Steve Spengler :: Blog :: 2008 Dr. Tim Tyson Presentation

As a technology director and education enthusiast, the administrator/teacher in me usually gets a ton out of administrative conferences. I'm not that old nor have I had 50 years in education but I've noticed a change in these types of conferences lately. The movement to take advantage of today's learner and the tools that they have access to are dominating educational change. Technology...how about that? As I sit in Dr. Tim Tyson's session, "Putting your entire school on the grid," he's talking to the group about how his middle school staff utilizes blogs and podcasts in their everyday teaching lives. Here are some highlights that stick out in my mind from his presentation

• required teachers to blog once/week
• daily teacher blogs don't require teachers to do more work...they require parents to do more work
• teacher blogs promote what's going on in the classroom
• imagine the spelling lists, vocabulary, and what's ACTUALLY going on in the classroom for that day to be made available for parents...the modern answer to the ever-so-important parent question: "What did you learn today in school?" [I truly feel bad about this one...my answer to my father was always, 'nothing'...SO sorry dad!]
• principals blog what's going on "at that moment" in the school community...get the word out to the parent/school community...create an informed community
• imagine the principal giving those critical updates, via a blog, out to staff...attend a district meeting and relay the message instantly...rather than gathering staff after the fact...but instantly
• create a blogging environment...categorized by content area and then teacher
• what's very interesting [and I didn't think about this] is that the blog becomes the "what I'm doing" components of the teacher portfolio
• he's speaking to Podcasting, which is a very simple technology that keeps learning authentic but school information timely and relevant.
• as a building leader/district leader...MODEL it ALL the time!!!!
• provide feedback that includes technology resources...make the seed grow!!!
• as a building leader...give credit where credit is due
• try things...experiment...but allow teachers to be comfortable enough to do that...failure is nothing more than a step to non-failure
• promote promote promote

I agree with Dr. Tyson. I've been promoting the use of technology as a communication tool within schools. It's not communication with just parents...but teachers...community members...anyone who wants to listen! If you've never had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Tyson, I highly recommend you seeking out some of his content. Best place to see his school in action...www.mabryonline.org/blogs.

Keep on bloggin! Web 2.0 is a mindset...

Steve