As part of the Financial Times digital learning week, I attended an early session today on women in digital leadership. Chaired by Megan Murphy head of Fast FT, the panel consisted of Molly Flatt from 1000 Heads (among other things), Anne Marie Imafidon from Deutschebank and Stemettes, Claire Koryczan from Decoded and Karla Geci from Facebook. Molly Flatt, Anne Marie Imafidon, Megan Murphy, Claire Koryczan, Karla GeciFor me, it is a frustration that we even still have to have sessions like this. When they are no longer needed, we will have arrived. Maybe.What came out of today's session is that the number of women in tech has actually declined over the last 30 years - in the US, at any rate. This saddens me. You see, when I was in high school in South Africa (far more than 30 years ago!), local industries were so desperate for computing staff (the term 'IT' wasn't being used, yet) that they were recruiting straight out of schools off the back of an aptitude test offered to kids with maths skills. Starting salaries were really good, and there was the promise of being able to work towards a degree while working. Right in the thick of the patriarchal, apartheid era it was the first profession in which gender and race were shoved aside and demand became the sole driver. So the declining numbers being reported today are disappointing - all more so since the skills around the field of tech have become more blurred. It's not just a case of writing code any more - there is a need for community management skills, social engagement skills... all those 'soft' skills have found their way into tech. And those are areas which have traditionally attracted a large percentage of women.The question was asked  whether women have a problem with tech or the tech industry has a problem with women, and the general consensus was that it must be the latter, because the former was simply not true, based on the experience and research of the panel members.So having these women as role models for women starting out in tech is important. Having organisations like Stemettes giving girls confidence to operate in the science/tech space perhaps even more so, since this addresses the matter at grass roots level (because, let's be real - few kids will have heard of these women, yet - they don't really blip on the average young person's radar). I'm not sure that I came away with a fistful of answers, but I would suggest that perseverance in raising awareness is at the very least a start.However, I would be loathe to see women pressured to move into senior management roles or risk being seen to be letting the side down. Leadership is not the same thing as management or seniority (for example, I would contend that Malala Yousafzai's achievements make her a leader), and we need to take care not to conflate the two concepts. I would also like to see women in the role of specialist practitioner, becoming leaders in their field by dint of the sheer quality of their work and the level of expertise they gain, and being afforded the same level of respect, support and mentoring as captains of industry.

Author: Mathieu Plourde {(Mathplourde on Flickr)This week marks the beginning of the How to Teach Online MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). What is a MOOC you may ask? According to the Mooc-List.com, a repository of MOOCs across the web,  MOOC is "an online course aimed at large-scale participation and open (free) access via the internet." A MOOC is very similar to university courses but typically do not offer course credits.This will be my first time participating in a MOOC, and I'm excited that it is being offered through my local community college, Leeward Community College!The first activity of this MOOC is to introduce yourself to the community, so here it goes!1. What is your intention for this course (why are you here)?My intention for participating in this course  is first to get an idea of how a MOOC works. I've heard of MOOCs in the past and have heard about some great MOOCs that have been offered. If you check out Mooc-List.com, there are some great MOOCs being offered all the time, for many different categories and professions. My other intention, of course, is to become more familiar with the concept of Online Teaching and the tools available for being an online teacher.MOOC Crib Sheet created by Jeannette Shaffer(for a 2011 ISTE Workshop)2. What issues do you think are important?I think, first and foremost, we need to have an open mind about Online Teaching. Many universities now offer degrees online, but we are still slowly venturing into the world of online teaching/learning with younger students, especially in elementary and middle school. There are two sides to the concept of online teaching for younger students, but I feel there are many benefits to this option.3. How will you contribute?I feel it is extremely important for anyone to be an active participant and a community contribute in their Professional Learning Network and in any MOOC. Because a MOOC is free and typically doesn't offer any sort of credit, most people that choose to participate are there because they want to gain new knowledge and meet new people in their profession. To get the most of your PLN or MOOC, you have to be active and you have to contribute. You won't get much out of the experience or if you are a lurker.4. How would you like to see the community develop among participants?I want to see deep, rich conversations about the topics of this MOOC. Only through these conversations, will this MOOC be successful and participants come out of it with a deeper understanding and plethora of resources for Teaching Online.5. How will you overcome the fear of learning in the open and the frustration of using new technology?I find it amazing that 90% of the people that register for a MOOC, usually don't even participate. For me, learning and gaining a better understanding of my profession is a passion and a driving force. We have to be more comfortable with new technologies, because they are constantly arriving almost on a daily basis.It's not too late to register for the How to Teach Online MOOC yourself!

On Monday, as part of  at the FT digital learning week, Sue Llewellyn delivered a session about the psychology of social media. This is a topic that is of great interest to me. Much of what Llewellyn shared was pretty much common sense to those of us who have been active in the social media space for a while, but I've been ruminating over it for a while, because...Attending the session were people from the FT and the wider Pearson group, looking at how to use social media to benefit the business. We're talking about large corporate endeavours here. And yet, most of what Llewellyn had to share seemed aimed at people who were looking to promote their personal brands. And this is what I found quite telling. Nearly 15 years after the publication of the cluetrain manifesto, and about eight years since the publication of naked conversations, this is the core message coming through. Many companies I've spoken to over the years have had a social media presence, but they haven't really set the world on fire. Largely because it has been seen as part of the traditional marketing/comms programme. Running a social media 'campaign' like a mailshot distribution just doesn't cut it. In this social age - and this has been one of the themes running through the whole week for me - people want to engage with people with skin on, not some faceless corporate monolith.Social media have seen us move into a space where individuals have a voice, and aren't afraid to use it - for better or for worse. The digital era has shifted gear. We're no longer in a space where it's all about writing code and publishing stuff online. We've moved into the engagement space. So 'people people' can be tech-geeks too. In fact, they had better be! And they had better be well informed, too. Many is the brand that has suffered damage at the hands of someone delegated to do the job because they have the technical skills, but who have not done the brand any favours as they have revealed their own lack of insight or have been dragged into exchanges of personal insults and potential libel (one example: Gillian McKeith).Which brings me back to Llewellyn's presentation. All the rules that apply to promoting your personal brand through social media, apply to building your business brand.WIIFT?Turning the traditional 'what's in if for me?' question on its head, Llewellyn suggested considering what's in it for them (your followers)? She talked about finding the behavioural trigger than makes people want to engage with the content you put out there. She used the term 'psychographic' - don't just think about the demographic of your follower group, but their psychographic: what matters to them? What do they want to hear about?She provided some useful guidelines as to what made people share your content with their own follower audience and talked about how to trigger those responses. I'm not going to go give away all her suggestions and observations free of charge, but - in addition to the practical suggestions she made - it boiled down to being 'neighbourly': if you ask people for feedback, thank them for it and put it to use, share the link love, give credit where it's due... all that stuff.Tracking/analysisThis was the biggest take-away for me. From a business perspective, it is important to track what works and what doesn't. Think about why that might be and what you can do to influence that. I suspect this is where a lot of corporate social media campaigns fall down.You're allowed to be funny (and even silly)One of the points Llewellyn made strongly was to show how much response there is to 'silly' posts. A picture of a bear in a hammock, shared by BBC News World Edition on their twitter account racked up scores or retweets. A corporate 'entity' is allowed to have a lighter side. In fact, it had better have a lighter side. It's part of the whole personable thing. We like to laugh. We like say 'awww'. So using emotive triggers is not only acceptable, it's advisable and possibly even imperative. Areas for neutralityWhile an individual can have a strong political/religious stance, a corporate image needs to keep neutral on these topics. So while it may be acceptable to share the news of the kidnapping of 200 Nigerian girls, it probably isn't wise to use that as a platform for religious prejudice.SummaryLlewellyn summarised her advice as keeping content relevant, interesting, timely, engaging, and to ensure that it added value. What she didn't explicitly mention, but it was the inherent thread throughout her presentation - and many of the others during the week - was that even a corporate twitter account needs to be personable and relatable.

