When you hire someone you hire their network!

As schools prepare their budgets for the new fiscal year, the time comes when either new positions or vacancies must be filled. In most instances, the hiring process can be quite labor intensive.  Assistant heads, division heads, teachers, and students are often involved in the process but in an effort to reduce load, I simply propose that your school consider this, when you hire someone you hire their network.  While the concept of networking is not a novel one, I would emphasize that my definition of network is better suited to the personal learning network.  If your school is serious about developing 21st century skills, developing relationships with other schools, and making better global citizens, then it is essential that those doing the hiring recognize the importance of the network potential employees can bring to their school.

After reviewing resumes, like many organizations, I head to the web to see what kind of digital footprint the potential candidate has. Essentially, does the candidate Google Well.  If things go well for the candidates, they are present in some of the following digital arenas: 

• they have a blog or they post comments regularly
• preferably about their educational philosophy or activities that convey that philosophy
• they have an active twitter account with useful tweets
• they actively participate in educational nings
• they have their own website
• an ePortfolio of activities
• their Facebook page does not contain questionable material

Will one miss a jewel in the rough? Possibly, but one can certainly glean a great deal more from a candidate who participates regularly online.  While this method works when looking for instructional technologists, tech directors, and tech coordinators, it is time for schools to be more selective and expect candidates to Google Well because it is no longer good enough to simply know the material.

Infographic: How Employers Use Social Media to Hire and Fire

from the Atlantic Monthly

Getting Back in the Saddle

My blog has been neglected for too many months.  It's not due to a lack of things to write about but more a time issue.  Fortunately, my PLN but more specifically @raventech wrote a piece on For Startes; Neglect is not an Option which for all intensive purposes has gotten me back in the saddle.

I have lots to share in the coming posts and I look forward to everyone's feedback and constructive criticisms.

Let's hear it for the 2010-2011 school year to prompt a fresh start.

Getting too comfortable with your PLN or Social Network: Colorful Acronyms

Is it possible for one to get too comfortable with their PLN or Social Network? If the past few weeks are any indication, I would have to say yes. So what exactly am I suggesting here? Well it's just an observation, but I am often surprised by tweets and or Facebook status updates that contain colorful acronyms or a missing letter from certain 4 letter words from professional colleagues, friends, and others. Now I am not guilty of using colorful language but I am particularly careful where, when, and with whom.  As role models for our children, students, and young faculty we must be vigilant and remind ourselves that our digital footprint extends much further than our PLN, friends, or followers.

So, is it necessary to use these acronyms or replace a letter so the profane word is not "obvious"?  I hope it is not because it reminds me of the message I convey regularly to my students and my own children. If you get comfortable using language a certain way, it becomes more difficult to control when it should or should not be used  and I believe the same is true with tweets and status updates.

The Bugs Bunny cartoons figured this out a long time ago.  There was no need to use an acronym or "misspell" the term, they kept the meaning hidden but it was still an exclamation. Now, I really respect my PLN and friends on FB but I can't help but wonder why it persists.  Our audience is much larger than we can ever imagine which means we must avoid this pitfall and not get too comfortable with our PLN or social network.  Young people struggle enough with the concept of knowing your audience, so let's avoid giving them mixed messages because the acronyms and misspellings are not fooling anyone.

123, ABC, TCP/IP, and now PLN-the power of your personal learning network

Our school is seriously considering replacing our desktops for a more mobile approach.  We've tossed around the idea of netbooks throughout the fall and I've been the guinea pig with my Acer Aspire One.  (See my post/review of this netbook here.)  I've run this netbook through some pretty rigorous use and our tech department seems satisfied that these devices can handle just about any classroom app we can throw at it.  The only exception however seems to be in the area of video production but I have yet to try anything beyond a standard Youtube length.

With our concerns about the netbook's firepower behind us, we needed to look into the sturdiness, network connectivity, and mobility of these devices.  We looked at the Acer, HP, Asus, and Dell netbooks and we found that the Dell seemed to fit our needs the best.  Our next step was to contact another school that uses the Dell Latitude 2100 with the cart to validate what we thought was going to be a good match for us.

Now as an avid twitterer, I've been tweeting away about our thoughts to Dell Latitude 2100 and sure enough, @bkolani aka Basil Kolani from the Dwight School in NYC replied via twitter that his school deployed 5 netbook carts in the fall of 2009.  So we set up a Skype session where several members of our tech department were able to ask specific questions about their experience not only with the netbooks but the cart itself.

If interested, one may listen to our Skype conversation here.  It is unedited so be patient in the opening seconds.

After the Skype session our tech department was relieved that many of their ideas regarding the new direction had been validated.

There is nothing better than having a member of your PLN validate the potential direction and financial investment our school will be considering and for that I am truly grateful.

http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/PLE+Diagrams

Dave Warlick's Picture of his Personal Learning Network

Don't waste a crisis-the Obama Speech

With the start of the school year upon us, I have spent the bulk of my time getting things ready for my teachers and students. The mundane duties of resetting passwords, getting our new students and teachers up to speed on how to use the network and SIS have prevented me from keeping up to date on day to day issues in the news.

Now I've heard inklings about Obama's speech here and there but I have been amazed as to how heated discussions have become. That said, the extended labor day weekend has given me the opportunity to play catch up. So while reviewing my tweets, I came across Will Richardson's latest blog post The Obama Speech. He states, "It would seem to me that there should be no better place for my children to watch that speech (or any other, for that matter) than in a place where ideas are encouraged, where critical thinking about those ideas is a natural part of the conversation, and where appropriate response and debate can flourish."

Well that passage from his latest blog post tugged at me while making pancakes this morning and it prompted me to head to my netbook and start writing. I agree with Will 100%. What better place to scrutinize, discuss, and debate than in schools.

But I would like to take it to the next level. I want teachers to act on it, to reach out beyond their classrooms and expose their students to a variety of perspectives. Utilize your personal learning network(PLN) to discuss and debate with students from across the states or abroad. Expose your students to regional perceptions from across the the USA but don't stop there. The global community is clearly interested in what President Obama has to say, so why not ask interntational members of your PLN to contribute too.

Clearly, there is much more to gain from President Obama's speech than lose. Take advantage of the teachable moment. Start an etherpad doc, a voicethread, write a blog post, do a podcast or video editorial just do something but don't waste a good "crisis".

The Personal Learning Network(PLN) is the New Reference Librarian

In the fall of 2008, our school joined PLP-Powerful Learning Practice. At our opening meeting, we were encouraged by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson to develop our PLN or Personal Learning Network. As a node within an expanding network, the PLN improves the probability that one will come in contact with those individuals who can assist us with in my case, technological aspirations, endeavors, and questions. However, it is the unique 2 way nature of the PLN that strengthens, validates, and ensures the reliability of the information within the network.

Well back to the title of this post. Having done a number of research papers during my tenure as a student and a teacher in training, I cannot emphasize the importance of reference librarians. Their acuity for detail and the vast quantities of information that they seem to absorb daily is astounding. However, the availablity of this resource is often limited to face 2 face meetings and email. As Web 2.0 technologies often do, an opportunity for a new paradigm in this arena has taken form and the tool is Twitter.

Now I have not written a research paper in a few years, so my reliance on reference librarians has been minimal but for several months now, I have relied heavily on my PLN via Twitter to gather information both actively and passively. Everyday my PLN provides me with some pearl of wisdom or a response to a query and I can only hope that I am able to do the same for those who have included me in their PLN.

Nevertheless, because I am Still Learning, I am grateful to have my very own PLN/Web 2.0 reference librarian.