A Work-Life Balance: Blog

Kukulu Kaiaulu 2.0 - Kamehameha’s Education Technology Conference 2008

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:03:33 GMT

Aloha-

Thank you so much for attending the Microsoft sessions at the Kamehameha conference! The following links were referenced during the Microsoft presentations:

Microsoft Office Resources/Training Materials -Training PowerPoint decks can be found under the Templates tab, use template search box (Word 2007, Excel 2007, Outlook 2007, SharePoint)
Learning Essentials- Free tools, templates and tutorials
Make your own Training Video Podcasts- Community Clips (capture your desktop and narration)
OneNote- Super powerful teaching and learning tool
WorldWide Telescope- Seamless exploration of the universe for freeWord 2007- Microsoft Math - A free add-in to help math and science teachers graph and solve equations in Word 2007
Save files as PDF or XPS using Microsoft Office 2007- Free add-in
SharePoint Link

Mahalo!

Scott

On the Cutting Edge: Fly in 3D through Images

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:48:29 GMT

What if you could have students participate in a service learning project or field trip, document the experience in images, and then share the images in such a way so a user could fly in the environment in 3D? What if you have students from multiple classes document the same learning opportunity, and then could "knit" the photos together for a powerful visual experience or project? Students could then revisit and reflect upon the experience in richer ways. For a way-too-cool experience, visit http://labs.live.com/photosynth/video.html. What possibilities do you see?

Export OneNote Pages as Interactive Web Site

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:50:48 GMT

Everywhere I go, people are talking about using OneNote in the classroom. No question, OneNote is a powerful tool for educators. Using the OneNote Web Exporter, you can publish your OneNote notebook as an interactive webpage. What's more, you can add this functionality for free. You can find the download and all users guide at CodePlex.

A Ninja takes OneNote beyond the Ink

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:10:26 GMT

I always like it when good things happen to great people. One of my colleagues from the OneNote team is featured here. Mike is a dynamic, super guy who is extremely passionate about OneNote-- he even wrote a song about it. How many people do you know who like what they do so much that they would write a song about it?

Mike is totally about making this already amazing technology even better. I, for one, cannot imagine life without OneNote. To me, OneNote is an indispensible appendage. From an educational perspective, it is a powerful accelerant for teaching and learning. Enjoy!

A Family Focus

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 17:01:54 GMT

There is no question about it. I'm blessed in every aspect of my life. I've noticed that during this time of year I'm especially filled with gratitude and feel especially lucky that I'm spending time with family and friends this holiday season. I've noticed that just as I need sleep, I also need family. When I am with family, I'm able to feel an even deeper connection to the life. I know people who can't stand their family, hate their in-laws, and on they go. I treasure my relationships because they are so special and powerful.

I don't drive to my in-laws and worry about what it will be like. I don't visit mom and dad an figure an exit strategy. In this, I'm grateful. I remain thankful that I have positive, healthy relationships with all of them. I've been blessed to have wonderful, thoughtful, smart, humorous, and quirky relationships.

I have a colleague at Microsoft who frequently states that "life is not a rehearsal." I really like that. A lot, actually. It's because we only have the moment. The now.

Over the next weeks, I hope to use a succession of moments to embrace those wonderful people in my life. I hope you are able to as well. Peace.

OneNote in the Classroom

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 01:49:44 GMT

Dispatch from the New World Work in K-12 Education

Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 in the Classroom

I had great set of meetings this week where I shared with instructional leaders the power of Microsoft Office OneNote 2007, and how, specifically it can be used in the classroom. From a teacher perspective, OneNote allows instructional content, class notes, and research to be collected in one central location.

You have just had an amazing class, but realize that the board work and activities were not captured or written down, causing you to duplicate work? Ever have a conference and jot down key notes, only to misplace them? Ever wanted to let your students go back to capture classroom activities and review content for an important exam? The answer to all of these questions can be found in using Microsoft Office OneNote.

Structured like a notebook binder, with section tabs and pages, OneNote allows users a very easy to use, but powerful instructional and learning tool. OneNote allows students to capture screen clippings and cites the URL of clipped web pages. The screen clippings then become searchable, as are all of the written and audio notes collected (yes, audio and video notes...hmmm, podcast your classroom- maybe something you always wanted to do but never had a good way to do it).

