In my recent post, I spoke about the implementation of an innovative statewide technology resource teacher program in Virginia. Paul McMahon then wrote me, thanking me for the blog post but stating that he’d “not seen a single blog post that would indicated systemic change in any school present from Hong Kong. (#hksummit)
Hmmm… Paul. I don’t know if I have it in me tonight to write fully to the point you have, but I would come to a bit of defense for the very, very few administrators who attended the summit a week ago. Let’s examine our reality.
1. I am not sure you have noticed, but the world is in a bit of downturn and we are facing some tremendous pressure to keep our costs to a minimum. The mere idea of “innovating” is difficult to sell to our increasing conservative clients.
2. Most, if not all of the admin attending the summit work in schools already moving down the path of innovation and sustainable implementation. Can they explain in depth what they are doing? Probably not, and thus my last blog post.
3. Let’s not forget that a blog post is a rare way for administrators to communicate today. I am a rare bird (in more ways than one) and most of my colleagues don’t sit on the couch on a Sunday evening and rap out a blog post for their own reflection. Many administrators show thought leadership in many other ways including the weekly memos that STILL end up in the teacher’s mailboxes on Monday AM.
I still feel that in order to make educational change, all members of the school community need to be supported through the process. This includes administrators. I can guarantee you that the good admin out there appreciate the support and I can also guarantee you that the admin that attended the HKsummit left empowered and filled with ideas. Change takes time. Change takes bravery. Change takes guts. Change takes focus. How much of each of these things depends on the time and place.
My colleagues… continue to look for support and Paul… keep urging us all on.
Image courtesy of http://static.flickr.com/56/118110233_05d3ea53dd.jpg
You get my point. I’m not complaining mind you. She’s usually..er… ALWAYS right and then she got me using Facebook and I have taken some time to get up and running with my own Facebook page. I would link it here but it is pretty lame for sure. Yesterday when I received my daily email from my Diigo education list with the title “10 Privacy Setting Every Facebook User Should Know” it really caught my eye! Wow… you mean we have privacy issues on Facebook??
Let me be clear here. I really didn’t start using Facebook to connect anyone. I was just exploring and continue to do so. I don’t use many apps… at least I don’t think so. I did nail the 80′s music quiz and showed my old high school buddy I haven’t slipped into dementia quite yet. I have found a few old friends from High School and college and lots and lots of former students. That is about it. Nothing more.
After reading the “10 Privacy Setting Every Facebook User Should Know” posting, I have a new found respect for this VERY transparent medium. My favorite setting: Number 8. Make Your Contact Information Private. The author Nick O’Neill notes in this tip:
I personally use Facebook for professional and personal use and it can frequently become overwhelming. That’s why I’ve taken the time to outline these ten privacy protection steps. One of the first things I did when I started approving friend requests from people that I hadn’t built a strong relationship with, was make my contact information visible only to close contacts.
The contact information is my personal email and phone number. It’s a simple thing to set but many people forget to do it. Frequently people we don’t know end up contacting us and we have no idea how they got our contact information. Your contact privacy can be edited right from your profile. If you have chosen to enter this information, you should see a “Contact Information” area under the “Info” tab in your profile
Like most things on the web, Facebook can be misused and abused. I would encourage you to be educated and informed if you use Facebook for professional reasons. In fact I URGE you to read this posting.
I found Scott McCleod’s PDF handout on the 100 Principal Blog project almost 3 years ago when I took the initiative to start my school principal‘s blog. My tech integrator at the time, Jeff Utecht, was so proud. He had been gently encouraging me to think about taking it on as a way to communicate to our school community. One weekend, I sat on the couch, laptop at the ready and leapt into a wordpress blog provided by Scott.
One of the key reasons for principals to blog that Scott mentions in his handout is “Reason 10: Thought leadership”.
A blog can be a great place to put thoughts out there for the community to chew on. Is a school considering a new initiative or an important change? Does the school want feedback on a particular topic or issue? The principal could post some information and questions on the blog and solicit community participation. This is similar to setting up a meeting with an advisory board or interested group of stakeholders, except that the potential reach is much greater since everyone in the school community can see and participate in the conversation, not just the few individuals who might attend a face-to-face meeting.
