed to be a young man. In theory, I knew that men raped women (and vice versa), but having attended a Catholic school growing up with poor social skills, I realize that MY reality didn't include such brutal renditions of truth. I resolved to never visit bars, and I've held to that except for 1-2 occasions. Feminism, equal rights for men and women, seemed quite achievable but I had no clue as to what it meant in my teenage life...as a grown man, it seemed natural to seek a strong woman, unafraid to speak up.Feminism often involves "Speaking truth to power," and for me, a confident human being is one that can appreciate, even celebrate and learn, diverse opinions that are different than his/her's. I won't say all marriages are like that, but I can say that I'm glad my wife is unafraid to point out the error of my ways and that goes both ways. Equal rights for all human beings has meant raising children to ask tough questions about how they can interact positively (win-win) with others, but also, to avoid situations that may put them in harm's way. We'll come back to this idea, though.One of the important pieces of data I've shared with my almost legal-age daughter is that alcohol contributes to problems, period. Although it would be nice to imagine that everyone would be helpful when you're inebriated, the truth is, some may take advantage of that. I've shared statistics like these with my family for discussion off and on again over time:Conservative estimates of sexual assault prevalence suggest that 25 percent of American women have experienced sexual assault, including rape. Approximately one-half of those cases involve alcohol consumption by the perpetrator, victim, or both. Read moreIn one, study 26% of men who acknowledged committing sexual assault admitted that they were intoxicated at the time of the assault, and an additional 29% reported being mildly buzzed 55% were under the influence of alcohol. In the same study 21% of the college women who experienced sexual aggression on a date were intoxicated at the time of the assault, and an additional 32% reported being mildly buzzed, 53% were under the influence of alcohol. Read more.Rape is more common on college campuses with higher rates of binge drinking - and alcohol use is a central factor in most college rape...Overall, one in 20 (4.7 percent) women reported being raped in college since the beginning of the school year - a period of approximately 7 months - and nearly three-quarters of those rapes (72 percent) happened when the victims were so intoxicated they were unable to consent or refuse. Read moreOver the last semester, my daughter has shared her thoughts on feminism. A word that demands equality among men and women. That said,Hello Sexism, I wasn’t expecting you so early today. From NPR.About the image shared above, she writes in her latest blog post, Sexism is Unprofessional As Is Showing It, the following:The checks and balances failed. Their culture has a failing. They want to help sexism and gender imbalance in the tech industry. Kudos, guys, and I mean that. I hope you mean it and follow through on your goals to improve everyone’s thinking at your company, and not just the developer’s, because when this kind of sexism shines through like fluorescent lighting, it shows us that we may not want to be sexist, but the waters we’re swimming in may still be. Time to clean the tank folks. She is discussing the reaction that a company had in regards to their engineer and that engineer managed to get off a slide comparing a problem to his girlfriend, causing an uproar online. Compare the response of Atlassian (in their blog post) with the ISTE CEO response (you can read Hack Education's scathing criticism of the ISTE response) to a situation described by Ariel Norling:In June 2013 I attended the International Society for Technology in Education conference (ISTE). While there I was sexually harassed by a male speaker and sexually assaulted by a male exhibitor. One is a popular conference speaker who is frequently featured as one of the most influential people in EdTech on Twitter. He’s also a principal. The other man is the founder and CEO of an educational technology company that raised one of the largest seed rounds in EdTech history. Perhaps you have read his feature in Forbes.Admittedly, both situations are entirely different, but they provide insights into how different organizations might respond to situations.As a husband, a father, I'm frightened about American culture and the fact that my wife and daughter are out there, having to deal with some who may see their gender, their clothing, their reactions as an invitation to harm them while satisfying their own desires.As a father, a part of me sees this news article as one possible solution for women:Between 2005 and 2012, the number of state residents receiving new concealed-carry permits tripled to 62,939. Now some 451,000 Washington residents are allowed to carry a hidden handgun almost anywhere they go, more than 100,000 of them women.Notably, the growth rate for women getting new permits is twice as fast as that of men.What is going on? Washington’s recent boom in concealed weapons mirrors a national trend, according to a Seattle Times analysis. State and national experts, law-enforcement officials and others, including permit holders themselves, offered different explanations for the concealed-carry explosion here. But a common concern emerged from interviews with women who carry: the importance of self-defense. Read MoreThen again, drinking and carrying a weapon don't go together. Neither does drinking and going out on a date. For both activities, you need to be fully cognizant of what's happening, what you can do. IfView my Flipboard Magazine. Make Donations via PayPal below: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

