Florida is the worst among states at graduating black males

Douglas Lyons at the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel writes that Florida has yet to bridge black-white gap, and is in fact #50 when it comes to graduation rates among black makes.

Now there's something to be proud of. But wait, isn't there a contradiction here? Aren't the overwhelming majority of schools in Florida rated as "A" or "B" schools based on assessment tests? Don't all the charts and graphs indicate that kids are doing a better job in reading and math than ever before? Seems to me that our politicians tout how much better things are getting under our current leadership. How is it that despite all this testing and measuring and efforts to make schools and teachers accountable we still lose 70% of black male students? Students who quit and drop out long before they've finished their basic education.

Of course, the answer is simple. We aren't asking the right questions or applying the right measures. What's more significant? That a student can write a 5 paragraph essay that meets the standards of the state grading matrix, or that they are engaged in the education process sufficiently to find it relevant enough to stick with it? That they find enough value in getting an education that they see it through to the end?

Here's a dirty little secret for you. By the time many black males get through middle school the education system has given up on them. In fact, in many places where standardized testing results have replaced education as the reason for opening school doors every day those students who are underperforming and unmotivated are shuffled out the door as soon as legally possible. Many schools have discovered that the best way to insure the school gets a good grade (and everyone keeps their jobs) is to get those kids out the door and into alternative schools or charter schools, or well, just to hang out on the corner if that's what they prefer. As long as they're not around to be tested when it comes time for the almighty FCAT.

I'm not saying that Mr. Lyons has it all right in his article. He cites the failure of various school reform programs in Florida as an indication that schools are failing. The deeper truth is that in Florida we're pretty good at developing new programs and announcing new initiatives, but we don't make much effort to actually fund those programs. How else to explain our firmly held position down at the bottom of per-pupil spending as compared to all other states? Last time I checked Florida was at #47, and we've languished in the lower 40's for over a decade.

And of course, black male students themselves have to bear responsibility for this trend as well. It's no secret that there are significant economic and social problems that have a direct bearing on the ability of black male students to finish school. And it's not fair to expect schools to fix those problems all by themselves.

But one thing is clear. We're using the wrong metrics when we define how successful a school is. None of us got into education so we could make framed copies of our learning gain charts at the end of the year. None of us became teachers because we were excited about examining leading indicators or navigating through multi-color reports on student achievement.

We got into education to make a difference in the life of kids. If we're failing to do that with 70% of some populations of students then how can we say that we've earned anything but a failing grade?

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How Many Great Teachers Does It Take To Reach One Kid?

I posted yesterday about the Digital Online Predators Act and what I and others in the field of educational technology feel is the potentially chilling effect of this new legislation. Martin posted a comment that got me to thinking just a bit about how many excited, engaged, inquisitive, and resourceful teachers it takes to make a difference in a kid's life. As I reflected on Martin's comment that not many teachers even know what blogs or podcasts or wikis are, much less use them, it dawned on me that it really isn't that important that all teachers are doing this kind of work, only that some are and that those few can make a world of difference.

If you think back on your own education, especially once you got into the secondary grades where you had multiple teachers, you probably remember just the really good teachers. Those teachers that got you engaged in what you were doing, and did so in a way that went beyond simply reading a textbook and filling out worksheets and taking tests. Sure, there were plenty of those rote learning teachers who's classes you dreaded attending, but then there were usually those one or two that were going the extra mile to make their classes something more than just drill and exercise.

For me, there's a long list. Mr. Durden, my 7th grade civics teacher, who got me interested in politics because we'd have long class discussions about social issues. (And who also was my first African-American teacher, which taught me that there were a wide range of people out there in the world who had vastly different experiences than I did.) Or Ms. Craig, the 70-something Latin teacher who imbued her lessons with so much enthusiasm that you couldn't help but actually be interested in her lessons. Or Mr. Wiita, whose lessons in logic, critical thinking, and debate got me to thinking in new ways about the world of ideas.