If you live in the UK, you can't have escaped the torrent of cases involving historical sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people. Especially if you listen (as I do) to BBC Radio 4, which doesn't shy away from spotlighting the growing number of cases.We had well-known individuals like Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris. We've had stories emerging from institutions such as St Paul's School, Broadmoor Hospital (related, but not restricted to Jimmy Savile's legacy), and immigration detention centre Yarl's Wood. There have been cases involving teachers, including William Vahey. There was an additional case of a school for boys from homes with difficult circumstances, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called. It was featured on a BBC R4 programme a few weeks ago, and one of the victims was interviewed. He talked about being 'pimped out' by the staff to people from the town. Most of this abuse happened between thirty and fifty years ago, although some of it persisted until fairly recently and in some cases, there are allegations that it may well be ongoing. The expression 'it was a different time' is sometimes used to excuse behaviour of previous generations that later generations find perplexing. In this instance, it's absolutely no excuse, but it is also true: it was a different time, and this is how the perpetrators managed to carry on doing what they did to people who were in no position to fight back. A child who reported a teacher in the 50s and 60s was unlikely to be believed, and might well have brought down worse circumstances upon him/herself. A woman who reported a male colleague for inappropriate behaviour, likewise. And in both cases, the victim was expected to take responsibility for changing the situation.Let me share two experiences from my own life for two reasons: to back up my assertions and to demonstrate that 'this sort of thing' can happen to anyone. Keeping it a secret only supports the agenda of the perpetrator.PaedophiliaWhen I was around 7 or 8 years old, there was a man who used to take up his station in the children's swimming pool at the beach near my home. He posed as a fun person, who cavorted with the children in the water. Most commonly he would push a child through the water at great speed. The sort of thing you do with kids - usually totally innocently, and usually to the great delight of the child. Only he would achieve this by placing one hand on the child's shoulder and the other between her legs, pushing her away from him through the water. There was always a long line of kids waiting their turn to play this game. I joined the line once at the suggestion of a friend. Our two families were visiting the beach together that day. She said the game was open to anyone and was great fun. Certainly, everyone did seem to be very happy. It happened so fast, it was over before I knew it, and I made a beeline for my mother, lying beside the pool. When I reported what had happened, my mother told me "Stay away from him, then." The other little girl's mother called her daughter over and - over her objections - told her to stay away from him, too. That was it. The sum total of the action taken. No-one called the police. No-one challenged the man on his behaviour. It was up to his little victims, many of whom didn't even appear to notice what he was doing, to take responsibility for ensuring that it didn't happen again... to them, at any rate.Sexual harassmentWhen I started my first 'proper' job at the age of 21, I was subjected to a sustained campaign of sexual harassment by one of the company directors. Mine was a very junior position, but the nature of my job meant that I was often present at meetings of senior staff members and client meetings. I was always the only female present. I was also at least 15 years younger than the next youngest person in the room. If I did something well, this guy knew of a suitable 'reward'. If I made mistake, he knew a suitable 'punishment'. Always suggested in the most unmistakably lascivious fashion. He would openly stare at my body and complain if I stood at an angle or in a position which obscured his view. He did this in the presence of other senior staff members and our customers (also all male and mostly middle-aged), most of whom would laugh uproariously. I had no idea what to do about it. I asked my Mom for advice, and she told me to try to avoid him. Again. My (male) boss told me to take it as a compliment. Other women on the staff shunned me as if I were somehow to blame for the man's behaviour. The MD warned me in private never to be alone anywhere with the man, especially at any event where alcohol was involved. So, once again, the victim was expected to take ownership of the situation.In the intervening years between those two incidents, I encountered a few 'dodgy' individuals - usually someone's uncle - whose own family members would warn me to avoid. Sometimes it seemed like almost every family had one, but no-one ever did anything about it, other than to ensure the people they cared about didn't become victims. Fortunately my own family didn't include any dodgy uncles, I'm pleased to say.We see the same tacit attitude in legacy guidance to female university students or shift workers to avoid becoming a rape statistic by doing (or not doing) this or that thing.What we're beginning to see now, is the backlash of all of those years of not taking action. It's like someone has lanced a boil. Decades worth of suppuration is coming tumbling out. I predict that for a while, we will continue to be deluged. Several more of our icons will prove to have feet of filth. Eventually the flood will slow down, but hopefully someone will then proactively clear rest of what is in that wound and it can then be disinfected.In the meantime, we need to create an environment in which the shame attaches itself to the perpetrator, not the victim. In which the victim makes a beeline to a parent/teacher/manager. In which said parent/teacher/manager takes immediate and decisive action.We need to change the language we use from apportioning responsibility to the victim for avoiding the crime, and direct ourselves toward teaching people not to be perpetrators of the crime. Every perpetrator once was a child. By the same token, we need to take care that we don't create a society in which every vulnerable person is a victim and every person in a position of responsibility is automatically under suspicion. We have seen signs of that when several high profile children's authors refused to visit schools because of the requirement that they undergo CRB checks. I'm not sure where the solution lies, but we need to start working towards one. There is no doubt that we have let people down. Often and badly. But throwing draconian legislation at it in a kneejerk reaction isn't going to be helpful, in my opinion

On Tuesday, November 19, 2013 I'll be participating in a discussion on Linda Lindsay's Google+ Hangout on Air, Google Rocks Hawaii #14 - WHO to Circle? WHO to follow?I'm sharing resources and talking about the value of Twitter in your PLN (Professional Learning Network).I'll mainly be referring to a site I created for a conference session I led during the Kamehameha Schools EdTech Conference in June 2013.My session was titled I Can Do What With Social Media? and I shared with educators a variety of Social Media options that can greatly enhance your PLN (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Pinterest).For Google Rocks, I'll be focusing on the section, Twitter in your PLN. In this section I dissect a tweet, break down hashtags and Twitter chats, and share a variety of resources to help you get going with your Twitter account.Check out the site and join us for Google Rocks Hawaii #14 - WHO to Circle? WHO to follow?, a LIVE Google+ Hangout on Air by Linda Lindsay! Here is her Youtube Playlist.

One of the services I provide is to assist organisations with their social media presence. Managing the social media footprint of a business is in many ways similar to that for an individual, as I covered in a recent post. But there are some key differences and it's pretty vital to bear these in mind.Most importantly, the account is a company asset. Sometimes senior management is all to willing to relinquish control of the account to a staff member and to disengage from it themselves. This sends a clear message about the (lack of) importance they impute to the social media campaign. I would venture to suggest that this is short-sighted. And, while it might work fine for a while for the account to be the sole province of a staff member, it is a risky path to take. An individual who has set up the account, managed it and nurtured it through the rough times might become a bit precious about it, and there may be consequences, more of which anon. If you're the person who looks after a social media account for your organisation and it's taking up too much of your time for too little reward to either you or the organisation, it's time to re-evaluate the situation. Is this the right space for your organisation to have a presence? Would the organisation's strategic goals be better served by focusing its/your attentions elsewhere? I recommend a pro-active approach. Gather some metrics and approach your management team with a suggestion solution. Something like "Let's ditch the Facebook account, because it's not serving any purpose, as shown by my handy little graph. And let's instead focus on upping our presence on LinkedIn, because as you can see from these statistics, this would benefit us in X and Y way."Important point for managers: when the person who manages a social media account on behalf of the company leaves, the admin rights for the page need to be passed on to someone else, and the leaver's admin rights revoked. You expect them to hand over the company phone, the company laptop and the keys to company car, right? So why are you letting them walk out the door with (sometimes sole) access to intangible company assets related to brand and market presence? I have encountered situations where the person who manages the account has left for pastures new, taking with them the only log in details and admin rights to the page. In one instance, when the organisation finally realised that this was the case, the person refused even to reveal their identity, placing the page (and the company's brand) at risk. Clearly, it is unwise to have only one person with admin rights to any of the organisation's social media sites, and then to forget to do something about that when the person leaves. A person with access like that and an axe to grind can do a great deal of harm, and it could take a while before they can be stopped.

