Shelley Rossitto

Security Cameras – Watch who is Watching

Shelley — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:04:31 +0000

As many of you probably know we are under surveillance wherever we travel. I have actually become so accustomed to it that I don’t even care. I actually used to make faces at the cameras and see if anyone was watching. Now I figure – hey watch if you have nothing else to do!!! My concern in this post is the amount of money we are investing in surveillance without perhaps knowing the true intention of what we are trying to accomplish. I fully agree that security cameras serve a purpose in specific locations but do we have to have them for the sake of having them. I ask this question as schools get grant funding (there is that word “grant” again) and think they can put them in and voila problems solved. Are they getting to the root of the problem or developing a monitoring system to catch them when the deed is done? Again I believe for safety purposes they are necessary but not everywhere. I don’t want us to get distracted from what the root of the problem is and how much it really does cost. Is there a consideration of costs to personnel, infrastructure, and recurring costs? Is this grant “free” money and then when 5 years go by and infrastructure and camera upgrades need to occur money is taken from other important instructional activities to offset infrastructure that are becoming very “administrative” centric. Just another function for the technical services department that perhaps used to be part of the police department or buildings and grounds. We have to be careful that we think about why and what before we start hanging cameras all over the place. But of course there are many perspectives: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7IZnYdlaUI

BYOT or BYOD c’mon man!

Shelley — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 03:18:29 +0000

I have been following the articles surrounding the new Bring your own Device initiatives. It has been compelling as schools grapple with do I move down this road, will it work, how do we keep up and is it safe? I have begun a BYOD program in my school and it is important to do this strategically not just jump in. I sometimes feel that decisions are based on fear and not knowledge and real planning. With a thorough and well thought out plan that includes feedback from district employees and students it can work. I would begin with a school and meet with parents to discuss what this will look like. Initially there will be some concern as students responsibility is questioned by parents. Will they lose it, ruin it, or forget it someplace. These are very real issues. My recommendation is to “work with it.” What can we do – perhaps brainstorm leaving devices at school for a few days locked up, or have special days where devices are brought in. Do we need to adjust what and how students carry their work and can students be a part of the process to figure out this issue. I truly believe that eventually everyone will get used to the idea and come up with their own solutions. As I took a poll most of the students do have cellphones but parents said they were to call them. None had been taken or lost. From there we need to work with teachers to create web-based environments for work. The devices used will be great on the Internet, be used for textbooks and so on but we want them to be relevant and have a purpose in class. If the device becomes very important in terms of a students education then they will be more careful and follow the AUP. It needs to be an integral part of school and not an add on for it to be treated with respect. In Digital Directions this month they highlight some of the issues schools are facing as they try and get technology into the hands of students. They are also trying to leverage what is out there rather than replicate what students already have.

I am going for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bookshare! iPads! Nooks! Kindles! oh my

Shelley — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:32:42 +0000

http://www.bookshare.org/ is a site that encourages the sharing of books for our students. We use it in Monticello but I would like to take this Napster invention a step further. Should our students all have a digital reading device that all of their books reside on? I was at a tech meeting yesterday and thanks to a colleague I have a new way to look at this. There are many many books that are available that are free to down. http://www.gutenberg.org/ offers free books to students to be downloaded to these devices and there a Chemistry applications that are flash based (cannot run on the iPad) that Kindles and Nooks can accommodate. We are constantly trying to find a device that does everything when perhaps we need to focus on devices that are indeed “focused.” With a ereader there is a specific purpose that can be used in the classroom. What do you think? We can use textbook aide to offset the cost. I see a pilot brewing……………..

DATA Overload – Email, phone, cellphone, texting, skywriters!

Shelley — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 01:20:07 +0000

I have begun to seek out help in how to manage my time and communication avenues more effectively. How many have you been inundated with communication to point of being paralyzed by it! This month in Tech and Learning there was a poll result that was astonishing. The average tech director gets between 200 and 300 emails A DAY!! How many of you can say that? Add that to text messages, voicemail, and phone calls on three different devices it feels like I am a walking device myself. I have been reading Michael Linenberger the author of a book called “Total Workday Control.” http://www.michaellinenberger.com/I took a course a few weeks ago called “Project Management.” I am constantly being interupted at work and the only time I can really work is in the evening or on my weekends. I worked for at least 20 hours this past weekend. I am trying to find a solution to manage more effectively. I really feel I am organized and work well under pressure but the tasks and demands are mounting. I am going to try a program called Smartsheet that is a cloud solution for project management. It will give me the ability to share projects with specific tasks and timelines. But most importantly for me is I will be able to see all of my projects on one screen.

