Leigh Graves Wolf

I had a great time meeting with the International Academy Music Boosters last night. The group was looking for ways to help communicate essential information (concert dates, uniform distribution, etc.) while working on a long term strategy of better engagement with the school and local communities. (My connection to the group is that my husband is the orchestra director. :)

The boosters have set up a twitter account and a Facebook group, but like many who are new to the social “scene” they weren’t quite sure where to go or what to do.  We had an excellent discussion and determined that Twitter wasn’t the best solution for their needs.  This whole tech world is about choosing the right tools for the task.  When you look at the actual saturation rates of Twitter use, their target populations (parents and teens) don’t have super high usage statistics.  We did have a brief discussion on Twitter (went over basic terminology, use of 3rd party apps like Oosfora, Flipboard or Tweetdeck) which was helpful for everyone to get a basic grasp of how to approach the twitterverse and how to filter out the clutter or conversations that don’t interest you or your needs.

We also took a look at my favorite workflow tool – ifttt.com – an essential tool for anyone trying to broadcast messages through multiple mediums.  I mentioned Remind101 as a possible solution for group text messages.

The discussion did veer off in an important direction – there were many questions and concerns about teens and social media.  I suggested they check out danah boyd‘s recent work. I also forgot to mention CommonSense Media which has a tremendous repository of advice and resources for parents.

While only a few in the room had dabbled in twitter, everyone in the room used email and text messaging on a daily basis, so that’s where we headed (to get back on task.)  Ultimately, we decided that a WordPress site with an embedded Google calendar was the best solution for their needs.  The site would allow email subscriptions/digests and we’ll look for an SMS plug in that allows updates to be broadcast out via text message.  Starting simple will help address immediate needs and concerns while the WordPress framework lays a solid foundation for future growth.

It was truly a pleasure meeting with such a dedicated, hard working and engaged group of parents (and Choir/Band Teacher Mr. Ash!) committed not only to their own children but to the collective mission of the music department at the IA – thank you for all that you do and I’m glad I could help!

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I did not use these slides much as we were talking, but I thought I would provide them here for reference.

 

Yesterday I had one of those milestone moments.  It was my last “let’s meet one day before work” breakfast with Branon and Sean. Bran has been hired by U of M Flint as an instructional technologist and Sean is headed across the pond for a new adventure in the Netherlands. The MSU campus will be at a tremendous loss without their expertise present at vuDAT.

I met Bran 6 years ago when we taught together in the East Lansing summer cohort with Punya.  We had interacted a few times before, but it was our first real “bonding” experience.  I met Sean in 2008 when I was his “advisor” for the MAET program.  I use the word “advisor” loosely because basically, I just helped make sure he had the papertrail cleared up to graduate :)

Sean and Bran are two incredibly influential people in my life.  I have had the distinct pleasure of co-teaching with both of them.  It’s a rare treat to find a teaching partner who can eloquently balance your shortcomings and accentuate your strengths.  I’m trying to find the right words to express one of the other reasons I admire Sean and Bran – to have two male friends who treat you, not just like “one of the guys”, but as a person, a regular person is extraordinary.

Over the years I have watched Bran grow not only as a professional but also as a father.  I remember distinctly a time when I stopped in at the coffee shop one morning, Brandon had not noticed me yet and I watched he and his daughter were engrossed in their morning routine.  The memory still brings tears to my eyes. Brandon’s love for his family radiates through everything he does – not in an overly “gushy” way, but in the most natural, loving and inspirational way that I have witnessed.

I have also watched Sean grow over the past few years that I have known him.  He has become an integral asset to the MAET program. He openly and eagerly shares his expertise with me, pushing me to improve my own photography, video and design skills.  He is a constant source of strength and encouragement in my work.

Brandon and Sean were my travel buddies during the MAET overseas program – we shared many a pint, glass, bottle and meal during our adventures.  Their willingness to indulge in my foodie adventures was much appreciated and it was comforting to be in my element with all three of us having camera in hand taking pictures of the food, beer, etc.

This is not a sad goodbye – in actuality I may see Brandon more since he’s moving closer to me and I’ll be in much closer contact with Sean since he’ll be working directly with the MAET program.  They’re both growing as professionals and the new opportunities they’re headed towards are perfect fits for their expertise and passions.  Though, selfishly, I am sad that a much cherished part of my workflow will be disrupted.  I loved every breakfast, coffee and beer we three have shared together over the years. I know we’ll all get together again, but an impromptu breakfast to geek out, vent, or collaborate will no longer be a text message away.