Notes can be tagged, and the tagged notes can be referenced and searched. You always can find the notes you need.

OneNote allows teachers to digitally collect all classroom interactions, and then, share them with students, parents, and other teachers. OneNote becomes your digital chalk, from an interaction perspective. OneNote captures all of the group work results, classroom documentation, and can even record audio and video notes. It can centrally hold all of the class notes and share them in real-time with students, or save notes as a web page or PDF. There are so many things OneNote can do.

Students can work in small groups, real-time, and collaborate on projects, then use take their collaboration and use the seamless integration with Microsoft Office Word 2007 to finish it off (have you also seen Microsoft's SharedView -- Microsoft Office becomes very real-time, cool collaboration over the Internet).

Loose the paper, and go green. OneNote can also be used in the place of duplicated, printed handouts. Never stand in line in the copy room again!!!

Check it out for yourself. www.microsoft.com/onenote

CETPA 2007 Follow Up

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:12:21 GMT

CETPA Follow Up

Thank you to all who attended the events at CETPA. The following links were referenced in our sessions.

2007 Microsoft Office System Training Content (free/Online). Search under the templates tab for the tool you would like training (e.g., Word 2007, Excel 2007, Outlook 2007).

Also, the following links will take you specific tools covered:

Time for Instructional Innovation?

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:39:19 GMT

Plea for Time

I am amazed when I talk with teachers about the amount of instructional time that is consumed on non-instructional tasks—and not by their choice. It's crazy and getting worse. We as a nation are devoting too much time to benchmarking and not enough time to supporting relevant learning in the classroom. Our teachers spend blocks of time on hand outs, special events, and other times that are not critical to supporting the learning environment. Does this mean that we get rid of all pep rallies? Do away with award and recognition events? Stop benchmarks? Of course not. We need to celebrate the accomplishments of learners, inject culture, and create field learning experiences.

However, how many times do you interrupt class over the course of a school year? Moreover, what are you trying to accomplish from your learners? Are you trying to trying to cultivate critical thinkers ready to meet the challenges of the new world of work, or are you trying to get checkboxes checked for NCLB? As leaders, we have the responsibility to stand up for learning in the classroom. Stand up for teachers and support their instructional time. Preserve the time, embrace it. Find ways to enable productivity gains, break down organizational barriers, remove silos and fan the flames of innovation.

Free Music

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 02:53:09 GMT

Free Music for Educators and Students

I've authored and created music that I grant unlimited academic use provided a) you are a student or teacher using the music for academic purposes, including creative works that alter the music, and b) that the work must not be used for commercial use of any kind. Personal, non-academic or commercial use is not granted. Provided you are a student or a teacher, you may use the music created at no charge and you are not required to cite the source of this music in your webcast, podcast, or movie. Educational institutions may redistribute this work electronically, provided the blog URL is cited and the author credited. The music is provided as is, without any warranty. You must assume all legal or financial responsibilities resulting from any use or misuse of this music.

The music is found in my public folder (see below).

Hope you enjoy.

Going Green

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:51:57 GMT

How Microsoft OneNote is Green

If you have ever used Microsoft Office OneNote, you are likely one of the growing legion that is addicted to this way cool technology. From an instructional perspective, OneNote is clearly valuable to both teachers and students. Moreover, it integrates with the other Microsoft Office technologies and is a real productivity tool.

So as an avid user of OneNote, I was happy to see that the technology is green. Check out how you can reduce your carbon footprint and improve your productivity. Get the cool news on how to go green with OneNote!

Project Success

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:22:51 GMT

Quantify Instructional Objectives and TIme: Overview

So do you know a teacher or three that has too much time on their hands? Likely, you do not. Most teachers are swamped by the number of tasks that they are expected to cover, the mandated activities, not to mention short class periods because of the odd pep rally or other ad hoc non-instructional glob of time that takes away from the instruction. Many of these are relevant and useful to help students, but what about all of the items that stay on the plate of teachers? How are school districts measuring the expected quantity of activities against the actual instructional time available?