I had plenty of dud teachers too, and based on my own time in schools I know that there are still those classes that kids hate to attend, mostly because the teacher isn't doing anything to engage them.

So even though I agree with Martin that not many teachers will understand what can be done with educational technology tools, much less understand what they do, there will be those who turn to these new avenues in education as a means to get their students involved in their own learning. And maybe that one hour that kids spend with those teachers is enough to get them excited about science or reading or social studies or art.

That's been the pattern in education for many years, and I suspect that it will be the same for many years to come. Students get engaged by a teacher who is passionate about teaching and uses every means at their disposal to get their students excited about learning. Socrates did it by asking questions. Today's teachers may do it by posting to their class blog and asking students to respond.

The bottom line isn't that every teacher needs to use these methods, just that some go the extra mile to get students involved. In the lives of most kids, that's enough.

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Will DOPA Kill Web 2.0 in Education?

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed HR 5319, the Deleting Online Predators Act, which will have a chilling effect on the kinds of communication, connection, creativity, and collaboration that is the hallmark of emerging Web 2.0 applications. Imagine an education system where most blogs, podcasts, wikis, and other collaborative work environments would be banned. This is what will happen if yet another layer of laws is added to the two existing laws covering student privacy and inappropriate web content.

There is a daily battle between educators and IT security forces in keeping the new tools of communication open to teachers and students. DOPA will make it even harder for educators to determine what is the best use of these emerging technologies. Instead, automated filters that snoop out keywords and automatically block web sites with no human intervention will become even more onerous than they already are.

For background on the issue and to get some tips on how you can join the American Library Association (ALA), Google, Yahoo!, and others in opposing this legislation read:

Will Richardson's DOPA Alert

David Warlick's Call Your Representative Today

Finally, this quote from Beth York, from the ALA, pretty well sums up how those of us concerned that laws are being created based on media hype and uninformed opinion, is an excellent summary:

Youth librarians believe, and more importantly know from experience, that education about safe Internet practices – for both youth and parents – is the best way to protect young people. We
believe that the overly broad technological controls that would be required under DOPA are
often ineffective given the fast-moving nature of modern technology. Further, such
technological controls often inadvertently obstruct access to beneficial sites. In essence, we
believe that this legislation will lead to the blocking of essential and beneficial Interactive Web
applications and will further widen the digital divide.

The full testimony from Ms. York is available here as a PDF.

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A Statistician's Take on No Child Left Behind and Education Policy

In today's Wall Street Journal (of all places), Charles Murray writes that the revolution that the federal No Child Left Behind Act has wrought in public education goes beyond just the negative effects that it has brought to teaching and learning. As he aptly summarizes:

(NCLB) holds good students hostage to the performance of the least talented, at a time when the economic future of the country depends more than ever on the performance of the most talented.

Of course, that is just one of the many negative effects wrought by NCLB in America's classrooms. We have seen a huge shift in attention away from education and towards data analysis and efforts to create a correlation between test scores and curriculum. Nowadays every decision made at a school is filtered through the dirty lens of test scores.

Reading scores too low? Guess we'll have to cancel that art class, since we need the teaching position for yet another reading teacher. Is your school grade not what it should be? Sorry about that Mr. or Mrs. Principal. You're out of your job at this school. Despite what the parents, students, and staff say about your leadership, clearly you aren't doing a good job. Otherwise the kids at your school should have done better on those tests. We have to sacrifice you and your career at the altar of higher test scores.

And on and on and on it goes. Overcrowded elective classes. Schools that begin in mid-August. A huge shift in education funding towards efforts to warehouse data on students and to hold teachers and principals accountable for the so-called learning gains that students are or aren't making. All judged by those once a year tests that all students must take.

Ironically, as Mr. Murray points out, the entire testing industry that has appeared inside our schools and school districts and departments of educations is built on a faulty premise--that all students should score in the upper percentile on their tests. Despite decades of research to the contrary, the so-called statisticians who are driving education policy have built their standards on a set of "uninformative measures."

