Getting geek on

After conf call with Carol and Adambot meeting I am off in many directions  today.

1. looking for our classes at Michigan learns online
Got lost and found some great resource for online best practices

I am poking around Michigan Learns Online. There are a lot of resources for online educational leadership around best practices.

Such as Essential Principles of High-Quality Online Teaching:  http://info.sreb.org/programs/EdTech/pubs/PDF/Essential_Principles.pdf

Start up guide for online learning ( yea we are passed this but there are resources there) http://www.onlineprogramhowto.org/

For stuff here: http://www.remc.org/projects/milearnsonline/getting-started/

2. Creating mindstorm classes for elementary 

Found the local lego education rep. 

3. questioned ( that's pushing by asking questions) into a meeting with Google about Chromebook

This grew out of a comment that Carol said virtual program will not get full FTF's. They are considering 80% of FTF. So they need the price point of chromebooks. 

I feel great. I am moving again. I felt like I stalled during the winter. It was a cold late spring. 

Great Discussions

Today we had a great discussion about what defines promotable and progress. It was a long conversation and we disagreed. I was drained by the end of it. But I was energized. This is the type of team I thrive in being part of. The innovation and team decision making. The leadership that truly trusts the input of the teachers. I feel that later I will look back and reflect this is one of the best groups I was part of.

I used the skills I have learned in my learning focused conversation PD. Others were uses them too. Creating a high level of discussion to create valid decisions.Leaving this,  I felt I will never be happy unless I am being innovative.

streamlining is a disservice???

we have established the streamline plan
but is this as rigorous

As I reflect on the idea of us making policy to remove some of the curriculum, I need to remind myself that this has always happened in our classrooms. It's not idea but the bottom line is that no critical learning is skipped.

This is what we are preparing them for!

Today at about 1pm the Associated Press twitter feed put out a simple message

Breaking New: Explosion at the White House and Barack Obama injured.
1.9 million followers
5K retweets later
The stock market goes down 14 points in three minutes.


The stock market tanked based on trading algorithm not humans.

Details here  graphic Look at the market. It the a recession or it's a tweet

More details here

This is what was are raising our students for. A world we cannot image. Maybe they cannot image with 72 characters goes around the globe and crashes markets!!

chrome book limitations

google docs does not format well. I used to be just a font addict. There are very few fonts in google docs. Also I am not sure the formatting is high functioning enough for MLA requirements.

Then there is PDFs. For the student it might work but teachers need to edit PDFs. I have not found a good extension or app for that.

So have the chromebook. 4/19/13 physically the are really nice. Light weight streamline large keyboard. Lighter and cheaper than an Ipad with a keyboard.
The apps are nice. The really are just links to websites. The extensions move more options forward.

Google Chat could replace Skype
Not sure how Connect functions - I need to test if you can host in Chrome
Editing PDF's and creating MLA level papers are still an issue

App are there for supporting subjects we teach Geogebra

chromebook questions

The basic principal of a chrome book is there are no apps loaded locally. It's very internet dependent.

What other apps do we load on the standard student load?
what about printing? scanning to a chromebook?
If you use the 16 gb version what about uploading tests?
what about uploading papers written on google docs instead of open office?
you cannot share a document as turning in an assignment because of the dropbox feature

first we need to know what the LMS will support and require.
PDF editing? Open office?
How will you do the drop box-knowing that's a different LMS.

In order to truly report on how well this will work for the high school, we need to know more about how the high school will work.

For my teacher use, I need PDF pro editor and tablet inference.
Also we need to be able to host webinars on it

can students attend connect sessions??

We should teach the different between apps and extenstions
The students will need a PDF editor  app or extension
Connect there is an extension but no app and cannot host from chrome
They will need to use Google Drive and Docs

For VLAC how will we attach tests to the drop box??

can we build a basic load for the chrome books/ with extensions and apps?

School popping the unspoken consequence of school of choice

Yes parents should have educational options that fight their child's style of learning. But the cost of that menu of choices should not be character skills and quality education.
Avoiding the issue and blaming others are natural coping methods of the human condition. When we create school of choice options. We create the opportunity for using these coping methods in our child's education also. When a child's education hits the hard subjects such as possible learning disabilities, difficult curriculum or challenging relationships, the school of choice option can be an out.
School of choice has created a group of "school hoppers". These are families that switch school often. It could be going from the public neighborhood school to a charter school. It could be a switch from one public school to another in a neighboring community.

There are questions surrounding the general impressions of this "school hoppers" that should be addressed with research.
How many students are switching schools each year?
What are the moving patterns? Is it a one time move or a pattern of moving?
What are the switching patterns? Public to public school? Public to charter? Private?
What are the test scores impacts? Grades impact? Graduation impacts?