Work With Hope

Continuing Thanksgiving reflections…

I was trying to explain to someone yesterday why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year and why I enjoy it so much more than Christmas…

I love going to grocery stores on the day before Thanksgiving and spending a few minutes in the produce section. Among the crowds, you can witness moments unlike any other time of the year. Women, men, couples, and parents with children not shopping, but picking the very particular gifts for the table. These selections are tied to a million strings of memory, heritage, and tradition. If you watch carefully and listen, you can feel something that I can only describe as (using a word I seldom do) sacred.

Thanksgiving as much as any other holiday honors the integrity of the day. Though I'll shop ahead and maybe start a few things on the night before (and of course I have to put up my turkey lights a week before), the bulk of preparation work and enjoyment takes place on the day itself. I get up early each year and fry two pounds of bacon…already a perfect day in itself…which will end up in a variety of dishes before the day is over. From there I move from dish to dish, from hour to hour through the day until people arrive. Then it is a new progression of simultaneously serving and cooking until dinner is on the table. I often lament that the meal which I spent 12 hours cooking is consumed in 20 minutes, but even here there is a beauty. Unlike the chores of Christmas, Thanksgiving creations are completely ephemeral. No one has to return an unwanted gift (no scatological comments, please). It is a holiday that is complete in a single day with relatively little buildup (the media are too busy talking about Christmas) and only dishes to wash at the end.

Finally, at the end of the day I never feel let down or (as with Christmas) abject depression. Despite the Catholic understanding of the expectation of Advent leading to the celebration of Christmas, I have never been able to get beyond the Zeitgeist of Christmas marking the end of something. After all the work and expectation and disappointment, Christmas dinner is one of the most exhausting and depressing meals of the year, filling ourselves in order to take on the next task of putting Christmas away as quickly as possible. A friend commented that she can't wait to take down the tree as soon as the day is over, which I found horrifying. But while we go quite the other way and hold on to things as long as possible, the reality is that this is merely a decision of pulling the band-aid off quickly or slowly. The single day focus of Thanksgiving leading into the holiday season marks a perfect moment of the year where present and future are completely aligned.

On top of all of this, tomorrow I will finally complete the 30 Blogposts of Summer! What could be better?

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image: 'Leaf turkey' http://www.flickr.com/photos/35468149768@N01/304316401 Found on flickrcc.net

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Saturday morning. I'm sitting in a classroom with about 20 teachers participating in a day of leadership discernment. This is an event we hold every other year to try to discover and encourage young (and not so young) people who might be interested in becoming principals of Catholic elementary and high schools.

When I had my first Principals' Meeting after becoming superintendent I looked around the room and had two realizations. The first was the obvious one, “I have no idea what I'm doing.” The second was, “Oh my gosh, this is a very mature group.” On one hand this made me happy that there was so much experience in the room; however, I also asked, “Who's going to take over for all of these people when they retire?” and more importantly, “Who's going to take over for me someday?”

Among the less discussed crises facing Catholic schools beyond the financial crisis and the enrollment crisis is the leadership crisis. Our principals are aging, and there is not a clear pipeline of younger people to take their place. The position of vice principal, always an important training post, has been eliminated by financial constraints on many campus. Beyond that fewer and fewer teachers are willing to face the challenges of school leadership.

It is incredibly hard to be a principal. Trying to create a learning environment that meets the needs of all students in times of changing technology and challenges to traditional subjects and methods is impossible. Trying to do this while creating a Catholic environment for children and families of all stripes of religious participation and belief is impossible. Catering to the increasingly unrealistic needs and demands of a changing parent population is impossible. Curbing tides of eroding enrollment and budget shortfalls is impossible. And for all of these impossible tasks the yearly pay equals roughly what Angelina Jolie makes for one arched eyebrow.

Yet here in this room are 20 people still interested in looking beyond the boundaries of the classroom and exploring the possibility of leadership. I'm certain their motivations (and pathologies) are varied, but I can't help but feel touched and greatful to see these signs of hope.