Cheers guys.
Love,
Leigh

Michelle, Punya, Kristen and I have a huge favor to ask – can you vote for us? Our proposed SXSWEDU panel “Developing TPACK: Design Case Scenarios on Display” is up and open for voting!

Here’s the description:

Technology integration and developing information literacy skills in students must begin by developing teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). This development however is an intricate and complex process, made even more so by the fact that most technologies are not designed explicitly for education purposes (Koehler & Mishra, 2008). This panel addresses these issues and presents three in-depth practitioner focused case studies from our Master of Arts in Educational Technology program specifically aimed at developing teachers TPACK and creative technology integration. We describe the design and implementation of each case as an example of our attempts to improve K-12 teachers facility to incorporate technology into their classroom practice. Each case study is presented in detail along with data detailing technology specific creative growth and the development of domain-general TPACK.

You can vote for our proposal by visiting: http://panelpicker.sxswedu.com/ideas/view/14302

Voting and commenting closes this Friday, October 28th!

Ok, I have a few minutes to recap my #learning2 experience! This was my second year at the conference and I was excited that I had the opportunity to return! By far, the best part of the conference for me was attending Darren Kuropatwa‘s session on presentation on 21st Century Bricoleurs.  Going into the session, I didn’t know who Darren was – I wasn’t even following him on twitter (gasp!) I was excited when he started to mention that his background/area of teaching expertise is in mathematics.  This is certainly one area in my “jack of all trades” career that I have very little experience.  When I mentor a math teacher, I usually am the relationship builder, rather than being able to connect my students directly to resources.  Now, I’m going to point them to Darren as the first place to start.  I was blown away by his use of wikis in calculus (see the “wiki solution manual” assignment.) I wish I could have had Darren for my math teacher – his care and concern for his students and their understanding of concepts radiated through his being.  Thank you Darren for sharing your expertise, so excited to add you to my PLN!

The best part of the overall experience was being able to connect F2F with my PLN and our MAET students and alumni. I’m truly inspired and energized by our interactions, both virtual and in-person.   To have the luxury of face to face time with people who inspire me so much was incredible.  Kat did a great job recapping the conference here:

We also had a super fun MAET/MSU reunion dinner in downtown Shanghai!

 

While the overall experience was positive, I do have to air out a large area of dismay/concern.  On the first evening, I walked by the library which housed the Technology Leaders cohort.  There were probably about 40 or so people in the room.  At first glance, I didn’t see a single woman.  Dismayed, I searched a little further and saw about 2 or 3 women.  How could a group of 40+ technology leaders not reflect a more balanced population?

While I was in another session, I tweeted my concern to the twitterverse

This then prompted a quick flurry of tweets (all between women) around community building and connecting tech women.  I started a google doc and we started listing women to follow on twitter. Immediately  Keri-Lee graciously started curating a twitter list of these women. We went back and forth (also pulling in @amichetti and @pammoran who were not physically at the conference, love twitter!) for a bit longer and then the conversation fizzled.  Mainly because it was the end of the day, though I was slightly disappointed more on the #learning2 hashtag did not chime in – either telling me I was crazy, or agreeing with the

On the plane ride home I finally finished reading Blood Bones and Butter.  In short, it’s a memoir about a fantastic female chef (Gabrielle Hamilton) in New York City.  The chapter “Female Chefs” really spoke to me and the conflicts I was feeling.  Take a moment to listen to Gabrielle read an excerpt here: female chefs – http://bloodbonesandbutter.net/excerpt/

I too feel as Gabrielle did – it shouldn’t, it doesn’t matter what gender you are – just do a good job, work hard.  Then, a few days after I returned, I was forwarded this article (which infuriated me) Six Rules Women Must Break in Order to Succeed.  Where are the six rules men must break? Do the men not have to break rules? I want to help everyone else, it’s what I do best.  You’re implying that I am meek and need to seek approval? I don’t seek approval, I do my job. However, all too often in many of my interactions at technical or leadership levels (for work and beyond) the playing field is not balanced (including all aspects, race, age and gender.)

SO – what can I do?  What do I do? I’m proud to be working with Betsy and Carla on the Michigan Girl Geek dinners. I am the #1 advocate for all of my students, pushing them, encouraging them to lead.  I hope I’m a technical role model for my nieces and nephew and for my extended family of kids and friends.