Steve Wheeler's 'I want to be an astronaut' post today describes his encounter with an overstretched, unsympathetic school guidance/careers counsellor. Inevitably, that put me in mind of my own experience. My title is a continuation of his.Steve and I are roughly of an age, and, although we were educated in two very different countries, it seems our school careers advisers were cut from much the same cloth. Perhaps it was more to do with the way they were equipped for the job than with the sort of people they were, but I'm not entirely sure.First came the IQ test woes. Ordinarily, we'd be tested once in primary school and once in secondary school and that would be it. Like everyone else, I was tested in primary school, and presumably the results showed nothing alarming or surprising. When it came time for the high school test, however, it seemed my first assessment was so far at odds with the primary school test, that I was called for a retest the following year. I guess the results of that test were equally surprising, because I was tested yet again the year thereafter. Oddly enough, the results of these tests were never revealed to us. Apparently, our IQ was none of our business. But, during one of my many run-ins with the head teacher, mine was made known to me. She declared that I was more intelligent than either of my two closest friends, and both of them were A students, while I was a solid C. Of course, the fact that I played just about every sport going, participated in every school play, was a member of several clubs and societies, while they did/were not, was clearly beside the point. What a dismal underachiever I was.Then came the dreaded aptitude tests. On a scale of 1-9 I scored a solid 7 across the board. During my 1:1 with the school guidance counsellor, I discovered that I could do whatever I wanted and - as long as I applied myself - I'd be good at it. This didn't help me, because I didn't know what career options even existed out there. How could I want to do something if I didn't know about it?I thought about what I enjoyed doing and what I was good at, and decided I wanted to be a mechanical engineer. I wanted to design machinery that did stuff. Maybe cars, maybe production line equipment. The mechanics part of the physics syllabus was far and away my favourite bit, so I thought I might enjoy a career in which I got to do that all day.Not so fast, kiddo!My Mom couldn't afford university fees on her own, so I was going to need a student loan. Only it turned out banks in the late 70s were no way no how going to give a study loan to a girl who wanted to study such a manly subject as mechanical engineering. I'd never make it. The attrition rate was too high. Yadda yadda yadda. To give them their due, newspaper advertisements for mechanical engineering posts in South Africa at the time called for someone who was 'white, male, 25-35, with experience'. Through no achievement of my own, I was indeed white, but I was not and was never going to be male. At some point, I would presumably be 25-35, but how was I going to acquire experience if I was unemployable up to that age? No-one seemed to have the answers.And thus began a round of the most interminable testing and visiting to student counsellors at universities and and and.One such visit is indelibly imprinted on my memory. By now, I had figured out how to manipulate the tests to get the results I wanted. The student counsellor at the University of Port Elizabeth was perplexed by them: how could I test so high for teaching and so low for working with children? It simply didn't make sense!This from a university staff member, mind you. A place where a fair amount of teaching took place day to day, and none of it to children. He failed to put two and two together, and instead advised me to get a PhD in psychology and take over from him when he retired. How I was supposed to reach the PhD level, he never quite explained. Perhaps he assumed it was obvious. It wasn't.What he also failed to consider was workplace learning. I had never heard of it. I thought people went to school, then to university, then to work. I had no idea that the learning journey continued thereafter. In fact, loathing school as I did, I'd have been horrified to discover that companies had training rooms and people went to 'school' in them (which is how it was done back then).So, of course, I did the obvious thing. If I couldn't do mechanical engineering, I'd go to drama school and be discovered by Hollywood.How I did actually wind up in a job which involved teaching-but-not-to-children is perhaps a story for another day. I'm truly glad I stumbled across the field of workplace learning, but it was certainly no thanks to any of the hordes of guidance counsellors I saw during my high school years.I sincerely hope that today's schoolkids are better served by theirs!

I came across this article recently, and it struck a chord with me. So I decided to quit the 'like' button myself for a while and see what happened. And not just on Facebook, but on my company's intranet social spaces, too.This 'like' thing is rather weird isn't it? I bestow upon your post my approval with my mighty 'like' button. Wait. What? This puts me in mind of earlier conversations I've had about blog comments. Stephen Downes once said in a blog post I now can't find (it was a long time ago), that he didn't think he needed to respond to every comment on his blog posts. That they were perfectly able to stand in their own right and he wasn't arrogant enough to believe they needed validation from him. That has stayed with me (obviously), and when I read the article about the 'like' button, it occurred to me that it was a similar thing. Quite apart from the fact that the bots at Facebook towers are probably building a profile of me based on the things I like.It can be a bit fraught. If five people comment on a post of yours, and you've 'liked' the first four, do you feel pressured to 'like' the fifth even if you don't like it? If you follow me.It reminded me a bit of my grandfather. Bear with me. When I was little, my grandfather had this little noise he would make. Somewhere between a grunt and a 'yeah'. It meant "I know that you've spoken. I don't know what you've said, and I'm not really interested. But I acknowledge that you have addressed me." Since I was (you'll be astonished to learn) a chatterbox, I heard that noise a lot. A lot.Isn't the 'like' button a bit like that?So this is what I'm doing instead:I will either engage with something enough to take the time to post a proper comment on it. Or I will let the post/comment stand on its own merit. The 'like' button is off limits for a while. And several of my Facebook friends have decided to join me.How about you? Shall we turn this into a growing social experiment?

This past week was Computer Science Education Week and during the week a great campaign was held to introduce students of all ages to the field of computer science and programming, the Hour of Code!The Hour of Code offered schools an assortment of videos, tips, and other resources to promote computer science to their students. And students were able to participate in the Hour of Code by exploring a wide variety of activities, tutorials, games, and programs that teach the concepts of coding and programming.I immediately fell in the love with this campaign! As a technology coordinator and computer lab teacher, I strive to help my students understand the importance of technology in our daily lives. Its not just a tool to help us with our homework or a device that our teacher wants us to use for a project. Technology will always be present in our lives, and as Vanessa Hurst, co-founder of "Girl Develop It" state in the Hour of Code videos,"It's absolutely crucial to know how to code and to understand how technology is built, even if you don't choose to make a living or be a full time software developer. It's really important to know how it works so that you're not a victim of other people's choices." Just like how its important that we as citizens understand and are aware of how our government works and who is making the decisions for us, the same is true for the technology that we allow to be a huge part of our lives.At my school, I gave the faculty and staff a brief 15 minute presentation on the Hour of Code and the importance of this campaign. I created this Google Presentation for them to view and share during the week. Feel free to use and share for your own purpose. I pointed the teachers in the right direction and gave them a variety of resources that they can use in their class for the Hour of Code. I made sure that age appropriate iPad apps were installed on our mobile iPad carts. I also provided extra blocks of time for classes to visit the computer lab during the week. I had plenty of 4th and 5th grade classes visiting the lab and it was exciting to see the students so engaged and eager to give the tutorials and activities a try! I even had a few middle school volunteers coding on the iPads! Many of them asked how they can continue to code at home. The great thing about the Hour of Code is that everything is FREE and available online!I think the heart of this campaign, however, is to continue the movement. Seize hold of the student engagement and interest and extend it beyond just the week. Here are just a few ways to extend the Hour of Code:Advocate for a programming class at your schoolStart a "Coding Club" at your schoolIntegrate programming into your STEM lessonsThe activities provided by Code.org will remain available permanently and there are even ways to go beyond the Hour of Code.I've created a Pinterest board called Coding for Kids that include all types of resources to help you and your students continue to explore the field of computer science and programming!If you want to learn more about "Continuing the Hour of Code" check out Episode 10 of #EdTech Mixed Plate.

