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Mike Richards is the author of  Notes From Millie D , and a technology teacher/integrator in Arundel Maine. He is one of seven or eight techno-geek-education types in the USA who aren’t in San Antonio this week for NECC. I only know him through blogging, tweeting, and plurking, but his writing/offerings are outstanding. He dusted off the following list over a year ago. It has gotten legs again this week. In June 2007, Mike wrote:

Trying to some spring cleaning I ran across an article from The Journal (June 2005) titled 20 Technology Skills Every Educator Should Have. Here is a listing of the 20 skills:

1. Word Processing Skills
2. Spreadsheets Skills
3. Database Skills
4. Electronic Presentation Skills
5. Web Navigation Skills
6. Web Site Design Skills
7. E-Mail Management Skills
8. Digital Cameras
9. Computer Network Knowledge Applicable to your School System
10. File Management & Windows Explorer Skills
11. Downloading Software From the Web (Knowledge including eBooks)
12. Installing Computer Software onto a Computer System
13. WebCT or Blackboard Teaching Skills
14. Videoconferencing skills
15. Computer-Related Storage Devices (Knowledge: disks, CDs, USB drives, zip disks, DVDs, etc.)
16. Scanner Knowledge
17. Knowledge of PDAs
18. Deep Web Knowledge
19. Educational Copyright Knowledge
20. Computer Security Knowledge

At that point, Web 2.0 was just infancy. Making a May 2007 edition what things would you add to the list, but more importantly, what would you take off the list?

How would you alter the list in June 2008?

I have already formulated and distributed a ’skills survey’ to develop resources and expose weaknesses based on the, soon antiquated, NETS-T: One-liners on a chart with boxes to check indicating level of ability. With the new NETS-T in hand, perhaps I can formulate a survey that may be valid, appropriate for a year.

What do you think?

Three Books For Professional Development

A few weeks ago, when I wrote about the latest ISTE books to be published, one of my readers commented and followed up in an e-mail exchange about that post. This person was glad to see the reviews, however she had already picked three books to used in a Summer workshop for teachers. I thought you might choose one of her choices to add to your Summer professional development reading.

Published by Corwin Press in 2006, this book is beginning to show its age a bit already with regards to current implementations and manifestations. HOWEVER, Will Richarson’s wisdom, analysis, and understanding is not going to become outdated. If you are staying up with current developments and implementations you can apply Will’s pedagogy and practice. Get your principal, school boards, students, parents, and colleagues to read chapter nine - “What It all Means” and the epilogue, if they will sit still for it.

This another book published by Corwin Press in 2008. Alan November has been where it all happens a teacher. He is not a thinktanker or ivory tower theorista. That being said, He puts  ICT standards and practice under the microscope and in the spotlight - Critical thinking, research, source validation; finishing strategies and evaluations. You will skim it half-an-hour and read in depth in two hours.

This is the 2006 edition of this book from Penguin. Daniel Pink presents the thesis that this present age - the Age of Technology is not a left brain age as most of us would think as we founder amid a sea of hardware and software looking for a leftbrainer, fair to say, engineer type to teach us not only to swim, but to breathe under water. We don’t need an engineer we need a rightbrainer, a visionary to ease us into the next stage of human development.

ALPS - ” Active Learning Practice for Schools is an electronic community dedicated to the improvement and advancement of educational instruction and practice. Our mission is to create an on-line collaborative environment between teachers and administrators from around the world with educational researchers, professors, and curriculum designers at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and Project Zero. The ALPS site is as wide as it is deep. Each of the three regions within the ALPS site has it own resources for cultivating active learning practice in schools. But rest assured the ALPS site is unified in its educational philosophy and vision: that students must be active, engaged, and thoughtful participants in their own education. Each region offers a wealth of pedagogical terrain to explore.”
Addendum:
One of colleagues from Canada featured it on her Active Learning Blog Carnival http://activelearningcarnival.blogspot.com/ in April.

One of the many benefits of being a member of ISTE is to a ‘friend’ on the ISTE ‘Myspace’ blog. They have two busy interns, Ron and Brenda. I have highlightd their blogged oferings before, but I wanted to credit them again and give Yip for ISTE.

I have been muddling around with Moodle for a few months on and off. I want to add a real online component for all my f2f classes. Ron sent a link for a new class offering site (I believe it comes from Edublog brain trust) - www.edu20.org. It has some excellent features: It reminds, in feel, of the way BlackBoard is set up in Vitrtual High School.

For those on our staffs and faculties with morphing roles, can anyone top the shifting of the Library Media Specialist? Brenda has found this excellent online article: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3748779 - “Meet Your New School Library Media Specialist”.

-Skip

The STaR Chart identifies and defines four school profiles ranging from the “Early Tech” school with little or no technology to the “Target Tech” school that provides a model for the integration and innovative use of education technology. This could be a tool could be of great assistance to you or your school technology team.

http://www.iste.org/starchart/

I just completed a review of three Web documents dealing with Instant Messaging (IM). All three gave a balanced look at IM. The reason that their creation was necessary is because of the cautious, even reactionary, outlook on all things technological in the field of public education.

The Education Learning Initiative’s .pdf presentation, 7 Things You Should Know About IM , is a beautifully balanced, global look at IM. It is especially important in that number seven discusses the implications of IMin teaching and learning.

A blog entry, The Case for Instant Messaging , is just that. It suggests multiple methods for integrating IM into classroom life. It is very convincing for its depth and enthusiasm.

Finally, IM - Collaborative Tool or Educator’s Nightmare! , a paper written (in APA format, I might add) by a Canadian professor, is a superior piece of work. It goes into great lengths to weigh pros and cons. The author makes some wonderful, creative suggestions.

I think a school district should think about setting up a Jabber server inside its firewall. The outlaws will be too bored to use it and the newbies and conventional folks will be glad that it’s there and benefit immensely.

As with most things ‘World Wide Web-ish’, social networking is the elephant, being examined by three blindfolded people who have never seen an elephant. Social networking is both a curse and a blessing, sometimes described as both by the same person.

Nicole Verardi focuses on college students and social networking in an online article called MySpace in College Admission . This is an article focuses on the effect of imprudent posting on sites by high school students, college students, job seekers, and new graduate-employees. It gives space, as well, to some of the ways that social networking sites can compliment college admission and career seeking.

A Briefing for Educators: Online Social Networking and Youth Risk by Nancy Willard, another online article suggested by an instructor, is a no nonsense, foundational look at social networking. It folks on the dangers and pitfall and the reasons those exist. Primarily, Willard feels that teen decision-making is an oxymoron, a theory that is fast becoming fact among neurologists, as well as psychologists, and is, in part responsible for the ‘youth risk’ in the title. The other major phenomenon that raises ‘risk’ is the lack of parental attention.

An English author, Jerome Monahan, sees the glass of social networking as being half full, not half empty. In his article on line, Missed Opportunity , he sees all the hesitancy and nay-saying as blocking the potential benefits of social networking.

I am sure that teachers who teach younger students would feel my attitude to be cavalier. Nevertheless, there are many sites with proper security to allow students to ride their social networking trikes and training wheeled bikes. I believe the teens that I share classrooms with should have their Information Superhighway drivers’ licenses before they venture out on their own.