Be of Use

Our iPad/1:1 initiative is just a few days away. On Thursday we will be working with about 50 teachers (another 15 at the end of the month too) to get them started on what our bosses are calling a "digital transformation" of their curriculum. My role is to walk the teachers through the nuts-and-bolts (buttons, swiping, double tapping, pinching...) of the iPad after the Keynote Speaker. Then after lunch my session is on using the Evernote app. I get about 40 minutes to give an overview on tagging, sharing, emailing into Evernote. What sold me on taking charge of this app is when my wife came home from a professional development session at her school about it. I never saw her so excited about something technological. The organization piece, where you forward emails to Evernote with the @ symbol to designate what notebook to send it to and # to assign a tag (already created) really resonated with her. As a yearbook advisor she saw instantly how she could make her inbox less of ...

Right now I'm writing this from Edwards, CO which is about 20 minutes from Vail, CO. Breathtaking views, great vacation spot - we've had a wonderful first day decompressing after a flight to Denver and a 2.5 hour drive. Here in the middle of the Rockies 3G and cellular service is no problem. About three weeks ago my wife traveled to Cuba with her colleagues for a week long trip. After I dropper her off at the airport I packed up our two young boys and headed for refuge on the shores of Lake Michigan at my parent's house. They live in a place called Kewaunee, WI. Kewaunee is about 30 miles west of Green Bay. I had random cellular access - meaning forget data, I was only able to answer or take a call at my parent's house maybe 5-10% of the time I was there for a six-day stretch. My parents Internet connection was okay for being non-fiber, bit was pretty pricy - $60 a month. In Wisconsin terms Kewaunee, isn't the middle of nowhere. Access to information is difficul...

One of my mentors was venting to me the other day about meetings he and his teacher learders go to once a month. The message is change the way you teach...facilitate learning...problem-based/challenge-based learning...flip the classroom. And what did they get in these meetings? Sit-n-git, sage-on-the-stage pontification for 2-hours every month. Not a good way to sell an idea. This post on The Tempered Radical  really brought our conversation back to me this week. Bill Ferriter hits it on head The moral of this story is that we CAN'T be surprised by teachers who run quiet classrooms where lecture is the norm and empowering learners is the exception when those same teachers sit silently listening in faculty meetings for decades on end. We can't really expect our teachers to change en mass if our leadership doesn't change - right? This is nothing new, but how much time have we wasted sharing news that could have been sent via email. In my life 6 years X 10 months X ...

So $162 later, I had a iPhone replacement. Like most others with Smartphones, this is so much more than a phone. Pictures, books, music...pretty pedestrian stuff, but I get my money's worth out of it and then some. While I was well aware of how iCloud helps manage content from the iTunes and Apps Store, I was really happy to get my contacts and Photo Stream back with just a username and password. How did we get along before the cloud? Beats me...I guess we just accepted data loss or jumped through hoops to back stuff up. A few weeks ago I just wrapped up listening to Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson for the second time. The part of the book where he Jobs berates the Mobile Me staff is memorable - the changes he made payed off from my vantage point. I'm sure there are people who can poke holes in the service, but it does it what I need it to do. Have my back.

Dropped my iPhone in the water yesterday. Yup, needed to check my email so badly that I had to take it out over water. I watched the life flicker out of it, then Googled what to do - so now it sits in a sealed bowl with rice. I have little hope. What was so important? Nothing...just the feeling that I can check it, so I should. Being that this information obsession is going to cost me, its time to take a breath and re-evaluate my usage.