Twitter, etc.

Yesterday I attended the Arizona School Administrator's Law Conference.  While there, I live tweeted the two morning sessions using #asalawconf for my tweets.  Today, I read this great blog about the urgency of change in educational technology.  Greatly inspired, I rushed in to my principal's office to show him how I had tweeted the highlights of the conference (which included the impact of Medical Marijuana, FERPA, and Americans with Disabilities Act).  Although very open minded about technology, my principal would be the first to tell he's not incredibly tech savvy.


So I show him Twitter on my smart phone because of course it's blocked on our campus because of the Internet filters.  I feel I've lost the impact that projecting the tweets from the LCD may have had, but he listens intently.  Explaining how I think I could have students tweet about Macbeth, he nods at the possibility, and then he asks what other technologies could be used similarly. Wah?  It's Twitter.  There are no other technologies like it.  I backpedal, saying that maybe you could compile comments in a wiki, but then mention that one of the benefits is that you can post to Twitter via text messaging, and that a smart phone isn't needed.  Overall, he seemed receptive about the idea.


After mentioning the blog post on urgency, I came home to look up the link to send to him (the author of the post is another principal in our district).  I reread the post, glad I had mentioned it to him, and then started clicking links.  The first click was to connectedprincipals.com, a great site that has numerous resources for school leaders.  Great find!  I also went promptly and liked their Facebook page.  There, I found some more great resources, including a link for a PowerPoint used by a principal for professional development about social media and another link to an article about twitter.  I sent all of these to my principal, too.


What I liked so much about the blog I mentioned to him is this: "Meaningful change requires a certain level of discomfort and expediency. Choose to be a little uncomfortable, challenge others to take reasonable risks, and create a sense of calculated urgency with regard to the utilization of educational technology."  I hope my principal reads the blog.  I pray my district will try to be a little uncomfortable by taking reasonable risks where technology is concerned. I hope I have created a bit of calculated urgency.  We'll see.