Source Link: https://newbraunfels.tedk12.com/hire/index.aspxPrimary Purpose:The Network Administrator is responsible for effective installation, configuration, operation, and maintenance of network hardware and software and related infrastructure. This individual participates in technical research and development to enable continuing innovation within the district. This individual ensures that network hardware, software and related procedures meet or exceed organizational policy.QUALIFICATIONS:Education:HS Diploma RequiredPreferred Associates Degree in networking; may be substituted for years of experience in a related fieldPreferred CCNP/CCIE Certificate or equivalentsSpecial Knowledge / Skills:•     Knowledge of gigabit networking systems and technologies, Ethernet, setup and management of VLANs, WANs, LANs, multiple types of WAN/LAN switches, routers, VPNs, IPS, IDS, wireless systems, radius, 802.1x and firewalls and content filters.Working knowledge of Apple network protocols.•     Working knowledge of fiber optic cable, copper cable, and network test equipment.•     Knowledge of Industry standards for structured cabling systems.•     Excellent telephone and communication skills.•     Ability to assess verbal computer concerns to provide technical support.•     A high priority on providing outstanding customer service and turnaround time.•     Strong organizational, communication and interpersonal skills.•     Highly knowledgeable of computer hardware, software applications, computer operating systems, and network operating systems.•     Highly proficient in keyboarding, computer use, and phone use.•     Knowledge of correct English usage, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.•     Excellent math and analytical skills.•     High ability to use computer and software to develop spreadsheets, update databases, and do word processing.•     Ability to use effective verbal and written communication skills to provide outstanding customer service.•     Ability to multi-task in a fast-paced office environment, supporting many people at once.•     Ability to solve problems and handle situations diplomatically.Experience:At least three years of experience in the educational environment preferred.At least three years of network experience preferred.Job Contact Information Name Matt Jones Title Executive Director of Technology Phone 830-643-5740 Email mjones@nbisd.orgEverything 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

Update 12/11/2015: Yes! Selected!!Dear Miguel,Your Google for Education Certified Trainer application is now complete, as we have received recommendations from all of your references. You will be notified of a decision by December 8, 2015 and you can always check your status via the application portal: https://googleedu.onlineapplications.netAfter a long day, I sat down at my home computer and clicked my way to the Google for Education Online Application Portal:Will I be one of the chosen? I don't know, but I can only hope. Have you heard anything about YOUR application?And, have you applied for the Google Certified Innovator spot yet?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

Ok, this isn't an ode to fire, but to the 5th Generation Amazon Fire, that I picked up for about $35+cost of the case. Having played around with multiple, inexpensive Android tablets, I was happily surprised by how well Amazon's Fire tablet has enabled me to use it as an eReader (for both Amazon Kindle ebooks and ePub formatted books), as well as Amazon Audio, Video (Prime) and Netflix. Although the screen quality falls short of my iPad 3rd generation, the Fire works great!The 7-inch Amazon Fire tablet doesn't offer high-end specs or the latest apps, but it's the best way to put a wealth of multimedia content at your fingertips for an almost unbelievable $50 price. Source: PCMag ReviewAs an avid reader, I've invested in several apps to ease my sojourn on the Amazon Fire tablet:Calibre Companion  ($3.99) - Enables you to connect your Kindle Fire to Calibre over wireless. The process is pretty easy.eLibrary Manager ($2.00) - Although not a perfect app, it does allow you to read ePubs without having to convert them to mobi format. You may want to get the FREE Aldiko, which I refer to below INSTEAD of eLibrary Manager and save yourself some money. I ended up with it instead!Don't know about Aldiko?Aldiko Book Reader is one of the best android (and now iOS) eBook reader apps. This is also the leading platform for millions of online eBook readers from across the globe. It supports PDF format, EPUB and Adobe DRM encrypted formats. You can adjust the font size, font type, background colors, margin, alignment, line spacing and brightness as you like. It also supports night time reading and editable settings to suit your desirable preferences. Source Update: Ok, eLibrary Manager started to drive me crazy...the margin was off slightly on some of my ebooks, so I decided to make the effort to get Aldiko. Steps to get Aldiko loaded are as follows:Image Source: WikiHowAdjust the settings on on your Fire so you can download installer files (a.k.a. APK file) and run them, as shown in the image above.Download the APK (Android installer) for Aldiko ebook reader (Direct link to APK)Run it and install Aldiko.Then, follow these steps below:Purchase Calibre CompanionInstall Calibre on your computerLoad your ebooks into Calibre (so they appear in the list) Turn on Wireless sharing and content sharing on your Calibre (computer). Note: Both your Computer and Fire must be on the same WiFi network.Using Calibre Companion (on your Fire), tap on the CONNECT button in the top right-hand corner of the app. This will connect you to your Computer's Calibre, which is working as a server.In Calibre Companion, a list of all the ebooks you have shared via Calibre on your computer will appear. Download all or selectively get them one at a time.When you want to READ a book, you'll be prompted for the default ebook reader app...choose Aldiko. Every time you read a book, a copy will be made to Aldiko.Will this replace my iPad? Yes, in a pinch. I'd rather carry this little device than my 3rd gen iPad as my media device of choice. If you haven't considered getting one, then I definitely recommend it if you're willing to "buy into" the Amazon world of DRM content, etc. Definitely consider getting Amazon Prime if you do since the content available is plumb awesome.OLD INSTRUCTIONS 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