A few months ago, I wrote about my experience of living with depression. It was the first time I had made a public, explicit statement about it. It wasn't really a secret before, but neither had it been something that I had owned publicly and unequivocally.Since then, Robin Williams - a fellow sufferer - has taken his own life, and many more people have begun to speak very openly about depression. About their own experiences with it, or about watching someone they loved dealing with it.I took that death hard. So hard that my line manager even commented on it. I don't know if I can explain it without sounding melodramatic, but I guess when yet another sufferer decides to call time, it increases that sense that (a) my future might well hold a period of darkness deeper and blacker than any I've known before, which is really, really daunting and (b) how can I be sure that I might not one day wind up putting my own family through the same wringer?I'm not sure if that was the trigger, but around that time, I found myself battling yet another bout of depression. It seemed so unfair. I still hadn't completely recovered from the last one (last year), so this was kicking me while I was down. Also, my husband is due to go away for a couple of weeks this month, and it heightens his anxiety to know that he is leaving a depressed wife behind. I opted to be very open about it. I made an appointment with my GP. I told my manager at work. I made it known on Facebook. And the level of support has been astonishing. I discussed my concerns with my GP. He asked me the usual questions and didn't adopt that overly solicitous attitude that some GPs adopt when posing the scripted questions they are obliged to ask about suicidal thoughts and other deeply personal issues. I told him about my reluctance to become reliant on chemical assistance, but acknowledged that, under the circumstances, I might need to accept that it was the best thing to do. He prescribed Citalopram, which I started immediately. I am still struggling with the side-effects, but hopefully those will fade in time. I discovered that my sister is taking them, too (for different reasons) and she was able to give me some tips (which I'll happily share if anyone is interested).My manager was open and sympathetic - totally unfazed. She spoke to HR and found out about support services available through the company I work for. She checks in with me from time to time and maintains an open line of communication. If I feel unable to handle my workload, I know that she's got my back and will make a plan to ensure that the projects don't fail as a result. As a result of her enquiries, I had a phone consultation with a counselor, who arranged for me to have six sessions with a local counselor, the first within 5 days of our phone call. Somehow word got out at the office and initially, people walked on eggshells around me. But one or two staff members adopted a very matter of fact approach and chatted easily to me - not in hushed tones. I guess that openness and easiness caught on, and everyone has more or less relaxed. People have a short attention span after all, and more interesting things demand their attention. The biggest surprise has been the response on Facebook. There are those who demand that Facebook should be like Lala land - all happy and funny and lighthearted and skip to my lou my darling. Occasionally one of my contact will wail about being exposed to negativity on Facebook ("this is not what I signed up for!!"). Some of those have chosen not to respond to my openness. Some of those have opted to express their support privately, through my Inbox. But the most pleasant response of all has been from those who have publicly (well, sort of) responded with their own experiences and expressions of support and understanding. Of course, there has been the inevitable 'chin up' and 'listen to some happy music' type of response from people who clearly haven't got the remotest idea how depression works, and I'm happy for them that this is the case. I wouldn't wish the darkness on anyone. I have better days and worse days. On both kinds of day, getting out of bed is tough. As you can imagine, it's tougher on the worse days. I've discovered from interactions on Facebook that bed is the safe place for many sufferers. There have been two very helpful pieces for me, which I come back to, time after time and which I hope will help other sufferers, too, as we plod through this dark valley. The first is this one called Black Dog.The second is this TED talk by the inspirational Andrew Solomon, which for some reason, refuses to be embedded here.Oddly enough, my experiment with boycotting the 'like' button has also had a role to play. The common thread through both the links above is that depression is not the opposite of joy. It is in fact the opposite of vitality. I find myself disengaged, going through the motions. And I see clicking the 'like' button as symptomatic of that. So, unless I actually have something to say, I don't engage with a post at all. If I want to engage, I take the trouble to put that into words. It has meant that my interactions online have become fewer, but deeper. And I can't help but see this as a good thing.I sincerely trust that my journey will encourage others to become more open about their own battles. It's time to shake off the stigma. In fact, as a fellow sufferer (someone I've known for well over 30 years) pointed out, perhaps it's time to stop talking about depression as a mental illness. After all, it's physiological in nature, being caused as it is by a chemical imbalance. In that way at least, it is no different from diabetes.Thoughts?

http://www.digitallearningday.org/Digital Learning Day is about giving every child the opportunity to learn in a robust digital environment everyday, with the goal of success in college and a career. We urge you to make a difference with digital learning in America's schools and take the pledge to support the effective use of technology to improve education for all students.In essence, Digital Learning Day is a day to celebrate and promote all of the great things that you do in your classroom with technology and the opportunities you provide your students to grow and learn! It's not necessarily about doing something extra that day, but instead to continue to make an effort to integrate technology in your curriculum and to give you students the chance to explore what technology can do for them.What can educators do to support and participate in Digital Learning Day?Take the pledge for you and your students!Add your class or school event to the list!What can you do in your classrooms?Here are some ideas:Continue to allow your students to explore the Hour of Code!Take the #Make4DLDay Challenge!Plan a classroom activity!Check out the Teacher Toolkits and choose a subject!Challenge yourself to integrate one technology in your classroom for the day (and BEYOND)!Borrow a Mobile Computer Lab and work on a project, start a new one, or explore a website or program!Borrow a Mobile Tablet Lab and allow students to explore an app!Display your classroom computer or tablet and explore an activity as a class!Sign up your class for an online Student Debate! (Great for persuasive/argumentative writing!)Have any other ideas or want to share what you're doing! Add it to the comments below!

I was recently invited by +Sean Connors, an Educational Technology Coordinator for Le Jardin Academy in Kailua, Hawaii, to participate in a teacher driven professional development session they call T.A.P. (Teachers As Professionals).The most recent T.A.P. was on January 30, 2014. +Sean Connors created a Google+ event here. We recently spoke with Sean about T.A.P. on episode 11 of EdTech Mixed Plate. You can check out the show notes here with more details from Sean about the sessions and sign up.Some of the sessions offered on January 30th were:RAZ KidsiPads in the Younger YearsGet SMART with the SmartboardStop Motion Animation (w/ +Amy Burvall)Google Docs in the ClassroomWhat I absolutely love about T.A.P. is that most, if not all, of these sessions are teacher driven and teacher led. They are sessions that teachers at Le Jardin Academy want to learn more about and are willing to share with others. And the sessions change with each T.A.P. depending on teacher interest. What I also like about this form of PD is that Le Jardin Academy teachers are willing to open up their campus to other teachers in the state. This is a powerful form of PD because it allows educators to learn and grow beyond the walls of their own school and it allows for the building of strong professional connections.I chose to participate in the session, iPads in the Younger Years. A few of the kindergarten teachers recently attended a workshop about iPads for younger children and wanted to share their new found knowledge and app-bilities with other teachers at the school. I saw this as an opportunity to gather tips, tricks, and ideas that I could bring back to my school and share with my kindergarten and 1st grade teachers. Here are some of the ideas and apps they had to share:Whiteboard HD - teachers found a way to use this app to organize their class centers. They can display their iPad through the projector so their students can see which center they are assigned to. The app allows the user to insert images saved to the Camera Roll or take photos.Flick. - (w/ a period) This app, when installed on multiple devices and computers, allows the user to "flick" files to others for easy sharing. Teachers thought this would be a useful app for students to quickly share their iPad files with the teacher. It's just a simple "flick" of the finger!I-Nigma - This is a reliable QR Code scanner app. During their iPad workshop, they learned how QR codes could be utilized in the classroom for student use. They also showed a great game that used QR codes to connect kids to sounds that animals make.Futaba & Futaba CG - Futaba & Futaba CG are two great iPad apps for children and classrooms. They have built in "board games" that help teacher and reinforce a variety of standards. You can have up to 4 students playing the game on an iPad at a time! Users can also create their own "board game". A teacher can create a specific game for students or even consider having students create their own game to check for understanding and mastery of a skill!AirServer - Teachers really seem to love AirServer! AirServer is a desktop app that allows you to wirelessly connect and view your iPad or iPhone screen on a computer. With the most recent AirServer update, you can also now record (like a screencast) as you interact with the iPad on your computer.I'm excited to participate in the next T.A.P. and to connect with other like-minded educators! Thanks for the invite, +Sean Connors!