All I can say is, “God bless them all.” And as always, I welcome your comments.

Image: 'Candles 'http://www.flickr.com/photos/35660391@N08/4245733960 Found on flickrcc.net

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Continuing the gratitude-palooza.

I wanted to access a document yesterday for update and reuse. The only problem was that I had no idea where the document was. Within my iPad document editor (I use Office2 HD) I flipped between local files, files on my Google Drive, and files in my Dropbox. While I was frustrated by my essential lack of organizational skills, I felt a wave of thankfulness, realizing that only three or four years ago these files would have been scattered not over applications, but over several machines, cd's, and thumb drives all over Southern California.

Virtually everything I have created, documents, photos, videos, or presentations now exist not primarily on local drives, but on cloud drives and cloud services. This has two clear advantages. First, obviously, I can access documents any time I have Internet access (which is only a Starbucks away). I no longer have to worry about getting to a site and not having what I need. Second, it is much simpler to share a link than emailing a document or (gasp) passing out paper.

Not too much more on this, just a layer to reality that makes my life a lot better.

As always, I welcome you comments

Image: 'later that day…'http://www.flickr.com/photos/99771506@N00/3011841060 Found on flickrcc.net

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Side note: I'm going to do a press to finish the 30 by Thanksgiving with #30 being a Thanksgiving post, so I hope and pray that you see a flurry of activity over the next week. Following the lead of a my friend Michele on Facebook, I'm going to focus each of the last six on something for which I am grateful. These might tend toward personal reflections, so those looking for hard tech stuff might flip back a few pages.

I'm very lucky this past couple of months to have had the opportunity to talk to groups of teachers, principals, religious educators, and superintendents in different parts of the country. I love traveling (I know that I outline my traveling frustrations in detail on Facebook, but these are ephemera in a sea of exciting experiences), and I love speaking to groups of people more than almost anything I do. When I feel a connection with a group, start hearing laughter or seeing nods, I enter a state of near hysterical ecstasy, where the people and the material merge into one and I start hand crafting a talk for them as I give it. Many of the best lines I use are a result not of planning but of this live symbiotic relationship.

It was about 5 years ago that I gave my first edtech talk at a conference. Obviously from my job I knew I was a good public speaker, but I didn't know if I could be successful with groups who didn't know me. While preparing, I confided in a friend that my fondest wish would be to become good at this and to be able to do it regularly. During the past 5 years I have had amazing opportunities, many successes and some disappointments (I still remember the time I spoke at a conference and NOBODY came to my workshop). I'm also very aware that adding the title of “superintendent” has broadened my audience and my appeal beyond my own skills. I have been very lucky, and very blessed with the many good people who have heard me and whom I have met.

Slipping into tech for a moment, I've also been lucky to live in a time when technology and my position support a traveling lifestyle. No matter where I am, I am connected completely through phone and email to anything going on in the office (I have many times suggested that I could do my job as effectively from a Starbucks as I could from the office). In fact, some people think I am more diligent about answering email on the road than when I'm home. I often criticize the “always connected” life, but it has its merits.

This blessed time has not been without its stresses (beyond those of discovering that you arrived in a city without your ipad VGA adapter and running all over looking for a BestBuy). Most of these are of my own making (surprise). Since so far I've worked primarily by invitation, as I finish each conference I feel a small trace of panic, fearful that the next opportunity might not present itself. Every time I receive a call or email asking for a talk, there is a rush of relief…thank God it isn't over! Likewise I am very conscious of the fact that speaking to groups is a self-cannibalizing act, once you have said something to that group, it's used up. I always am self-conscious about people who have heard me before, and I am always working to come up with new, fresh topics. Some have asked me if I would like to do this full-time. I must admit I would love to, but I also like the things I do in my real life and I could never stand the constant fear of the phone not ringing.

But today, let me be thankful for what is. I believe with my core that the message of educational technology is vast and vital, and I hope that I can keep playing a role in the conversation. If you are reading this and I met you at a conference, thank you for your interest and for your hospitality. I hope that I will meet many more people in many more cities in the years to come.