Have we created this environment so we are more accessble? How did this happen? How do I manage my time better? How do I sit in a meeting and not be distracted by the 100 people trying to contact me while I am in there? Well I am happy about what has happened. I would always want to be accessible and I feel that I serve my district and clients. Teachers are sometimes isolated and email gives me direct access into the classroom. I don’t want anyone to think “I am too busy.” But I have to find a balance. It is really consuming so much time. It is tough to defend when no one really understands what our jobs are. Administrators have been cut and I have lost most of my professional development team. Oh well. Give me your ideas.

How does education relate to real life????????

Shelley — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:13:15 +0000

I have recently been in a position where it is necessary for me to research and find medical care that has taken me on a long rode of networking, medications, jargon jargon jargon and knowing people…. I have been down this journey before with my husband when he had open heart surgery.

At that time I was very concerned about how our medical system works for those in real need, might be of “average” education and resources – not to mention those living in poverty and those that are alone.

Most the doctors that happened to be the higher end specialists do not take medical insurance. It is up to you to negotiate with them to make sure you can be within a window of affordability. I was told by one of the nurses that “they don’t have to.” Those are the “top notch” specialists. Most of them are fair and reasonable but how would you know that when you enter into these agreements. Ahh but it doesn’t end there – the insurance mumbo jumbo – if you are an inpatient then this if you are outpatient and then are all of sudden needing to be admitted you have 48 hours to let the insurance co. know. So if you are really in pain or maybe unconscious you need to let your insurance company know or you pay a penalty. Alas how do you do it if you are alone. I haven’t mentioned the reason why I have the privilege of seeing a great doctor – who I know…… But then the aftercare and meds. I had to build a spreadsheet to decipher what my husbands medical needs were. Take this pill three times a day only in the morning, take this one every other day in the afternoon, take the next one only at night for 2 weeks, etc. It was so confusing. On top of it all the pharmacy gives you the generic without telling you so you can’t match up the name of the Rx the doctor gives you with what it is.

Need I go on and on. So as educators. How do we even begin to prepare our young people to work through this system. We feel it is important to fill out a job application or even taxes. My concern is those that have more get more. We perpetuate the system as we take advantage of the services we can afford and leave others out. It isn’t because they aren’t eligible it is because they can’t figure it out.

Problem solving and project based learning in the context of the core subjects does not teach us this. It is another argument to think more deeply about a social curriculum based on actual life experiences where students integrate the core subjects into advocacy, negotiation, knowing your rights, inquiry and finding the resources you need to have what is going to keep you healthy. We can’t do it by teaching about the Korean war but we can if we connect with those outside of our own society, become more global and perhaps take on an actual case of someone that was victimized by the war and weaving in reading, writing and social studies into learning about the time period and having a cause.

Being accountable and connected!!!

Shelley — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 21:38:17 +0000

We have begun to reach new heights in what we are being told as being “important” for our students to be successful. How many roads have we gone down and how often can we be expected to adjust instruction to respond to those ideas? Well read and study carefully because now I would say we are being asked as educators to stay current, research, and understand how we are connected to the rest of the world. I have had to be a life long learner as I assume the position of technology director for 15 years. My job is to stay current and be extremely well read and knowledgeable about what is and how to engineer for it. I have had little professional development and my job requires me to think critically and find the answers I need. School provided me with the ability to read but the rest has been up to me including the ability to build teams, get along, work in a collaborative environment where everyones contribution is necessary, create something that is useful and navigate through information constantly. As I listen to Tony Wagner and Milton Chen in a webcast from this year I am reminded that schools work in isolation of the world. There is a template or list of standards that we are to follow but we do them in isolation of what students need to know to be successful. Tony and Milton will say that our students learn and are motivated in totally different ways, they need to be connected and learn to think critically. Those connections will lead to collaborations and the creation of something that is meaningful and purposeful. So what is the deal with our classrooms? Are we afraid to merge or “crosswalk” the two? Do we think that if we don’t teach to the test our students will not succeed? In my job I would never be successful if I didn’t have a full understanding of where I want to go and what the end or outcome is. Tony and Milton are high level researchers and companies telling us what the end needs to be but we make excuses like the state wants this, I can’t do that because our students can’t think, I have too many students, I need more help and professional development. All of those reasons are valid but many many teachers are succeeding in bringing the two worlds together. What will you do to make that happen? Do schools need to retool a bit to help this along. Are our teachers also isolated and not given ample time to reach out. They are required and want to be with students allday. I agree their desire is there but how do we look at the structure to get them “out.” They are at the mercy of what we bring to them. There is little opportunity to seek, discover and find this understanding on their own because their jobs are so defined and prescribed. When watching the webcast I am reminded that we need to understand our clients and what their needs are. Tony talks about “new skills” and why we can’t avoid them. Every job expects this level of skill. In the past it was elite to have this level of sophistication but now every company wants their workers to think critically and contribute. Not every student has to go to college and if they don’t the training comes from us. But so we model that for our teachers and encourage them to think.
I am torn by think that teachers can make the differences they need to without looking at our physical infrastructures they work in. “Common planning time” is a nice attempt at promoting collaboration and communication between colleagues but what are we doing for them so they learn and be global themselves. Leaving them allday in a classroom with 125 students teaching and trying to keep up doesn’t provide the structure that will work. I think we need to begin with our teachers and administration to retool what a school looks like physically and philosphically. It would look so different and you can bank on the fact there would not be “4 walls!”