Enter Microsoft Project 2007. Using the proven project management techniques, instructional directors can actually model to see if all of the instructional nuggets fit in the yearly instructional time available bucket. Those of us who have taught know that keeping a class on task and productive is critical. But keeping a class on task does not mean you will have all of the time necessary to cover the expected ground. The same can be said with all classroom management techniques. If you only have 55 minutes with students, you cannot schedule 90 minutes of activities and expect that quality instruction will happen. This is not the fault of the teacher, it is a lack of quality management. The tools for conducting this analysis can be used in a very powerful application called Microsoft Project. More to come on this important topic.

New and Cool from Microsoft: Tafiti

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:52:07 GMT

Want to see a cool new site for search? Want to get students really involved in research?

Try out http://www.tafiti.com. You will never search the same way again!

Wow! Vista's MovieMaker has much to offer students

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:59:28 GMT

Instructional Technology Dispatch from J. Scott Thompson

Windows Vista MovieMaker

Educators have been using MovieMaker in XP for years. But now, there is Vista. Vista has many cool advancements over the earlier XP versions. MovieMaker is now very powerful and renders movies in much less time than before. There is great control and ease of use. Students and teachers will love the innovations!

The Innovation Continues

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 03:49:05 GMT

Innovation Dispatch from J. Scott Thompson

Touching Surface Computing

Microsoft is a great bet for innovation. In fact, it is an uber bet for innovation. When I joined Microsoft, I was not quite sure what to expect. What I found were the smartest and hardest working innovators I had ever encountered, and I’ve been around the technology block.

Last week, Microsoft knocked another one out of the park with the announcement of Surface Computing. This totally cool form factor ups the game of human interaction with machines in a very intimate way. Using touch, you can reshape photos, videos and have multiple people interact with the device collaboratively.

Check it out at http://www.microsoft.com/surface/.

Recollections of Early Learning Days

Sat, 26 May 2007 01:12:58 GMT

Dispatches from the early days of K-7!

Those Early Days

For those who know me, it is usually hard for them to believe that my first recollections of teachers are not positive, and it is somewhat interesting that at one time in my life I was a teacher. I have especially terrifying memories of teachers from elementary school. I have no idea how old you are, but for me, elementary school was some time ago. It has been long enough that the memories are softened and fragmented. I hope none of these are what you experienced.

In first grade, I remember a kid who used the word "deal" too frequently for Miss. Brantley. I recall sensing she hated that child, and she would spank him frequently with a ping pong paddle- hard enough that she broke several of them that first year of school. We also could not erase mistakes on our Big Chief Notebook Tablet. Everything had to be done right the first time. I still wonder what was the instructional thinking behind that move. To this day, I have bad handwriting. I'm thinking her approach did not work for this kid.

There was my third grade teacher Ms. Johnson, who I remember having a crush on and I can say she was one of the few nice teachers in the early days.

However, I really don't feel like I got much from elementary to seventh grade. I've got a part to play in that to be sure, but it was not uncommon for my teachers to sit at their desk doing whatever it was they were doing while we wasted our time with those old SRAs. I remember having classes in elementary school where we ended up playing Heads Up 7-Up. In the 70s, I guess the 21st Century was a long way off. That kind of stuff was lazy on the part of many of my teachers.

I am glad to say that due to accountability and better instructional standards, many of those teachers don't make it into the classroom today. Moreover, I'm glad that today we now have better classroom accountability. Teachers today are doing a better job inculcating students with rich content. Students are learning more. Today's students, I believe, are in ever better hands. Even if you had a bad experience or three with a teacher in your past, give teachers your support and expect much from your school district.

Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2007

Fri, 25 May 2007 14:05:13 GMT

Instructional Technology Dispatch from the world of K12 Education

A Digital Backpack for Students

Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2007 is a wonderful digital backpack that rich tools that students need to conduct research, develop quality work projects, and has a powerful math tool called Microsoft Math. Microsoft Math is more than just a calculator that gives an answer; it walks the student step-by-step through solving the problems, and has a powerful graphing feature that allows equations to become more tangible. Moreover, it can help students with their problems in their textbook. This is key as many parents are reporting that they feel challenged by some of the homework that students now bring home.