So, I’ve had a crazy spring so far — between a brutal travel schedule and some unexpected health stuff (all resolved now), there’s barely been time to draw breath. There have been lots of good things, including some interesting projects in the works.  A particular good thing recently was a really nice review of the book by Clive Shepherd: "There’s book a I’ve been meaning to write which I hoped would address the problem. I tentatively called it ‘What every L&D professional needs to know about learning’ (not so catchy I know). But I’ve been beaten to the gun by Julie Dirksen." - Clive Shepherd Still giddily fanning myself a bit over that… For local folks (Minneapolis/St. Paul area), there are a few things going on also: On Thursday (April 12th, 2012), I’m doing the Design for Behavior Change talk for the local UPA (Usability Professionals Association) chapter.  The event starts at 6:15 PM, and the talk starts at 6:45 PM.  You can get details here http://www.upamn.org/events?eventId=456463&EventViewMode=EventDetails Also, the fantastic Connie Malamed (author of Visual Language for Designers and http://theelearningcoach.com/) is in town this week, so check out her talk on Friday: Your Brain on Graphics: Research-Inspired Design, Friday April 13th Information here: http://www.pactweb.org/ (you can also get details about her 1/2 day workshop at that link) Program Details: Learning through visuals opens up new pathways in the brain. You can optimize opportunities for visual learning and provide better learning experiences when you understand how people perceive and process visual information. During this presentation, you will learn how graphics can leverage the strengths and compensate for the weaknesses of our cognitive architecture. You’ll learn how to make design decisions based on research. We’ll look at lots of examples in the process. Topics include: * How our brains are hardwired for graphics * How to speed up your visual message * How to make graphics cognitively efficient * How to speak to the emotions through visuals * How to visualize abstractions This presentation is for anyone who selects, conceives of, designs or creates visuals or anyone interested in visual communication. Location: The Metropolitan, 5418 Wayzata Boulevard, Golden Valley, MN 55418 When: 8:30-11am (She also wrote a very nice review of the book, btw)

Last week, the MOOC-Ed, Coaching Digital Learning: Cultivating a Culture of Change, began. This MOOC will help participants:Learn what it takes to coach educators to integrate technologyExplore a variety of frameworks such as TPACK, SAMR, and the four CsExplore opportunities for personalized applicationCreate a Technology Coaching Action PlanI am most excited to learn more about the different frameworks, connect with other coaches, and create my own action plan.For the first week, we had to respond to two questions about being a coach. What are the most Effective Coaching Strategies and the what are the Biggest Challenges? Here are my responses.What strategies have you found effective in your coaching?Small StepsWhen providing technology integration support, I often tell teachers to pick one way or one thing to do with the technology in the classroom or a lesson and focus on that. Practice that one thing often until you becoming comfortable with it. I think, all to often, teachers are given all this great technology, but it becomes too overwhelming or there are too many options to explore. Pick one thing, one technology, or one way to use and keep it consistent. Use it, make mistakes with it, learn from it, and become comfortable with it!Seeking LeadersWhat we quickly realized at my school is that there is a handful of teachers that serve as the pioneers for technology integration. These teachers instinctively know how technology enhances instruction, engages students, and improves learning. As a Technology Coordinator, I realized that I needed to harness the power of this group. So we deemed these teachers the "Grade Level Technology Leaders" and now they help make important school-wide technology decisions. We meet quarterly to have important discussions about the technology in our school, ask questions, and provide support. These Tech Leaders are also responsible for reporting back to their grade levels, for testing out new technologies in the classroom, and for provided help and professional development for the staff.PatienceI learned quickly that I need to have a significant amount of patience while dealing with teachers that our new to technology. I believe whole-heartedly in the concept of digital natives vs. digital immigrants. Although our students are quick to learn and often come to class already with the technological skills required, teachers are the exact opposite. These digital immigrants need simple step-by-step directions, they need it to be explained to them several times, and then again several weeks later, they may need their hand to be held. And this is all ok, because as long as they are making progress, it's a #EduWin in my book!What are your biggest challenges as a coach?TimeThe first challenge is time. Time for me and time for the teachers. I wear many hats: teacher, robotics coach, IT specialist, IT support, school leadership, professional development, coaching, maintenance and repair, etc. It's difficult to find the time to support teachers, when I must also support the students and the technology. However, I strongly feel that supporting teachers is the most important part of the job, because if teachers are well supported, then so will everything else. Teachers, themselves, have so much on their plate, especially in the public sector. Finding time to let someone in to their class to support them with instruction and technology integration can be difficult to do.CommitmentCommitment falls in line with time. And I find that it can sometimes be difficult for teachers to commit themselves to trying something new, to changing their curriculum and instruction, to allowing their students to explore a new device or tool. There may be many reasons for this. One reason could be not enough time. Another reason could be their comfort level with the new technology. As a coach, I must help teachers to hold strong to these commitments, for the benefit of themselves and their students.The Old WayI find that there are always a few teachers who are very reluctant to trying new things in the classroom, especially with technology. And I think it might be because they trust so much in the old way of doing things. I can't blame them for that. Why would I change my way of doing things, when it has worked for me and my students for so many years? It's a good question to ponder. But there is a great answer for that. Sticking to "The Old Way" of doing things is a dis-service to the students and society. The old way of teaching and learning might still work in the classroom, but its not going to do those students any good when they grow up and become adults. We need to teach them skills and abilities that will benefit them as adults, and using state of the art technology and tools make it easier, more engaging, more efficient, and more enjoyable. Students have access to these technologies in their personal lives already. Why should we take that away in the classroom? Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post. You can still register for the MOOC-Ed and participate! Let me know what your strategies and challenges are as a coach in the comments.My Instructional Technology Coaching Action Plan. Please comment on the document and add your resources, opinions, and ideas!My other Coaching Digital Learning MOOC-Ed Unit Reflections:Unit 1 ReflectionUnit 2 ReflectionUnit 3 ReflectionUnit 4 ReflectionUnit 5 ReflectionUnit 6 ReflectionCheck out my Coaching Digital Learning Pinterest Board with all of the resources and videos from the entire course!Follow Michael's board Coaching Digital Learning, #CDL_MOOCed on Pinterest.