Facebook Safety

Shelley — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:00:46 +0000

I saw this video as I was informing others about the dangers of the Internet. I am mixed about who is more at risk – those that are my age or young people. It has become so normal for young people that they don’t think about the consequences. The world is diffferent for them. Should they have fears as we do. Of course but wow they are expected to make important choices about their lives at a much younger age than we did. They are expected to mistrust and be so very very cautious before they even grow up. During our formative years we were allowed to be naive and that is probably what kept us watching Disney and being slightly innocent. So when I was 12 would I want to think about the whole world not just my street and how my actions impact me and everyone else? I think it is too much. Internet safety is critical to teach and keep in our minds as we work through all content areas in school.

Students create rather than consume

Shelley — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:08:10 +0000

There was such a response to Gary Stager that I thought I would post something a little lighter but to the point. As we discuss our faculty and students it is critical to keep in mind the questions about the “getting there.” We still talk about collaboration and empowering students but we still call their work “assignments”. Gary calls them learning adventures. It sets the stage for a learning community within our schools.

In many of the articles in this blog I discuss the ability for students to create their own content, be active participants in learning, drive what they need to know. This is a life long skill that should be instilled everywhere so our students leave our schools with actual skills to learn not just rote memorization. If we give them too much they won’t know what to do when we aren’t there.

Have you seen the amount of organized sports our kids are in. They aren’t even given the freedom to make their own decisions.

We need to let go and we aren’t! What are we afraid of????

Bankrupcy of our imaginations..Dr. Gary Stager

Shelley — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:29:35 +0000

I am constantly struggling with what I actually do in education and what we can all do. I sometimes feel very isolated in feelings of worth and contribution when it comes to the very expensive resource of technology. As you listen to Gary listen carefully to hear his message. It is not about technology, it is about everything we are to our children.

Gary Stager Excerpts from NECC ’09 Keynote Debate from Gary Stager on Vimeo.

Have we made much progress? Why do we constantly hear quotes and keynotes from educators that quote those that are from the early part of the century or even the 1970′s to tell us we are stifling our students imagination and not providing them with the spaces and opportunities to reach their full potential. Do we think we “have it” when a new gadget or piece of technology arrives that might change it all. Is it the same as another sweeping initiative, like open classrooms, that will get us there? I think we need to think deeply about our practices and leave the tools aside. We have to believe.

I guess I am one of them!!!

Shelley — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:59:39 +0000

On Saturday I spent the day with my nephews and my own “older” kids in Boston for Halloween. During the day we carved pumpkins and at night passed out candy while the kids did their trick or treat thing. We sat on the porch with a couple of beers but of course had to spend a little time hiding in leaves to scare the kids when they came up to the house. I helped my 7 year old nephew carve his pumpkin. He, of course, had a sharp knife. I was so excited about the whole process and how well they were doing I had to take pictures and immediately upload them to flickr, facebook, and of course text them to my son in law who could not come. Well I had just updated my Blackberry so the applications were not installed. So I had to install them so I could get those pictures up asap. I didn’t stop there – I had to have video. I couldn’t wait – the moment was right and it needed to be then. My daughter (26 years old) kept reminding me “Mom, Daniel is going to cut off his finger. You need to stop.” But I just kept saying one more minute.

So what made me think that it had to be immediate? I wanted to share the moment. I got distracted from the real intent of that day and got caught up in “I have to let my network know.” Interesting but a little scarey at the same time. As I write about multi-tasking (driving while texting!) and what we need to do for our kids, I realize as we become a part of this big paradigm shift of life that we also at the mercy of being overwhelmed.

Well I got the pictures up there and had a lot of responses. I couldn’t do the video and by the time I got to my computer at home I lost interest!