Extend Teacher Reach

Student 2007 helps extend teachers' reach as it is a very easy to use and friendly tool designed to be used by students to help them with class assignments and projects. Transportation, schedule conflicts, and other factors can get in the way of students and teachers meeting for tutorials. With Student 2007, learning can happen at anytime. Loaded on student machines, students can research and remediate on key concepts. It is highly interactive and easy to use.

Cool Stuff

Included in Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2007 are cool tools like an easy to use chart maker, a timeline that allows for multicultural and comparative analysis, as well as an interactive world atlas that allows students to a host of topics including climate. As Encarta Premium is incorporated with Student, learners can be assured that the content is authoritative and instructionally relevant. From quotations, book summaries, foreign language tools, to the periodic table of the elements, Microsoft Student and Encarta Premium 2007 is a powerful tool for students and teachers.

NJHS Builds Service Hours

Sun, 13 May 2007 15:54:21 GMT

Service Learning Dispatch from Scott Thompson

Welcome Home Troops

Yesterday, I was lucky to participate with students, parents and teachers from Coppell Middle School West’s National Junior Honor Society in a service event. Together with other groups in the Dallas area, we welcomed home a huge contingent of servicemen and women who were returning from Iraq. Tired, worn out, and yet still gracious, the troops were cheered and greeted by the crowd. Students had prepared welcome home packages that were handed out to the weary troops.

Outside the event, I shared my Windows Mobile device so that the service men and women could call family and friends. It was a very powerful way to start the day and I can highly recommend this activity to others. For all who participated, this was a key moment which carried with it meaningful themes and concepts.

If you would like more information on how to welcome the troops home please check out http://www.welcometroops.com/. Whether you are for or against the war, I think you will find this is a positive way to support the men, women, and families that have made significant sacrifice.

Shifts and Trends

Mon, 07 May 2007 19:12:21 GMT

Dispatches from the World of K-12 Education

Leadership Dispatch from Scott Thompson

World Education Trends

I've seen a powerful video that I recommend for your review and consideration. As educators, we are getting students ready for the future. But what are our priorities as a nation? How are we getting students ready to face challenges ahead? Where are we headed? Take a moment to watch http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2006/08/did-you-know.html

Collaborating in the Classroom with Microsoft OneNote

Sun, 06 May 2007 02:15:54 GMT

Instructional Technology Dispatch from Scott Thompson

Pulling it Together

Microsoft has a number of exciting technologies that allow teachers and students to collaborate using very powerful, yet easy to use tools. Among these tools is a wonderful tool called Microsoft Office OneNote. Microsoft Office OneNote allows students and teachers to take notes and conduct research. As the content is captured electronically, the notes can be searched and flagged.

I've just finished working with one school district that has their students and teachers using OneNote. They are excited by the possibilities and power. They have found that OneNote extends beyond simple note taking. It becomes a staging ground for research and organizing ideas for papers, projects and more.

As someone who has taught in public school, I know that time is a precious commodity for educators. Any work that can be leveraged, that is reused, is of high value. OneNote allows teachers and students to leverage their research, ideas, and work.

When I taught language arts, I remember getting ready for the following week, and working out the lessons that I would convey to my students. I'd usually brainstorm at home, feet propped up on the couch, with a yellow notepad. I would sketch out critical and provocative questions to engage and guide students and conduct research to sharpen the lessons. Now, teachers can sketch things out, and reuse the work across preps.

Here are several ways to save time and increase your productivity using OneNote in the classroom:

Instead of writing questions on the board or on an overhead, use a data projector to use display questions, exercises and notes. Capture student reaction and participation in OneNote.
Using the Shared Session option in OneNote, you can share your notes and students can interact with your notes in real time.
Save a copy of your notes and provide to students who missed class, or for students who have IEPs that require you to provide written notes of work conducted in class.
Allow students to conduct education-centric research and develop unified notes using a Live Sharing Session.
Capture notes from parent/teacher conferences
The faculty can have cohesive set of notes, developed in real-time using the Live Sharing Session
Students can use OneNote as a staging area to assemble notes, research, and screen clippings. Ideas can be organized and published into Microsoft Word, published directly to a blog using the new blogging feature, or saved a webpage.
The built in OCR capability allows you to search notes and images you have collected in your notes.
Develop a Shared Notebook, where notes and ideas can be shared among many learners.