And, as always, I welcome your comments

Image credit: Image: 'talkin' turkey' http://www.flickr.com/photos/94507863@N00/3074620301. Found on flickrcc.net

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This came from a thought I had this morning which I'm going to present in short form today, but I have a feeling that I'll be developing it further over time.

Many of you have already heard about Google's Project Glass (I wish there were a clever JD Salinger tie in, but alas). Project Glass is Google's first real attempt to create a comprehensive digital environment based not on a carried device, but built in to a pair of glasses. Through voice commands and other gestures, the glasses can explain data, capture pictures, and communicate via phone, email, or text.

Google has released a video showing how a device like this might work; though this is clearly a fabricated video and not an actual product. All reports and rumors indicate that the device is far from this level of completion. Watching this video, two things became clear to me. First, I don't know how I'm going to navigate without constantly bumping into things. Second, I am clearly not enough of a hipster to use this device.

All that said, I had somewhat dismissed the device in my mind…until this morning. This morning I couldn't find my car keys. As I was desperately searching, I thought, “If only I could ask my Google Glasses 'Where are my keys?'” Suddenly I couldn't have my pair soon enough. C'mon Google, let's get moving! The time saved in looking for keys and remotes will change the world!

As always, I invite your comments

Image Credit: Image: 'Keys. [Day 070/365]' http://www.flickr.com/photos/11301657@N02/

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Among the less discussed features of the new iPhone 5 in the general press is an “upgrade” to the charging port. The new “Lightning” port requires a different charging cord from all earlier iPhones/iPods/iPads. While this charger boasts the advantage of faster transfer of data, the unintended (or actually very much intended) consequence is that no previous Apple docking device works with the new port. This includes radios, charging stands, CARS, and other devices. While an adapter is avialable (for $29), this does not have the full functionality of the new charging/data cord. Some call this “upgrade” a cynical cash grab, forcing consumers to purchase new cords, adapters, and devices, and others just aren't paying attention.

While I am very much in the Apple rage camp over this move, I can't help but think that it also illustrates something about educating students and teachers. Namely, that in our world of lightning fast changes, the best prepared students will have skills of flexibly, to adapt and learn new things quickly.

As a rule, educators are comfortable with permanence. The vast majority of our curriculum is built around things that don't change too much. 2+2 continues to equal 4; The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776; sentences must contain a subject and a predicate; great literature was written by dead white males (just kidding). My experience as a teacher and with teachers is that many (including me) are not all that comfortable with change and flexibly. Changes to the schedule or the calendar are often met with skepticism (and occasionally anger). Calls to change methods of classroom instruction often meet with passive resistance. Suggest that perhaps the entire structure and purpose of school should be reexamined, and the gallows are out before your words stop echoing.

Of course techers are not monolithic in this, and this resistance to change is not limited to any profession. However, an educational system that emphasizes stability and permanance, as desirable as these may be, doesn't prepare students for a world that will value them not so much for what they know as for what they can become. Students do not need to know things as to know how to learn things.

I've been thinking a lot lately about teacher formation in the area of technology. In preparation for the 1x1x15 project, I know that we have a huge teacher training job in front of us. In my observation, most teacher training programs have been unsuccessful, particularly if success is to be measured in reach change of classroom practices. Teachers master a few “parlor tricks” to use during the next observation (and they still think that using PowerPoint is integrating technology!!!), but the overall orientation of classroom instruction stays the same.

As we take on this new task, I think we have to approach this in the same way we need to teach students. We need to stop emphasizing teaching teachers how to do things and start teaching them how to learn things. We need to stop giving them terminal skills which end with the next update or iteration. Move from “Here's how you use this machine/program/app,” to “Here's where you find videos that will show you how to do the next thing when it comes so you can teach yourself.”

With a hard wired set of facts and abilities, we become about as useful as an iPhone 4 dock in an iPhone 5 world.