Source: http://ai2020.com/one-thing-at-a-time-singletasking-do-it/"Education is failing technology."  Dr. Mark Weston goes on to write, "The minimal effect that technology has had on teaching and learning is a failure of the field of education not a failure of technology." These are pretty powerful ideas...and given my long-time advocacy of edtech, I am inclined to agree. But do these ideas hold up? I'm not sure.Students, Computers, and Learning Making the Connection concludes that investments in classroom technology are yielding "no appreciable improvements in student achievement in reading, mathematics, or science." What's more, the study found technology to be of little help in "bridging the skills divide between advantaged and disadvantaged students."Source: Suzie Boss, Are We Getting Smarter about EdTech?When I look at the powerful learning that is possible when teachers adopt instructional approaches like these below, I wonder if Mark isn't right.If we know that differentiated instruction is effective in improving student performance, while still meeting required performance standards, why aren’t more teachers using it? TPACK proposes that thoughtful technology integration occurs when teachers are attuned to the interplay of content (the subject matter), pedagogy (the methods of teaching, both general and content-specific), and technology (both electronic and "traditional"). Considering all three domains together results in a lesson in which all the component parts are aligned to support the learning goals and outcomes of the instructional plan...The power of technology lies in the teacher’s ability to use it for customizing instruction. It helps teachers to address those student variables by manipulating the complexity or level of difficulty of the content, the ways in which students receive and engage that content, their options demonstrating what they have learned, and the circumstances under which they do so.Source: Inclusion in the 21st Century: Differentiating with Technology.Why aren't more of these approaches taken hold?Source: 6 Components of DIdifferentiated instruction: Differentiation takes place in the areas of content, process, and product. Consider this 2007 resource, Differentiating Instruction with Technology in K-5 Classrooms, that makes very similar points:"Technology improves student performance when the application directly supports the curriculum objectives being assessed." In other words, technology is most effective when integrated with curriculum content."Technology improves performance when the application providesopportunities for student collaboration." Studies show that paired and collaborative learning in conjunction with technology enhances student performance."Technology improves performance when the application adjustsfor student ability and prior experience, and provides feedback to the student and teacher about student performance or progress with the application." This finding supports the differentiated instruction practices of coaching and mentoring as well as sharing responsibility for learning."Technology improves performance when the application is integrated into the typical instructional day." This finding supports classroom and content learning with technology as opposed to lab learning with technology."Technology improves performance when the application provides opportunities for students to design and implement projects that extend the curriculum content being assessed by a particular standardized test." Student-created products, multimedia, and video streaming are examples of how technology can extend curriculum content."Technology improves performance when used in environmentswhere teachers, the school community, and school and district administrators support the use of technology." In addition to performance improvements tied to administrative support for technology, findings show that integration of technology with instruction, professional development for teachers, and computer use at home and school with differentiated products and student entry points combine to improve performance.problem-based learning (PBL): "uses real-life problems modeled after a contemporary or historical case to engage students as they pursue specified learning outcomes that are in line with academic standards or course objectives" (Stepien & Pyke, 1997)cooperative learning: All students work inter-dependently, clearly focused on achieving joint expectations, taking the initiative to innovate on assignment.One simple answer--"There’s no doubt that effectively differentiating instruction presents challenges to even the most experienced teacher" (Source)--is that it is too darn complicated! That may explain why Dr. Mark Weston, in  Quit Failing Technology, observes that Education's failure to adopt research-based practices have resulted in the failure of technologists to be successful in transforming teaching and learning.Successful and sustained edtech implementation requires that good pedagogy must first be in play within the classroom. . .Let's master pedagogy first. Then leverage the technology.Source: In Successful EdTech, pedagogy Comes First--Devices SecondIn this entry, he makes these points:Education is failing technology.If certain instructional practices are used and specific conditions met then one teacher, instructing a group of students in a classroom, could help the students attain 2-sigma. The practices he identified that make 2-sigma possible include reinforcement, cues and explanations, corrective feedback, and cooperative learning. The conditions include student classroom-participation, student time on task, and classroom morale.The organizational and operational design of most schools exacerbates the teacher-load conundrum. In such schools, a teacher trying to take a classroom of 30 students to 2-sigma must make it happen alone. Technology has exerted little overall effect on educational settings and the teaching and learning in them. Student achievement test scores remain flat, school completion rates have not declined, and instruction remains mostly teacher-led in classrooms with neat-rowed desks.Teachers...readily admit that in many instances the technology that they do have actually increases their load. Not surprisingly, data show teachers rarely using technology in their classroom instruction.And, what about Marzano's work and that of others? Consider Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (PDF; web site that linked it):Technology can certainly be used...as a tool for the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of information. Today, students use complex multimedia products and advanced networking technologies to learn interactively and work collaboratively on projects; to gather, organize, and analyze information; to solve problems; and to communicate information...Our experience has shown that most people prefer exploring the instructional strategies first and the technologies that support them second.So, all that to say something pretty simple--Curriculum Departments, classroom teachers, school systems have failed to adopt instructional approaches that make a difference for student learning. And, until they do, we're wasting our time trying to blend technology in. Even if you see technology as a way to short-circuit the time-intensive strategies of the past, there's a real need for pedagogy+technology together, rather than ONE before another.In fact, it reminds me of achieving higher order thinking skills (HOTS) research...imagine teachers making students march through low-order thinking skills before ever getting to HOTS...unfortunately, so much time is spent on LOTS that HOTS never happened for countless students, especially those who came from a low, socio-economic background.I'm not sure I agree with these findings...we can't continue to chant "Pedagogy first, technology second!" and expect to get results. This isn't crawl before we can walk scenario. If you want someone to embrace technology to transform instruction, then you have to start from the get-go!"A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still."Maybe we need some replacement thinking via Mike Fisher (Get a copy of Mike Fisher’s book, Digital Learning Strategies: How do I assign and assess 21st century work?):The task of the contemporary teacher is to help students learn to take what is now ubiquitous (knowledge), learn to filter it for relevance and quality (critical thinking), and use it to learn, grow, and demonstrate 21st Century Skills (communication, collaboration, creative problem solving). 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 I look back over the years, I can't help but get a bit teary-eyed at the loss. My life changed in so many ways around that time, and it's not easy to leave the past behind. And, it was all so much controversy, such an eye-opening experience that left me wondering, "Did I make the right decision?"You see, my iPad 3rd generation, which I used almost every day since I bought it in March, 2012, has died. At the time, I thought it was a great investment...given that I have used it every single day since I bought it, I realize I got more than my money's worth out of it!Maybe if I could install GNU/Linux operating system on my iPad, it would be vibrant and alive again, but as of right now, the sound is dead, and it's behavior erratic. With several other computing devices, among them an iPhone 6, an Amazon Fire, a Chromebook (Acer C720), a Mac Air, and a Dell Latitude 3340 (last 3 work devices of differing ages), I'm not sure an iPad will be needed.I spent almost $1,000 on my iPad 3rd gen...64gigs of storage, which I never filled to capacity although I gave it my best shot. Fortunately, consulting was still a big thing in 2012, and I was able to afford the almost $900 iPad, and then about $100 in critical apps. Keynote, which was free, was worth the power alone, simply because it made it possible to embed video in the slideshow.But now, I have to admit that my iPhone 6 is powerful enough to do video editing, and if I really have to get something done, I'll probably do it on there. Otherwise, Chromebook+Screencastify+WeVideo+YouTube will be sufficient.Still, I will miss some of my favorite apps:Explain Everything Ok, that was a short list. The rest of my favorite apps, I hardly ever use anymore on the iPad, instead relying on my iPhone or Chrome/GoogleApps. And, all the video apps that I once watched television and movies on, well, those work on the $34 Amazon Fire I bought on a whim. Whatever will I do with the old charging cables scattered throughout my house? I wonder if I can use them to power my iPhone without "over-charging" or causing iPhone battery problems.For now, farewell, iPad 3rd gen. You were my faithful companion all these years, and truly broke my grip on the keyboard for consuming content. But, you know, there's no friend like an old friend. Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

A colleague remarked in astonishment, "Miguel, you have an Amazon Fire?""Yes," I replied surprised anyone would wonder at me having this or that device. Was the person saying, "Hey, what's with you? Couldn't afford an iPad?"Or maybe, they said, "Wow, you sure are thrifty!"Then, there's the, "I can't believe you're using a demon-spawned Amazon DRM device that bombards you with evil content! How could you be supporting the Amazon leviathan that destroys freedom and liberty?"In truth, I just don't care anymore on some devices. I just want the darn thing to work. And, the Amazon Fire--did I mention I paid $34 dollars on Black Friday for this one?--delivers handily! For example, here's a list of the apps that I've tried for video watching:Time Warner Cable - Wow, TWC has done a great job with their apps! I miss Into the Badlands or Quantico or, The Walking Dead, I can watch it via this app!Amazon Prime Video/Audio - Ok, you expect this to work on the Amazon Fire. It's just hard to believe how well it works!Netflix - So glad this works because I truly enjoy the content available via this venue.So far, I haven't tried sideloading video--although I have side-loaded ebooks, read this blog post for more info on how--but I probably won't. There's so much good stuff in those 3 outlets that I'm kept quite busy.  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

Earlier this week, I received this tweet that caused a bit of introspection:Justin Merwin ‏@Thewizard_210 Dec 14 @mguhlin Are you still an avid @evernote user? How has it benefited you as a Tech Director?The answer is, "Yes, darn it!" I give such a response, Justin, because in spite of my best efforts to transition to the Apple Notes app following David Pogue's lead, with over 5K in notes, the darn thing is TOO SLOW. So, I slowly found myself gravitating back to Evernote (ok, I'm 100% back to using it).While I still employ Google Keep for frivolous notes--grocery lists, shared tasks lists with colleagues/family--I rely on Evernote to organize my life. It's the one place I can "archive" information in whatever format and know it will be there.As a technology director, I rely on Evernote to provide my digital archive for the following:critical emails (I use CloudMagic app on my mobile phone to drop content into Evernote, but since I'm a Premium user, I can just forward emails to Evernote and see them appear)GUI editor for notes to do lists and tasks that are ongoingdocuments (PDFs, etc.)A virtual space to prepare responsesa place to save business cardsa place to save quotes, proposals that I need to keep track of long-term.As nice as Google Drive is--and even though I'm very organized--dropping something into Drive can be the equivalent of flipping a coin into the sea and hoping to jump in a day later and find it...an act of hope and luck.Since I've cleaned out Evernote, it runs a lot faster. I don't use WorkChat or any of the weird features Evernote developers have added. I don't even use Evernote for archiving web sites or content, something I once did avidly. All those notebooks are gone. Evernote is NOT a content curation tool anymore.That's how I use Evernote. It works for me and I enjoy the experience more than GoogleDrive, but that's not to say I'm not an Google heavy user. I wish Google Keep could allow for more organization, make it easier to drop documents into it. But I've given up waiting...Evernote is still my go-to.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