Microsoft Office OneNote is a powerful tool that allows educators, learners and even parents to share notes. More information can be found at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/default.aspx.

Podcasting

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 06:11:05 GMT

Scott Thompson is on the move, talking to educators across the United States. This dispatch is from the field.

Create your own Education Podcast today using XP or Vista

Have student participation you want to feature? Need to add instructional technology to your lessons? Want to broadcast your classroom norms, key concepts, or project criteria? Creating a mediacast is for you. You can create a mediacast with ease using your Windows XP or Windows Vista machine. Mediacasts are simply audio files that are posted to a website. Districts may want to syndicate the podcast using RSS (more on RSS in a later blog)—however districts should consider using SharePoint as it is a truly enterprise collaborative tool and has RSS built in.

Getting Started

So if an audio mediacast (aka podcast) is a simple audio file, getting started is a breeze. Simply capture your voice using the audio recorder. It will create a file and you are basically done. Upload your audio file to the website.

Extra Credit: If you would like to add music or bumper music to your podcast, use Windows MovieMaker. I especially like the refinements found in Vista. You can really tweak the bit rate for an AM, FM and other settings for ever increasing quality. By the way, free music is available on the microsoft.com/office website. Under the media search look for music. There are also sound effects and more for the taking.

If you desire, you can convert the audio file to a MP3 format using free or for purchase utilities that are easy to use. Many can be found at sites such as www.download.com (search for MP3 converter).

Syndicate the Content

So you are now ready to syndicate your content. This is done using RSS. RSS or Really Simple Syndication is essentially XML that is on a website that indicates that there is content available for subscription, or if you will, consumption (subscription implies a cost, which there is none unless you charge for access- and most podcasts are free so we are just talking about making it ready for the taking). If you have a RSS aggregator you can capture the updated content on your desktop. What is very cool is that Vista, Outlook 2007, and IE7 are shine with RSS capabilities. IT Pros will like the fact that the new Microsoft SharePoint has RSS built in. So using SharePoint, syndication is a breeze and is handled for you.

Add Photos, Movies and Effects

Now that you have gotten your feet wet with MovieMaker to create your auido mediacast, you can get extra points if you use MovieMaker to feature photos or videos of student work, say from the class field trip. These mediacasts allow teachers to create powerful content and impact student learning.

Student Use, Acceptable Use, and Governance

Check with your district regarding policies specific to student work on the internet, the use of personal information on the Internet, and any release forms that may need to be completed. Districts use student voices on the Internet, but some districts prefer not to have students identify themselves nor provide identifiable information in the podcast. Here, policy, common sense and prudent judgment rule. Also, CIOs may want to consider where the content is residing, so that the district can maintain proper governance over the content.

Publish Anywhere

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 20:52:22 GMT

Education Dispatch from the Road

Now use 2007 Microsoft Word or OneNote to publish your blogs

Blogging just got even easier. Microsoft Word and OneNote each allow you to publish to common blogs with great ease. In fact, this entry was created using Microsoft's 2007 Word. Nice. Very easy and fast to set up out of the box.

Getting it Right

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 04:36:47 GMT

Education Leadership by Scott Thompson

Education Competencies

There is a very powerful resource available to all educators. It is the Education Competency Wheel. Organizational greatness starts with people. Check this out.

http://www.microsoft.com/education/competencies/howtouse.mspx

Get People Ready

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 03:15:28 GMT

Education Leadership and Instructional Technology Resources for Teachers

Get 2007 Microsoft Office system and Vista Knowledge Today

One of my super excellent colleagues reminded me about a helpful site to help make your people ready for the new Microsoft Office system and Vista. It is an excellent tool to help ready the workforce and organizes information in a very powerful yet simple way. All district trainers and power users should check out:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bdd/ELF/AboutRoadmap.aspx

CIOs, Users & IT Pros will See the Vista Benefits

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 03:24:58 GMT

T-Minus and Counting

Vista is heading towards the finish line and I’m loving it. I’ve had it on my tablet for weeks now, and the experience is superior to any other OS I've encountered- and I've been around the block. What is so good about it? I really like the search investments found in Vista. I can find documents, programs, and system functions much faster. But as impressive are graphical improvements, which make the experience richer than anything in XP. I'm also loving the document preview that allows me to edit documents without opening them.