Now, if you ask any teacher they will tell you that they have co-workers who aren't very good at their jobs. They might be lazy, poorly trained, or just unmotivated to do better. Just like in private industry. There are schools and teachers and principals who don't do a good job with their charges. So standards aren't entirely a bad thing.

And certainly schools in poor neighborhoods need much greater attention than they have traditionally received. But instead of more teachers, smaller class sizes, high expectations for performance and behavior, and innovative teaching, students in those schools are hammered by a relentless barrage of standardized tests, practice tests, diagnostic tests, and teaching to the test. Not exactly what those kids need, yet it is what they face in the days when NCLB rules education policy.

But as Mr. Murray aptly points out, the federal mandates that have been championed by the Bush Administration are not the answer.

Statistically speaking, they don't even ask the right questions.

(Thanks to my friend Linda Rathgeber for sending this via e-mail and getting me all stirred up. Again.)

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I've Fallen Out of Love with Mail.app

Sad to say, but I've just about had it with my precious Macintosh Mail application. Oh yeah, you teased me back when you were new and we were courting. You got me to dump Eudora and long for the time when I could rush home at the end of the day and leave behind that harlot Entourage that I have to use at work, into the arms of my sweet Mail with your easy to manage folders and reliable rules, and best of all, that fabulous spam filter of yours. You were always so eager to please, and Lord knows, I appreciate that more than just about anything.

Buy now? I don't know anymore. It just seems like we've grown apart. Was it something I said, or did you just become bored with our relationship? I know, I wasn't happy when you had your makeover and the folders moved from the right over to the left, but I stuck with you even when I thought things didn't look right. "I'll get used to it" I said to myself. "She's just going through a phase."

But lately honey, I just don't feel the love anymore. Look at some of the subject lines that you've let through, subjects that you would have thoughtfully removed for me in the past:

Sensationall revoolution in medicine!
ReviewHome
777Lucky
upholding being prepared disaster
Fatblaster is an all natural herbal formulated thermogenic weight loss supplement.
Re: In forget go tubful flunkey fertilise
You have a mail from Svetlana, 27 y.o., Russia, dating
AccountID along with your request
Re: eenit VlcAGRA

Now back in the day, those would have gone directly into the Junk folder. But not now. Something has changed. Somehow you just don't seem to care anymore.

Maybe counseling could help. But more and more I'm beginning to think that our relationship has run its course and its time for us to part. As sad and painful as that will likely be, neither one of us seems to be happy with the way things are.

For now, I'm bouncing some messages and sending others to the Junk folder on my own, but there has to be give and take on both sides for any relationship to work out. And I'm just not sure how long we can go on like this.

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Will You Be Having the Frosty Cold One or the Fistfight Today?

South Florida has spawned an entire genre of fiction built around a simple premise. This place can just be flat-out weird. Whether it's Carl Hiaasen or Tim Dorsey, or the many others who write in the same vein, these writers know that lurking just below the surface of any average day in Florida there's the potential for all heck to break loose.

Such was the case with me this past Sunday, when I got an up-close-and-personal look at some of that South Florida weirdness.

Thinking back on this now, the entire venue for what happened was odd enough in and of itself. The family and I had taken a trip to our local version of the "We're Indians By God, and You Messed With Us Long Enough, and Now We're Going to Build a Casino in Your Backyard". For us, it's the Seminole Hard Rock Casino where a tiny strip of industrial land that somehow remained in the possession of the Seminole Indian tribe was converted into a mini-Vegas hotel resort complex where you can also (apparently) smoke until your lungs collapse while feeding cash into a slot machine. Let's just say that the setting is a bit odd to begin with.

We weren't at all interested in the gambling part, but instead took my daughter and her best-buddy--who moves out of state in a few days--down to wander about in the shopping area, play in the giant pool, and then finish with a sleep-over at the hotel. Basically, one last fling for the girls.

After the requisite walking around and seeing what's here was completed, we settled in by the pool, and being somewhat parched from said walking around in the mid-day heat, we really, really needed some beverages. A couple of nice cold beers sounded nice, and having been studiously ignored by the waitress who was occasionally delivering drinks in our area, I decided to head for the bar myself.

