Unit 3- Assignment 1

The information found in the NSBA site was very informational and can be applied in some manner to all school districts.  Many examples were provided about the positive sides and also the challenges and how to potentially deal with those as well.  In fact, I found the site to have a plethora of information to garner insight from.  The situations dealing with sexting and the manner in how those are dealt with state by state is scary.  I just don't think kids or even adults many times understand the seriousness and complexity of what their actions can do.  Depending on the situation, some actions and consequences can be life changing.

The Education Leadership Toolkit provided many resources of information about technology, education, and effective use of the tool.  There is so much information one can get bogged down so I found myself trying to skim and scan to find the most related material to me as an educational leader.

This website could be a useful tool for use with our administrative team, technology group, and possibly the board as well if you would pick a few areas to highlight to make manageable for people to comprehend. 

Technology has opened more opportunities for all students, however, I believe the students in less fortunate situations have benefited the greatest.  With the many uses of technology, as a school district we have to do a good job of teaching students the right and wrong ways to use the tools.  As educators, we have to do a better job in utilizing the tools and teaching/enriching our content standards.

Unit 2 -

The forum web site was useful.  I will be sharing the insight with our technology director and see if he is aware of the reports and web site.  More than likely, the insights and information can assist in providing talking points and discussion items for district and building level/technology leaders. 

The interesting facet in education is that each district is alike yet so unique.  District vision and $ available drive decision making. 

Assignment 2: 9/17/10

Web sites can offer a plethora of information to the public.  Whether it is schedules, lesson plans/assignments, data, etc etc, it plays a part in the message we are communicating to the public.  I don't think that can be argued.  The challenge is a district has to find a way to staff the position with someone who is knowlegeable and has time devoted to make it work well on the school's behalf. $ is always a factor.

We had a .5 webmaster who also served as a music teacher in our district.  We changed the role of that person to full-time music and provided the technology department with the responsibility of maintaining the district web site.  Our web site is much more effective than six years ago, however, could get more appealing and informative. 

I really like the idea of each teacher creating a website and posting their assignments and resources available.  Specifically at our high school which is a 1:1 school, that would make sense.  Like in DDN, making the updates needs to happen or it becomes more frustrating than helpful. 

Providing a small group of high school students/technology class the opportunity to work with the district's web site can help with the staffing/time issue.  While it may come with safeguards that need to be in place so security is not compromised, I like the idea and makes me think we should look further into that possibility. 

Technology is great when it works.  Web sites, like every other piece of technology, take time to learn, maintain, and utilize effectively for the good of students and the public.  Heath 

Experiment

I am now a blogger - is this like twitter?

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