WebedtecH

Rights of a Digital Citizen

1. To speak their mind about what they feel and believe
2. To control the content they create and distribute it as they see fit
3. To comment on the content created by others
4. To access publicly available information
5. To share publicly available information with other digital citizens

Responsibilities of a Digital Citizen

1. To respect the rights of other digital citizens
2. To be a participant in the online society
3. To assist other digital citizens when possible
4. To set a positive example in behavior and action for other digital citizens

What am I missing?

In reading a recent posting from Scott McLeod, I challenged myself with the following question: Which is worse…anger or apathy? Now, let me say up front I have never in 10 years at our school received an angry or direct rebuke of the initiatives we have pursued from the staff or the other administrators. I am thankful for the blessing of our staff in that regard. (I can’t say the same for the commercial world, but we’ll cover those issues another time.)

In the case of a direct, angry rebuke there is typically some motivating factor driving the emotional response. Whether it is an old injury, sense of betrayal, or fear, people can reject change outright in a way far more harsh than would be expected. Those cases can be addressed. People can be “talked down” and a minimum of understanding can be gathered. Notice I did not say their minds could be changed easily. When an argument is emotionally charged it is difficult for them to see the benefits of what is causing them to react so strongly. A technologist can recognize the reaction for what it is and move on knowing well enough there just might not be anything they can do.

It is apathy that causes the greatest challenge for the technologist. Encountering a person who is indifferent to the benefits something new can provide them and their students is extremely frustrating. We begin asking questions such as, “Why don’t they get it? What’s their problem? Can’t they see the value?” We may even reach the stage of assigning our own emotional reaction to their lack of response. “Luddite. They’ll never get it.”

So what do we do? How do we address apathy? I wish there was a magic bullet or secret elixir that could fire the mind and inspire the spirit but alas there is not. What we can do is look for those people who are motivated, those who lack hostility or apathy about change, and assist them in reaping the benefits of those changes. By the very nature of our roles, we have an advantage in dealing with people.

There is an expectation all staff members, whether they be teachers or administrative, are professionals hence the phrase “professional development”. Forced development is not that at all. For perspective, look to the student who has decided there is no value in learning a particular subject. You can force them to sit, to study, and to regurgitate the correct responses, but you cannot force them to apply and benefit from that subject. It is a conscious decision on their part and can only be that. Even with the movement towards teacher testing and other various forms of certification and qualification, you can prove someone knows something but making them benefit from it is a completely separate matter.

As technologists, we can identify those individuals who want to benefit from technology for the good of their students and themselves. We can seek out those administrators who are looking to improve the functioning of their school and assist them along the path. We need to be quick to judge the desire of people; identify those with the fire, those with a spark, and those with dead embers.

You may be thinking, “This is pretty harsh. What about helping everyone and striving for the greater good?” In giving those people with the spark a chance to observe successes and failures you fan the spark to a point where it might well ignite fully. We should never forget our job is to help people with technology, aiding in their success and promoting their growth. Pushing someone where they don’t want to go doesn’t help anyone, least of all them. Be realistic and let everyone revel in your successes.

I’ve been struggling for a while with how to leverage rememberthemilk.com for my tasks that aren’t once and done but have a “back-and-forth” component to them.  For example:  I create a task saying “Call Bob”.  When I call Bob he’s not there so I leave a message.  Do I need to complete the first task and create a new one?  I used to until I started doing this:

1. Open the Notes tab on the task and immediately create a new note showing I left a message for Bob.  The note is automatically time and date stamped.
2. Add a tag called “waitingon”.  This lets me filter all those tasks I am waiting on something from someone else.

That’s it.  Now I can keep doing that for as long as the task takes to be resolved and still keep track of the status of it as I go.  Oh happy day!

One of the jobs I have involves evaluating and improving processes for web based applications and tools. Now, I’m not working on the back-end coding processes but rather the people processes on the front end. Commonly the question arises when evaluating an existing system, “Do we need all these approvers?”

When defining the term “approver” I’ve found it to mean two things: 1. A person with the authority and responsibility to make go/no-go decisions on an item moving through the process workflow. 2. A person with the responsibility to monitor and assess the items moving through the workflow for potential issues and risks. While they sound the same, they definitely are two different things.

I use a plumbing analogy when describing the difference to people when we are making the often difficult choices as to who gets “approver” status in a workflow. Picture this:

In front of you is a large pipe through which a quantity of liquid is flowing. On that pipe is a valve and a gauge. In relation to that pipe, you need to know who’s job it is to turn the valve on and off to control the flow and who’s job it is to watch the gauge and say when there is a reason to turn the valve on and off. Multiple people can keep an eye on the gauge and warn when there’s a potential problem with the pressure, but only the person with the valve can stop the flow.

When dealing with a workflow, the common solution to process approvals is to add several checkpoints with management sign-off along the workflow. Think about these as adding multiple valves to the pipe. You may stop the flow from that valve forward, but the pressure builds up behind. However you can add a variety of gauges up and down the pipe measuring all kinds of things, just so long as everyone knows who is the person to turn the valve.

Too many hands on the valve or too many valves on the pipe and things cannot flow along. However, many people have different insights in to the potential risks involves in the materials flowing, so their eyes on the gauge are a benefit. There’s lots of room for eyes on a gauge, but only room for one hand on a valve.

Managers who have responsibility to make sure things continue to flow smoothly need gauges…and need to know who has their hand on the valve. Plan your implementations to show how things work and what their status is, but limit the controls of those workflows to a select few, thereby minimizing bottlenecks and keeping things running smoothly.

Interesting insight:

Now, “the fiddler” - This is the guy (and I know what I’m talking about here - this was me about 3-4 months ago) who spends just about all of his time poking around the web, looking for specific GTD implementations that other people use. I suppose this either comes from a place of “the grass is always greener”, or perhaps they just get bored too easily with their paltry Moleskine, or maybe their current web app just isn’t ringing their bell the way it used to. These are the types that get so caught up in modifying and tweaking their system that they don’t actually do any of the things on those lists. Again, I speak from experience - I’ve tried just about every type of notebook, pen, paper and software imaginable as a candidate for the “perfect” GTD system. You know what I’ve discovered?

…

Fiddlers, listen up: Switch to paper. I’m talking the absolute lowest-fi system you can tolerate. Get rid of the fancy notebook, the expensive software and the pen made from the carcass of some endangered species. Go buy a couple boxes of crappy manila folders, a box of bic pens, a few reams of plain white printer paper and a pocket dayrunner-style calendar. Use only these tools (aside from your phone and your brain) and set yourself up caveman style. Force yourself to live in the GTD wilderness for awhile (which is paradise to some, by them way) and you’ll start to appreciate the way some of the higher-tech setups work. Or you’ll fall completely in love with it and never go back.

It certainly will save me money over the Palm T/X I have been lusting over recently.  Then again…they did just lower the price…