Now I'm no novice at getting a drink order filled at a busy bar. You find a spot, you step up, and then you wait for the bartender to catch your eye. In the case of the pool-side bar there was the added attraction of lots of action going on. One of the bartenders was attempting some suction trick where he was able to get a beer can to vacuum onto his palm, which led to one of the ladies asking if he could do the same thing on her chest. (Having now seen this I have to say to the ladies that having a beer can protruding from the top of your chest is not the kind of fashion statement you want to be known for.)

And then there was the guy I silently dubbed "Testosterone Boy", a middle-aged dude who spends a fair amount of time at the gym, but on this day was playing cock of the walk with his buddies, trying to impress with loud talk and big tips for the bartenders. Funny, in a loud obnoxious sort of way.

But after waiting awhile and taking in the sights, I started to wonder if the bartenders were not seeing me standing there patiently. So as Bartender #1 zipped past I called out--"Can I get a couple of beers please?"

"Sure, be right with you", followed by the serving of drink orders to several people on the other side of the bar.

Bartender #2 goes past. "Hey bud, can I get a beer?" I said.

"Sure, sure, right with you".

Hmph. Well, let's wait and see what happens. Guy standing next to me gets a beer and leaves. Girls in bikinis are getting served immediately for some reason. Big tipping Testosterone Boy is getting his drinks.

"Hey buddy, am I in a bartender free zone here" I say as the next bartender goes cruising past.

And this is where things turned weird.

Apparently, something in what I said was highly offensive to this bartender, as his reaction was to grab an empty beer can from the bar, slam it on the ground, and tell me, "I'll get you your drink when I'm damned good and ready."

"No, no", I said, "That won't be necessary any more. Now I think I'd rather talk with your manager."

"Sure, fine, whatever. Talk to the manager. I don't give a ****. Hey! Jason! Guy here wants to talk to a manager."

Jason, the 20-something manager hustles over.

"Is there a problem?"

"No, no problem. I'm just trying to get a couple of beers here and your bartender reacts by throwing a beer can down and cursing at me."

"Well, that's to be expected."

"Expected?! Really?! You *expect* your bartenders to throw things and curse at the customers?"

"Well, it's really busy back there and they're changing shifts, so everyone is a little frustrated."

"OK, but throwing things and cursing can't really be what you want your employees to do is it?"

"Well, it's not like he threw the beer can *at* you. He was just angry about being interrupted." Jason deadpans.

"OK, OK, no problem. Look, I just want to get a couple of drinks."

"Of course sir. I'll get those for you."

As Jason and I step back to the bar I feel a hand on my shoulder and hear "Hey, how's it going?"

Apparently Testosterone Boy has decided that he needs to be part of this show.

"Uh, hi." I say, and take the hand that TB offers.

"You know, these are really good guys working here. We don't want any trouble."

"No worries", I say. "I just want to get a couple of drinks."

TB continues to shake my hand, and has now introduced a perceptible extra squeeze. "You understand what I'm saying, right? We don't want any trouble."

"Uh, no. Of course not. Like I said, I just want to get some drinks for the family."

"'Cause if you give them trouble you and I are going to have a problem."

As I shake my hand out of his paw I look TB in the eye. "You don't actually work here do you?"

"No."

"Then I don't see how this is any of your business. The manager and I have everything worked out just fine. Thanks for your concern."

This, apparently, was the second highly offensive thing that I said on this particular afternoon.

"Look %#$(!#&", says Testosterone Boy. "You can $%#(%$ and then %$&#$&$& and your ^(($!!".

Hoo boy, this is going nowhere good.

"Look buddy, My apologies. I'm sorry. Really. Just trying to get a few drinks here. That's all. Then I want to go sit in the sun and chill out."

"Yeah," says TB. "You need to get your drinks and go. Matter of fact, I'll buy them for you."

"No, no, that's not necessary."