Hey folks, I’m cooking up some new blog posts for this highly neglected blog (turns out publishing book makes you busy - huh, who knew?).  In the mean time, I have a new article over on the Peachpit site — an expanded version of The Inspiration Bookshelf. Also - super excited about a workshop I’m teaching in North Carolina on June 22nd.  I’m doing a day-long Design For How People Learn seminar for the ASTD-RTA (Research Triangle Area) group. Really pleased because this is the first opportunity to have a whole class based on the book material, and it’s been really fun to figure out how to use the book principles in the design of the workshop itself. Early bird registration goes until this Friday (June 8th), and it’s a bargain at $149 (Regular rate $179 / Late $219).  You can get more information here. Here’s the class description: Julie Dirksen ASTD-ICE presenter will be facilitating her newest workshop which is based on her book "Design for How People Learn" on June 22, 2012. This interactive full-day workshop will dive into designing instruction that will illicit behavior change. Julie has blended her background in instructional design, game-based learning, UX design and behavior change to develop a designing and implementing processes for usable learning.  Her book and lunch are included in the workshop pricing. Learning and development shouldn’t be about helping people know more; it should be about helping people do more. In particular, certain behaviors are more challenging to change than others, and we need a new toolbox for helping people make those changes.    That means, as learning and development professionals, we need to know all we can about designing for behavior change.  Learn how to: Match the right intervention up with your learning need Use principles of neuroscience and cognitive psychology attract and maintain attention and engagement Create a learning path that actually develops learners’ skills and abilities, rather than just deliver knowledge Create environments that make behavior change sustainable

From: hi.gafesummit.comOn Friday, March 21st, and Saturday, March 22nd, I attended the annual Hawaii +Google in Education Summits by EdTechTeam. For Part 1 of my blog post on the Google Summit and before I get to my reflection and take-aways, I want to first reflect back to last year's Summit, the first ever Hawaii Google Summit.Hawaii's first Google Summit took place in January 2013 and at that time my coworker, +Elisabeth Yuen, and I had been attempting to implement Google Apps at our school for almost a year and a half. We were early adopters in Hawaii, quick to understand the significance and importance of Google Apps for Education for teachers and students. I approached the first Hawaii Google Summit as an opportunity to learn, network, and grow in my profession, and that I did! I thought I knew a lot about Google Apps going into the Summit, but when I came out on the last day, I realized that I had no idea! I took the Google Certified Trainer Bootcamp with +Jim Sill and I also had the opportunity to meet some great people, like +Liz Castillo, +Kimble McCann, +Brendan Brennan, and +Linda Lindsay. I formed connections that would later turn in to some great friendships. I also realized my calling at the first Hawaii Google Summit. I knew from that conference on that I wanted to be a presenter. I wanted to contribute to my profession, learn as much as I could from others, and in return give back in any way that I could. So, I set a goal for myself:Present at the next Hawaii Google Summit and seek out other opportunities to share with my fellow educators.Putting myself on the map at 'Iolani School!Since January 2013, I think I have grown tremendously in my profession. I made the personal choice to attend my first ISTE conference, and connected with some other great educators, +Michelle Carlson Colte, +Megan Cummings, +Rachel Armstrong, and +Chad Nacapuy. I also became more involved in our state ISTE affiliate, HSTE and I am now the Secretary of the Executive Board with exciting plans ahead! I've also presented at a few other local conferences in 2013, including the Kamehemeha School EdTech Conference and the Schools of the Future Conference. My goal was becoming a reality!Now, fast forward to 2014. When the call for proposals were announced for the 2nd annual Hawaii Google Summit, I jumped at the opportunity to participate and present! I convinced my administration to send a large group of 13 teachers from my school to attend the summit and was thrilled to see so many of our teachers jump at their opportunity to be a part of what I felt was going to be one of the greatest conferences of the year!I was over joyed when I learned that I'd be presenting two sessions this year! I presented one on my own, Creating & Maintaining an Automated Online Help Desk w/ GAFE, and the other with +Elisabeth Yuen, The GAFE Dojo - Drive Workshop. I found my passion last year in presenting to my fellow educators, and I was fortunate enough to continue my goal this year.  I also found out half way through day 1 of the summit, that I was accepted as an official Google Certified Trainer, something that I had been working towards since the 2013 Summit. At the end of day 1, I gathered up some courage to participate in the Google Demo Slam, a high energy, fast paced, "shoot out" of Google tips and tricks. I went up against the big guns and failed miserably, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience nonetheless and learned some neat tricks along the way!I very much appreciate the +EdTechTeam's hard work and amazing conference experience! I thought last year's Google Summit was an amazing learning experience, but this year's Summit blew me away! And now I can't wait for 2015!In Part 2 of my blog post on the Google Summit I'll share my biggest take-aways, some session details, and some of the most important things I learned from the Summit.

