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Happy Holidays

Check out my online Christmas card at http://www.mindspring.com/~rwelfare/08cmas/index.mht

Posted at 11:22PM Dec 23, 2008 by rmwelfar in General  |  Comments[0]

Help! I've fallen into Facebook and I can't get up

OK, this is my sister's fault. My much younger, much cooler sister, who sent me a link to something on Facebook she wanted me to read but which required you to sign up to be able to access. So now I have a Facebook account. Might as well spend some time exploring it, right?

What I've found is that Facebook is a big black hole that will suck up all your free time. And this is after only a few days as a member. I have exercised MASSIVE amounts of self-control and managed not to spend every waking minute on the site. I mean, it is the end of the semester and I have studying to do and I'm on deadline with several major work projects and need to get ahead so I can be out most of December for knee surgery. I have found a few friends online (actually, mostly the children of friends since my friends also are not cool). But it is incredibly easy to let time slip away while I read through messages posted on their walls, mostly from people I don't know, or look through through their friends' lists to see if we have common friends I can hook up with. I'm up to 10 friends now. One of the sons of a cousin, in his early 20s, has nearly 900. I feel so inadequate.

Perhaps it will grow old eventually. At least at some point I'll run out of old friends to search for. I can certainly see some of the appeal of this site -- not for communicating with people you see every day, but wonderful for staying in touch with people who've passed through your life and gone on to something else. Even though I send out Christmas cards regularly, I've lost track of many people with whom I was very good friends at some point. It would be great to be able to touch bases periodically. Assuming of course that people are any better at this than they are at communicating the old fashioned way. (BTW, none of my lost friends have shown up when I tried to Find Friends.)

It is hard to think of educational applications for this technology. I believe sharing thoughts and ideas is a good thing, so I suppose there is some value there. I just hope people don't substitute virtual friends for communicating with friends in the real world. And I guess there's no way schools are going to let students have access to this site, so the question is probably academic anyway.

Feel free to Friend me. You can be number 11.

Posted at 06:27PM Nov 22, 2008 by rmwelfar in 21st Century Skills  |  Comments[2]

eInstruction rocks

Check out this excellent video about use of technology in the classroom produced by a class at Centennial Campus Middle School in Raleigh, their teacher, and a staff member from The Friday Institute:

Too late to vote in the contest, but I still enjoyed watching their video and the others in the competition, which is sponsored by eInstruction, the makers of those alternate input devices (we call them "clickers" in my office) that are used pretty widely in NC classrooms. I hope the CCMS group wins the prize, but it is a shame to have to depend on a contest to decide who gets what technology. I'm sure some of you would drool over what is already available in Wake County Schools.

By the way, I guess the eInstruction campaign is a success. I'm sure I'm not the only person talking about it. And of course, the millions of readers of this blog will tell someone, and they'll tell someone, and ... .



 

Posted at 10:23AM Nov 15, 2008 by rmwelfar in 21st Century Skills  |  Comments[2]

The technology training gap

I commented in my most recent podcast about the challenge of providing adequate professional development to support the technology we are adding in education. I'm old enough to remember when computers as an educational tool were new. Everyone needed to have one, no one knew what in the world to do with it. There was a lot of money spent on computers that decorated classrooms. It was many years until teachers' expertise caught up with their equipment.

Fortunately those days are gone, but I think today our technology reach still sometimes exceeds our knowledge grasp. It is very important that training be considered during the planning stages for implementation of new technology. Otherwise we are not getting the maximum benefit for our money. And training needs to include more than just how to operate the particular technology in question. Teachers need to learn how to make educational decisions behind the technology use -- not just how to use it, but when and why.

I'm bumping up against this problem now with an application being developed for analysis and reporting of NC Career and Technical Education enrollment and performance data. When we first started working on this project, we had big plans for online training modules that users could access at their desks, along with what was called "context sensitive help," which I believe meant that when the user clicked on the help icon, help should automatically come up linked to whatever part of the application was being used. There was also supposed to be a FAQ and other online resources to help people use the system.

Well, one thing after another has gone wrong, but we are finally to the point some of this help is supposed to be in place and you guessed it -- there is a big gap between what is needed and what is available. Users are getting frustrated because I'm trying to stay one step ahead of them so I can answer questions, not always successfully. It is not anyone's fault really. Everyone has more to do than can possibly be done. But if we don't figure out the solution to this problem it is going to seriously impact implementation of the new system. Overall, the system is fantastic. I don't want our credibility to be damaged by training issues.