"As an IT leader, your successes are silent and your failures are publicized."A few weeks ago, Eric Scheninger posted a quote I immediately shared with folks at home and work:"@NMHS_Principal: - Tell your story as it happens, take pictures of kids doing great work when observing, blog about successes #PAESSPCHAT"As a technology director, it's easy to blog or share about what you and/or your Instructional Technology team members are doing. After all, they work directly with students and staff, making it easy to create digital stories that can be shared. But what about the people in the shadows who do so much awesome work but seldom get recognized?For a CTO, the work these unknown do-ers engage in does mean the difference between success and failure for the organization. Those jobs can include any of the following:Hanging up wireless access pointsSetting up computersNetwork device or infrastructure configuration design/setupProviding end-user trouble-shootingProcessing purchase requisitions and purchase orders.Database/account managementWeb site support and trainingHow do you share those silent successes with others in a way that makes that work real to the end-user, the customer, the people you serve?View my Flipboard Magazine. Make Donations via PayPal below: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 are my notes about the writing workshop I attended one day facilitated by Elizabeth Martin. Any errors, incomplete thoughts, failures to cite appropriately are mine. My Notes:1. Starts off the day sharing stories...at least 4-5, if not more about a variety of topic. The purpose of this, I think, is to "prime the pump" for participants.2. Ms. Martin passed out a small, fit in composition notebook half of a manila folder and instructed us to title it "Library of Ideas." The purpose of this is folder is for participants to jot down  stories brought to mind by Ms. Martin's. This worked for me, since the story she shared about her first few weeks at college reminded me of my time at MSU and the time before classes started. Another example is calling Dad for help or rescue.3. We all have stories to tell. Avoid summarizing and instead put yourself in as a character in the story.4. Tell stories at your table. Participants shared their stories they'd jotted down on their manila folder.5. Think of small moments to share...put someone's name on a chart, then think of 3 small moments.6. Come up with different small moments for places and people. Put down stories for each place.7. Telling stories helps encourage sharing...sparks memories of other stories in her past.8.  Neighborhood map list...this is a neat idea. You draw a map of your neighborhood when you were a child and then identify places where stories took place. By having this in your writing notebook, you are able to quickly find topics to write and share about.9. Heart Map - First, put people in there. Second, places. Third,  put things on the heart map...when you're done, expository writing. Things could be iPad, iPod, etc. Fourth, activities and events.PlacesPeoplePlacesThingsActivitiesEventsGoals and DreamsSix essentials for writer's workshop:1) Time - Have to give time to write each day.  Some students will fake it until they move on. "I write because I'm expected to write. I know that at a certain, I will be called in and be expected to write at a certain time." If you can only do workshop twice a week, the don't bother. You send the message to kids that it's not important. We're writing every day. Responsibility, expectation are important. I feel have to feel a sense of responsibility as a writer.  Treat child with expectation that they are going to speak. That is expectation.Inside that expectation is the responsibility. If you're sitting at your computer, why should students write? We are imbuing our expectations to our kids.2) Talk  - "If they are not talking, it's not workshop."  We've been programmed to believe that we're not on task if we're not sitting at our desk. One of the conditions that must be present if feedback to response. Teachers process what they are learning by talking to each other. The best practices for instruction have changed...but we're still sort of programmed from the way we talked. If the kids aren't talking, it's not workshop. Teach appropriate talk for workshop."No walking, no talking." Writing is, by its very nature, a solitary affair. Isn't writing a lonely affair?We need to create a net to enable students to talk to each other. Students need to be co-dependent on each other, not just the teacher. If they are dependent only on you, then you are outnumbered.3) Tone - Create a climate in your classroom that's an invitation. Create an environment as a strong invitation that is exciting. Everything you around the work is part of the invitation. Make a thoughtful plan about how to get kids excited about the writing work. The tone of your classroom needs to be an invitation.4) Teaching - You teach the whole time. The biggest problem is knowing what to teach. In the past, we were taught grammatical structure. Teach kids what good writers do.5) Choice - Good writers know what they write about.  Roald Dahl's work.We cannot invite kids to the table and then tell them to write about what is important to them. Lucy Calkins: Tell the exact truth about something.  Sometimes we are too quick to push kids to something new. The once in a lifetime nature of topics.Kids have the idea that if they don't write about something exciting, then it's not going to be good writing. Kids need to have choice.6) Structure - There is structure in the hour of time. If it's a problem, there are two things I can do--teach a mini-lesson or put a structure on it.You can't gatekeep...students need access to what they need to get through the writing process. And, they will need to be able to getup and get what they need to move on.What Happens in Writing Workshop during Conference:While students are writing, you are teaching. You are not at your computer, etc. You are up and walking around, talking to child, writer to writer. "If you don't manage your people, they will manage you.""Writers need to be writing."Constantly move around the room, teaching.Conferring is your best teaching. We get better at reading and writing when we do it a lot.Share Time:We don't meet author's chair. We mean that we'll take the work of the minilesson. When you write dialogue, it has to have a reason, moves the story forward. Dialogue with a purpose moves the story forward. When kid write dialogue that moves the story forward...celebrate students who achieve the goal of the writing workshop mini-lesson.Share time can be a nice book-end on mini-lesson that reteaches the lesson. When you invite kids to share, it will be very awkward. When you start at the beginning of the year, it's not going to feel comfortable for the teacher or students until later. Make sure that you give it awhile until everyone feels comfortable.Hands up, come in for a minilesson."We write so that our curriculum knowledge of the process of writing runs deep and true in our teaching" --Katie Wood RayWriting partnerships may last the duration of the school year or could change across units of study.Get systems in place to get work done.Writing partnerships are reciprocal relationships where everyone gives and receives help.Partnerships should:Meet often, share their writing, listen to one another..."By offering a community where every member is engaged in similar struggles, we offer our independent writers the knowledge that they are not alone." - M Colleen Cuz, Independent WritingAll mini-lessons either give or gather information. 