Image Credit: Image: 'iPhone 5 – Lightning Connector, Speakers, and+Headphone+Jack' http://www.flickr.com/photos/83542829@N00/8009499527

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I've made enough public statements about this now so that it is no longer a surprise initiative, so I thought I'd outline my next project for the schools in my diocese.

In essence the slogan says it all. By the opening of the 2015 school year, we will have a functional 1×1 technology program in all of the schools of the Diocese. This plan will have different forms and support different age levels at campuses, but students at every school will experience a growing percentage of their class work in conjunction with individualized digital devices (we won't be using the trick of counting devices campus-wide and saying we have 1×1 because the number equals the total students).

Though this idea has been percolating in my brain for some time, the form took shape last summer when I was presenting my workshop in Chicago “10 Technology Trends that Will Change Education (and the World)” (end of the buzz marketing segment of this post). I talked about the inevitability of 1×1 programs in schools as an essential step in the transition of digital devices from toys to tools. Afterward someone asked me whether I had 1×1 programs in my schools. “The high schools have them now,” I replied, “and some of the elementaries in more wealthy south county are looking to start in the next year.” Even as I said this, I felt how inadequate my response was. If I believed this to be an inevitability evolution in classroom education, then how could it be limited to schools in more affluent areas. Likewise, how could this fundamental change be addressed on a site-by-site basis with no central direction.

I took out a piece of paper and wrote for the first time 1x1x15.

In the months since that first writing I've been busy sharing this idea with principals and tech directors from my schools and talking with people running similar programs across the country. With the kick-off of another school year, I announced the initiative to principals and teachers, and now I'm starting the public announcements. I want 1x1x15 to be a rallying cry for teachers, a common direction for our planning, and a way to market ourselves to parents.

I've also just begun to grasp the enormity and complexity of this task. Every time I talk to someone running 1×1 I hear about a new wrinkle of complexity. To combat this I'm proposing that we limit the implementation schemes. I don't want to mandate that all schools get laptops or iPads or whatever, but we will have 2-3 acceptable configurations that will give schools some choice while limiting the support schemes. I also don't intend that all schools will have 1×1 for all grade levels. I'm sure that this will evolve over time.

I also know that I can't do this, it has to be a project of the tech directors, principals, and teachers of the diocese. My job has to coordinate the efforts of different parts of the project and act as cheerleader. Right now I'm looking to create 6 teams:

• Networking infrastructure
• Hardware specifications
• Curriculum, apps, and textbooks
• Teacher formation
• Tech support
• Finances (this is always the first question from everyone, “How will you pay for this?”. While recognizing the problem my response is, “That's a problem, you can solve problems; it's directions that are hard”. Talk about whistling Ina graveyard!”)

All of these people working together we will spend the next three years transforming our schools, our teachers, and out students. I hope you follow along to see the highs and lows (can one write tears in a blog?) and contribute your own ideas.

Because the clock is ticking.

As always, I welcome your comments.

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OK, I know I wrote a bit about this earlier, but as seasons change it seems appropriate to write a note. As summer (seasonal as well as academic…though not climactic) finally ends, I suppose some attention must be paid to the fact that my blogometer is a bit short of the original contract. I suppose if we look at this from a simple assessment stance I completed roughly 67% of my goal, ranking my performance at a D+ (though a few of the posts were longer, maybe giving me grounds to argue for a gentleman's C).

As I wrote a few weeks ago, I'm going to continue writing under this “30 Blogposts of Summer” banner until I complete my contract, whether this is concurrent with the falling leaves, deep into winter, or even if I lap myself and finish in summer of 2013. There are so many things to learn about, think about, talk about in the world of education and technology, and I have found no better venue to explore this playground than the pages of this blog (I know that a blog doesn't have pages, but…)

Thanks to those of you who have continued to read through the gaps and lulls. I hope that I have given you a thing or two to think over. Now let's move into the uncharted territory of summer writing in the not-summer (or as Buzz Lightyear said, “to infinity and beyond!”

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image: 'Game Over' http://www.flickr.com/photos/29652825@N08/3653333298 Found on flickrcc.net

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