Posted at 12:50AM Nov 14, 2008 by rmwelfar in General  |  Comments[1]

Technology and religion

This blog isn't about 21st Century Skills and education, but about 21st Century Skills and religion. Church is facing the same sorts of questions as education about what role technology can -- and should -- play. Of course, these aren't new questions. It is just that attending church "remotely" has changed from watching a church broadcast on television to clicking into a service.

This week's issue of Newsweek had an interesting article about churches that offer an online version of communion, Click in Remembrance of Me. Apparently a number of churches, or at least individuals, are finding ways to use 21st Century technology to reach people who can't, or choose not to, regularly attend worship services. The article asks whether increasing these sorts of opportunities undermines the church's historical role as a "community" of believers.

My faith is very important to me, and I like to see technology used in ways that enhance what the church can do. One of the first things I was involved in when I got access to the Internet was a discussion group of Baptists and Ustabe Baptists about faith -- believe me, you haven't been flamed until you've been told you will burn in hell for not toeing the Baptist party line! (Ustabe=Used to Be) Today churches use the Web to promote their activities and reach people with their message. There are faith-based blog sites where people can post their thoughts. When our youth group went on a mission trip this past summer, they posted daily updates on a web site created for that purpose. Many churches post audio or video of their weekly services. I know of one church where members can subscribe to an email prayer chain.

There are lots of positive ways technology can work with religion, but we need to be careful not to promote the idea that faith is easy. TV preachers have long encouraged viewers to sit at home on Sunday mornings (and mail in their checks to the broadcast) rather than getting involved in a local church. In the long run, the ease of sitting at home in our pyjamas and watching someone else "do church," even if viewers can click in with an occasional "Amen," may work to the detriment of individual and corporate faith rather than provide another path.  

Posted at 12:38PM Nov 02, 2008 by rmwelfar in 21st Century Skills  |  Comments[3]

Sometimes upgrading is worth it

I am trying out a new feature of Acrobat 9.0. I have used Acrobat for a long time to prepare files to distribute across operating systems, but never really used other features. I know the previous version had the ability to create forms, but I never used it so I don't know how well it worked. But a colleague recommended I try out the survey capability of version 9.0.  As an experiment, we decided to use this technology to conduct the evaluations for a conference that occurred this week. I prepared the survey and will email it to participants later today. (Actually, the colleague prepared the survey for me. There wasn't time this week for a learning curve.) Participants open the survey and fill in the requested information in the form fields, then press SUBMIT to return it to me. When I open the returned surveys, the information is automatically transferred to a spreadsheet, which I can use to create reports and pivot tables in Excel. We'll see how it goes.

I can see several classroom applications for this technology.  One that comes immediately to mind is using it for tests. I would have to play around with what the easiest way to grade the test would be, but it is certainly doable. Another would be anytime you need to get students' opinions on things. Perhaps an evaluation at the end of the class asking what worked and what improvements they can suggest. They could use it to submit proposals for a class project, select from among possible work-based learning options, or anything that could be condensed to a series of fields. My plan is to next try to use it to process registrations for a small workshop. I don't think it could handle the complexity of something like Summer Conference, but many of our workshops are on a much smaller scale.

BTW, you can download a 30-day trial version of Acrobat 9.0. I've ordered an upgrade, but the paperwork and red tape wheels sometimes move very slowly and it hasn't arrived yet.

Rhonda

Posted at 10:55AM Nov 01, 2008 by rmwelfar in 21st Century Skills  |  Comments[0]

The greatest technology ever

I've been asking people this week what one development in technology they would consider the greatest achievement during their lifetimes. It has led to some interesting discussions. There was no clear winner, but several items were mentioned consistently among the highest.

One is the flattener Thomas L. Friedman, in his book The World is Flat, calls "In-forming." My sister and I decided a better name was "The Googlelization of Information." Basically, anything you could possibly want to know, plus a whole lot of stuff you couldn't care less about, is available with the click of a mouse button. Need directions for how to get to your son's playdate?  Wonder what's going on in your neighbor's backyard? Want to know if  your daughter's new teacher has a criminal record? 1001 recipes for Southern Biscuits? Diagnosis of your latest mystery illness? It's all there. Actually, one of the problems is there is so much information there, with so few cues about how to separate the wheat from the chaff. We are drowning in data. All this information, only part of it true, leaves us someplace between liberation and obfuscation.