Doug "Blue Skunk" Johnson really hit a nerve when I read his post on, The lost souls of technology training. This is the part that sang out to me:Paras fall into the category I call the lost souls of technology training - those folks who need basic tech skills, but don't get much attention from our department. We do a pretty good job with kids, teachers, and even the teachable administrators, but some groups have just been left to wander in technology limbo.Paraprofessionals, or para-educators as I once was told served as the preferred term, are one of the toughest groups to get to. Here's why: In Texas schools, paraprofessionals aren't allowed to attend workshops after work hours unless they are doing so for their own edification and it's unrelated to their job. If they do attend something, they must be compensated.Think about that.If I'm a paraprofessional, and I attend a workshop that occurs after-hours that could positively impact the work I do when I'm on-duty, then I have an expectation of payment from my employer. Yes, that's the interpretation that is out there.When I served as Director of Instructional Technology for a large urban school district, we actually put disclaimers in the front of the professional development handbook stating that no expectation of payment should be present and that paraprofessionals could attend only with approval. You might guess we didn't have many paraeducators attending sessions. Fortunately, I was able to design paraeducator learning opportunities in a series of seminars, and that was very well-received by participants.So, how do you get past this? You don't offer formal training for paraprofessionals. You put it all online in a elearning buffet and let anyone and everyone learn what they want. If it happens to improve you as a paraeducator, then great but a school district won't have to reimburse you for your time. Thank goodness for YouTube, huh?If you see this as a problem, what would your solution be?This past weekend, I spent a serious amount of time digging up video tutorials to help a paraeducator "train herself" into a beginner level technician. There is so much information out there to help us become better at what we doCheck out Miguel's Workshop Materials online at http://mglearns.wikispaces.com 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