IT Pros are going to love the security, and the ability to encrypt the hard drive contents, which will prevent data from being stolen when a laptop goes MIA. In fact, IT Pros are going to realize significant cost savings in numerous areas. There is also the ability to improve self help, and the fact that the OS is self healing will cause IT departments to jump for joy. Mobility is made easier throughout the OS and the overall experience has a lot of WOW factor.

I’ve seen some critics in the news lately, and the gloom and doom stuff always seems to grab headlines. Unfortunately, negative gets attention. But if you are a visionary, I think you will likely see the benefits and how Vista will improve how your users work and further your vision of what technology can do for users.

CIOs: Improve Productivity in your District

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 15:36:35 GMT

CIO Quick Win

Reduce Costs and Improve Results in District

If you are a CIO who would like to add intranet content to your site so that users can use technology more effectively, I encourage you to look at the free intranet download. If you position this correctly, you could reduce help desk calls and improve satisfaction scores. The download and other ideas for use are at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=cb3ff9be-bc97-476b-bf05-b639beacaf47&displaylang=en

By placing links to 2007 Office and Vista content, you can also use this material to help with your future migration plans. Best Practice Tip: Introduce change well in advance of the planned start to help with cultural change management.

Fishcourse Discourse

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 01:00:43 GMT

Trout Kool-Aid

Entering through both doors, I raised my arms into the air that I finally made it to the restaurant. There were my two good friends, Lori and David, chatting away, and giving me deserved grief that I was late. It is always good to break bread with friends, or as would soon be the case, a great piece of fish. We continued to catch up as the waiter took our order and quickly dispatched it to the kitchen. We were soon served.

We all have played in IT for years and so it was no surprise when the subject of Microsoft Office surfaced. As I nibbled my trout, we chatted. All of us were all adding our two cents, and suddenly, without realizing it, I was into a passionate business value discussion about the 2007 Microsoft Office System. No sooner had I started describing and predicting that tools like Microsoft Word would allow business workers, students, and teachers to become more productive and improve their quality of work than I got the “you're drinking the Kool-Aid” comment from one of my pals.

She may be right. I thoughtfully considered this possibility as I studied and then consumed my last portions of fish. I know I’m biased as I am one of the collective. I’ve been assimilated. Every morning, I wake and turn westward to face Redmond. I am so jazzed by what I do and what my company develops. I love what we do for education. I'm stoked by the tools we produce and believe with metaphysical certitude that they actually improve life.

See what you think. Kick the tires at http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx. NB: And when you are at Fish City, I can recommend going for the trout.

Best Practices: CIO and Curriculum Leadership

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 02:39:05 GMT

Leveraging Collaborative Technology to Enable Curriculum Excellence

Within each district resides a wealth of work products and well founded best practices that are specific to the district and local community of learners. These products are the result of teachers, specialists, and district curriculum leaders, expending countless hours developing scope, sequence, and content. They are often hidden from view on a dusty file share or on individual PCs. As they are hidden away, when curriculum alignment needs surface, these products are often not considered in the process, among other aspects, such as holistic review, consideration, and adoption. So what happens when it is time to make adjustments?

When it is time to align the curriculum, or develop a new course, there is often a rush to shove a group of teachers in a room for a few days, slip a pizza under the door, and hope for the best. When I taught, I recall having to develop curriculum for a course that had been taught in the district, but nothing had been written down-- and no pizza either. I’ve even caught whispers that in some districts, the curriculum is written down, printed out, and placed in a binder on a shelf in a dusty, dark workroom (NB: heavy sarcasm as I've got the tee shirt). In today’s world of No Child Left Behind, that's scary. Other districts hire expensive outside curriculum consultants to develop new curriculum, and are then confounded when staff refuse to use it or buy in. Churn, churn, churn—time, as they say is money.

