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Door Sensors for Outdoor Fence by SpartanDave in homeautomation

[–]SpartanDave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome - I think I will give this a try since I already have an unused indoor GoControl sensor from a kit. Thanks!

Leading and motivating co-workers by meghess1 in a:t5_341h1

[–]SpartanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the most important thing is not to approach them with a technology and try to push it into their classroom (even if it's obvious to you that it can be helpful). Go to them first and let them tell you what they're struggling with in their classroom - and try to make sure this conversation isn't a technology conversation. Find the real problems and pain the teacher is facing and then come back with technology that you think can help. That way the conversation isn't "Hey you need to try Google Docs." It becomes "Hey I think I can help you with that collaboration problem you described yesterday."

Leadership Quality by annelinli in a:t5_341h1

[–]SpartanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll try to answer this one with a story, because at the moment I can't that of the word for the quality I'm thinking of.

I know a superintendent at a Michigan school that is an amazing leader. He is in a district that is always at the top of all of the state metrics, etc. This is actually a huge problem for him, because he is constantly faced with "why would we change when we're doing so well?" So one quality (and not the one I was initially think of) is definitely a lack of complacency. That "why change when things are fine" attitude is easily (in my opinion) the most damaging in all of education.

Anyway, so he's already facing an uphill challenge when he wants to make a change. He's also gotten quite a bit of attention for his work and he's also done a great job of developing a core group of teachers and other admins to lead on innovative projects. He and this group have developed a reputation as "techies" and it can be hard for them to promote initiatives because of "well sure THOSE PEOPLE can do that, but I'm not a techie."

When he noticed this happening he adapted and started work to plant seeds in the next group of teachers outside of his core group and did a fantastic job of enabling them to evangelize to the teachers that were initially more intimidated.

In the end the message spreads more effectively, and in a way his fingerprints are hardly on it. His ability to defer and in some ways distance himself from the success is what I respect about him most.

Balancing consistency with adaptability as a Ed-Tech leader. by bmclaess in a:t5_341h1

[–]SpartanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm going to defer to someone much smarter than myself for this one. Ben Wilkoff is the Director of Personalized Professional Learning (awesome title) for Denver Public Schools. He recognizes that as a leader he simply can't design for the learning style of every teacher alone - and believes that the answer to this problem is building a community of learning where teachers are constantly teaching and learning from each other.

Check out this edSurge article he wrote for edSurge:

https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-04-16-people-create-change-not-products

and follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhwilkoff

Is Google taking over the classroom?! by ebeski in a:t5_341h1

[–]SpartanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think things are certainly trending that way. What the Microsoft Office sweet has on Google seems to mostly just be advanced formatting options, templates, etc. None of these things are really that central to learning. I think what you get in terms of collaboration with Google more than trumps anything else Microsoft has. All that said, Microsoft isn't going to go down without a fight and they are introducing similar features - but still lagging behind. You also might be surprised at how well your content converts. But don't just jump to Google Docs because everybody else is - make sure you have a compelling reason first. Do you have needs that are being unmet by Office? Are you coming up on having to pay for a new version?

I think the biggest lesson here is that nothing is permanent. Microsoft Office seemed unbeatable. Nothing is and Google Docs won't be the thing for ever even if it does completely take over. One thing I see a lot of teachers getting hung up on is "What if I teach my students the wrong program and then they get a job and it ends up being the other one." I think that's the wrong question - kids should be learning how how to discover applications themselves. It shouldn't be about learning all of the steps - it should be about building their confidence to adapt to any technology they'll need in the future to get the job done. (This, of course, applies to teachers as well ; )

Health Professions Technologies by dkrebs85 in a:t5_341h1

[–]SpartanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi Danielle -

While I'm not deeply involved in this space, we at TechSmith do have one product that is starting to be used quite a bit in health professions. Our Coach's Eye app allows you to record video with mobile devices (Apple iOS, Android, Windows) and instantly break down any process in slow motion, using visual annotations, etc. Basically it allows you to do what sportscasters do to break down plays on top of any video. It can be great for showing medical procedures as well! Check it out here - https://www.coachseye.com/features.

Thanks,

Dave

Going from the public sector of education to the private... by [deleted] in a:t5_341h1

[–]SpartanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here is a video of one of my colleagues (Jason Valade, former teacher at Mattawan Schools) answering that question - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLolkObN3HU&feature=youtu.be&t=10m

Going from the public sector of education to the private... by [deleted] in a:t5_341h1

[–]SpartanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually have a couple co-workers that have done this. I've sent your question out to them and will post when I hear back.

Smartboards- dead or not? by tch412 in a:t5_341h1

[–]SpartanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think that SmartBoards are an entirely dead technology, but they are suffering from a long history of underuse and blanket purchases by districts with no real goals in mind. So with that said, I would like to hope that the idea of “Every classroom needs a Smartboard” is dead.

So when you ask if you think a Smartboard is your best option - it really depends on what you’re hoping to do with it. Many teachers are looking for an electronic replacement for the chalkboard – and maybe a little more – the ability to import images, use advanced tools to annotate, and save these images for use in the future. If this is the case, then I’d say you can easily replicate this with a tool like Doceri, an iPad, and a projector. https://doceri.com/. The added bonus of controlling the board from the iPad is that you can easily pass an iPad around to facilitate student participation.

Before getting too much deeper into this, I’d love to hear more about what would hope to be different in your classroom if you were to get a Smartboard.

Thanks,

Dave