In Part 1 of my reflection on the 2014 Hawaii Google Summit by +EdTechTeam, I shared my personal goal and the journey I took from last year's summit until today.In Part 2 I'll share my experiences, take-aways, and session resources from the 2014 Hawaii Google Summit.The biggest revelation for me at this Summit was the power of Google Maps and Google Earth. Like most of us, I'm sure, I've used Google Maps to look up directions, and yes, I've used Google Earth to check out my house! But after listening to +Evan Rapoport, Product Manager for Google Maps, talk at the opening Keynote, and participating in +John Bailey and +Emily Henderson's session (Getting Going with Google Geo Tools), I was inspired to find new and better ways to bring the world within reach for the students of Hawaii! Evan also touched on the idea of moonshot thinking and helping our students to prepare for a world in which they can find new ways to contribute and improve our lives and of those around us. After listening to Evan speak, I'm excited at the thought of self driving cars in the near future!My Session BreakdownsYoutube in the ClassroomFor my first session, I attended +Jim Sill's Youtube in the Classroom. I learned how powerful Youtube can be for the flipped classroom, especially with the use of customized playlists with the ability to adjust start and end times for videos, insert information, and record straight from your webcam into a playlist. Creating a playlist of essential learning videos for students before, during, or after a lesson is a great way to incorporate Youtube in the classroom. Jim also highlighted a wonderful Chrome Extension called Youtube Options for Chrome which will take away all the surrounding ads, comments, and suggested videos for you and your students.Organized Chaos: Incorporating Google Sites into Your School and ClassroomThe next session I attended was Organized Chaos: Incorporating Google Sites into Your School and Classroom by Marc Marquez and +Erin Sakamoto. They highlighted how useful a fully integrated Google Site for faculty and staff can be in a school. I've heard this called a Teacher Portal. For Google Apps schools, a Teacher Portal is a great way to easily dispense information, documents, resources, and calendars. The portal can be locked down so that only staff members have access (through the use of contact groups), in turn preventing the general public and students from gaining access. Google Sites makes it very easy to incorporate Google Calendars (i.e. athletic schedules, faculty meetings, school activities, etc.). Essential school documents like leave forms, field trips forms, etc. can be uploaded to Google Drive and shared or linked through the Site. At my school, I've helped design a similar Teacher Portal with Google Sites this school year, and it has been very successful with my faculty and staff.Take the idea of a Teacher Portal a step further and find a way to use the same concept in the classroom in the form of a Student or Class Portal. +Erin Sakamoto demonstrated this with the Google Sites she has created for each of her classes. Each site contains homework and classwork information, important reminders and dates, and access to worksheets and documents. Now the student and the family can't complain that the information was never shared!Getting Going with Geo Tools+John Bailey, a Newgler (New Googler), gave some great insight into the powerful ways that Google's Geo Tools can be used by teachers and students. He introduced us to 8 tools:The New Google MapsGoogle EarthStreetView and TreksGoogle Cultural InstituteMaps GalleryGoogle Maps EngineTour Builder (beta)Earth Engine & TimelapseThe tool that impressed me the most from this list is the Tour Builder (currently in beta). The Google Tour Builder allows users to create their own narrated tours around the Earth, with the help of Google Earth. You pick the locations, adjust the 3D Earth view, and can insert text, pictures, and videos to support your tour. There are many more options like customized pins, editable text, and the ability to include dates and times. Think about the possibilities this brings to a class, especially a flipped classroom! Teachers can create Tours to support student learning, and students can create Tours to demonstrate their learning! And because this is still in beta, I hope to see many more options added!Closing Keynote (Day 1)Our #sillfie (http://www.sillfie.me/)I found +Jim Sill's Keynote to be very inspirational and I hope that it was eye opening for many educators. He talked about the power of Youtube and Social Media. As a nation, we are far too quick to lock something down that we have no idea about. We fear what we can not control. But to ignore what social media might be able to do for education is a great disservice to our children. Rather than fear it, embrace it. Find ways to use it effectively and to teach our children how to be safe. Social Media  in education is both an opportunity and an obligation for teachers. Our students are already using it in many ways. Do we just ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist?I'm also very excited to learn more about +Brendan Brennan and +Hye Jung Kim's Project Open Glassroom. When Google Glass was first announced, I instantly knew that this would change the world and that we had a unique opportunity to connect classrooms with the world around us. Brendan summed it up quite nicely by saying, "we have an opportunity to see learning through the eyes of a child." How amazing is that?!Curate & Organize Like a Ninja w/ Chrome+Linda Lindsay led a great session on the Chrome Browser and gave some great tips and tricks on how to use Chrome effectively. Here is her session presentation. One of the best tips she shared was how to customize the search options in the Omnibox! I had no idea this was possible! There are so many things you can do with Chrome that I didn't even realize. I also appreciated Linda's session because we had time in the end to share with each other. Several participants shared some of their favorite Chrome extensions and apps. One new extension that I learned about and have started using quite frequently now is Extensions Manager, which allows the user to easily toggle extensions and apps on and off right from the extensions bar. Very useful!Off-Road with Google StreetviewI attended another session by +Evan Rapoport, +John Bailey, and +Emily Henderson that focused on even more Google Geo tools! In this session, the discussion was more about how the public can contribute to Google Earth and Maps with services and apps like Project PhotoSphere, the Theta Ricoh device that takes a 360 degree image with the click of a button, and Panoramio, a place for Google users to submit images to Google Maps and Google Earth.Closing Keynote (Day 2)We had another great keynote presentation,  this time by +Molly Schroeder! She introduced the audience to the idea of moonshot thinking and living in beta. The concept of living in beta was new to me and I enjoyed Molly's explanation that living in beta is when "we allow students to participate in a process of learning, where failure is an expectation." I've always felt that failure is an integral part of life and it's an important part of the learning process. It reminds me of a famous quote by Thomas Edison on failure, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." I love that quote, because it reflects a strong belief that in order to learn and be successful, we must fail first and fail often.Shameless Plug...I mentioned back in Part 1 of my Google Summit blog post that my goal was to present at this year's Summit, and I did! I presented two sessions! One of them I present on my own, Creating & Maintaining an Automated Online Help Desk w/ GAFE, and the other I presented with my coworker, +Elisabeth Yuen. Liz and I created a series of workshop modules to teach educators how to effectively use Google Apps in the classroom. We presented our GAFE Dojo - Drive Workshop. I have passion for presenting and I thoroughly enjoyed it!Continue Learning and Connecting Beyond the SummitThere are several opportunities for Educators to continue the learning and to connect with others and build upon their PLN (Professional Learning Network).+Michelle Carlson Colte recently invited Hawaii Google Summit participants to collaborate on a presentation project and share their experiences and moonshots. Visit her blog, http://edmoonshot.blogspot.com/ and contribute your "take-aways" to the GAFE14 Take-Aways Presentation!The EdTech Mixed Plate LIVE Google+ Hangout is dedicating 2 episodes to the Hawaii Google Summit to share as much as we can from the summit! Episode 15 aired on March 23rd and Episode 16 will air on March 30th.+Linda Lindsay also hosts a LIVE Google+ Hangout called Google Rocks! Hawaii and she recently had an episode dedicated to the Hawaii Google Summit.Hawaii also has its own GEG (Google Educators Group) that is now 744 members strong! Join the GEG Hawaii ACE21 Google+ Community and share in the GAFE discussions!Also join the Google in Edu Summits by EdTechTeam Google+ Community!

Hey folks - apologies for the sadly neglected blog — I’m actually home for a WHOLE MONTH, which makes the prospect of new blog posts muuuuch more likely. This is just quick note to mention that the Good Practice folks (http://goodpractice.com) are using Design For How People Learn for their inaugural book club, which is very cool on their part — they’ll be blogging and tweeting so other people can join in on the conversation: "So on Friday 29th June the GoodPractice team will get together to discuss the first two chapters of Design for How People Learn. If you’d like to join in (and we hope you will) the discussion will continue online via this blog and the Twitter hashtag #gpbookclub. In the meantime, grab yourself a copy of the book (it’s available for the Kindle and iPad, as well as in hard copy), read the first two chapters ‘How Do We Start?’ and ‘Who Are Your Learners?’ and I’ll see you here next week." http://goodpractice.com/blog/introducing-the-goodpractice-book-club/

Here is my Unit 2 reflection for the MOOC-Ed, Coaching Digital Learning: Cultivating a Culture of Change. Unit 2 focuses on the development of your PLN (Professional Learning Network) and becoming a "Connected Educator".What do you see as the most important advantages of adding social media tools to your personal learning network? I think that social media tools play an integral role in my Professional Learning Network and without them, my PLN would not be very effective.Each social media tool provides its own advantages to any PLN. For example, I enjoy using Twitter for the educational Twitter chats. I even moderate a Twitter chat from educators in Hawaii, #edchatHI!I enjoy using Facebook because it allows me to easily connect with other educators from my school and community. It has become an extension of my school and the faculty meetings. I also think that by connecting with my peers through Facebook, we have developed more personal connections as well.Google+ also plays a very important role in my PLN and I feel like is the most effective social media tool for me. The people that I have connected with, who come from all over the world, have led me to new ideas, differing opinions, and new ways of thinking. Utilizing Google+ communities and hangouts has brought collaboration to a whole new level for me!Which social media tool(s) do you recommend to colleagues for professional growth and why?I've been a member of Google+ since its inception and I now spend most of my time there. I enjoy the discussions and the sharing that occur among fellow educators. One of the greatest benefits of Google+ are it's Communities. Communities are places where like-minded people can gather, either publicly or privately, to discuss specific topics. There are many communities with many topics to discuss. There are communities for almost every classroom subject, every education related topic, and for every technology device! The conversations are rich and the resources are plentiful!How have you used social media as a tool to help your teachers tap into more professional learning opportunities?In order to engage my teachers I often employ the use of blogs for a variety of purposes. I have my own personal professional blog, (technocation.blogspost.com) that I use to share my own opinions, tips, and reviews for EdTech related topics. I also use several blogs at my school for different purposes. For example, I manage a blog called "The Teacher Showcase" where teachers can share their classroom projects with others in the school. I also have a blog called the "iPad Alert" where I share free and discounted apps as well as great ways to integrate iPads into the classroom. Blogs are an effective way to communicate information, and enabling the comments feature and allowing teachers to guest blog with you can be a powerful way to get teachers involved and become active participants.My Instructional Technology Coaching Action Plan. Please comment on the document and add your resources, opinions, and ideas!My other Coaching Digital Learning MOOC-Ed Unit Reflections:Unit 1 ReflectionUnit 2 ReflectionUnit 3 ReflectionUnit 4 ReflectionUnit 5 ReflectionUnit 6 ReflectionCheck out my Coaching Digital Learning Pinterest Board with all of the resources and videos from the entire course!Follow Michael's board Coaching Digital Learning, #CDL_MOOCed on Pinterest.

