Let it serve as a reminder that as a person in position to support faculty in the use of technology, there are times we can simply look for answers to a problem to resolve it. We don’t always need to know something, just willing to look.

Being resourceful is also an attitude. One that says, “I find it or figure it out”

If you persist with this attitude and take the time to look around as well, the next thing you know you’ve become “knowledgeable” and a resource for others.

Sounds simple right? But extemely easy to forget.

My son told me yesterday that all he needs is youtube, wikipedia and google. Although I challenged him, you can’t deny the truth to his comment if that’s where he spends 90% of his time. But being resourceful will be an ever-changing definition with this age of “untamed” creation of digital resources.

Take a look at this not so recent article and that might spin your head some more.

There’s a new web on the horizon, and it’s even deeper…here’s a blurb:

…Beyond those trillion pages lies an even vaster Web of hidden data: financial information, shopping catalogs, flight schedules, medical research and all kinds of other material stored in databases that remain largely invisible to search engines.

The challenges that the major search engines face in penetrating this so-called Deep Web…

Forget Google, put these “goggles” on………………

But when we begin to focus on how it’s used for instruction and adopting it as more a a platform than a product, we begin to have a meaningful conversation about the possibilities of using Blackboard to integrate multiple technologies instead of “Blackboard’s a place my students can go to get my stuff and read a discussion board”.

The latest release takes the product to more of a “platform” status…a leaping point if you will. There’s no mandate for any particular use, just the mandate to not let it define but rather enhance learning.

With any technology “one size never fits all” as mentioned here.

The goal is to make it so they do not need to call someone but rather can resolve issues independently with the help of a great online support system. At least those issues we can identify as repetitive and capable of being calculated. It’s not meant to dissolve interpersonal relations but rather reserve them for more important items which require dialogue and to provide customers with immediate results to mundane problems.

So analysis is in order… I really like the idea of solving problems twice as advocated by Joel’s 7 steps…be sure to read number one of his customer service tips but I like ‘em all.

I recall hearing something about making sure all NY state teachers were now deemed “highly qualified” and would have to meet certain criteria to be considered so. I also know that state and federal initiatives (maybe NCLB) and technology plans need to exhibit effort by districts and teachers to foster school(classroom)-to-home communication.

I thought how great it was that the teachers (and friends) were interested in taking advantage of the training. After all, this school district was one of just a few hundred schools across the country that was considered a “silver” award winner by a major news magazine in 2007-08. So it’s safe to say, as far as test results and programs were concerned this is an excellent school district.

But then I had the experience of listening to one teacher who, not only left the training early, seemed “above” the technical training and said that he would not have the time to update a web page- something about “too hard to keep up with” or something?  He was very “put off” by the expectation of the administration that teachers would have a web page that could be used as a tool for communication and instruction (remember it’s 2008). Even more disorienting was that this individual is technically skilled and would have no problem adapting to this training.

Regardless of legislation and mandates, budgets and purchasing the latest and necessary technologies, we all have heard that the most important factor in a classroom is the teacher- more specifically, the attitude that teacher brings to the room, towards the kids and how they perceive their job. I believe this is the total truth- the person in front of those kids everyday and what this person offers and brings to environment is the single most important truth to whether it’s a learning environment or not. The degree and certification is necessary but it makes a teacher nothing other than credentialed.

As a parent I know that I would like my kids to be in a classroom with a teacher who thinks enough of their job that they will take the extra time to adopt methods to be effective and improve communication with students and parents. Additionally, someone willing to explore the vast tools of educational technology available these days. But with comfortable, tenured teachers who are not intrinsically motivated to learn new technologies and feel that something is usually owed to them for their service, technology integration into a classroom has no chance. So let me get this straight…”It’s ok to expect the students to learn new things and develop themselves but I don’t have to”….

I always thought that the greatest thing about teaching besides helping kids was you could always improve and learn new ways of practicing your craft. As long as the teacher is thinking of him/herself and not their students, not only have they robbed themselves from the glory of teaching, but technology or any other initiative the district supports is nothing less than a battle.

Don’t despair…the good news is most teachers enter the field for the right reason to begin with. They will do whatever it takes to be effective and evolve as a professional regardless of mandates, legislation and any other obstacle. There’s a few who adopt an attitude which will always be their own personal obstacle but it prevents students from having a vibrant, evolving learning environment.

For those interested, here’s one  study  from 2002 on student internet use. Although a bit dated, it still seems applicable.

For me, it’s obvious that we can effect the curve. Students (faculty) or any population can be influence if external conditions can ultimately influence people enough that they are “intrinsically” changed. That sounds like a lot because it is.

