Commencement Addresses

For all those who were unable to attend the Wawasee High School 2007 Commencement, we feature the audioblog replay of our Valedictorian and Salutatorian Addresses.

Just click on Play in the top left corner and you should hear the actual voices of our very own Wawasee students.

Thank you Lindsey and Elizabeth for making a special visit to my office today to make the recordings for the benefit of our community.

NOTE: I will take a break from blogging for a few weeks.

Enjoy your summer!!!!!!!!!!!

Teachers will always be needed...but schools? maybe not!

I recently shared some unusual developments with the entire faculty that down the road could impact education in unusual ways.

My premise was that "teachers will always be needed, but a place called 'school' may not be."

I showed the staff this 5 minute video describing the NMC College Campus in the software platform known as "Second Life." It is surreal enough to leave you wondering what it's all about.

Will Richardson said recently that our current educational system was built on the notion that learning content was scarce. Learning content is now abundant and every day it grows more accessible to the public. Motivated students will no longer need traditional schools because teachers will be everywhere and the best ones will be available without being "present."

Shortly after that, I was introduced to MIT's free course ware. Many of MIT's classes are being offered free to the public. That includes lectures, notes, videos, assignments, and virtually everything except a grade and a credit.

Motivated students will have access to absolutely world class educational materials and teachers. Most will still need the personal touch, but in the text message world they live in, who's to say the personal touch isn't digital instead of analog!

Technology is the devil...and other thoughts from Will R. and friends

Here is an interesting blog post from Will Richardson who has left the classroom to speak to educators and share the content from his new book. Will was a pioneer in the use of technology and web tools in the classroom. The blog comments are also very thoughtful.

Will Richardson was in Fort Wayne last week and I got a chance to sit and visit with him some. He is finishing a 3 week tour of the U.S. and he seems genuinely discouraged at the response he is getting across the nation.

Why? He is frustrated at the pace of change and how educators seem reluctant to embrace technological innovations, especially the use of internet and web 2.0 applications in the classroom.

Surveys and teacher feedback repeatedly reveal that students are not engaging or investing in their school "work." Yet the multimedia, hyper speed world of our young people continually leaps ahead of us adults in the implementation of technology in the classroom.

Will's post and additional comments are found here.

Up next - Mind controlled video games

It looks like the next breakthrough in video game technology will involve controlling the game characters with the brain as opposed to hand controls.

I suppose it makes no difference whether you tell the computer to do something or whether you tell your hands to make the computer do something.

At least humans are still telling the computer to do something instead of the other way around!

Article here.

Engaging students with technology

One possible reason kids are so disconnected from school is that their world is changing far faster than our world... at least as far as "school" is concerned.

Here is a thoughtful blog post about how the technological world of the teenager is far more diverse and integrated than the type of assignments we give in schools.

Blog post here.

Technology revolution continues

No more keyboards
Voice recognition software is common place
Everything is wireless
Students finally give up books for wireless Internet connected tablets
and more....

Bill gates says here that the tech revolution will not plateau.

Wawascene makes eSchool News

The Wawascene was part of a featured story in eSchool News.

We were tipped off by N.W. teacher Cheryl Miller who is a subscriber.

Changes coming...

I am still hoping that our community and our students can be a model for the country on how a blog can provide an open avenue for communication. For two years the "comments feature" has been turned on allowing all anonymous comments. It worked very well. During that time I can only recall deleting one or two comments due to profanity. Problems have come with the increased volume of traffic. For the near future we will only turn the comments on for posts that are substantive in nature where a variety of thought and opinion are relevant. Announcements of various kinds such as snow delays and cancellations will have the comments turned off.

Blogging is best done in small doses because we all have work to do! The volume of inflammatory comments has created an editing problem. We do not have the time to monitor the blog all day and spend our time deleting or censoring comments.

Why do I say a "model for the country?" There have been 90,209 different computers access this site in the last 7 days for a total of 229,791 page loads in one week. That means other parts of the country are watching our "experiment" here.

For the near future we will only turn the comments on for posts that are substantive in nature where a variety of thought and opinion are relevant. Announcements of various kinds such as snow delays and announcements will have comments turned off.

We will see how that works. If that doesn't work then we will have to either require all commenters to register which many blogs do (that means you are identifiable) or turn off the interactive features which makes this all dry and boring!