However, we have a solid, proven technology that offers strong solutions to educators in this and other areas. SharePoint is a powerful tool that we have continued to refine at Microsoft, and is now part of the 2007 Microsoft Office System. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server allows users to build, share, store and collaborate in new, meaningful ways. It is an Internet technology that allows districts to realize kicked-up intranet and Internet sites.

Best Practice #1: Gather Greatness

Using Microsoft SharePoint, assemble work products already developed from known master teachers and then have the instructional teams assist in categorizing the materials further. The participants can use the built in surveys to help in refining the materials and identify trends. Announcements and notifications alert the team to developments and progress. Use a built in wiki, so leadership can collect best practices and codify knowledge that is chiefly word of mouth today, so that it can be muscled tomorrow.

Using SharePoint to gather the greatness of what is already built leverages salary dollars expended to date and furthers the process of curriculum alignment as SharePoint can be enabled on a district-wide basis very quickly and used without costly training as it is highly intuitive. Beyond dollars, imagine the quality end product and buy in of the entire team. Many, many returns.

This is a technology that both the superintendent and CIO should well consider, as its very installation allows for a multitude of ROI. For today, let me say that it is a meaningful productivity tool that is a starting point for rich technology interaction, workflow, and as mentioned, collaboration. Since it is a web technology, web parts allow for the integration of scorecards, student information systems, not to mention Microsoft Office. For today, however, start with gathering the greatness and unleash the excellence that is in your district.

Change Management or The Gift of Mutability

Sun, 03 Sep 2006 15:00:34 GMT

The Gift of Mutability

I was in the media center, methodically pacing out the last few minutes before I went on to speak to a group of educators. By chance, I noticed a stack of newly arrived books on a yellow maple countertop. The books concerned the planets, and each book covered a specific planet. Curious, I shuffled through the stack and found it--the book on Pluto was there. Like a lighting flash, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” thundered in by brain.

Everything changes outside the urn. Teaching styles cycle through the years, methods are renamed and repackaged, innovations happen, and the nuggets we were taught to teach change. Yet we cling to the warm idea of permanence in this experience. I think this is why Pluto’s demotion in our solar system resonated so surprisingly deeply.

As teachers, we not only teach knowledge level facts, but also impart important life concepts. Among these concepts stands mutability and how we cope with change. Beyond time itself, innovation erodes notions of immutability. How we engage, teach, and embrace change, in part, decides our success. This is an important idea specific to the pursuit of educational excellence.

Not only are the canons, content, and memes nonlinear and mutable, but neither should our skills and instructional capabilities remain static. We are in a race to develop students who will be the next generation of innovators. Keep giving the gift of mutability to your students. In doing so, the giving is also truth and beauty.

Dispatch from the Front Lines

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 23:30:30 GMT

I am very grateful that I have the opportunity to travel to wonderful places and meet engaging people. Wednesday had me in beautiful, sunny San Diego where I had the privilege of working with an all star group of instructional leaders at Franklin Elementary. The faculty and staff have a contagious enthusiasm and zest for teaching. They are education’s rock stars and it was my honor to hold a session with them.

Calling Franklin's Stars: I enjoyed the opportunity to present and hope you stay in touch with your progress. Thank you for the very warm reception and hospitality. The websites I covered during the morning session are listed below:

Free Stuff

· Education Pack

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tabletpc/educationpack/default.mspx

· Power Toys

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/tabletpc.mspx

· Experience Pack

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tabletpc/experiencepack/default.mspx

· Enhancement Pack

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tabletpc/enhancementpack/default.mspx

Other Key Sites

· Microsoft Education Site-

http://www.microsoft.com/education/default.mspx

· Tablet PC Site-

www.microsoft.com/tabletpc

· Tablet PC Demonstrations-

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/evaluation/tours/default.mspx

· Microsoft Office Site-

www.microsoft.com/office

· Microsoft Office Training-

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/default.aspx

· Microsoft Research-

http://research.microsoft.com

· Microsoft Live Labs Photosynthhttp://download.microsoft.com/download/3/9/0/3902e391-734e-470f-806b-4d779f07749f/PS_Overview_640x360_2MB.wmv

Brave New Worlds

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 04:39:52 GMT

At one time or another all teachers have run into the ultra advanced student, the kind of student where self directed learning is not only relevant, but vital for student success. I remember more than one middle school student who was asking me university level questions. This got me to thinking about Microsoft Research.