Too busy to learn during the pre-Xmas shopping season? Too busy connecting with family face to face to learn from other educators online? It doesn't have to be either/or!Well, then, you are missing out on great conversations and connections via the edcampvoxer event kicking off today!I'm taking some time this morning to tune in, to "join the Voxer chats" that are being featured because I know I can come back to them and listen later.The link you need to pay attention to is bit.ly/edcampvoxer because it will let you "click and join" the Voxer chat (you'll need the Voxer app on your Android/iOS mobile device). Here is what the Voxer chats look like on my browser on my computer, but you can totally do this from your mobile device:I jumped into the Blogging Voxer chat and shared a few thoughts, one of which Rache Wooten picked up and tweeted:Some other take-aways (ok, I wrote these):Excerpt ideas that resonate or conflict with your's then explore your thoughts about them. Their ideas are the sparks that ignite your blog entry. Grab a problem someone else is having, or question, then share your path to a solution.Or, reflect on their solution, then share the problem you have with it and offer your path, even if it doesn't result in a solution  auto publish your blog entries using the blog RSS feed and ifttt.com to share to Twitter, Facebook and linked in. Image for a blog entry and smaller chunks of text are the way to go, as Jon says. I also like section headers for longer pieces and use listicles with dialogue to kick off paragraphs/sections  Jon Harper also shared some of his insights while on a trip to Disney, and those contributions are audio. Here's one of them.Other great conversations, like Personalizing PD, are also happening; consider this contribution from Knikole:Good morning, everyone! I am Knikole Taylor, a math and science coach from TX. Please share questions, comments, and suggestions for Personalized PD. Also, remember to add your notes from today's conversation here: http://tinyurl.com/EdcampVoxer-PerPDMiguel, I read about Educator Micro Credentials yesterday http://www.digitalpromise.org/initiatives/educator-micro-credentials The problem I've run into is that many of my Ts are not connected outside of the building. I want them to use tools like Twitter and Voxer on their own, so I have to take the time to teach them how to do so. Here is the "PD" I pushed out last year and earlier this year on how to use Twitter before our Twitter PLC. We used #gwcplc. I read this article yesterday also. There are lots of great tools for districts to support and design personalized PD. https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/from-pre-fab-to-personalized-how-districts-are-retooling-professional-development Of course, as I've been writing this blog entry, the conversation has continued! Another neat Voxer chat is Organizing Edcamps & Other Offline Events. I love Karen Norton's (Voxer: knorto213) recap of the conversation, as she works in Arkansas to plan an edcamp on her own. Another neat chat is Communicating With Students, Parents, and the Community. Greg Goins shares this insight into use of Voxer:I have voxer groups set up for my administrative team (7 administrators) and for classes I teach in Ed Leadership (typically 8-12 students each semester). I ask them to reflect and share ideas after meetings or class time just to get them talking on voxer. Very valuable tool for collaboration and post-class assessment. As Jeff Herb points out, "Greg, like the idea of Voxer as a reflection tool for students and staff!"Another conversation Connecting Classrooms to Share in the LearningDavid Billikopf: Heidi, on my side the Ss get to be experts and practice writing, poetry ,etc and the Norwegian Ss are practicing English. We viewed the same documentary about a man in Florida appealing 4 life sentences for robberies he committed at ages 14/15. Then they discussed back and forth the American juvenile justice system. (My students are locked up.) Then my students shared some poetry about how they felt about being locked up and some shared their stories. The Norwegian students sent back responses, both written and artistic, about how my students' poetry and stories made them feel. We have been using the twitter # of #norwask- feel free to check it out. I have also been blogging how it has been going if you want to see more of how we have been doing it. http://billikopf.blogspot.com/ is my blog.  Well, why are you still reading this blog entry? Check out the links in the infographic above to get going with the edcampvoxer 2015 event!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

If you're like me, you may have jumped ship from Evernote to Apple Notes. Unfortunately, with 10K worth of notes, Apple Notes moves like molasses. (Sorry, David Pogue, Apple Notes isn't a good enough replacement for Evernote when you're dealing with that many notes...I suppose I should have guessed that).Get this Mac app | Read blog entrySo, what's your exit strategy? Since I archive old emails, it's important for them to be searchable...saving them all in Evernote or Apple Notes wasn't a good idea, as I discovered.One approach I've decided to revisit is exporting all the notes to text format (TXT). This makes them readable by any word processor or app. But, with over 5K of these notes in Apple Notes, I wondered how I might be able to get them OUT of Apple Notes? Thankfully, someone else already thought of that.Step 1 - Export Your Apple Notes to Text FilesThe Write app folks have come up with Notes' Exporter, a utility that runs on your Mac OS X computer (I'm running El Capitan) and it's now slogging (successfully!) it's way through the export.The export simply has you point to a folder where you want to dump your files (more on that in a minute):Notice the Notes Exporter on the left side of the screenshot above, and exported notes on the right.Step 2 - Setup a Dropbox folder to place your TXT filesIf you store these text files on Dropbox--they don't take up a lot of room, so you're not losing much space out of your free account--then you can access them from anywhere...and, you can organize them quite easily.Step 3 - Install a Text Editing App on Your Mobile DeviceSince I will be accessing these text files across various mobile devices, I am taking advantage of Byword app (iOS), although there are plenty of text friendly apps (check the chart) you can use to get the job done such as Draft (available on iOS and Android), IAWriter, or NOCS (free).If I was doing this again, I'd probably following this sequence:1) Select the app you want because it will create a folder on Dropbox where your files will be stored, although with the right text editor, you can just point it at any directory you want.2) Run the Exporter and save the files to the appropriate Dropbox directory.Over all, a straightforward process. 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

Image Source: http://bit.ly/1mlsfbAThe tough option isn't the one that involves an either/or proposition--"All or nothing?"--but the one that replaces the OR for an AND. It's too easy to divide life into binary decisions, yes/no propositions that appear to simplify our lives.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. Source: Crucial ConversationsWhat brings these thoughts on? This Connected Principals' post by Todd Samuelson:I’m considering making a change. With change often comes the traditional interview process and the preparation that comes along with that ritual. I suppose there is a benefit to this process in that it forces one to reflect. One of the interview questions is sure to involve my thoughts on what I think is the most important quality of an effective leader. After role playing this question in my head a dozen times, I have come to the conclusion that this is an impossible question to answer with any real depth.  As I read it, it makes me reflect on the times I've asked myself, "What is the most important leadership quality?" Having done serious reflection--that is, reflection fueled by life experiences that do more than mar the paint job--the most important leadership quality is building relationships. Hands-down, no matter the work that you do, without relationships with others, you will fail.In the job of principal, I can think of no better leadership quality to highlight when asked a question during an interview. It's true regardless of your field of leadership because leadership implies interacting with 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

One of my favorite stories...worth sharing again!The Secret to Happiness Once upon a time, a man stood crying alone on the rooftop of his house. He was unhappy, and he cried out, "I just want to be happy." An angel appeared to him, and offered to grant him 3 wishes over the course of his life. "Grant my wish, angel!" the man begged.  He was mourning the fact that the roof he stood upon was of a house he did not own, that his creditors beat upon his door and his wife lived in fear of furniture and vehicles being seized.  The first wish the man asked for was wealth.   For a time, he was happy but then his wife fell ill and no amount of money could save her. As he wept again at her plight, the angel appeared again and offered to grant him a wish. The man wished for health, but in spite of his health and family's being improved, over time, he realized that this did not make him happy. He reflected long and hard on this, even writing a few blog entries, sending out a few tweets, and checking with his PLN.  Finally, one night as he suffered weariness of spirit in spite of riches, family, and perfect health, the angel appeared to him to grant his final wish, present at his unbidden request. "Angel," the old man asked, "grant me my wish...teach me to be grateful for all that has happened and will happen in my life." The angel made it so.  At last, the man achieved happiness.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 December, 2015, while most folks were Xmas shopping from home, or worse, braving traffic and stores, a bunch of folks were having awesome conversations via EdCampVoxer. It was truly a powerful series of conversations on a variety of topics. I've written about some of those here and you can certainly find out more.However, every time I use Voxer, I run across users who express a desire to see Voxer grow to include features like those shown below. I decided to type up the ones I'd heard--and had expressed myself--and share them with Voxer Pro support.Thank you for considering these requests on behalf of educations Voxer users:1-Enable a historical record that can be referenced by those new to a chat.2-On iOS devices, when you click on Voxer chat web link, it should take you straight to the Voxer Chat rather than just open the Voxer app in iTunes Make web links for Voxer chats usable, especially for those new to Voxer.3-Make it easy to export audio for an entire Voxer chat individually or as a whole to facilitate sharing an audio recording. Already know you can export individual items but want to export an entire chat as one MP3.4-Search text of a Voxer Chat (ala keyword).5-Be able to add tags to Voxer chat items for easy searching later, as well as link to those tags across Voxer Chats.