I tweeted the link to this article about 19 times today, but I’m posting it again here.  Craig Wiggins has been knocking out good stuff on the ASTD Learning Circuits blog all month, but he saved the best for last: Let’s Stop Pretending Every field has them, but Learning & Development has a lot of them - things we do or believe because of convention or habit or denial or fear. What would you add to the list? Go put yours in the comments. I’m also thinking this would make a heckuva blog carnival (Who’s with me?). (And as an added bonus, Kathy Sierra stopped by in the comments and showed us how it’s done #bam #asalways)

For Unit 3 of the MOOC-Ed, Coaching Digital Learning: Cultivating a Culture of Change, we explored the TPACK and SAMR frameworks. These are two great models to help teachers find the most effective way of integrating educational technology. The video link below is the introduction video for unit 3, but I also thought it gave a excellent, brief explanation of the TPACK and SAMR framework.Unit 3: Exploring Frameworks (Vimeo)These are the two reflection questions and my responses for Unit 3.How have you used the TPACK or SAMR frameworks in your coaching work?  I am familiar with both the TPACK and the SAMR model, but I'm more comfortable with the SAMR model. However, I think both are important and could work together in helping teachers to understand best practices with educational technology.Although I do not directly relate my technology infused lessons with the SAMR or TPACK model, I would say that I am often attempting to attain the modification or even the redefinition stages of the SAMR model.I also plan on introducing my teachers to both models to help them realize the potential of the technology they have in the classrooms and at their disposal. The technology we have is often way under utilized, mostly because the teachers are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with how to use them appropriately and effectively.What challenges have you seen when using the TPACK or SAMR frameworks?Since I have not directly applied these frameworks in my coaching practices, I have to predict what might be the challenges I will face when I do introduce them to my fellow educators.I think the biggest problem with educational technology is that some educators will focus more on the technology instead of the curriculum and instruction. Just because you have a class set of tablets or laptops, or an interactive whiteboard, and you try to use them with your students as often as possible, does not necessarily correlate to effective teaching or instruction. We should not simply use technology for the sake of using technology. This is why I think the SAMR model can help teachers to realize the potential and the effect educational technology can have on the instruction and learning if integrated correctly.Using a projector to display your computer to the class does not mean your integrating technology. Having students type their notes on their laptops instead of writing them on a piece of paper is also not integrating technology. Instead, finding ways to "modify" or "redefine" the lesson and the learning with the use of educational technology will allow students to be more engaged and to learn new skills and gain new knowledge that will benefit them in the real world.For the Unit 3 Activity, we were required to create a Linoit.com Canvas Board and share our visual analogies of the TPACK and SAMR frameworks. Below is a screenshot of my board and my two analogies. You can visit my board and also add your own visual analogies if you like!My Lino.It Board - "TPACK & SAMR Visual Analogies"Be sure to also check out my Pinterest Board for this MOOC-Ed, Coaching Digital Learning, #CDL_MOOCed where I've added all of the resources for each unit.My Instructional Technology Coaching Action Plan. Please comment on the document and add your resources, opinions, and ideas!My other Coaching Digital Learning MOOC-Ed Unit Reflections:Unit 1 ReflectionUnit 2 ReflectionUnit 3 ReflectionUnit 4 ReflectionUnit 5 ReflectionUnit 6 ReflectionCheck out my Coaching Digital Learning Pinterest Board with all of the resources and videos from the entire course!Follow Michael's board Coaching Digital Learning, #CDL_MOOCed on Pinterest.

I blogged! Just not here!! I’m the guest blogger this week for the Tin Can folks.  It’s a post about why should care about Tin Can if you are an instructional designer: http://tincanapi.com/2012/09/04/what-does-tin-can-mean-to-instructional-designers/ I also get to bitch a little bit about SCORM and how is that not fun?

In Unit 4 of the Coaching Digital Learning MOOC-Ed, we learned about the 4 Cs of Digital Age skills: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. Below are my two response to the reflection questions as well as a PowToon Coaching Service Announcement that we had to create for our unit 4 activity.What benefits for student learning do you see in integrating communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity into your school culture?I think the most important benefit for students in integrating the 4 C's in their learning is that it prepares them for the world ahead. These skills are what allow us to survive and thrive in any profession. They are not just skills, but life skills because they help us to improve our lives and the lives of others.These skills also help students to develop their personalities and character traits, important aspects of who they are and who they want to become in the future. Skills, like critical thinking and creativity, help students to express themselves and to feel free in their exploration.Share some of the strategies you’ve used in your practice to elevate the importance of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.Just recently, my coworker and I started working with our teachers on a Personalized Professional Development Plan.Now that teachers are more familiar with some of the tech tools at our school, such as Google Apps, they now have to work together as a grade level to create an Action Plan for next school year. In this Action Plan, they have to decide how they will use at least one of the Google Apps to promote and practice effective Communication and Collaboration in the classroom. They worked together to determine and layout the necessary steps to be successful. The Action Plan requires that they determine what their overall goals will be, what resources they'll need, what their deadlines will be, and what their individual responsibilities will be.Next school year, the teachers will put their Action Plan to use. And later into the next school year, they will continue to work on their Personalized PD Plan, by determining how other tech tools can be used to promote the other Cs (Critical Thinking and Creativity). And they will decide what other PD they would like to receive to continue their Plans.My 4 Cs Coaching Service Announcement (CSA)Created with PowToon.comMy Instructional Technology Coaching Action Plan. Please comment on the document and add your resources, opinions, and ideas!My other Coaching Digital Learning MOOC-Ed Unit Reflections:Unit 1 ReflectionUnit 2 ReflectionUnit 3 ReflectionUnit 4 ReflectionUnit 5 ReflectionUnit 6 ReflectionCheck out my Coaching Digital Learning Pinterest Board with all of the resources and videos from the entire course!Follow Michael's board Coaching Digital Learning, #CDL_MOOCed on Pinterest.

I’m listening to the most recent toolbar episode with Judy Unrein, Brian Dusablon and their guest, Connie Malamed. They talk about a number of things, but there’s a lot of discussion of creativity - how to be creative, the importance of creativity for problem solving, and the unfortunate lack of creativity that can happen in learning design. I think that there’s a weird attitude to creativity in our field - that it’s a nice-to-have (and just be clear — this isn’t something Judy, Brian and Connie said, but rather an attitude I’ve bumped into many times elsewhere).  I think that there are a couple of reasons this isn’t true: We pay attention to things that are novel and unusual.  We are constantly concerned with engaging our users.  We know what whatever we build isn’t effective if users aren’t paying attention.  In the same way that humor can improve learning and retention, unusual and novel stimuli break through our cognitive tendency to habituate to an unchanging stimulus (and yes - using big words to make your business case is a legitimate strategy). Well-designed experiences create positive affect in learners, which can improve learning and retention.  The best resource on this is probably Don Norman’s Emotional Design, but his contention is that things that are well-designed do work better. So, creativity is a legitimate design strategy - not something that is a pretty garnish on the plate. Here are a few other interesting things on creativity: Connie’s great blog post on evidence-based practice for improving creativity: http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning_design/improve-creativity/ This fascinating video that suggests that creative problem solving isn’t just about stimulating creativity, but also about inhibiting our current set of rules for how things should work: through-the-wormhole-creativity-cap.html And because this post needs some creativity actually in it - here’s a Kickstarter Thank You note I just got from a former student (Taylor Baldry http://www.taylorbaldry.com) who did a project on helping people remember the genders of foreign language nouns by attaching little cartoon genitalia to pictures of the objects (and if that’s not creative, I don’t know what is):