"How do I get started?" It's a question that many teachers ask when considering Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT). It flows from a lack of awareness of what others are already doing in classrooms. As a technology director, the most challenging aspect of my job isn't the technical stuff...rather, it's helping people overcome the limitations they set upon themselves and others. It's easy to look at the completed product others have produced and say, "That's too hard. I can't do that."In this article, I'd like to share 5 tips for organizing your BYOT classroom. The challenge isn't the technology, but rather, the limits you've accepted for the kind of person you want to be. And, if you accept those limitations, you will--not may, not probably, but you will--deny yourself, your colleagues and your students the benefits of being someone who transcends the limitations. Aren't you ready for a bowl of transcendence? I know I am!"I'm not sure where to start. I have all these papers in this stack, my notebook of favorite activities, my documents on a flash drive. How do I put it all together?" A better question might be, How do you magnify your teacher superpower to a laser focus? The easiest way is to organize your materials and resources in some online space. If you had to look back over the last 5 years, the wiki as a tool for classroom organization has been obvious. Everyone abandoned paper, face to face approaches to distributing content and has moved online. It simply makes sense. These days, you might consider using OneNote, the awesomely easy to use tool.What I like to do when creating a virtual space is to define three to four key areas and group content inside of that. If you're familiar with ethnographic research, it's like identifying the themes in the work you're doing. You are creating a resource, pouring your hard work over many years into buckets of content that will be easy to access...not only for yourself, your fellow educators, but also your students.Tools like OneNote make it easy to engage learners with multimedia...from Slideshare embedding to audio/video, picture (inserted or online), it's easy to enhance your virtual space. No matter what device you have access to--laptop, desktop computer, iPad--you can easily create content online that is easy to view and process for students. A la flipped classroom approach, you can create video/audio content and blend it with text documents. Wrap it up and put it online in your wiki, OneNote, or whatever, connect it to a discussion forum of some sort, and you're ready to go. There are many approaches you could take, but one easy way is to use a tool like OneNote or Google Sites.Note: This blog entry was supposed to have 5 tips but has been sitting in the DRAFT pile so long, I'm throwing it out there with minor mods. What other tips would YOU add? Sign up for the Texas for Technology Enhanced Education Email ListEverything 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 writer, writes." How funny. Those are the same words I share with my children, both of whom are aspiring writers. Jonathan Maberry attributes them to Ray Bradbury, an author he met in school thanks to his school librarian (librarians swooned when he said this!).Jonathan Maberry's "Chase Card," a term popularized in Rot & Ruin series of books.When my daughter tweeted that  Jonathan Maberry would be in San Antonio this past Saturday at the Library Palooza 2013, I had a chilling moment of dread.After all, Maberry has written some of my favorite zombie books, no matter that I hadn't read them until recently.Note: I regret that I missed the first 15 minutes or so of Jonathan's presentation since I was recording this with my iPad and when I switched from Recorder Plus HD app to AudioNotes to take notes, unfortunately, the apps fought each other for control. AudioNotes simply turned off Recorder Plus...this is normal and I should have noticed it sooner. Ah well.View picture galleryMy Notes:Disclaimer: Please forgive typos...I was typing this on my iPad in an auditorium seat. Maberry makes some great points...I've highlighted my favorites!In Mntgomery, Tx, Austin...the perception is that no one in Texas reads, but then you find out they read a lot. I'm having a great time with librarians and readers, and you are really impressive, and exciting because of all the books you're reading.Find out more...I've been a writer all my life...as a kid, I wrote for every school paper I could find. I would write things that would deeply disturb teachers. I was sent to the counselors twice. Better out than in. I wrote about people who fought monsters. I went into different writing in college...and ended up becoming magazine writer, mostly martial arts. I've been doing martial arts since I was six. Ive written 1200 feature articles, did movie reviews, and music concerts.I did a movie review...like opening of Conan (Arnold S.). I got to meet Arnold and other cast members like James Earl Jones. I get to write about stuff, meet cool people and do cool stuff.I was a bodyguard for a few years. The life expectancy of a bodyguard is 5 years...I worked for 4 years. I have scrrews and pins holding my body together, scar tissue. I taught at Temple University...jujitu, women self-defense class. We got beat up pretty badly and bring in different