Thanks to Jennifer Bergland (TCEA.org) for facilitating this webinar: Could this be the solution for districts that have to rely on wide area network providers that constantly have aging equipment fail, interfering with school district business and student learning? It seems every time I turn around, the wide area network provider for a local area school district has had a piece of equipment fail.Everyone howls, looking for the Technology Department to fix equipment they don't even own, control, or know what to do with. And, each time, the WAN provider drags their feet to resolve the issue.Find out moreWhat to do about this problem? Dark fiber is a privately operated, secure and dedicated way for organizations to have access to high bandwidth, while controlling their own network. Dark fiber puts you in control of your own network, allowing you to control costs by gaining the benefits of network ownership without having to construct the physical network yourself.Source: Unite Private NetworksThere are definitely benefits to private fiber, especially leased fiber. You setup a contract with a vendor, and they get to deal with all the headaches and problems. They are the ones that have to worry about "right of ways" (great podcast), and the District enjoys unlimited bandwidth on its fiber network. This really sounds like the solution to a lot of problems districts deal with when it comes to providing access to faster networks and internet at lower cost...check out this info below:This chart of five different school districts across the U.S shows some of the savings schools have experienced with municipal networks. The orange is the original provider’s exorbitant price for each Mbps per month. The blue is the price from the municipal network. The savings are stunning.Sources for the graphMuniNetworks Public Savings Fact Sheet and Breaking the Broadband Monopolyas cited online at Muninetworks.orgI recently asked a colleague:What do you see as the process of laying your own private fiber network?Here is his response...as you read it, ask yourself, what's missing? What would I add to this?Do an RFP with kind of bandwidth outlined in it. You'll want to define how many strands and locations you'll want. Dark fiber, he pointed out, is fiber you're not using. Dark fiber can be leased to others, such as small businesses. Based on the size of your fiber, you can lease out a certain amount of bandwidth.Define builds that will be part of the loops, and which are jump-overs.Idenify the type of network--loop or star topology. Vendor would provide a design based on how much redundancy is needed.eRate now pays for 80% of leased fiber costs. That's pretty awesome!And one of the biggest challenges facing schools and libraries today is the "fiber gap" — by the FCC’s own estimates, at least 35 percent of schools and 85 percent of libraries lack access to fiber infrastructure today. That’s why we’re excited the Commission adopted changes recommended by OTI and many of our allies to make it easier for schools and libraries to use E-rate support to invest in fiber. The new order also goes a step further to allow schools and libraries to construct their own networks (or portions of their own networks) if it is the most cost effective solution. This rule is designed to help schools and libraries that receive few or no bids in response to their Form 470 submissions by giving them the option to direct E-rate dollars toward direct investment when it makes financial sense to do so. Source: EdCentral's FCC's New E-rate Order Brings More Money, Better Rules to Support Fiber InvestmentFind out moreTCEA shared the following information earlier this year:New E-rate rules allow districts to do things they haven’t been able to do before. Three main points to remember are:The new rules allow school districts to lease dark fiber and receive discounts on the fiber as well as the electronics to light the dark fiber beginning in 2015-2016.Beginning in 2015-2016, in some situations, districts will be allowed to self-provision (own) the fiber if it is the most cost effective solution.Up until now, the E-rate program would only provide discounts on construction projects that costs $500,000 or less. For four years, they are suspending that cap. This is an opportunity to utilize E-rate funds for those districts whose construction costs for fiber installation exceed that amount.The E-rate program will provide up to an extra 10% discount on special construction costs for fiber installation if the state of Texas matches up to 10% of the total cost of the construction. 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