"Look %^&@^!. I said that I'm buying your drinks and that's all there is to it."

"Well, OK bud. If you insist. I'm happy to let you buy me some drinks."

"Damn straight." TB refused to shake hands again, and reeled off back down the bar where his buddies were paying rapt attention to the potential for excitement.

Me. I just wanted that beer. And without the side of stupid male posing and posturing.

To draw this tale to a close, Jason apologized for the drunken customer (but never for his rude bartender) and somebody other than me paid for the drinks. I raised my glass in a salute to Testosterone Boy as I left the bar, enjoying the sight of the tendons in his neck bulging as I turned away. And then finally, it was time to have that cold drink and actually try to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

Like I said. South Florida is weird.

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JamJar: Adobe's Foray into Shared Network Spaces

I dashed off a few comments about JamJar yesterday, and was pretty interested in the concept of a persistent single workspace for sharing work with others. This is something that many have attempted (WebSphere anyone? SharePoint?) but few have been able to create in such a way that even neophytes to shared work online could operate. JamJar attempts to differ in its ease of use, casual environment, and strong emphasis on the user experience.

I'm not saying that JamJar meets every need, or that it's perfect, but as a conceptual exercise it does look interesting. (I'm not even sure how long the service will operate, as this is a proof of concept). But it ceratainly is a fun, even playful, environment to work in and may have appeal in many markets. I can certainly see educators using JamJar or a service like it to work with each other or with their students.

You'll need a free Adobe account to play around with JamJar on your own, but if you're just interested in a quick overview you can take a look at the screen shots I've stitched together here into a Captivate video demo of the interface and some of its features.

I'm not sure exactly what Adobe plans to do with JamJar--sell it, sell the service themselves, pay for the service with the annoying Google ads on the side, or simply let it hang out there as an example of what can be done with Flex and Flash technologies--but in the meantime you can easily create your own account and see for yourself what this is all about.

The JamJar home page has instructions on what's required to get started, including Flash Player 9 and an Adobe account.

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Flash Licensing for Learning—Is There a Better Alternative?

A 16 year-old student makes a compelling case for the need for a developer's version of Adobe Flash over at the G-unix blog. He's after a copy of Flash that will allow him to examine the coding environment in the same way he can with ColdFusion--by working in a developer's edition that restricts publishing rights. This type of license would allow a student or someone who is learning the technology to work and develop and think and do the kind of creative play that often needs to accompany learning.

And I say bully for him. He's absolutely dead-on that there is no free or open source alternative to Flash, and what Adobe is doing by failing to offer a better alternative for students is effectively walling off potential clients. Worse, Adobe needs a vibrant and diverse community of coders and programmers learning Flash and entering the workforce. Their current pricing policies, that fail to address the need for students to get copies of the software on computers where they have time to explore, is ultimately counter-productive for everyone. Imagine if the next great idea for networked interactivity is locked up in the head of some teenager somewhere. The one that can't afford the $300 it would cost him to get his own copy of Studio 8, or even the $200 he needs to purchase Flash.

I understand that there would be problems with water-marking as one commenter points out, but perhaps a solution that allows for a student to obtain a license from their teacher for a set period of time could be arranged. Others, such as SketchUp and even Maya have figured out ways to provide personal learning editions without seriously impacting their bottom line.

I have to wonder why Adobe can't do the same.

Or are they content to let the new ideas come from kids who gravitate towards the technologies they can afford?

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JamJar—You Tease You

Well! Talk about getting all geekily excited over a new application, only to find that the demo is down (overwhelmed perhaps?) and even screen shots are hard to find. Man, this really sounds awesome, but my fingers are twitching on the keyboard to try it out.

Here's the concept behind JamJar, a new social networking application from Adobe that uses Flex and Flash and Flash Communication server to deliver...well, let's just cut to the quotes from the "JamJar Conceptual Review" (PDF, 50K):

That original concept was to develop technology that would transform the
existing 1990's desktop metaphor into a scrollable, accessible, scribble-able,
collaboration canvas that would allow multiple users access to the backdrop of our
personal computing spaces....

