Should we require school employees to have RSS readers?

Dr. Scott McLeod has written two interesting blog posts on whether teachers should be required to establish and regularly follow RSS feeds.  In his first post, McLeod sets the premise for his position that feeds should be a part of our daily professional responsibilities. In the second post he responds to his readers comments, mine included, and asks for more reader feedback.  It is definitely a conversation worth having.


Personally, I have learned a lot using RSS feeds. I sincerely believe that the professional development I have gained through following RSS feeds just this year have been far more valuable than the cumulative value of all face-to-face experiences I have had in the past twenty years.  Why?  Well, likely because I get to choose the content that is most interesting to me, rather than topics imposed on me by others.  I am looking forward to sharing RSS feeds with my colleagues this year.  My hope is that five of my colleagues (at least) will be regular feed readers and will share what you learn with the rest of us, as I do through Brookhaven Technology Center.


In his second post McLeod asserts that my goal of having five of 40 teachers use RSS feeds regularly is short of what our aim should be.  McLeod states, "I don’t think it’s naive to believe that we can do better than that with our professional development."  I'm giving his feedback serious thought, giving special attention to factors I analyzed  to arrive at this specific goal.  


First, through my study of change-agents, I have learned that only eight percent of any group, according to the Concerns Based Adoption Model, is likely to be an early adopter of an initiative.  Following this model, only three members of our faculty would be likely to frequently use RSS readers when it is initially introduced.   Five, then, would be an optimistic goal.  In the second round of exposure to this topic, following the model, we could expect 17 percent of the faculty, or seven teacher leaders, to become users.  As we develop through all phases of the adoption model, we will likely find 17 percent, or seven teachers, who never do adopt the RSS feeds.


Second, I have seen the results of required professional development efforts.  When our school was involved in the Reading First program, all K-3 teachers were required to complete 100 hours of professional development.  Many of these hours were met by reading selected articles and writing reflections on these articles.  My observations:  Very few teachers did this willingly.  There was no follow-up or interactions about the reflections.  All that mattered is that something was written; quality of thought was not an issue.   Teachers resented that this reading/reflection requirement was added to the list of other requirements they needed to meet as a Reading First School.  The required staff development's greatest contribution, in my opinion, was the creation of ill will.


Most of the teachers in my school are in their late 40s to early 60s.  I do not for a minute believe that older teachers cannot successfully adopt 21st Century technologies, but I do need to stress that reading blogs, wikis and feeds are not generally the preferred modalities of this age group.  I am 50 years old, and these are my preferred modalities, but I believe I am the exception to the norm.  Therefore, for the majority of teachers in my faculty to adopt and use RSS feeds on a regular basis, they will have to develop positive dispositions to both the professional development activities  and the technology itself.  This would be double the expectations placed on the young, digital native faculty member.


On a related note, I think that teaching is a field that requires constant reflection.  I believe my teachers constantly reflect on their teaching and learning. (They are wonderful teachers!)  I don't think, however, that they are accustomed to sharing their thoughts with the faceless world in a digital format.  Most teachers of my age are not accustomed to having their thoughts exposed to the world.  (Of all the teachers you know, how many volunteer to lead professional development initiatives?  Not many!)  The idea of blogging their reflections and sharing will require personal as well as professional growth, if not the acquisition of what some might consider an inflated ego.  Blowing their own horns is just not a cultural norm for my colleagues.


I think the goal of any professional development initiative is for steady, sustained growth and adoption of dispositions to improve our practice.  I believe that requiring teachers to develop RSS feeds will cause more exposure than a steady, scaffolded approach, but that for the habits to be sustained and for dispositions to use the feeds to develop, more individualized nurturing of faculty members must occur.  

Don't forget open library night at Brookhaven Library Media Center! Mrs. Malone and I will be there from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

A Farm Morning.doc

Dan and I are sitting under the maples trees, listening to the birds and insects, waiting for the fog to lift.  Today promises to be a beautiful clear, moderately hot day after a week of blistering mid 90s. 

It has only been five days since our last farm visit. Not much has changed in our brief absence, except for a tree in Carl's field.  Last weekend, July 3-5, I thought I noticed a patch of red in this tree's leaves.  This weekend the bottom leaves have turned bittersweet, and color has spread to a few neighboring trees.