"Stop rambling!" my brain shrieks at me, jumping up and down on the sidelines as I speak into my phone, try to sound coherent in the midst of a Voxer chat. I realize, minutes later, that I have done exactly what drives me crazy--rambled on, pursuing one idea after another, never quite bringing any to completion. It's a fun strategy when writing, pursuing one thought, then another, stringing them together in a long dribble of words that fill paragraphs, pages. Aloud, you're left with silence as people wonder, "What the heck was he trying to say?"Time for brevity...as the saying goes, "Brevity is the soul of wit." This is my Voxer vow--to speak briefly, sparing with my words.An excerpt from Speak Briefly with Compassion and Warmth: "Speak briefly, speak warmly, and fill every sentence with kindness, clarity, and optimism." When I teach communication strategies to students, teachers, therapists, attorneys and corporate leaders, we practice the "10-10 Game." You face each other, raise your fists and begin speaking and counting. The slower you speak the better...Slower speaking also improves neural comprehension...eliminates anxiety and irritability....How do you do it?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 I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, one of the most valuable aspects of publishing student writing online is that it "provides students with ownership of when and what they publish, but also the opportunity to interact with a real, global audience." I mention this because it's important to note that errors/mistakes made are OK, a point the ELL teacher was supportive of. View Image Source Tom Romano, in his book Clearing the Way, writes about the uncorrected errors embedded in students' writing. He says the following:"I let them stand...out of respect for error and the part it plays in the process of writing. Human beings are usually messy when they create." He encourages teachers to look through--not with a red pen clutched in one hand to expertly edit, but an openness to the possibilities of-- the messiness to the essence of student’s writing.Book at AmazonAn openness to possibilities...for me, that's what writing is about and that is what most attracts young writers--the possibility to create a new space.A middle school, ELL teacher was kind enough to introduce me and ask me to share a few words. I had only planned to write with students during this sessions, so I had to fall back on stories and ideas I use to excite adult writers who may need help getting over the idea that their writing may be read by a global audience. This is essentially what I shared with the 8th grade students in Ms. L. Incardona's class at Heritage Middle School...Of course, I shared one of the most moving stories I've experienced myself, that of an older New Zealand teacher ("with lots of wrinkles and white hair" is what I said to emphasize this to the students):Have any of you ever written for someone else? [Most hadn't, with the exception of grocery lists]. When you write and publish, you connect with other people who read it, who have thoughts and ideas about what you've written. When I was in New Zealand, I met a teacher who had never published anything online [we discussed what a blog was, and two students spoke up]. She didn't feel comfortable writing about her work in school, but she had a garden that she loved to work in. So, she decided to write about that garden. She never imagined that her writing about the garden in HER backyard would be very interesting, but to her surprise, someone started leaving comments on her blog. Someone was interested! It was a university professor who had, to the teacher's astonishment,studied gardens and had noticed something. This was the beginning of a conversation. Imagine taking something that you see as ordinary, no big deal, and then sharing it with someone else who thinks it is incredible! How would that make you feel? That's why I would like to invite you to share your writing online. Would you like to do that?With that introduction aside, the teacher set the lesson in motion about writing a myth. Earlier in the week, students had been introduced to the characteristics of mythology. They had the opportunity to read examples of myths (mentor texts, a term, BTW, I hadn't heard until earlier this week..in my day, we just called them examples of writing to emulate and adapt from) and analyze their characteristics. Since I had missed that class discussion, and to set myself up as a fellow writer who was NOT an all-knowing adult expert, I asked teacher teacher for a quick review...and 8th graders jumped right in to respond. What a delight! Here are my notes:After that, the ELL teacher divided the class up into groups of 2, and I joined two 8th grade young men who had decided to work together. We brainstormed a bit as to different "Why" and "How" questions to explain. After a few minutes of that, I suggested we each write for 5 minutes to see what we came up with about our favorite idea. Of course they began immediately, and pretty soon, each had a paragraph written (so did I).What I noticed about their writing is that their writing was more "non-fiction" than a myth story. However, once I read my story (shown below), the "lightbulb" went off and they saw how they could begin the story. Of course, their own writing definitely influenced the group piece they worked on.Since we were to develop a myth story as a group, we began to discuss, combining our ideas. As they discussed the ideas, they decided to change some of the elements from each of our individual stories. Instead of too much dark (which had been one of my elements), they suggested too much sun...this resulted in the earth having TWO suns, causing too much brightness, which was later adjusted from too "bright" to "hot." Once they started "writing," I asked them if they had a computer they could write on. They asked Ms. Incardona, and she began checking out Chromebooks to the students who were ready for them. Student #1 immediately logged into GoogleDrive, created a GoogleDoc, then promptly turned the Chromebook over to Student #2, who had volunteered to type.From that point forward, the conversation was fast and furious, one student typing up what he and the other writer discussed. As they got even deeper into the story, they went back and forth about the elements of the myth they wanted to include. For example, there was discussion about the badger being the protagonist in the story (that had come from my draft). "What's the most hated animal?" I had asked them."The skunk," Student #1 replied immediately. "We could say that the skunk's spray was the most majestic and wherever it's spray fell, flowers 'sprung up.'"  At this point, the boys were lost in the story and I stepped away to listen to other groups.When I returned, I noticed that the animals had decided to take a vote and that the skunk and the zebra were the two highest. These animals were to go on a journey to find a way to repel the sun. "We don't want to destroy it," Student #1 and Student #2 confided. I was amazed at this attitude and, gratified for some reason. Simply, they wanted to find a non-harmful way to remove the 2nd Sun that was burning up the Earth. At the end, when a student who had been absent joined them (Jesus), they solicited his input for how the myth should end.The teacher was quick to point out the irony in the story between the skunk and the zebra. Why don't you read their story and see what you notice?You can read their complete story online at the EC Connect: Publishing Student Writing blog, How the Skunk Got His Bad Smell,which is a new blog for publishing student writing.Please do leave some feedback.By the way, in case you're curious about MY piece that I wrote, here is what it looks like on paper and typed:Typed version, and my 2nd draft (I had a lot of fun writing this)The Sacrificeby Miguel GuhlinIn a time long ago, when the sky lay like a dark blanket over the earth, the animals came together and cried, "Why is it so dark all the time?"The birds tweeted, "In the dark, we can't find leaves and twigs to build our nests."The dragons roared in gouts of fire, vain pride and arrogance twisting their words, "In the dark, we can't see how pretty and shiny our scales are, except when a comet flies by every 1000 years or so."The bravest of the animals, the mouse, stood up and said, "Why don't we ask the old woman who gave us life what she can do for us?" Since the mouse's wisdom and bravery were known to all, the animals agreed. But, since no good deed goes unpunished, they voted to send the Mouse to ask her, she who was known only as Lucinda, the Mother of All.The Mother of All groaned, the muscles in her back straining at the load of wood she carried in her arms. While she could have easily commanded the behemoths on land, or the leviathans of the ocean to carry her load, she valued independence above her authority. "What doesn't kill you," she liked to say, "makes you stronger." No matter the deaths of countless creatures in the dark, all yearning for light. "I'm too tired to give birth to a Sun. That will have to be someone else's job," she thought wearily.As she tramped down the dirt path to her cottage, she espied a small, stout creature. "Ah, the brave mouse seeks me out!" After inviting the Mouse in for some tea, she listened to his request."So," she began, the problem is you can't find your way around in the dark with bumping your noses, eh?"She snorted, "Silly creatures. If I'd meant for you to have sun light, I would have started with a Sun."Leaning in, her gnarled hands clasped together as if in prayer, "I can make the change to the world you need but you must give something up, Brave Mouse."The Mouse stood straight and said, "I'll do anything for my fellows." Not an ounce of fear stirred inside him."For all your life," Lucinda said, "you have been the bravest of all animals. Your courage has been a source of encouragement and a light in the darkness. Now, I am going to make it the light." The Mouse gulped."What will happen to me?" asked the Mouse."Oh nothing...except you won't be respected as the bravest anymore, and you will feel the fear others feel." With that, she held wide her hands and clapped them together. A powerful light appeared over the Mouse, and begin to rise into the sky.As the Mouse found his way back to where the animals waited, he heard a strange noise in the trees. The birds sang of danger approaching, not knowing it was Mouse for whom they waited. Mouse only heard the danger song, and felt overwhelming fear, scurrying into the bushes to hide.As Mouse continued his journey, he felt dragon-fear, the worst of all fears, and though the dragons noticed him not, he squeaked piteously until they flew past to glimpse their scales in the bright Sun.At last, Badger noticed Mouse, fearfully moving from bush to bush, always afraid. "Mouse, you have done it!" he cried. "What's wrong?" he asked when noticed Mouse's fearful glances."I'm afraid," cried Mouse.Badger said, "Come with me, dear friend, and I will show you where you can hide and live." From that day forward, the dragons and the dodo birds sang the song of Mouse's bravery and his sacrifice. And, when Mouse can stop shivering and be still in his mousehole, he can hear the echo of the song in his heart and recover his courage.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 2014, Judge John Dietz ruled Texas fails to provide sufficient funding for schools to effectively serve a growing population of ELLs and low-income students. - See more English language learners...have the lowest graduation rate of all subgroups at 71.5 percent statewide. English language learners are one of the fastest-growing student groups in Texas with almost 1 million students, making up 18 percent of the school population. San Antonio was home to about 38,000 English learners in 2014-15.Read moreA snippet of content from web siteWhen I cracked open the Welcome to Computers for ESL Students , I wasn't sure what to expect. Would this be a resource that would offer watered down computer concepts and vocabulary? And, I wasn't thrilled by the cover (nice design, though) since the content referred to topics that some might deem a bit dated:Basic Computer Concepts and VocabularyMicrosoft Windows (7 and 8.1)Word Processing (WordPad & Word 2013)Internet ExplorerWebmailThen, I realized that this might be helpful for English Language Learners (ELL). In fact, I remembered many of the parents I worked with who would benefit from this book (and workbook), many of whom would have found the information quite helpful. Some of the key aspects of the book include the following:Clearly delineated learning objectivesImages that represent the target ELL populationOnline resources (I didn't link to them since you probably need to own the book)Picture dictionary for computer terms along with parts of speech and example sentences.A snippet of content from their online resourcesWhen you switch your perception of this being a book about computer terms and vocabulary to a language teaching book that happens to use computer topics as the content, you immediately grasp the genius of the text. With clear illustrations, easy to follow instructions and exercises, the book scaffolds language learning for ELL students of any age.The companion workbook provides fill in the blank activities, word banks, paired conversation scripts and much more to enable practice for ELL learners.With such rich activities and content, teachers of ELLs will want to take a serious look at books that enable language learning around a relevant subject such as computer related vocabulary and skills.Labyrinth Learning...publishes easy-to-use textbooks that empower educators to teach complex subjects quickly and effectively -- and enable students to gain confidence, develop practical skills, and compete in a demanding market.Find out more via their web site.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

Goodbye Evernote Clearly!Were you an Evernote Clearly fanatic? I can't tell you how many people I've run into that bemoaned the fact that Evernote discontinued support for Clearly on January 22:Evernote to end support for Skitch, Clearly extensions for Windows on January 22ndRead moreOf course, I immediately started looking around and stumbled on the Readable bookmarklet, which works just fine as a way to "unclutter" a web page. In fact, the bookmarklet works on Chrome and Firefox...it's a cinch to use and get going without any of that Evernote overhead (which, unfortunately, is their Achilles' heel!).To get going with Readable, just go to the web site, make a few minor customizations to the screen below (or not, since that's not a requirement for use), then drag the bookmarklet button to your browser's toolbar:Visit web site and get ReadableIf you haven't give Readable a try, you should!For example, I went from this:To this...Nifty, huh?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