The second item I heard mentioned several times was the miniaturization of technology. My dad, who is a retired nuclear engineer (one of the first NCSU nuclear engineering grads, in 1952), says the computer at his first job filled an entire building. The same amount of computing power today is available in an iPod. My first portable computer, purchased in about 1982, weighed maybe 40 lbs and was the size of a suitcase -- and not a carryon either! It was quite high tech however -- it had TWO single-sided floppy drives instead of the standard of one and could communicate with the mainframe at work through a device that you put a telephone receiver inside. Dad says making everything smaller and faster is responsible for most of the other technological advances of the last 25 years. I just know it's a lot easier to carry around a cell phone now.

My favorite high tech advancement is wireless technology. Now I can log on anywhere, anytime. Well, not anywhere. I can't seem to get a connection in my building unless I'm plugged into the wired system. At any rate, after considerable reflection, I've decided wireless technology is only my second favorite development. My favorite is the ability to turn things on and off with timers. My lights come on with a timer, my alarm goes off with a timer, my heat comes on with a timer. But the best thing is my coffee pot, which has my coffee ready and waiting when I struggle out of bed in the morning. I guess all this processing speed is wasted on me!

Posted at 11:39PM Oct 22, 2008 by rmwelfar in 21st Century Skills  |  Comments[2]

Candidates for governor discuss education priorities

Very interesting discussion of education issues by the major party candidates for governor in a September 19 debate sponsored by Everybody's Business Coalition. You can watch it on YouTube.  Search for Everybody's Business Coalition Debate. There are six parts, but the whole debate only takes about an hour to watch, maybe less if you don't multi-task.

Both candidates professed to "love" education and promised to make it a priority in a new administration. They both said that providing quality education for NC's students is critical to the state's future, although there were some fairly substantial differences in how they would go about making that a reality. They also differed on the role of the state Superintendent. Pat McCrory said in no uncertain terms that the position should be appointed by the governor rather than elected as is the current practice. Beverly Perdue said it didn't really matter whether the superintendent is appointed or elected as the responsibility for education still rests with the governor.

McCrory talked quite a bit about what he called "vocational" education, saying that not every student is going to college and that these students should have options as well. Adding career options would be one major piece of his plan to improve the dropout rate. He also said he would increase the voice of business in education policy. He said that he supports vouchers for a narrowly defined population of students who cannot receive necessary services in a public school setting, but he disagreed with Perdue's contention that these vouchers would take money from the public school system.

Perdue restated her support for free community college tuition for students who meet certain requirements. She said more effective use of technology is a major way to combat the dropout problem. Several times she took credit for the NC Virtual Public School, a NC initiative that provides online classes for NC students. She suggested that increasing emphasis on languages and on respect for diversity are two ways education can lead the move to a global marketplace and help students be successful in a "brave new world that is flat." She also talked about the successes of Learn & Earn, a high school reform initiative that attempts to bridge the gap between high school and postsecondary education.

McCrory also talked about technology, saying that teachers should have access to basic technology and schools should have the option of using funds designated for construction to meet technology needs instead.

Both candidates also talked about teachers, who Perdue said are responsible for "the most important work done in this country and this world." Both said they would support pay increases for teachers. McCrory said teacher pay should be based on market value, which could result in different pay levels for teachers of different subjects. Perdue said she also supported continuing incentive pay for teachers and is in favor of the state lottery, which she said generates significant funding for education.

This debate relates to 21st Century Skills in two ways -- first, they talked about the role of technology in education, and second, you have to use your technology skills to view it on YouTube.

The election is coming up on November 4.

Posted at 01:35AM Oct 11, 2008 by rmwelfar in 21st Century Skills  |  Comments[5]

Adventures in 21st Century Skills Part II or Rhonda hosts a virtual conference

I am dying to write about the debate tonight, but I guess I'll have to concede that it is only marginally related to 21st Century Technology Skills. Besides, I had another adventure today that I need to tell you about. Today was the first day of a virtual conference on data quality sponsored by the U.S. Education Department. I was the liaison for the conference in North Carolina, which meant I had to find a place and make all the arrangements. It was really frustrating as the feds hadn't done anything like this before and no one knew exactly what was going on. I got three sets of conflicting instructions and had to participate in two online practice sessions and a conference call ahead of time.