(The interface is..) Graphical: This term covers many concepts. It covers the issue of being able to
literally touch the content you are manipulating on the web and drag it around. It
covers the fact that color, imagery, fonts, and mixes of media are necessary to express
our ideas and engage others with them. It covers the fact that for many of us, a
graphical system is inherently easier to use and that to date solutions that embrace this
concept have been limited and rare. And not to be overlooked, the graphical nature of
JamJar makes it an enjoyable experience. It provides a 'pleasure point' rather than
simply addressing a customer 'pain point'.

...more interested in creating a product that allowed you to have more meaningful exchange with the established social circles than to help you meet nine thousand new friends. Our moniker, "Accomplish more with the people you know"...what if we only allow small groups of people to get together? Are there lots of people who are interested in creating spaces for small groups and inviting them to come together?

We placed the bet that this is closer to the way human beings want to interact with each other, and it was about time that the web caught up.

A couple of things resonate with me here, (and the entire PDF by Ben Bauermeister of Adobe linked above is worth a read):

1. The ability for small groups to collaborate in a space they create and actually enjoy using is a powerful concept. While those who enjoy a certain level of comfort with web technology have a far easier time sharing and collaborating and publishing than they did just a few years ago, there still exists a vast gulf between the average ordinary person and those who blog or create wikis or use bookmarking services or who post to Flickr. JamJar *sounds* like it takes this into consideration by creating a space that is easier to use while still maintaining familiar metaphors for navigation.

2. I believe they hit the nail on the head regarding the need to provide services where small groups, already established in the real world, can come together to share and discuss and communicate. Not everyone wants to be a blog exhibitionist or publicly share their photos. If the user interface is clean and the administration is simple and privacy can be assured it's possible that many more people would want to use this type of service.

So, it looks exciting, but I'll have to wait until the service is actually running to see for myself. In the meantime, it's good to see some forward thinking on the part of Adobe on web applications that are, as John Dowdell says, "a good example of what you can do with this year's technology."

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No Feed. No Read.

I'm a fairly faithful follower of my RSS feeds. As time goes by I realize that this is the primary--and increasingly the only--method I use for collecting information. Sure, I depend on Google like any sane citizen of the networked world, but I've come to realize that if you aren't publishing an RSS feed to your site there's little likelihood that I'll ever visit. And this isn't just limited to blogs. News sites and company product information and announcements are also on my list of feeds.

In the education world, you can get plenty of feeds from the ed tech news sites, and of course there are lots of great blogs that point to even more information. And as you'd expect, the web development community is rife with blogs. For gosh sakes, judging by the number of Flash blogs that are on the web, I'm beginning to think that I need to shake the box that my copy of Flash came in to see if I missed the free blog that must surely have been included. Cause it sure seems that every Flasher in the world has a blog.

But I digress.

The main point is that for a growing number of web denizens, gathering information based on a subscribe-able service has replaced the surf and hunt and sift methods of the past. In the future, this ability to customize how information is delivered to your network device will become the primary way that we'll connect with others to communicate and collaborate.

But it all starts with the RSS feed. Without that feed, your site becomes just another book in a reference library.

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Why I Don't Wear Ties

Dan Neal at the Palm Beach Post pretty well sums up how I feel about the sartorial equivalent of tugging the forelock and bowing to The Man:

Jackets and their toadies, ties, are the classic symbols of male conformity. To wear either is to declare to the world that you play by the rules, you kiss butt, you have predictable opinions and socially accepted values, you are boring but you are safe.

I studied literature in college. One of the lines that resonated with me was Emerson's famous quote, "Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist."

Nothing says "pie-in-the-sky transcendentalist blowhard" like the word "whoso," but the idea is still true. If you follow the herd, you're a drone — merely doing and thinking what somebody else told you to.

So, when it comes to jackets and ties, I take the high ground: I avoid them — because Emerson told me to!