styles. We even did Chuck Norris before he became a movie star.There was a point when Chuck Norris was the world champion for several times...I was an actor briefly. I wrote lyrics for a couple of bands.In the late 90s, they offered me a 4 book deal about martial art and another book. . .I told them I wanted to write a book about vampires under a pen name. "A Fieldgame to the Undead" under the pen name Shane McDougle.I killed off my pen name...there was a party for dead writers. Shane was killed by vampires, submitted an obituary, and people actually thought he was dead.Write more non-fiction  about monsters.I was trying to find fiction that were based off folklore and legends. Lots of neat vampire facts - stakes were used to pin down vampires while their heads were being cut off, sunlight doesn't kill vampirres.writing fiction was an experiment. I'm a non-fiction writer. I thought I'd write it and get it out of my system but found it was really 3 novels. It was nominated for two awards...novel of the year and bram stoker.Stephen King sends him sympathy cards for losing...by two votes.Maberry won for best first novel. Getting published was more luck than talent.  It made him believe that writing fiction was something he should try doing again. He's written 15 novels."Watch Over Me" is a new book series for teens, includes a transgender student."Patient Zero"...was called up by Marvel Comics and asked, "Would you write for Marvel?' That's the silliest question he's heard, he started doing the snoopy dance.I was just freaky.I learned to read with Marvel Comics..they didn't figure out I needed glasses until third grade. Maberry will be writing a series for Dark Horse. Got a phone call while I was watching Battlestar Galactica. The person was a vicepresident of something..."Have you heard of the Wolfman?" They were making the remake the wolfman, and he was asked to write the novelization. The book was a New York Times bestseller, even though the movie wasn't that great.These days, I write for Marvel, young adult, I get to play in my imagination all day long and get paid for it. They are going to make movies of Rot & Ruin. It's pretty close to the book. Tear-jerker of a book.I'm still at heart a pop-culture geek. When I see that stuff on screen, I'm just going to freak. I'm doing a lot of projects.Questions:"Marvel Universe Series...a plague is released that turns a part of the population into cannibals and they go around eating people. The perspectives of the series are Punisher, Wolverine and Hawkeye. It's kind of fun having my own universe in Marvel. The inspiration for zombies is from George Romero."The Fallen night" What happens when a quarantine Few people tell what happens when the collapse of society happens. It's tough to kill characters off. It's also tough to leave people. I killed characters off before. I don't cheap-shot a character's death and it's planned from the very beginning.He's publishing a novella "Fun and Games" about Tom Imura rescuing someone. That might end up being a prequel movie."Tooth and Nail" novella...Mike weeney shows up andIf you go to write a zombie book, write about the people who are caught up in events. All good fiction starts with great characters...you mess with their lives, and in catastrophic story, that's when people lose their affect. These types of stories and use the characters that lead you into the story, you will write compelling stories.Most writers start and then doubt whether its good. Finish something, buy yourself a present, then rewrite. Write to completion. People who do that are likely to get into print.Joe Ledger...show or movie? This was originally optioned by Sony/ABC.       4  rot and ruins, two dead of night books,Write 2-3 novels a year...a few dozen pitches to agent, and she shares the hottest ones. only been writing novels since 2005. When he was a kid, he had the chance to meet Ray Bradbury..."a writer, writes" and should be open to writing anything.What first book? "Judo with You"I wrote my first book on ghosts because I wanted to write a  book that dealt in that world. Of all thee horror flicks you've seen, but i recommend these two: ""The haunting" and "Dawn of the Dead" and The Walking Dead.Easter egg....2nd and third series that ties into rot and ruin. In the cards, you'll find Rick and Karl."What would you recommend I tell them about getting them excited about reading?" Rot & Ruin...ordinary people becoming extraordinary, which anyone can do. Romance is in there but not pushy. Martial art and sword play and 7 million zombies...what's not to like? I wrote the book I would have wanted to read if I was a 15 year old.What's your favorite color? Blue.Without Stan Lee, there wouldn't be  a comic book industry. He talked about important issues in his comics. He was bold. He's still a powerhouse. You can do your job, be creative and have fun.First comic I ever bought was Fantastic Four, #68. My second favorite is Hellboy.You can get past writers block if you stop trying to be perfect. I set myself a word count per day. If I would write 2000, I would set myself a 1000 word limit to write to and if I did it, I would put a dollar in. I bribed myself into writing. Sign up for the Texas for Technology Enhanced Education Email ListEverything 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