Also read:School For Introverts by John SpencerTeaching Not For Introverts (Atlantic Monthly)Below, please find my notes and take-aways from Susan Cain’s work on introverts,Quiet.Calls for Action:Stop the madness! Stop the calls for groupwork! We need more privacy and autonomy.Go to the wilderness..be like Buda, have your own revelations. We can all stand to get inside our own heads a little more often.Take a good luck at what's inside your "own suitcase."MyNotes:"In a gentle way, you can shake the world." --Mahatma GandhiIf we assume that quiet and loud people have roughly the same number of good (and bad) ideas, then we should worry if the louder and more forceful people always carry the day. This would mean that an awful lot of bad ideas prevail while good ones get squashed. Yet studies in group dynamics suggest that this is exactly what happens. We perceive talkers as smarter than quiet types—even though grade-point averages and SAT and intelligence test scores reveal this perception to be inaccurate.We also see talkers as leaders. The more a person talks, the more other group members direct their attention to him, which means that he becomes increasingly powerful as a meeting goes on. It also helps to speak fast; we rate quick talkers as more capable and appealing than slow talkers.All of this would be fine if more talking were correlated with greater insight, but research suggests that there’s no such link.We tend to overestimate how outgoing leaders need to be. "Most leading in a corporation is done in small meetings and it’s done at a distance, through written and video communications," Professor Mills told me. "It’s not done in front of big groups. You have to be able to do some of that; you can’t be a leader of a corporation and walk into a room full of analysts and turn white with fear and leave. But you don’t have to do a whole lot of it. I’ve known a lot of leaders of corporations who are highly introspective and who really have to make themselves work to do the public stuff."Collins hadn’t set out to make a point about quiet leadership. When he started his research, all he wanted to know was what characteristics made a company outperform its competition. He selected eleven standout companies to research in depth. Initially he ignored the question of leadership altogether, because he wanted to avoid simplistic answers. But when he analyzed what the highest-performing companies had in common, the nature of their CEOs jumped out at him. Every single one of them was led by an unassuming man like Darwin Smith. Those who worked with these leaders tended to describe them with the following words: quiet, humble, modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated.The lesson, says Collins, is clear. We don’t need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos but the institutions they run.The results were striking. The introverted leaders were 20 percent more likely to follow the suggestion—and their teams had 24 percent better results than the teams of the extroverted leaders. When the followers were not proactive, though—when they simply did as the leader instructed without suggesting their own shirt-folding methods—the teams led by extroverts outperformed those led by the introverts by 22 percent.Why did these leaders’ effectiveness turn on whether their employees were passive or proactive? Grant says it makes sense that introverts are uniquely good at leading initiative-takers. Because of their inclination to listen to others and lack of interest in dominating social situations, introverts are more likely to hear and implement suggestions. Having benefited from the talents of their followers, they are then likely to motivate them to be even more proactive. Introverted leaders create a virtuous circle of proactivity, in other words. In the T-shirt-folding study, the team members reported perceiving the introverted leaders as more open and receptive to their ideas, which motivated them to work harder and to fold more shirts.Extroverts, on the other hand, can be so intent on putting their own stamp on events that they risk losing others’ good ideas along the way and allowing workers to lapse into passivity. "Often the leaders end up doing a lot of the talking," says Francesca Gino, "and not listening to any of the ideas that the followers are trying to provide." But with their natural ability to inspire, extroverted leaders are better at getting results from more passive workers.They welcome the chance to communicate digitally. The same person who would never raise his hand in a lecture hall of two hundred people might blog to two thousand, or two million, without thinking twice. The same person who finds it difficult to introduce himself to strangers might establish a presence online and then extend these relationships into the real world.As the influential psychologist Hans Eysenck once observed, introversion "concentrates the mind on the tasks in hand, and prevents the dissipation of energy on social and sexual matters unrelated to work.""New GroupThink" elevates teamwork above all else, insisting that creativity and intellectual achievement come from a gregarious place.91% of high-level managers believe that teams are the key to success."While extroverts tend to attain leadership in public domains, introverts tend to attain leadership in theoretical and aesthetic fields…hence leadership does not only apply in social situations, but also occurs in more solitary situations." Leadership Development for the Gifted and Talented.A significant majority of the earliest computer enthusiasts were introverts…it’s a truism that open source attracts introverts.Serious study alone is the strongest predictor of skill for tournament-rated chess players.In many fields, it’s only when you’re alone that you can engage in deliberate practice. When you practice deliberately, you identify the tasks or knowledge that are just out of your reach, strive to upgrade your performance, monitor your progress, and revise accordingly.Teens who are too gregarious to spend time alone often fail to cultivate their talents "because practicing music or studying math requires a solitude they dread."Excessive stimulations seems to impede learning.Kafka:You once said that you would like to sit beside me while I write. Listen, in that case I could not write at all. For writing means revealing oneself to excess; that utmost of self-revelation and surrender, in which a human being, when involved with others, would feel he was losing himself, and from which, therefore, he will always shrink as long as he is in his right mind…That is why one can never be alone enough when one writes, why there can never be enough silence around one when one writes, why even night is not night enough."The evidence from science suggests that business people must be insane to use brainstorming groups…if you have talented and motivated people, they should be encouraged to work alone when creativity or efficiency is the highest priority." (Adrian Furnham)The one exception to this is online brainstorming. Groups brainstorming electronically, when properly managed, not only do better than individuals, research shows; the larger the group, the better it performs. The same is true of academic research—professors who work together electronically, from different physical locations, tend to produce research that is more influential than those either working alone or collaborating face to face."High-reactive" (introverts) pay "alert attention" to people and things...they literally use more eye movements than others to compare choices before making a decision. It's as if they process more deeply the information they take in about the world.They also tend to think and feel deeply about what they've noticed, and to bring an extra degree of nuance to everyday experiences.Many high-reactives become writers or pick other intellectual vocations where "you're in charge: you close the door, pull down the shades, and do your work. You're protected from encountering unexpected things."High-reactive kids who enjoy good parenting, child care, and a stable home environment tend to have fewer emotional problems and more social skills than their lower-reactive peers, studies show.The ideal parent for a high-reactive child is someone who can "read your cues and respect your individuality; is warm and firm in placing demands on you without being harsh or hostile; promotes curiosity, academic achievement, delayed gratification, and self-control; is not harsh, neglectful or inconsistent."There's a host of evidence that introverts are more sensitive than extroverts to various kinds of stimulation, and that introverts and extroverts often need very different levels of stimulation to function at their best.Your sweet spot is the place where you're optimally stimulated.People who are aware of their sweet spots have the power to leave jobs that exhaust them and start new and satisfying businesses.Introverts function better than extroverts when sleep deprived.Introverts have trouble projecting artificial enthusiasm.The highly sensitive tend to be philosophical or spiritual in their orientation, rather than materialistic or hedonistic. They dislike small talk. They often describe themselves as creative or intuitive, dream vividly, feel exceptionally strong emotions, process info about their environments unusually deeply, noticing subtleties that others miss.Human extroverts have more sex partners than introverts do, but they commit more adultery and divorce more frequently."If you send an introvert into a reception or an event with a hundred other people, he will emerge with less energy than he had going in...Most people in politics draw energy from backslapping and shaking hands and all that. I draw energy from discussing ideas." Al Gore"When sensitive people are in environments that nurture their authenticity, they laugh and chitchat just as much as anyone else."Overconfidence is defined as greater confidence unmatched by greater ability.When it comes times to make group decisions, extroverts would do well to listen to introverts--especially when they see problems ahead.Introverts are constitutionally programmed to downplay reward--to kill their buzz, you might say--and scan for problems.Introverts ask themselves, "Is this what I thought would happen? Is it how it should be?" And when the situation falls short of expectations, they form associations between the moment of disappointment (losing points) and whatever was going on in their environment at the time of the disappointment. These association lets them make accurate predictions about how to react to warning signals in the future.Introverts seem to think more carefully than extroverts.Introverts sometimes outperform extroverts even on social tasks that require persistence. "It's not that I'm so smart," said Einstein, who was a consummate introvert. "It's that I stay with problems longer."Flow is an optimal state in which you feel totally engaged in an activity. In a state of flow, you're neither bored nor anxious and you don't question your own adequacy. The key to flow is to pursue an activity for its own sake, not for the rewards it brings.Flow often occurs in conditions in which people "become independent of the social environment to the degree that they no longer respond exclusively in terms of its rewards and punishments. To achieve such autonomy, a person has to learn to provide rewards to herself."In flow, a person could work around the clock for days on end, for no better reason than to keep on working.If you're an introvert, when you're focused on a project that you care about, you probably find that your energy is boundless.Neat proverbs:"The wind howls, but the mountain remains still." -Japanese Proverb"Those who know do not speak./Those who speak do not know. - Lao Zi, The Way of Lao ZiEven though I make no special attempt to observe the discipline of silence, living alone automatically makes me refrain from the sins of speech." - Kamo No Chomei, 12th Century Japanese recluse"I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. A thoughtless word hardly ever escaped my tongue or pen. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. We find so many people impatient to talk. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much a waste of time. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth." Mahatma GandhiThere is so much more great stuff to explore in this book and I encourage you to read it cover to cover. It is an affirmation of introverts, and having been one all my life, I'm inclined to buy copies for all those who said to me, "You seem to spend a little too much time inside yourself! Come out of your shell!" or for those who wondered at my shyness.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