But things went relatively smoothly. The conference started with a webcast, which was a live broadcast over the computer. The first problem was that when we clicked on the link to the webcast,  IE froze up. We solved it by switching to Firefox. That was someone else's suggestion but I should have thought of it since I had the same problem with my new Mac.  After the webcast, we switched to a webinar. That was the second glitch of the day -- they had forgotten to distribute the password for the webinar.

I know handling the conference this way saved a lot of money for the USED and the states. In fact, it is not certain it would have happened in the traditional way as many states have cut out travel completely right now because of the economy. But I'm afraid the quality of the conference has suffered. There were fewer sessions, but it seems like the greatest problem may be audience engagement. Because we were at our office, people came and went. Several people have been called to other meetings that they couldn't escape. If we were meeting in Washington, D.C., that wouldn't have happened. I'm not sure we paid as close attention sitting in the sessions as we would have somewhere else. It was mighty tempting to check email while we watched.

I'm also concerned that there was a serious loss in the informal learning that takes place during a conference. Normally you meet some interesting people and learn about their states over drinks in the bar. I generally come home with as many ideas generated from those contacts (OK, maybe it's the drinks) as I get from the sessions.

We'll wind up tomorrow. It has been an interesting experience. I can see lots of applications for this and I hope to have an opportunity to use this form of communication to share information with the people I work with across North Carolina.

Posted at 12:02AM Oct 03, 2008 by rmwelfar in 21st Century Skills  |  Comments[5]

It's the economy, Stupid!

I've been thinking a lot about the economy the last few days. I suspect I'm like most Americans. I know a little about economic theory, but mostly these discussions are far beyond my understanding. Billions, even trillions of dollars to bail out companies that got in trouble because they were mismanaged and consumed by greed? It is hard to swallow. I understand the concept of "too big to allow to fail," but I still want life to be fair and people to suffer the consequences of their actions. I see individual homeowners suffering (and to be fair, more than a few of them were also driven by greed). I see small businesspeople suffering. I don't see a lot of pain in the big house. I don't want people jumping out of windows, but I would like them to sweat just a little.

I certainly don't have enough background to determine the correct course of action here (although I suspect I know as much about the economy as Sarah Palin). If we don't have a bailout, do we risk another Great Depression? If we do have a bailout, does that ensure we are back on track?  (My guess on that one is No.) Can we implement a bailout in a way that forces these companies to clean house? Do we trust the politicians and businesspeople who got us into this mess in the first place to come up with a solution? (Again, my guess is No.)

This relates in general to education and specifically to 21st Century Skills in several ways. My first concern is about the money. If $700 billion +++ goes to the bailout, what does that mean to education spending? I work in Career and Technical Education, which receives substantial federal funding. If the dollars are spent on X, then they won't be there for Y (assuming, of course, that we are spending real money and not just writing meaningless IOUs to the future). More importantly, this shows that educators have not been doing our jobs. We've taught lessons about business and finance, but apparently the people making decisions were on field trips the day they were supposed to learn about ethics. Part of the value of 21st Century Skills is that they integrate academic instruction with some other things that are very important for students to learn. Today's lesson is that thinking and problem-solving skills (such as critical thinking and systems thinking) and interpersonal and self-directional skills (such as social responsibility) are needed more than ever. 

Posted at 10:47AM Sep 30, 2008 by rmwelfar in 21st Century Skills  |  Comments[0]

Adventures in 21st Century Skills

I'm doing something new over the next few weeks: Listening to a book on my iPod. What a wonderful technology! I have never been too crazy about books on tape, which go SO MUCH SLOWER than I can read to myself. It takes me so much longer to listen to a book on tape than it just does to read it. I also love the tactile experience of reading a book. And shopping for books online will never replace the experience for me of being in a bookstore, picking up book after book, often buying something that looks interesting that I'd never heard of before. Amazon.com and its note that there are "Recommendations for You, Rhonda" will never replace that.