What a fascinating read (if you're into protecting your confidential files on your computer) about the EncFS (encrypted file system) in this blog entry, Using EncFS with Dropbox.To put it as plainly as possible, this solution does the following:works on Linux, Mac and Windows. Encrypts data on your computerMakes it easy to encrypt data that you put in a folder that syncs (gets sent) to cloud storage solutions like Dropbox, etc.Clear as mud? Try reading this:Do you store sensitive files on Dropbox or another cloud storage service? Encrypt them with EncFS for Linux, an encrypting file system that transparently encrypts and decrypts each individual file with your encryption key. There’s also an experimental Windows build. EncFS works differently from a TrueCrypt container, which stores your encrypted files in a single large file. Instead, EncFS creates separate files for each file you add. It works better with cloud storage services that would re-upload the entire TrueCrypt container each time it’s changed. Installation instructions:Macintosh and iOSHow-To Geek's Tutorial for EncFS on UbuntuLinux (works great).CryptKeeper is a great GUI for Encfs in linux. Available in the Ubuntu repo or from the web.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

Hurtling through space, on a journey towards a new Earth, supplies running low, tempers frayed, technology failing, innovating with old equipment nigh impossible...that's not a vision of "the journey is worth the trouble." When we embark on a journey of discovery, the discovery we long for as human beings is the end of the journey. Whether that end be joyous, a welcome reunion, a fiery death, ending is what we long for.Source: http://tinyurl.com/ht9rhk6Maybe, we need to change that. When we are caught in an endless loop, avoiding endless pursuit of the bored and uninterested in technology on the shores of Acheron. The bored and uninterested in technology suck the blood of technologists who sought to engage them with professional learning opportunities, promising a new world. Instead, we need to celebrate the opportunity for interaction.Ryan Bretag quotes Walt Disney, and the encouragement for schools is implied:As Walt Disney said,"Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."The idea of explorer, of a neverending adventure or journey has great appeal for some of us. But for others, it can grow tiresome to always be searching for success, hoping that the "rat race" will end in victory or defeat, so long as it ends. For those folks, one more thing will always be the bane of their existence, and those that mollycoddle them, that "hold their hand" as they seek to limit the impact of learning and technology, to spare them stress...the very stress they need to grow and survive.Let me bring this home a bit. We have finite resources, we are not infinite learners because we are spirits wrapped in mortal flesh. We learn for a purpose, we learn to achieve our goals, our dreams, and it will never be enough.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

Read moreWouldn’t it be powerful if you, as a teacher or educator, could bookmark content on the web and then have it automatically archived for student viewing in a Microsoft OneNote notebook? When I did that earlier today, the process worked like magic! And all you need is your free Microsoft OneNote account, a free Diigo for Educators account, and a free If This Then That (IFTTT.com) account.Note: Do you have a OneNote Notebook for students set up? For the purposes of this blog entry, let’s call it "World History - First Period" without quotes. Inside that Notebook, create a Section called "Resources," which is where your new web page links will be saved when you bookmark them using Diigo.Step 1 - Create accounts, if you don’t already have them.Create your free Diigo for Education Account.Create your free IFTTT.com account.OneNote, available at no-cost, requires a Microsoft account. If you don’t have one already, you can always set one up for free.Read the rest of this blog entry at TCEA.org!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