MyNotes on Why Ed Tech Is Not Transforming How Teachers Teach: Public schools now provide at least one computer for every five students. They spend more than $3 billion per year on digital content. And nearly three-fourths of high school students now say they regularly use a smartphone or tablet in the classroom. The student-centered, hands-on, personalized instruction envisioned by ed-tech proponents remains the exception to the rule. Case study after case study describe a common pattern inside schools: A handful of "early adopters" embrace innovative uses of new technology, while their colleagues make incremental or no changes to what they already do. "If schools take all this technology, and use it like a textbook, or just have teachers show PowerPoint [presentations] or use drill-and-kill software, they might as well not even have it. In the digital age, the ISTE standards say, teachers should be expected, among other strategies, to "engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources. " They should also "develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress. Research suggests that's more or less the standard distribution of technology use in most schools nationwide. The most authoritative national study on teacher technology use was conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics in 2009. A survey of 3,159 teachers found that when teachers did allow students to use technology, it was most often to prepare written text (61 percent of respondents reported that their students did so "sometimes" or "often") conduct Internet research (66 percent), or learn/practice basic skills (69 percent). Far more rare were teachers who reported that their students sometimes or often used technology to conduct experiments (25 percent), create art or music (25 percent), design and produce a product (13 percent), or contribute to a blog or wiki (9 percent.) Similar findings resulted from a 2010 study of 21 Texas middle schools by private researcher Kelly S. The schools had been provided with abundant technology, including laptops for every student and teacher, wireless upgrades for schools, digital curricula and assessments, and professional development, paid for with $20 million in federal funds. "In general, teachers at many schools seemed to view technology as a more valuable tool for themselves than for their students," Ms. One big issue: Many teachers lack an understanding of how educational technology works. Researchers have found, for example, that even innovative teachers can be heavily affected by pressure to conform to more traditional instructional styles, with a teacher as the focal point for the classroom. Newer teachers inclined to use technology in their classrooms can also be deterred by experienced teachers who feel differently. And the current test-based accountability system isn't exactly supporting the transition to student-centered, technology-driven instruction, said Ms. One strategy that most researchers and experts seem to agree on: so-called "job-embedded" professional development that takes place consistently during the workday and is tied to specific classroom challenges that teachers actually face, rather than in the isolated sessions often preferred by district central offices and written into districts' contracts with their teachers. "When learning experiences are focused solely on the technology itself, with no specific connection to grade or content learning goals, teachers are unlikely to incorporate technology into their practices," concluded Ms. Ertmer and Ms. Ottenbreit-Leftwich, the researchers who wrote the 2010 paper on the factors influencing teachers' use of educational technology. "The smarter districts use those teachers to teach other teachers how to integrate tech into their lessons," Mr. Cuban said. This note was created from Liner.By Miguel Guhlin Original: http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25919801&bcid=25919801&rssid=25919791&item=http://api.edweek.org/v1/ew/?uuid=2F4A593C-0BA9-11E5-8D81-71C9B3743667 Highlighted with Liner: http://liner.link/VrNN3

MyNotes on Performance-Based Assessment: Engaging Students in Chemistry: Performance-based assessment is a way for students to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and material that they've learned. Performance-based assessment measures how well students can apply or use what they know, often in real-world situations. Performance-based assessment starts with the curriculum, instruction, or unit that you're already teaching. Since PBA requires students to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and concepts, they are usually asked to create a product or response, or to perform a specific task or set of tasks. When designing assessments, teachers ask, "What is the level of performance? Do we want short-term memory and fragmented applications from kids, or do we want comprehensive understanding of big ideas? For example, a performance task in writing would require students to produce a piece of writing rather than answering multiple-choice questions about grammar or the structure of a paragraph. Performance assessment is authentic when it mimics the work done in real-world contexts. Performance assessment taps into students' higher-order thinking skills, such as evaluating the reliability of information sources, synthesizing information to draw conclusions, or using deductive/inductive reasoning to solve a problem. Performance tasks may require students to make an argument with supporting evidence, conduct a controlled experiment, solve a complex problem, or build a model. These tasks often have more than one acceptable solution or answer, and teachers use rubrics as a key part of assessing student work. This note was created from Liner.By Miguel Guhlin Original: http://www.edutopia.org/practice/performance-based-assessment-engaging-students-chemistry Highlighted with Liner: http://liner.link/DbEvv

MyNotes on Performance-Based Assessment: Reviewing the Basics Dr. Patricia Hilliard Director of STEM Accelerator In general, a performance-based assessment measures students' ability to apply the skills and knowledge learned from a unit or units of study. Typically, the task challenges students to use their higher-order thinking skills to create a product or complete a process (Chun, 2010). Tasks can range from a simple constructed response (e.g., short answer) to a complex design proposal of a sustainable neighborhood. Arguably, the most genuine assessments require students to complete a task that closely mirrors the responsibilities of a professional, e. , artist, engineer, laboratory technician, financial analyst, or consumer advocate. First and foremost, the assessment accurately measures one or more specific course standards. Normally, students are presented with an open-ended question that may produce several different correct answers (Chun, 2010; McTighe, 2015). In the higher-level tasks, there is a sense of urgency for the product to be developed or the process to be determined, as in most real-world situations. Below is a simplified version of our planning, loosely based on the backward design process: Identify goals of the performance-based assessment. Select the appropriate course standards. Review assessments and identify learning gaps. As a result, we decided to create a performance-based assessment that was also reality-based. Moreover, this task would require students to analyze two-way frequency tables along with other charts and graphs. Design the scenario. This scenario included five key components: Setting Role Audience Time frame Product Gather or create materials. Develop a learning plan. Example: Public Comments Session Scenario Ashley, an inmate at Texahoma State Women's Correctional Institution, is serving three to five years for embezzlement and assault. After three years, this inmate is up for parole. Once a month, the Inmate Review Board offers Public Comment Sessions. The sessions are open to all interested parties who want to voice their support or opposition to an inmate's release from prison. Task You are Ashley's former probation officer, and the warden requested that you attend the Public Comment Session. You have been asked to review the following documents and present your opinion: Should Ashley be released from prison early or stay for the remainder of her sentence? You have been granted three to five minutes to speak to the review board. Your speech must be short, but detailed with strong evidence to support your decision. Documents Criminal history report Article announcing a new web series on embezzlement Blog post about prison nurseries Letter to the parole board from the inmate's mother and son Newsletter about the incarceration rates in the state Press release about a prison-work program Research brief on the recidivism rate of nonviolent offenders This note was created from Liner.By Miguel Guhlin Original: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/performance-based-assessment-reviewing-basics-patricia-hilliard Highlighted with Liner: http://liner.link/dQBA3

MyNotes: Performance assessment is one alternative to traditional methods of testing student achievement. While traditional testing requires students to answer questions correctly (often on a multiple-choice test), performance assessment requires students to demonstrate knowledge and skills, including the process by which they solve problems. Performance assessments measure skills such as the ability to integrate knowledge across disciplines, contribute to the work of a group, and develop a plan of action when confronted with a new situation. Performance assessments are also appropriate for determining if students are achieving the higher standards set by states for all students. This brochure explains features of this assessment alternative, suggests ways to evaluate it, and offers exploratory questions you might ask your child's teacher about this subject. The Office of Technology Assessment of the U. Congress described performance assessment as testing that requires a student to create an answer or a product that demonstrates his or her knowledge or skills. Group projects enabling a number of students to work together on a complex problem that requires planning, research, internal discussion, and group presentation. Essays assessing students' understanding of a subject through a written description, analysis, explanation, or summary. Experiments testing how well students understand scientific concepts and can carry out scientific processes. Demonstrations giving students opportunities to show their mastery of subject-area content and procedures. Portfolios allowing students to provide a broad portrait of their performance through files that contain collections of students' work, assembled over time. One key feature of all performance assessments is that they require students to be active participants. They also focus attention on how students arrive at their answers and require students to demonstrate the knowledge or skills needed to obtain a correct answer. To illustrate, if high school juniors are asked to demonstrate their understanding of interest rates by shopping for a used-car loan (i.e., comparing the interest rates of banks and other lending agencies and identifying the best deal), a teacher can easily see if the students understand the concept of interest, know how it is calculated, and are able to perform mathematical operations accurately. Performance assessments closely tied to this new way of teaching provide teachers with more information about the learning needs of their students and enable them to modify their methods to meet these needs. They also allow students to assess their own progress and, therefore, be more responsible for their education. When using performance assessments such as portfolios, teachers and other individuals who are grading the work may differ greatly in their evaluations. Students may be unintentionally penalized for such things as having a disability, being from a certain cultural background, or attending classes at a school with limited resources. How Can I Evaluate Performance Assessments? Does the performance assessment cover important skills and knowledge? Are the test items varied to fairly test students having different experiences, backgrounds, and motivations? Does the assessment give my child worthwhile educational experiences? Does the assessment require my child to use higher level thinking and problem-solving skills rather than simply memorizing to determine the answer? Are teachers receiving training and assistance in designing and using performance assessments? Are teachers using the results to evaluate their student's performance in their own classrooms and then tailoring instruction in areas of weakness? Or are the results being compared to those in other classrooms and schools and for evaluating the teacher or school? If assessments are going to be used as accountability measures, reliability (the degree to which a test can be depended on to produce consistent results repeatedly), and validity (the extent to which a test accurately measures the result that it is intended to measure), become critically important. How Can I Help My Child Do Well on Performance Assessments? When you talk with your child about what he or she is learning in school, ask questions that encourage problem solving or creativity. Help your child see that learning is a process and demonstrate how it is applied to real-life situations. Performance Based Assessment This note was created from Liner.By Miguel Guhlin Original: http://www.projectappleseed.org/#!assessment/cwvf Highlighted with Liner: http://liner.link/LvLv6