But thanks to an aside comment from one of my classmates about listening to The World is Flat, I decided to give it a try. It took only a few minutes to buy the book online (my choice was www.audible.com, mostly because it let me download it to an iPod rather than buying on a CD). The book downloaded to my computer and then transferred to my iPod easily, although I have the feeling it may be taking up all the free space on the iPod. The hardest part was figuring out where on the iPod it loaded -- first Music, then Audiobooks.

I have a gadget that lets me listen to the iPod in the car, so I launched this project on a 3-hr-each-way drive to Wilmington for a meeting earlier this week. It went great. Basically this would have been wasted time in my previous life, but instead I was able to make great progress on the book. (Unfortunately, quite a few hours left to go.) My favorite feature was that I could accelerate the reading speed, which made it seem less draggy than some of my previous efforts. Also, the iPod remembered exactly where I left off. When I listened to books on tape I was always having trouble finding the same spot on the right side of the tape. I did have a little trouble trying to jot down notes as I drove. I'm not sure anything I wrote is legible enough to refer to later. However, I have a copy of the book, so I'm hoping I can skim through it and remember what I thought was important enough to write down. Next time I do this I'll take my digital recorder so I can make audio notes to myself. I'm going to be so high tech you won't be able to stand me.

Now my problem is I'm not sure if I have enough road trips between now and when the book is supposed to be read to get it finished. I don't know that I can incorporate listening to books on iPod into my regular life. But so far it is going so well I'm trying to figure out what to "read" next. However, I think I'll have to have lesson in deleting from the iPod before I can add anything else.

Rhonda

Posted at 10:57PM Sep 25, 2008 by rmwelfar in General  |  Comments[6]

WANTED: The perfect software

OK, here's what I want:

Software to replace my old system of using index cards to make notes from references and write research papers. The way it works now is I put the bibliographic information about each reference on an index card, to which I assign a code. Then I take notes about the reference on other index cards, using a separate index card for each thought and including the reference code so I know where the information originated. When I get ready to write the paper I sort and resort the index cards until I get them in some semblance of order. I don't necessarily write the paper from beginning to end, but can skip around from stack of cards to stack of cards.

I just think someone must have written software that will automate this process. It is sort of like the old Hypercard program from my first use of a Mac 20 years ago, but as far as I can tell that isn't used any longer. The perfect software will integrate seamlessly with a word processor (I like Word but am flexible) so that when I copy something from a card, it will automatically include the appropriate citation and reference (in APA form) and make some sort of notation on the card to let me know I've used that information in the paper.

Does something like this exist? I have both a Mac and a PC, so I can go either way. Timing is of the essense as I am beginning to work on gathering data for my dissertation and I don't want to have to redo work. If this software, or a reasonable facsimile, doesn't exist, what are the best things you'd recommend? 

Posted at 10:30PM Sep 20, 2008 by rmwelfar in 21st Century Skills  |  Comments[1]

Copyrights and wrongs

Posted at 11:21PM Sep 18, 2008 by rmwelfar in General  |  Comments[0]

Kicking and screaming into the 21st Century

I'm worried about how teachers can prepare students for the 21st Century when so many teachers have technology skills that are far below what is needed. I'm not talking about all teachers by any means, but I am frustrated by some of what I see as I work with teachers around North Carolina. Most recently, I worked with setting up an online site where teachers who attended the CTE Summer Conference could log on, fill out an evaluation, and download a customized attendance certificate to use to get CEUs from their employer. I was distressed at how much trouble a significant number of teachers had negotiating the Internet and using the site. People could follow the step-by-step instructions, but if anything didn't operate the way they expected, they weren't able to work through a process to troubleshoot. And if you use technology very often, you know it rarely works the way you expected.

I know people have other priorities and sometimes we all get frustrated. Perhaps it seems worse to me because the system just shut down. The people who didn't have any trouble have been done for a long time. The only people I've talked to for the last week are the ones who were having problems. For the most part, they were polite and seemed to appreciate my efforts to help them. As far as I know, everyone was eventually able to access their certificate. But what this points out to me is that we can't assume a certain level of competence. We need to figure out ways to help teachers get excited about what technology can do for them and then pass that enthusiasm along to their students. Unfortunately, we have a ways to go.

Posted at 10:38PM Sep 16, 2008 by rmwelfar in General  |  Comments[6]