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Ed tech on speed. Ed tech at speed.
One of the moreMany? overlooked aspects of working with faculty around technology integration is speed- that is moving quickly from an idea/dream to working functional reality. Joy/playfulness is high on that list as well (and probably plays into speed) but I’ll focus on speed for the moment. It’s essential that working with a faculty development/ed tech group be the antithesis of the many monumentally lethargic interactions that characterize other institutional engagements. It ought to be agile. It has to be energizing. “If we have an idea, 10 minutes later we’re trying it out,” Mika says. “It’s like improv.” From a from an interesting WIRED article h/t to Enoch. I think that’s why WordPress has been so successful- it’s a flexible (but not overwhelming) platform that gets you 90% of the way to most destinations really quickly. It’s been interesting to see the possibilities around speed and flexibility keep moving. Talking to Tim Owens the other day about Sandstorm and the ability to spin up virtual just-about-everythings in the blink of an eye and maybe only for the moment. This is the opposite of the pattern of movement that has typically occurred in institutions. To that end, I’m playing with this NMC session description that focuses on the things we’ve been using to get things done quickly. A campy, meme-ified, high-speed […]
If That, Then What?
The Google spreadsheet passing the information on to this chart, which should be live, is being fed by an IFTTT recipe. For the record it doesn’t seem like you can mess around with the non-used portions of the actual worksheet where data is being written by the recipe. I was able to add another worksheet and use that to run some formulas on the worksheet where the tweets are being written. =len(‘Sheet 1’!C1) is the formula you’d write to access cell C1 of Sheet 1 and count the number of characters. Granted, keeping track of my progress towards perfect 140 character tweets doesn’t have much value (although there’s one that’s 150 characters that’s a little puzzling) but it’s just a proof of concept. I could parse out other elements. I do need to look back at the DS106 hashtag spreadsheet and see how that’s working as I don’t see any working version of that since Twitter killed RSS support. And a random byproduct of some other work I’m doing messing around with The Mother of All Demos. Seriously though, tell your friends. Apply for the job.
1:1 Programs and Expectations
Mr. Guhlin asked “How have laptop programs helped?” and the responses depressed me. Maybe, I’m over analyzing but quote like “Imagine anything one could do on an overhead projector. You can do the same on a tablet if you have an LCD.” brought me close to tears. Clearly, replacing an overhead and pen with several thousands of dollars worth of equipment to do “the same” is not a cost efficient trade. Other quotes that made me wince: my laptop/tablet has replaced a paper notebook during meetings. Have students do grammar exercises. Math teachers do the same. Not exactly what you’d want to hear if you’re paying for those laptops. Now, I also realize these are quick reports but I don’t see anything in there about students doing anything they couldn’t do with paper for far less money. The whole point of a 1:1 is to get students producing with laptops and to have no comment on that worries me. Don’t get me wrong- I’m for 1:1 initiatives and that’s why I’m concerned. I work in a district going on the 6th year of a 1:1 initiative and I worry that some teachers might give similar “proof” that our program is working. So here’s how our 1:1 has helped students in our school- everyone now has a computer no matter their […]
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