Special thanks to Peggy Reimers for inspiring this blog post with her TCEA Lunch & Learn Webinar, Engage Learners with Infographics:My blog post, which speaks to my experiences as an art-challenged youth (and adult), appears at the TCEA blog. Here's an excerpt:I don’t remember how it happened or what I was working on, but the "F" in Art on my kindergarten report card painted its own picture. And that "painting" hangs on my mental wall of shame, a constant reminder that I am terrible at art. In fact, we probably all need to be a little more conscious of grading policies that are letter-focused and their negative effect...Then, I explore a bit about the grading injustices we have all encountered in our lives. After that, I reference Peggy Reimers and share the 3 strategies:Strategy 1: Voice and ChoiceStrategy 2: Start with a specific topicStrategy 3: Use easy toolsThey seem pretty obvious, but it's what comes after each strategy that is pure gold...not because I wrote it, but because it arose out of the dynamic conversations that happen when people (myself included) are learning!Read moreRead the whole article online!And, thanks to the T&L folks at ISTE for featuring it!Find out more about what they are doing - http://tltechlive.techlearning.com/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

You are cordially invited to attend a Promethean Lunch & Learn at ESC-20 this coming Wednesday, April 27 from 11:45 AM to 12:45 PM (this will take place after Curriculum Forum so time may vary by a few minutes). The topic will be Four Strategies to Get Kids Thinking (based on Marzano's Effective Strategies for Teaching and Learning). Bring a smartphone or other mobile device, join us for lunch, pretend you were the student in a digital classroom, and have fun! Registration is free but required at http://tinyurl.com/PrometheanLunchLearnEverything 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

While lesson plans may have fallen out of favor in some districts, replaced by online curriculum management systems, the lesson planning process still represents an excellent opportunity for collaborative planning and development. When the opportunity presents itself for co-planning, it’s important to have a common framework for lessons that enlists the expertise of classroom teachers and campus curriculum guides. One popular approach to lesson planning is the 5E Model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate). Let’s explore 5E and how it might look when enhanced with technology.Read the rest of this blog entry online at www.tcea.org/blogEverything 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

In this balanced piece on ePortfolio solutions, Google or Microsoft, I explore my biases :Read the complete entry online at TCEA TechNotes Blog!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

While digging through an app on my phone, I ran across a paragraph that prompted a few questions worth pondering, no matter what role you are called to serve in an organization. And, drafting those questions immediately made me think of the term, servant leadership.If you're not familiar with servant leadership, here's a quick review:"The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions...The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types.The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?" (Source)When you walk into new position, you have to ask yourself, are you willing to serve? Here's another way of looking at the servant-leader:He is willing to do the unpopular jobs, the jobs he might think are beneath him, the jobs that no-one else sees, that are left when everyone else has gone home. That is leadership, whether you are labeled a leader or not. (Source: BibleGateway app)Here's an idea. Make an online form--Google Form or Excel Online--and have your team respond to the questions...then see how they differ from each other.What are the unpopular jobs in your organization?What are the jobs others think are beneath them?What are the jobs that need doing that no one wants to do?How do you seek out new jobs like the ones alluded to in the preceding questions?What do you think? Worth doing?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

"How can I make my webinars, which are usually 30 to 60 minutes long, more interactive?" I asked myself after being a talking head in my last webinar. Facilitating webinars at TCEA on a regular basis, I definitely want to know better approaches for engaging the audience, enabling them to move from being just listeners to active participants. With that imperative motivating me, I stopped for a moment and asked some colleagues, "How do you make your webinars more interactive?"Read the complete blog entry online at TCEA TechNotes.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

"When do you find time to blog?" Yes, the question frequently comes up. Often, I blog in the wee hours of the morning, in the evenings, or binge-blog during the weekend and schedule postings during the week (delayed gratification and all that). These days, though, I blog during the day, at work. Would you believe I wrote 4-5 blog entries just yesterday? I'm almost back to my early blogging years output (7-8 per day)! What fun! I'm grateful that my colleagues have noticed.Photo Credit: Peggy Reimers (@preimers)Normally, I'd be wearing a suit and tie but today was casual dress.The Kick-It Award comes with high praise from my esteemed colleagues at the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA). As the first recipient of the Kick-It Award (eat your heart out, Chuck N), I earn the award for...yes, doing what I love, writing, which in today's parlance is, blogging.Update: You may want to read this blog entry offering Five Ways for Leaders to Say "Well-Done!"The award means a lot, not just because it was home-made by Dr. Bruce Ellis (although that does speak to his puissant skills as a "TCEA Maker") but rather because recognition from your work colleagues is always esteemed.Thank you for making me feel welcome and for letting me do what I love. In the meantime, why don't you check out some of my TCEA blog entries? Tweet, RT, and Facebook them...not for money, but to ensure all read the gospel of edtech.Read Miguel's TCEA TechNotes blog entries(lots of other great stuff there by my colleagues!)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

