TSTC Geek Goddess

The Goddess Site has gone back home to Google.  You can reach the blog at http://edtechgeekgoddess.blogspot.com

I know right!  Duh!  Of course I love technology, that’s why I’m the Geek Goddess.  But seriously.  I’m typing this particular post while sitting in the backyard watching my husband play kickball with my dog.  And while we’re at it, we’re listening to a baseball game on mlb.com on his laptop.  And of course, our trusty cell phones are here as well.  It’s nice how we can have the best of both worlds.

But really, technology totally amazes me.  I feel so lucky to actually be a part of the technology revolution that has happened in the last 10 years.  I also often wonder what kind of student I would have been had I had all of this technology as a student.  Would I have been more attentive?  Less bored (because I was incredibly bored in class)?  Even in the early years of my career, I wonder how much better I would have been in meetings (I hate sitting still in meetings and being forced to pay attention).  Now, when we are in a meeting, we are expected to have our smartphones or laptops in hand for some sort of communication.  Our president even says “Feel free to text at will”, because we know before he got up for his speech, he was doing the same thing.

Really, it’s the amount of ready information technology allows us to access that boggles my mind.   It was never illustrated more clearly to me than last Friday at a college-wide meeting. Right after lunch, the president announced an incident that had happened close to one of our sister campuses in the state.   I remember him ending his announcement by telling us he would share more information as it comes in.  Within seconds of this announcement, smartphones were pulled out and the search was one.  It was only minutes later that most of us had details of the incident.  That is serious power at your fingertips.

But I wonder, if a room full of mostly digital immigrants can immediately pick up a smartphone and get information on a subject during a meeting, why aren’t we using it more in the classroom.  I know there are some educators out there that do it, and hats off to them.  I just wonder why more don’t. Is it fear?  Lack of knowledge?  Or lack of energy?

Recently I gave a presentation to a group of K12 science and technology teachers.  This presentation was similar to the one we gave at NISOD where we talked about using the most common and handy piece of technology in the classroom: the cellphone/smartphone.  I opened these particular sessions with the question “what is your cell phone policy?”.  The resounding answer was they were not allowed.  Some schools even went so far as to fine the students for having their cell phones.   And even though we changed some minds about the uses of cell phones for “good and not evil”, we still felt a reluctance.  Most of the comments we heard were “Our adminstrators won’t allow them” or “Those websites are blocked”.  I suggested talking to their administrators and tech directors in an effort to change their minds.  I even offered to go give this presentation at their districts or regions.  I still got sad looks, some shaking their heads saying “It won’t change their minds”.

So my question is, how do you know you can’t change someone’s mind until you try?  What is the reluctance to embrace technology in schools? What level is it at?  Administration?  Technology? Teachers?  I know these people use this type of technology in our daily lives.  What is it about a school building that sucks this need and desire to use it out of them?  A goddess has only so much power.

I know, I know, long time no write.  Life has been a little busy here in geek world (or the QUB to some).  The past couple of months have been so full of activities, I’ve hardly had time to sit down and put thoughts together.  Needless to say, this will be a longer post, filled with updates of a goddess’s life.

I mentioned a while back (a long while back) that we would be transitioning to Moodle as our learning management system.  After some delays, we were finally able to start the process.  We hired a project manager (system-wide) to oversee the overall conversion process.  Also, each system campus named a “champion(s)” (Guess who for West Texas).  The biggest part of the process was in training the faculty.  The first step, of course, was to attend training myself.  In early April, I, along with 3 others, attended training in Waco to learn the ins and outs of Moodle.  Then, after identifying those faculty members who taught either hybrid or online courses, we scheduled training.  Due to the amount of material, we had to stretch training out over a course of three weeks.  This made for a busy, busy schedule.  I certainly couldn’t have done it without the help of the faculty who were named campus champions.  They will certainly be the key to the success of this conversion process since they will be the local “go-to” people for the instructors when they have problems.

In the middle of the Moodle training we had our annual NISOD conference.  This was a big thing for me this year since a colleague and I were giving a presentation.  I’m used to giving breakout sessions during our own development days, but NISOD is so much bigger.  Turns out, it was pretty successful.  We discussed the use of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom to enhance the learning experience.  A big part of our topic included using cell phones in the classroom with the use of Wiffiti and Flickr.  Also, we showed how Twitter could be used to send notifications to students.  Finally, we ended our session with creating personal learning networks utilizing Ning and Facebook.  I have yet to receive any emails from the session, but the overall response was good.

Other members of our team presented as well.  The vTSTC team presented the vTSTC project (in Second Life) and how we went through the process of building our islands, the certificate and degree programs and our first ever vGraduation.  The room was packed in that session, and it led to a lot of visits to our booth in the vendor area.  Also, two of our vTSTC instructors gave a presentation on how they taught a professional development class in Second Life.  They gave a tour of the classroom (built by students in the form of an ancient Greek structure) and the virtual etiquette dinner environment.  All three of these presentations ensured TSTC had a strong presence at NISOD.

TSTC Booth at NISOD

On top of all of that, we had a booth in the vendor area.  A lot of planning and practice went into the booth construction, and I have to say, we were the best booth there.  We had videos running of our vTSTC campus in Second Life on the big monitors and laptops running Second Life set up so visitors could experience life in the virtual world as well.

Of course, we did actually learn a few things as well.  The most interesting session to me was how Houston Community College uses smart phones (specifically the iPhone) in the classroom.  They received a grant to explore the concept, and were able to give a pilot group of students an iPhone for use in a biology class.  They then created a web site specifically formatted for smaller screens.  Overall, the results were very favorable, with a higher rate of learning and increased access to course materials.  That gave us the idea to enhance our Laptop Initiative to include smart phones.  I had the pleasure of attending that session with our EMS program chair and it gave us great ideas.  As of right now, his students are included in the laptop initiative, which means they are required to purchase a laptop upon registering for classes and use it in the classroom.  He shared with me his concern that maybe a laptop would not be so feasible in his students’ situations of being in the field.  However, a smart phone would be more feasible; it would allow them the access to necessary information while giving them the convenience of size.   This is something we are exploring.

I have so much more to share, however, I think I’ll break it up into a couple of posts.  Stay tuned for more Goddess Greatness.  And as always, happy surfing!