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On Becoming a Watchful Parent at MySpace.com

My 13 year-old daughter is a big-time MySpacer and has been for the last 6 months or so. To me, MySpace is the 21st century rendition of the soda shop/drive-in/library/mall of younger generations. Where we might have hung out with our buddies in a physical space, my daughter and millions of kids like her are choosing a digital connection with their friends. It's a natural part of growing up--making a connection with your friends outside the world of grown-up intrusion--and MySpace is just a variation on what seems to be a natural human drive when you're of a particular age.

Of course, there's a big difference between the physical world where you can see the people you're interacting with and the virtual one where people can pretend to be whoever they choose. So in the world of MySpace and Xanga and LiveJournal and AOL or wherever kids are congregating, parents need to take a new tack on keeping their kids safe. And as the father of a teenage girl I'm particularly concerned about who might be attempting to contact my daughter.

Now, we could take the DOPA approach and ban these activities in the house, but let's be real. Kids are going to find a way to connect, and these days that's most commonly done online. It's far better to take a practical parenting approach to what your child does online rather than trusting the government to do it for you.

My daughter and I have had lots of discussions about her online activities, and along with the practical tips for remaining safe and not revealing too much information I've also tried to impress on her the value of trust, and how important it is to us that she follows our guidelines and rules. We want her to know that we respect her privacy, but that there are limits and she has to operate within those boundaries or the privilege will be removed.

That's just Parenting 101 stuff.

At the same time we don't always know who she'll bump into online and to help keep things on the up and up at MySpace I created my own space and had my daughter add me as one of her friends. This insures that my name appears in her friends list within MySpace and that it is visible to anyone who goes to her (What do they call these? Spaces? Rooms? Sites?) spot in MySpace. Her space is private and only accessible to people she invites, as we require, but you can't be too careful.

The other thing I decided to do, and this (finally!) is the point of this posting, is to give myself a recognizable profile name that other's who visit my daughter's space will recognize. In my case I decided to call myself Watchful Dad, and you can see the profile that my daughter wrote for me at that link.

The deal here is to let the kids know that you're around. Just like back in the day when Dad might have happened to drive by the place where the kids were hanging, or when Mom would be in one part of the mall while the kids were meeting in another, it's important to know that there is an adult presence about. Research into adolescent behavior says that this is an important safety net that kids need as they move through this phase in life. They will protest, but deep inside kids actually appreciate the limits that adults set for them.

My advice to parents then is to do the same with your child. Talk to them about their online activities. And if they're hanging out at MySpace you really need to establish a presence. Whether you call yourself "Watchful Dad" or "Watchful Mom" as I did is up to you, but do set up a MySpace account of your own and set the profile name to one that is recognized as being parental. (Your kid can help you do all that.)

And as with any other parental endeavor, don't stop doing all those things that parents do to raise their kids just because they congregate in a different space than you and I did when we grew up. Still set limits, still talk to your kids about what they're doing and who they're hanging out with, and do keep a watchful eye on what's going on.

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My Low-Tech Week at a High-Tech Educational Conference

Murphy's Law was firmly in effect as I traveled last week to the National Education Computing Conference. I had big plans--big plans I say--for doing all sorts of really geeky goodness at the show. That is until reality set in.

First off, my laptop, which has a very annoying problem with a short in the hinge that renders the screen dark and unresponsive at the most inopportune times, chose this week to go on the fritz once again. This is one of those issues that really gets on your nerves, since it never fails when you drag it to the repair shop. It only seems to fail when I'm far away from home and really need it. I did finally get the screen to function, but at that point I'd pretty much given up on the idea of dragging it with me to my sessions for notes and live blogging. Oh well.

Secondly, the internet connection in my hotel room was out for an entire day, so even when I did get the laptop working there wasn't much work I could actually do. Poop.

Third, the schedule of my sessions that I had carefully (I thought) downloaded to my iPod completely disappeared somewhere along the line. Darn it.

And finally, my plan to do some interviews for future podcasts was completely thwarted by my inability to find an iTalk microphone in any of the local stores so I could capture my audio files. Drat.