Since I'm now contributing to a Wordpress blog on a regular basis, one of the annoying aspects of Wordpress includes a terrible way of handling links, as shown in the picture below. It takes 3 clicks to get things done.As a result, I've started looking for an alternative blog entry composer, another way of writing and submitting to Wordpress.notice I typed the link in the box...but you can see that it just made a search out of it, and I have to click on the "open link in a new tab" box. What a pain!One of the solutions I stumbled upon, almost immediately, is the Open Live Writer, a Windows program for the new Windows 10 machine that I'm carrying around these days (OneNote IS the killer app).Open Live Writer looks like a free open source version of Windows Live Writer (which you can still get but hasn't kept up with the times), and works surprisingly well (Microsoft and Windows are surprising almost every day with how wonderful they are).As you can see from the image above, one of Open Live Writer advantages over Windows Live Writer is that it supports Wordpress and Google's Blogger (my favorite blogging tool!).  The former has worked quite well.Mac user? https://www.getblogo.com/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

In their moving tribute to rigor and relevance, esteemed colleagues Eric Scheninger and Weston Kieschnick ask, "Are we using technology in our classroom merely to say we’re using technology in our classroom? Or are we using it to advance learning goals and arm our students with technology skills necessary to thrive in the 21st century?" These are definitely worthwhile questions. I’m just not sure that rigor, relevance have anything to do with arming our children with technology skills to thrive in the present century.   In their EdTech Magazine blog entry they push back against the "slapdash technology use" that plagues many schools, putting out a call for "strategic implementation." The problem is, they decide to use rigor and relevance as their tool. Why rigor and relevance? Weston and Eric state that the Rigor and Relevance Framework is… …a robust tool that guides, vets, monitors and personalizes technology implementation, provides a better alternative. It is a simple, dynamic tool to examine curriculum, instruction and assessment…using two dimensions — critical thinking (rigor) and application (relevance)…. You know, this reminds me of my exploration of rigor and relevance years ago…and effort in arranging words on a chart that make for talking points but little else of value, certainly not "strategic implementation. Let’s take a quick trip down Memory Lane…   or… Source: Blending Rigor and Relevance with SAMR, and Partnership for 21st Century Skills   At this point, however, I’m not convinced (what, you missed that?!?) that quadrant learning is anything more than just another way of framing the conversation. And while framing the conversation may be valuable for pundits, it doesn’t get to the real goal of strategic implementation. The question that needs to be asked is, What IS strategic implementation? Here is one possible definition: Strategic implementation is critical to…success, addressing the who, where, when, and how of reaching the desired goals and objectives. It focuses on the entire organization. Implementation occurs after environmental scans, SWOT analyses, and identifying strategic issues and goals. Source Notice that strategic implementation gets to the nitty-gritty of implementation. In fact, for a strategy to be successful, Scott Edinger suggests the 3Cs—Clarify, Communicate, and Cascade. It is the last that is the toughest in schools (if not everywhere). Here’s what cascade means: …if you want your strategy implemented well, you need to cascade it throughout the organization and get to the practical and tactical components of people’s jobs every day. Let’s read that again--The practical and tactical components of people’s jobs every day. How does Eric and Weston’s use of Rigor and Relevance accomplish that? As Edinger says in his piece, strategy plays well with the leadership, but it’s the practical/tactical details that must carry the day, day in and day out. Make no mistake—strategic implementation can’t be done from behind the keynote speaker’s podium, anymore than feeding the hungry can be done behind the pulpit. If you want strategic implementation, you’ll have to step out there and get it done…one person at a time, one life at a time, one device, one learner at a time.