Have you ever noticed that students can sometimes learn better from other students? Peers are the avenue to real change and understanding. Yes the teacher or institution needs to do their job but it’s the peer population of any group that can hold a critical key in learning because the best personal learning environment is where there is a fair amount of trust between teacher and student which peers (by nature) tend to have….

So consider how the population can “help itself” by finding the right people and the right buttons to push to begin to effect the curve…..so can we effect the curve? Yes, of course or why else would education be an institution in the first place? The bigger question is who is “we”?

If this is hard to understand…please comment. This may be more of writing for myself than anyone else so thanks…

Sometimes called “Personal Learning Environments” the idea relates more closely to concept than a host of “out-sourced” products. In an intimidating way the term can cause confusion because, although tools exist, incorporating their use into some coherent manner is a challenge few have yet to entertain. Using facebook, wikis, blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, netvibes, igoogle, mashable, twitter, youtube, flickr, Delicious, smartphones (notice I didn’t say iPhones….just blew that I guess), sms, rss, windows live, tagging, ubiquitous computing blah, blah, blah just go here to get my point….It’s a new manner of teaching and learning through web 2.0 tools and who is going to step up and say “Oh, I can tell ya how to do that…”

But all this glitz and color may not be just glamour. These tools are used and provide function-at least some of them to millions of people. Like any large group, there’s varying quality and usefulness. It would make sense to me to spend a fair amount of time assessing and evaluating these tools to take advantage of expertise rather than always thinking the institution must and will do a better job. Save your programming and engineering for the needs you consider vital or sensitive enough that it must be totally owned, operated and hosted by the institution. Other than that, consider the market place and as one colleague put it focus on being the “glue” that makes them stick to your organization the way you want them to work for you clients. Creating connections between and among evaluated resources so that the institution will benefit may be the most “efficient” strategy.

This environment is first of all “personal” and not “institutional” by nature. Both a “pro” and a “con”, an environment that harnesses the power of commercially-tested and proven useful tools can be wise from a support perspective. The “con” may be that were not talking just technology but pedagogy and that typically is not quick to change. So we have the case that student modes of learning in the real world are QUICKLY becoming disparate in terms of the not-so-modern classroom. A personal learning environment plan with a subset of skills that can be proven may be a way to enrich the degree they ultimately earn.

If we look at the customer who is a student or faculty member we should also consider the industry. Educational institutions seem to be at their best when they not only deliver a degree to students but when they deliver a “solid” experience that will remain with them. If you were to be able to educate students regarding their chosen major/discipline AND AT THE SAME TIME use the “tools of the world” to do it how much more valuable will their EXPERIENCE be? – particularly after they graduate and are now competing in that same world….Oh, did I mention that most of them already are familiar with these tools just not how to leverage them in an educational/industrious/economic way…

Hopefully my enthusiasm for some of these tools has not been misleading. Regardless of how great these technologies may be, there is reason to keep control over systems and information that the institution believes to be “mission-critical”. But the idea of dynamically managing and delivering “all things digital” in some packaged form is like trying to swallow an ocean wave. After all, that’s why cable tv remote operators and internet users first began to “surf” their environments rather than try to “command” them. It is a strategy in a simple form.

When considering how to incorporate technology into learning, a host of questions will need to be addressed to be sure the customer is served. But approaching the support of higher education and learning need to be wrapped around the idea of creating institionally controlled systems only when necessary and look to the what clients already use whenever possible. Secondly, concerning ourselves with focusing on developing individuals instead of technology means we have remained at the core of education.

The details of the garage is not what’s important. In downtown areas, this instance does not normally result in the offender trying to apologize. Usually someone “flips you off” or throws their hands in the air in disgust. I was not expecting an apology and I try not to get to excited anytime I am behind the wheel but this could have easily resulted in an accident. Walking towards my building one block away form the garage, the official pulled over to apologize to me. I said “thank you and I was probably moving a bit too quickly in the garage” but appreciated the gesture very much….

Why does this happen? I suggest partially because the concept of community. When people are publicly part of a positive community, experiences like mine occur. So I contend that community adds value. Being part of the same community casues members to “validate” one another. There are many kinds of value but whether or not you think so, members of a community all know that the reason they are part of a community is becasue it adds value or meaning to their lives/experiences.

So now I understand why millions of people join online communities. Somewhere along the line, the experience of being part of a social network adds some value to it’s members and likewise should it become something less they can “opt” out….wonder if I could do that in the “real world”?