"We are doing digital badges too. I use cred.ly to manage distribution. Badges can be made on site or uploaded. I make mine with shape tools in PowerPoint and upload them," says Joel Adkins (Crandall ISD). He continues, "I didn't think teachers would care for them. I thought they would think they were a waste of time. I was wrong!"Diana Benner (@diben on Twitter)--Read her blog, Sprinkle Innovation--from TCEA has a great blog entry on the subject of badges. This blog entry below captures some of the most salient points that I found worth noting for later using the Liner app (getliner.com) app on my iPhone. Listen to Practitioners Share About Their District's Use of Badges:Note: The following audio files were harvested from the Voxer chat, #TECSIGchat, a free, Texas-wide open educator group. Get Voxer on your computer, iPhone/iPad, or Android mobile device! It's free! Get more information here - http://tinyurl.com/tecsigchatinfo or share Voxer link at http://tinyurl.com/tecsigchatJoel AdkinsListen to Joel Adkins: "We are doing digital badges too. I use cred.ly to manage distribution. Badges can be made on site or uploaded. I make mine with shape tools in PowerPoint and upload them. I didn't think teachers would care for them. I thought they would think they were a waste of time. I was wrong! Teachers print them and hang them on doors and desks. Some add to their webpages too. They love them!"Listen to Dr. Roland Rios share about Ft. Sam Houston ISD's use of badges.Audio Recording #1 - Celebrating Teachers BadgesAudio Recording #2 - Sharing Badge Google Site with everyoneAlthough I've encountered many examples of badges online since folks started, I was tickled when I actually began considering using badges in my district when I received the following from Joel Adkins (@mradkins from Crandall ISD)....Badge generated by Joel Adkins (Crandall ISD) using Cred.ly Web SiteChristy Cate (@christycate) has also been kind enough to share her insights into badges via Voxer, and she introduced me to Denton ISD's Instructional Technology badges. I remember my first contact involved asking questions like, "Wow, did they design all the professional development videos that have to go with a badge system?" The answer was quite astonishing--teachers are expected to simply submit a description of HOW they are using a particular technology (e.g. Google Classroom) in their work. How and where they get their professional development is up to them...which makes sense given that how-to videos abound for free on the Web. You don't need Instructional Technology to spend so much time developing How Tos unless they are specifically customized for work in your District.That said, I'd like to add a few resources I've been collecting regarding badges as I work to embed badges in my technology professional development plan:As Diana Benner, Joel Adkins and Dr. Roland Rios mention, some are using web sites like Cred.ly. Other potential sources include micro-credentialing sites:Open Badges in 2016: "...when we build a distributed ecosystem of educational credentials together, we will give people the tools to manage their digital footprints themselves, without requiring a relationship with any one particular mega-corporation. We believe that by working together in the open, we can build systems that improve access and equity of educational and career opportunities."Digital Promise's MicroCredentials for Educators: "Educators earn credentials at the beginning of their careers, but they learn new skills every day. Through our educator micro-credentials initiative, Digital Promise is building a coalition of educators and partners to develop a micro-credential system that provides teachers with the opportunity to gain recognition for skills they master throughout their careers."Charting Student Growth with Digital Badges: "Educators are hopeful that a flexible assessment model called digital badging is a way to bridge these gaps and describe student attributes that are currently left unacknowledged."The Teachers Guide to Using Badges in the Classroom: Some district web sites who have embraced badges:Prosper ISDDenton ISDWestwood Regional School DistrictFSHISD Harlandale ISDExamples via TCEA Blog:Lubbock ISDDeKalb ISDWhile I have considered that digital badges for tracking professional learning, districts like Ft. Sam Houston ISD have taken an approach to celebrating expressions of learning. Dr. Roland Rios (TCEA Vice-President, Conventions for 2017, BTW and online at @drrios) celebrates badge-making by visiting teachers in their classroom (when students are present) and making a "big deal out of it." Some teachers, he reports, then feature those badges on their classroom web sites and in print format in their classroom.One of the modifications I will probably make before launching this in my district is to add recommended videos. For GoogleApps, I will be taking advantage of ShakeUpLearning's 5 Awesome Resources for Badges in the Classroom and Alice Keeler's work!MyNotes for Badges for Professional Learning by Diana Benner (@diben)" During the presentation, I mentioned rewarding teachers who come to training by giving them a badge.The technology team at Lubbock ISD immediately stated, "Rewarding our staff with badges for completing staff development has really motivated them.If you are looking for ways to motivate teachers to attend professional development, try incorporating badges.Badge ResourcesClass Badges - Class Badges is one of the more popular badging platforms.Class badges allow the teacher to easily award badges aligned with learning goals.Credly- Credly allows teachers to create badges, upload their own designs, and give credit through the platform.It is available as a web-based version and an iOS app.Create a Badge with Google DrawingCreate a Badge with Google Drawing- If you have ever thought of creating your own badges, Google Drawing is a great tool to use.Read Alice Keeler’s blog entry on how easy it is to do.For All Badges - For All Badges is an iOS app that works in conjunction with For All Rubrics to align your rubrics with badges.For All Badges also integrates with Mozilla’s Open Badges platform, and allows students (or staff members) to save badges to their "backpack.Open Badges - Open Badges allows teachers to create and issue badges that do not have to be tied to a certain platform.Take the Badges 101 Quiz to see how it works and to earn your first badge.With badges, teachers who take the time to learn now have a way to be acknowledged for that learning.And we all know that recognition from our peers is the sweetest reward.Encourage them to include their badges in their email signature or print and post them in their classroom.You can even publicly honor them by "presenting" the badges at a faculty meeting.Here is Lubbock ISD’s Digital Learning Badge site, a great resource.If you are incorporating badges into your professional development, we’d love to hear from you.We love badges - they make learning fun and reward teachers for all of their hard work!Here is our badge site: https://sites.google.com/a/dekalbisd.net/dkinstructionaltechnology/ This note was created from Liner.By Miguel GuhlinOriginal: http://www.tcea.org/blog/pd-badges/?utm_source=TechNotes+01%2F26%2F2016&utm_campaign=TCEA+TechNotes+01.26.16&utm_medium=emailHighlighted with Liner: http://liner.link/baZ5L

LISTEN to Miguel Welcome! Bienvenidos! This is the page of TCEA Radio Contributor, Miguel Guhlin. Connect via Twitter @mguhlin or Voxer @mguhlin. Below, please find my latest contribution to TCEA2016 Radio! Find out more about TCEA Radio! (Hint: Get the app for iOS or Android first!)FUN FIND - EVERNOTE & EVERCLIP | LISTEN"This is Miguel Guhlin on TCEARadio with a FUN FIND…Find great stuff on your mobile device? Curate your content with two iOS/Android friendly apps, Evernote and Everclip. Find links online to them at http://tinyurl.com/tcea16 via TCEA16 Radio page. These easy to use apps enable easy content clipping, and make content simple to share. Don’t forget to follow the #TCEA16 hashtag for more great finds."See more online at : http://tinyurl.com/tcea16radio 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