Most notably, I write in the post about professional conferences about the need for follow through and deeper learning opportunities. I stated:
The key question that comes to my mind though is when will leaders be held responsible for the follow-up for their entire organization and when will we as learning professionals take on the sustained follow-up ourselves. Isn’t that what a PLN created to do for me? Can we not sustain our own learning?
Then I walked into the room yesterday and there on a piece of chart paper under the words “professional development” was “Andy Torris’ blog post”. The first words out of my mouth were, “Just another reason to be careful what you post online!”- which got a pretty good laugh from my colleagues! The follow up conversation was about what I had written- nothing to earth shattering if you ask me- but it did help the discussion as the ideas around the commitment of administrators in our organization have to deep, followed up professional devleopment. More importantly though, are the high quality comments to this post. Jon Nordmeyer, a colleague of mine, left some great links to the a site at Berkley. Another leadertalk contributor, Blair Peterson left a comment pointing to a post by Seth Godin.. And yet another blogging administrator Ed Shepard, who also is one of my twitter friends noted that my post made him realize that:
I am under the firm belief that I can get my staff to change or focus on doing one major thing really, really well during the school year. This could be anything from curriculum to classroom management. Either way it is a broad to specific focus designed to create a common practice and develop a common language within the school community. This focus is kept in the forefront and is ingrained in everything we do the entire school year. It requires a bit of research and development, but insures a long-term and long-lasting effect in the school. After the year ends, we start the whole process again with a new focus.
Well stated Ed! Can’t that same thought hold true for administrators and blogging educators as well. Many, many educational bloggers and web-designers are quickly realizing that over time, your personal professional learning network is enhanced and thus your “Thought Leadership” is sharpened by leveraging the use of the web 2.0 tools available to us on a daily basis. This learning is not work. It is engagement. It is engagement on the deepest level, as it meets the needs of a social learning WITH access to a rich research base AND expert advice!
I can’t close here unless I offer some common sense advice though.
1. Remember: What you write and create is essentially your professional persona that will follow you for years. Use the tool wisely. As I said in my last post on Sentiments on Common Sense, “You really do have to be careful what you write!”
2. BE CLEAR that your blog is YOUR BLOG or the SCHOOL’s Blog. I need to go back to my blog and make sure it is plainly stated. People seem to know who I am. People probably know where I work. I hope they see my writing as professional and also a bit personal. I also hope they see that I am not crazy about the content.
3. Embrace the comments and respond to them. I am more apt to read blogs that I get notes back from authors after I have left a comment. Let the commentators know you have read the note and maybe even responded to their notes. It expands the learning!
In the end, it really is about reflecting, learning and modeling that for our community. Don’t you think?
I just finished reading Shaun McElroy’s posting to U Tech Tips about the horrible earthquake catastrophe in Chengdu in Central China. Things like this happen and sadly we all have our stories. My family and I missed the tsunami by a mere few hundred miles and a random vacation decision. My wife and daughter were in the sub-third floor off of Nanjing Lu in downtown Shanghai when they evacuated the building due to the earthquake yesterday. Meanwhile 1100 or so miles away 10,000 or more people lost their lives.
Right away, guys like Robert Scoble, the uberblogger who’s a huge evangelist
for Twitter and is followed by over 20,000 people, were “retweeting”
messages from people on Twitter in China. Within an hour or so, using
Twitter location and search tools, people had identified two
English-speaking young men, and soon after a third, who were using
Twitter in Chengdu, about 95 kilometers east of the epicenter. Their
eyewitness accounts, with aftershocks reported in near-real time and
reassuring accounts that the damage — at least in Chengdu — didn’t seem
severe, were really useful.
Thanks to twitter… a simple message was sent from Shanghai and my entire network of family, friends and fellow tweets knew that Shanghai was ok. Whoever thought that a mere 140 characters could be so powerful.
1. I am not sure you have noticed, but the world is in a bit of downturn and we are facing some tremendous pressure to keep our costs to a minimum. The mere idea of “innovating” is difficult to sell to our increasing conservative clients.
It’s my 