In the end, I completely abandoned all my plans and operated from a few scraps of paper stuck into my pocket where I scribbled down the events and sessions I wanted to attend. Heck, I couldn't even come up with a note pad for taking notes for some reason, so all my thoughts about the sessions I saw ended up being jotted down in the program brochure margins or any other place I could find a little white space.

Funny thing is, it was kind of nice to be un-tethered from electronic devices during the show, and I found myself focusing a little more on what people were saying and what was happening instead of working with all the stuff--computer, website, e-mail, iPod--that I might normally mess with during a show like this. In the end it was kind of refreshing to step out from behind those machines and make a more human connection with the people at the show.

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Where I'll Be During NECC 2006

I'm looking forward to all the great conversations I expect to have in San Diego this week, and to facilitate that I thought I'd let you know where I plan to be during NECC. So let's talk. I'm fairly stationary on Wednesday afternoon and plan to be at several sessions to soak up information but mostly to hear from fellow educators.

Wednesday, July 5th

I'm going to kick off the day be attending the ISTE breakfast event titled The Role of Technology Leadership in a Changing Educational Landscape where I'm hoping to hear more about the kinds of leadership that's being exhibited out in the educational landscape.

In the afternoon you'll be able to find me hanging out with other members of the Adobe Education Leaders group at the Adobe booth, #714. I'll be there most of the afternoon and I'll be doing a short session on the use of the screencasting technology, Breeze, in our school district. I'll be talking about our weekly ed tech screencast and showing some examples of just how many cool things you can do with Breeze. That show goes off at 4:00, but I'll be at the booth all afternoon talking the use of creative software in education. And if you have a question about Dreamweaver or Fireworks or Flash or Contribute or Captivate or Breeze I'd be happy to talk about that too.

Thursday, July 6th

All sessions all day for me on Thursday. I'm particularly looking forward to Gary Stager's talk on one-to-one computing at 12:30 , as well as Will Richardson's presentation on the read-write web at 3:30.

Later in the day it's all about blogging and podcasting and other goodies at the "ubiquitous learning community" birds of a feather session at 4:45 and even later the Educational Bloggers meetup. I have a previous dinner appointment, so I may be a bit late for that one.

Friday, July 7th

I have a few workshops scheduled for Friday, but I think this might also be the day I wander the showroom floor and talk to vendors. Yeah, I have to do that as well, so I might as well do it on the day where my energy is likely to be waning.

So, there you have most of where I'll be at NECC. Wednesday will be a great day if you want to stop at the Adobe booth and say hey, otherwise I hope to bump into you at one of the other events.

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What I Want To Take Away From NECC 2006

I'm off bright and early tomorrow morning to the largest educational technology conference in the U.S. This will be my third trip to the National Education Computing Conference (NECC), so I'm getting to be a bit of a veteran, but this year I want to try something a little different by thinking of the questions I want to discuss before heading to the show. I'm hoping that by framing some big-picture ideas I'll take more away from this year's NECC than a bag full of product brochures and cheesy give-aways.

The two questions I want to talk about with others active in the world of educational technology are these:

1. Is Web 2.0 relative to the educational world? Are there too many privacy concerns that have to be overcome to take advantage of the kinds of social interactions that new technologies make possible? What are the instructional uses of these technologies? In what context are they most useful? Or, is this all just a lot of noise around a new educational fad?

2. Why aren't educational technology leaders making a better case for the instructional use of technology? If there is value to using creative software in educational settings why aren't we making the connection to its impact on student achievement? If we believe those programs are important how can we as educational leaders stand by and watch measurement and assessment replace instruction, particularly in the arts, in our schools? How can we better justify the digital arts as a necessary part of instruction in the 21st century?

So, let's discuss. I'm going to post my schedule in another thread here, and I'm hoping that I get the chance to talk about these topics with lots of you out there. I want to hear what you're doing in your schools, what challenges you face, and particularly your responses to those questions above. And of course if you aren't going to be able to make it to NECC feel free to comment here.

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