All Categories - Becoming a Digital School Administrator

90 Rock Star Connections at BDSA

7/30/2017

I completed a summer project that turned out to be more time consuming than I anticipated. I attempted to touch base with all 90 contributors to this web site.

Overall, it was gratifying as I formed some new connections in the process and also gained some great new resources. As part of the project I added more detailed identifications to each contributor at the site including home towns and states, provinces, etc. This really shows the breadth of contributions.

I was surprised at how many of my contributors moved to other positions. "Sadly" (for me) some of my connections are not longer building administrators, and while their contributions are not immediately dated, I am holding fast to my criterion of maintaining a current collection from those who labor in the trenches, as this makes the collection unique (and more credible). I will phase these resource out as I find replacements.

Lastly I was inspired to add a couple new ones of my own. I am particularly pleased to show how I am using Google Hangouts for PD that benefits me and 300 regional educators. Check it out and please promote Becoming a Digital School Administrator.

New Book Creation Which Captures Mercy Technology

7/27/2017

We have just submitted a brand new multi-touch book to Apple, Inc. which captures Mercy educational technology. We are anxious to publish it to iBooks but will not do so until Apple finishes a review.
Composing and pulling together together this book has been a huge collaborative project and has actually yielded some new conversations and products, including

Some powerful insights about learning from Ana Warner' testimony about her experience robotic's experience.
A complete documentation of the faculty's '2017 #appleteacher professional development experience.
A concise expression of the school's educational technology vision as aligned directly with the MHS strategic plan.
The formation and branding of the five-member Mercy Tech Innovation Team.
A broader, deeper data collection of our educational technology department yielding many interesting outcomes and next steps such as
- a new understanding of the students' enthusiasm for and dependence on the iPad Notability App '=
- a discernible gap between teacher expectations of student multimedia products and student's actual ability with multimedia tools
- the engagement of a university professor in conversation/collaboration in possibly researching deeper by setting up focus groups or establishing a longitudinal studies.

I can hardly wait for the book to be published. A sample page is exhibited below.

Digitally Driven Maintenance Team

7/8/2017

It is possible that the the maintenance team is the most digitally operational team in the building. Besides using HVAC controls that can be operated by phone, most of the team's communication is app based.

Maintenance Request Tickets
Two years ago our Maintenance Team. moved its ticket system from paper to digital. The advantages were that the requests became transparent, easier to track, and allowed a means for us to maintain a slow chat about particular maintenance issues among ourselves and effected parties without maintaining complicated email threads. After investigating options we adopted the same system used successfully by our I.T. team-- Zendesk.com

Conveniently staff can send cleaning, repair, and set up requests by email to Zendesk. Then I assign ticket responsibility to an team member. If we get a backlog I will call a meeting, but generally the work gets requested, assigned, completed very efficiently.

GroupMe
My communication with crew leaders is mainly through our smart phones. We were having communication issues, however because we were using both email and text messages. Unfortunately information was not being shared efficiently as we would neglect to "reply all" or include everyone on information that would benefit all. Consequently I asked our faculty which group text app they used for youth sports, girl scouts, family groups. I got lots of feedback and eleven different suggested app. The most votes went to GroupMe. My maintenance group adopted it and we have had great success. We have also adopted protocols. Instead of me alone being texted when contractors are in the building or a team member is absent, we use GroupMe.

Sharing Formative Assessment Tools

6/7/2017

A recent survey discovered that our students use 31 different digital tools for formative assessment. I hope to help us do a better job sharing tips among departments and PLTs.

EdTech ROAD TRIP!!! (to Apple Ed. in Chicago)

5/20/2017

Planning New Student Orientation....with Students

5/12/2017

As a 1:1 school one of the best decisions we ever made was to take the new student "tech orientation" chore out of the hands of teachers and let the iWizards plan it, create it, and run it. Next August will be our fifth time with an iWizard run tech orientation. Yes, teachers are still involved, but they are invited to participate as mentor and it is now considered and honor, rather than a duty to join. Yesterday BEFORE school as is our custom, the iWizards held a reception for the mentors. I feel blessed to work on this project with so many awesome students (and teachers) who are excited about serving the school

Connecting with Hillel Day School for Great Design Ideas

5/9/2017

My high school has enjoyed collaborations with Hillel Day School, including mutual visits and Tech Talk. This video describes the school design ideas we have obtained from our visits.

IWizards' App Survey Produces Interesting Results

5/3/2017

Last month, the iWizards sent out a survey to the student body, asking them these essential questions:

1) What are the iPad apps you use regularly for school?
2) What iPad apps do you find most essential to your learning and why?
3) What iPad apps would you like to learn a better understanding and mastery of?
4) Do you use a keyboard with your iPad? If yes, which kind of keyboard?

The survey was created by iWizard Sophie Sawicki. Three iWizards and three staff mentors examined the data: Alyssa Johnston , Madison Konja, Brooke Madak , Lisa Robinet, Chris Janusch, Larry Baker. We came to the following conclusions:

For taking class notes, students have a strong preference for Notability over other apps. Students volunteered that they enjoyed its ease of use, the ability to diagram on the app, split screen with a book, and organize their notes. The ability to highlight and color code was also remarked upon. The students on the committee were not surprised by Notability's as the iWizards themselves signaled this preference last year when they shifted from iAnnotate to Notability for their new student tech orientation.

A second very interesting finding was that so many students depended on Quizlet in order to study and review materials. They enjoyed the flashcards, language features and options for reviewing . The committee concluded that Quizlet should be included in future orientations. The students on the committee said that both apps were attractive because they allowed students to individualize study methods. We felt that some of the other apps like Schoology, PowerSchool, Google Docs, and Pages stood out as essential because course workflow more or less mandated their use. That said, we thought it was interesting that a slightly greater number of the respondents use Google Slides than Keynote.

In retrospect, we think question #3 about "What apps would you like to learn . . ." was not well conceived. In the case of Evernote, for example, we think more students may have wanted a better understanding because they had not heard of it (Since only 3% expressed that they regularly used it). On the other hand we thought that 37% of the students expressing a desire for better mastery for iMovie needed to be addressed through the school curriculum. Teachers may be assuming that students have a better mastery of the app than they actually do. We need to teach them how to use it.

Finally, the iWizards have always debated what to recommend in regard to iPad keyboards. The school does not sell nor require iPad keyboards. Now we have some data: Students stated that they were mainly using three brands: Belkin, Logitech, and ClamCase. Going forward we can share this information without endorsing a product.

Apple Teacher Day at Mercy High School

3/18/2017

Our administrative team decided that as an Apple Distinguished School we should shoot for 100% teacher certification. To further this goal we 1) arranged for staff to get continuing ed credit 2) enticed them with a $20 gift card 3) Most importantly we gave them a full staff day to work on their badges. As I write we are up to 80% Apple Teachers from faculty as well as half a dozen staff. The day was well received.

Collaborating at MACUL 17

3/17/2017

I have presented at our state edtech conference several times over the past eight years. Once I did so with two other Mercy faculty members. But this year I joined a presentation team of Mercy I.T. Director Tom James and Birmingham Brother Rice High School Tech Director Chris McCoy. Furthermore we chose an interactive "participate and share" format. Our topic was Let’s Share Ideas and Strategies for Creating Dynamic Student Tech Teams. The Mercy iWizards and the International Student Tech Team Hub were featured but I really enjoyed the give and take. We got great questions and comments from our attendees.

I was pleased to do a solo presentation on this collection, but I am sure that there is another collaborative participate and share in my future.

Left to Right: Larry, Tom, Chris. Photo by Chris Janusch.