Let's see if we can find the middle ground! Good luck!

Why I seldom censor comments

A handful of people have suggested that I should delete some of the more inflammatory comments that get posted, especially those that take potshots at teachers or administrators.

Here are some random thoughts on the issue:

1. The wide-open forum of the internet is here to stay. Schools should embrace the technology and use it for good, instead of getting squeamish. The internet has given everyone an equal voice. You just didn't hear that voice before. Not all voices will make sense to you and not all voices will be respectful. That doesn't mean they weren't out there before - it just means they ran in different circles than you and you never heard that voice.

2. When you were in school did you know who the superintendent was? Did you interact with him or her? Having a voice in the past meant you had to have "connections." Today, connections may be technology-based.

3. It will take time for people to adjust to maintaining their dignity when they think no one is physically watching. You see, they just don't realize yet that the whole world is now watching. It's just electronic. Bill Gates calls it, "Living the documented life." Every key stroke you make leaves a digital footprint. Every place you go the security cameras and web cams are likely to be recording you. Every person that posts wild ramblings and embarrassing personal information on their website will have to explain it to a future employer. Many large businesses now employ people specifically to search out every internet reference to a potential employee before they hire them.

4. Twenty years ago you older folks left your imprint on the world by carving your initials in the tree with your rusty pocketknife. "Leroy was here." Today your children and grandchildren blog their views to the world and publish their daily lives to thousands by posting to their personal websites. It's no different in that respect, their imprint is just digital and far reaching - even into the future. It is a permanent record.

5. As far as censoring or deleting comments goes, I have not yet had to censor any comments except for one or two for profanity.

6. Comments, suggestions, criticisms and compliments are appropriate here when they are in reference to policies, practices or school-wide issues. If a criticism is in reference to a specific individual or department it is best made directly to the individual or their "boss." I will delete any inflammatory comments that reference an individual or employee. Except for references to me. Everyone considers the superintendent fair game I guess. (Someone came up to me recently and started pinching my upper arm lightly. They looked up with a grin and said, "I was just checking to see if you had thick skin!")

7. The biggest problem with internet communication is that it lacks the non-verbal cues that accompany face-to-face interaction.

8. And the simplest reason for blunt and sometimes inflammatory posting is actually quite simple. Some people get lazy (perhaps they aren't very good typists) and they don't take the time to soften their words and explain themselves more carefully the way they would face-to-face.

Netiquette

We evidently have attracted a lot of new readers with the recent snow delay controversies. Evidently it was the "Jerry Springer" atmosphere that attracted so many! There were 11,000 separate computers that accessed the site over 39,000 times yesterday. Given the volume, I thought it might be helpful to provide a few links that review internet etiquette. Why?

In educational terms, it is a "teachable moment!" :-)

Most blog sites or internet forums go through growth stages as new readers grow accustomed to interacting online. It is said that much of human communication is transmitted through non-verbal cues. If this is true than it would be easy to misread the written communication of others in an online format, or to forget basic courtesies when posting anonymously.

Here is a link to Wikipedia (an open, collaborative, online encyclopedia) that discusses some of the pitfalls to online communication.

Here is a link to an excerpt from a book entitled "Netiquette" that summarizes 10 guidelines for online interaction.

Here is a link to a 10 question quiz on "netiquette."

I do not post these because I am offended or upset by the criticism. It comes with the territory and sometimes it is deserved.

I post these because a number of commenters tried to bring civility and politeness back into the picture and found it difficult.

Online access to grades and attendance

Students:
Do you know what your current grade average is in each class?
Do you know if you have missing assignments still to turn in?

Parents:
Have you sat down with a printout of your son or daughter's grades and discussed it with them?
Don't forget those high school age young adults. They need to know you care too.

It's a click and a password away.

Click on the grade portal links on the sidebar, enter your password and take a "look-see."

If you do not have your password handy or you lost it, call the school or e-mail them for the information. (TIP: Post the passwords somewhere handy and teach your children to access and monitor their own grade book!)

SE 457-4484
MLF 658-9444
WMS 457-8839
NE 834-7644
WHS 457-3147

In addition to having online access to grades and attendance, next year we will be able to provide access to your child's lunch account as well.