For those who have students that are technically curious, I would recommend a trip to the Microsoft Research (http://research.microsoft.com) site. This is an area where learning can be taken to the stratosphere of intellectual engagement. There is a scintillating area where software can be downloaded for non-commercial use. It also includes publications and sites that will set off neurons and get the grey matter moving.

If you are an IT professional, you will find this area challenging too. Network and developers in advanced school districts who invest time in exploring this site will get more than a few ideas.

Innovative exploration areas include WWMX Travelogue, Microsoft Scalable Fabric, and the Microsoft Research Networked Embedded Sensing Toolkit. However, there is so much more there that I could just drop the list herein to do real justice. The possibilities for education are powerful.

Classroom teachers who are including hurricane Katrina content should look at http://risingfromruin.msnbc.com/tour.html. There is a 360 moving video with narration, which is a fascinating account of the devastation, rich in local history.

Ode to Tablets

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 03:25:17 GMT

Ode to Tablets

This week has me headed for another busy week at Microsoft. As a former teacher myself, I always appreciate the opportunity to get in front of teachers. While I will be in many places and talking to many people, I’m especially looking forward to the opportunity to hold a workshop on the Tablet PC with teachers.

When I joined Microsoft, one of the first things I received was my Tablet. Now, I’m a self proclaimed, unashamed technophile. Okay, enough pretense—I admit it, I’m at heart a gadget geek. The more flashing lights, buttons, and throw in a cool form factor and I’m set. So when I got my Tablet PC, well, I thought this was going to be one cool toy.

And it is a cool toy. No question. But to my surprise it was so much more than that. Quickly, it became a limb. Without it I could not take notes, nor fully function. I’ve had a laptop of one form or another for over 15 years now. However the Tablet is a form factor like no other. From a physical hardware perspective, it is very "sticky". By this I mean I like to interact or stick with it. It is a pleasure to open my tablet, swivel the monitor around, and write on it as one would write on a pad of paper.

We make a productivity tool called OneNote, which is now part of the Microsoft Office System. It is a digital notebook that is used to capture, organize, and share notes. I also have a copy on my desktop at home as well as on my Tablet (so it is important to know you do not have to have a Tablet to have a very satisfying experience with OneNote). I also use a webcam to record video and audio notes in addition to my typed notes.

However it is on my Tablet that I can use the digital ink to hand write my notes, and the handwriting is searchable and can be converted to text. So now I can take notes wherever I am, take as many as I want, and never add weight to my briefcase. Just way cool stuff. And by the way, when traveling, if you get stuck in coach like me, you can actually use your PC without contorting your body like a circus performer just to get some work done. The pen not only gives you digital ink, but also functions as a cursor.

But why is this important to teachers? The possibility of being more productive with time is always a plus. The ability to capture information from web sites using the Snipping Tool, the use of ink enabled applications, and being able to take notes using handwriting are all attractive. As a former language arts teacher, the ability to have my students’ work on my Tablet, use the ink enabled features in Microsoft Word to grade and comment, and then post them back to my students is extremely attractive. Moreover, my Tablet comes with speech recognition so I can dictate and command at will.

There are also technologies today that allow for student or teacher interaction with the PC using data projectors. However, these technologies are static, expensive white boards with some electronics, and in my opinion, beyond the initial cool geek appeal, not all that practical. However if you use a Tablet and digital projector instead, you now have a very practical, portable, and cost effective instructional device. Capture notes made when working with the class in OneNote and share them with students who miss class (no, you don’t have to have OneNote to view the notes). Microsoft has free to Tablet owners the Experience and Education Packs, to name just two. I urge you to check them out if you are at all interested in Tablets or if you have a Tablet. These and other packs are at www.microsoft.com/TabletPC.

This is going to be a great week!