I search my mind for reasons why this tree and its neighbors have begun their fall display.  Is it lack of rainfall? Was it the few mornings of temperatures in the 40s?

The tree usually is the first at the farm to change colors, and usually I welcome the change as the sign of a new school year ahead, full of endless possibilities.  But this is too early. I am not ready to let go of summer yet.

I Never Knew: The Campaign to Ban Comic Sans

Okay, so LeBron went to the Heat (with Da'Sean, I might add), and Cavs owner Dan Gilbert writes a scathing opinion. This, however, is not what has the Twitterati's panties in bunches.  The issue: Gilbert wrote said scathing opinion in {gasp!} Comic Sans.
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I honestly don't care about LeBron's move or the NBA in general, but who the hell let the Cavaliers' owner post his letter in Comic Sans?




The Tweetdom is trending Comic Sans posts like never before.  Who knew the simple choice of a font could be so consequential?


Apparently there has been a movement to crush the use of Comic Sans, developed in 1994 by Vincent Connare for some time.  According to an article in The Wall Street Journal graphic designer Holly Sliger and her husband Dave Combs began the Ban Comic Sans Movement in 1999.  The couple has gained global awareness for their movement, which is supported by the sale of stickers, coffee mugs and other paraphernalia promoting "typography awareness."


Personally, I don't know what the big deal is.  Yes, one should choose a font to convey a message or a tone.  Maybe Gilbert's opinion and choice of font was a statement that worrying about LeBron's move to Miami was sort of second grade.  Maybe the guy just likes Comic Sans.  Who cares?  Apparently way too many people!  Since I began writing this brief post, my Twitter feed has turned up 186 new tweets on Comic Sans.


Make that 192 tweets.


Elementary teachers like Comic Sans for its child-friendly appeal.  I don't think we will stop using the font anytime soon.  When it does, you can count on me to write all my official reports in Wing Ding.

Almost Open Library time!

What I Have Done (So Far) on My Summer Vacation

This summer I have elected to abandon traditional professional development commitments.  This does not mean I have abandoned learning.  To the contrary, I have spent a good portion of our very long summer engaged in activities that should prove helpful throughout the school year.  For example:

• I've been keeping up on my feeds with Google Reader.  Using Reader ( a totally free service, by the way), I subscribe to a variety of blogs, mashups, Twitter searches and more that help me stay updated on technology or whatever the subscription describes.  Setting up a Reader feed is easy.  Here's how: (But please excuse the crappy sound.)

• I have explored Glogster .  Glogster is a cool way to make interactive posters for your students.  It would be an even cooler way for your kids to make posters for projects!  I hope to make more glogs to coincide with the pathfinders for various units. Here is a glog I made for my AskMrsMartin page:    

• I have used Ping.fm to update all my posts at once.  This allows me to reach my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogger and other services without having to update individual services.  This is  not always a practical way to use each of these services; sometimes updating specific services is more appropriate.  For example, it is more appropriate to update personal accounts individually.  If I want to reach a maximum number of faculty, parents and students, however, Ping is the way to go!
• I have been exploring ereading platforms, as I mentioned in a previous blog.  I have downloaded Borders and Kindle apps to my laptop.  Neither have worked successfully on my cell phone - yet.  I suspect enhancements will come any day and make these apps more usable. 
• I have held Open Library Nights each Thursday since June 17.  During that time Mrs. Malone and I have been decorating for the upcoming year's theme, Reading Rainforest.  It is definitely a work in progress, and I  have spent a lot of evenings working on the finer points of these decorations (if you can call them that).
• What else?  Well, I have been reading.  But don't you know my reading list keeps getting longer, thanks to recommendations from friends on services like Shelfari and Good Reads.  Oh, yeah.  I have been writing blog posts and updating Brookhaven Technology Center.  

There are, of course, many things I haven't done.  For example, I can't bring myself to think about instructional design for the year.  I know there are topics, such as cybersafety and information literacy, that I need to cover more in depth.  I just haven't decided how.

 

Don't forget tonight is Open Library Night at Brookhaven. Mrs. Malone and I will be there from 4 to 7!