I am not “anti-man” – I’m pro equality and balance.  Without a diverse set of voices we tend to begin thinking one way, we don’t challenge ourselves or each other.

 

Thanks to Kim Cofino for encouraging me to post the keynote text :) Kim asked for academic resources/theory on social networking.  All I know I learned from Ken Frank in CEP 991B Seminar on the Theory and Method of Social Networks.  Of particular interest to the Learning 2.011 crowd may be

Zhao, Yong, Lei, Jing and K.A. Frank. 2006.  “The Social Life of Technology: An Ecological Analysis of Technology Diffusion in Schools.  Pedagogies. Vol. 1 (2): 135-149.

Zhao, Y. and Frank, K. A., 2003. “An Ecological Analysis of Factors Affecting Technology Use in Schools.” American Educational Research Journal, 40(4): 807-840.

Additionally, make sure to follow the work of Nicole Elison and Cliff Lampe – they (literally) write the books on social media!

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I would like to thank David Larson for giving me this opportunity.  David was my student several years ago and as you all know, it’s such a joy to watch your students after they leave your nest – you continue to inspire me David and this is truly an honor.

David asked me to speak to one of the conference themes and I chose CONNECT.  So as I was starting to put together my thoughts I remembered that few months back I read Stephen Johnson’s latest book Where Good Ideas Come From.  That seemed like a great place to start the creative juices flowing when looking for good ideas, so I went back to the text.

In the book, Johnson talks about ideas being networks, not stand-alone things.  Because ideas are networks, this fosters an inclination to adapt and integrate them into your own network of good ideas.  In talking about ideas as networks he goes on to say the most consistently creative individuals have broad social networks that extend far beyond their own organizations.  If this theory is true, which I believe it is,  then I’m standing in front of some of the most creative people in the world.

You’re going to hear the word PLN over and over the next few days.  With my love of connecting it’s no coincidence that I’m a member of the Empowering Teacher Leaders & Personal Learning Networks cohort.  I’m lucky enough in my work with Michigan State to be able to connect to a global network of teachers and practitioners. It’s my job to connect. I connect my own students in our master’s program to content, help them make cross-content and continent connections with each other and help them leverage my own connections, like the ones I’m building here with you.

The power of connections and connecting is nothing new.  In the 1970’s (i.e. pre-internet) Mark Granovetter wrote a paper that talked about the strength of weak ties and social network theorists like Barry Wellman have formulas that quantify how and why information spreads.  While theory can explain how and why these connections work the way they do, I think there is a bit of magic involved. No mater what vehicle we use to connect – Facebook, twitter, instagram, text, sign language, face to face – the magic and power of a connection is still there.

We all have anecdotal evidence that exemplify the power of connection. A plea for a quick tech fix on Facebook that is answered within 2 minutes. A twitter conversation that pushes buttons and then pushes your practice.  Kind words of encouragement via a direct message during a time of loss or frustration.  The connections empower and nurture us and in turn continue to empower and nurture others.

I encourage you to harness the connective powers around us while we’re here together in Shanghai – push beyond your existing connections and continue to grow the amazing network if ideas.

For those that follow me on Facebook and Flickr, you have seen “LVD” as a comment on many of my posts or photos.  LVD stood for “Love Dad.” It was my dad’s way of staying connected and letting me and my sister know he was looking at our posts.  My dad had a lifelong passion for photography which was passed along to me and my sister and it was one of the primary ways we communicated with each other. In recent years, Flickr was a large part of our relationship and he was always excited to see my posts from all over the globe. I too was able to keep track of his adventures in Michigan on his stream.

Nothing can prepare you for events like this – and it particularly difficult when this happened suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly.  Now begins the process of going through papers, photos and memories.

Marvin Earl Graves age 77, August 12, of Alger, formerly of Ecorse. Graduate of Ecorse High School in Ecorse Michigan and worked as a technical representative for Great Lakes Steel and Kastle Steel. Survived by his former wife Betty Graves, and mother of his children Leigh Graves Wolf (Scott Wolf) and Lauren Graves Kropf (Major Marcus Kropf.) Loving grandfather to Anna Kathryn and Erica Lauren Kropf. At his request, no funeral service will be held. Marvin had a life long passion of looking at life through the camera lens and memorial contributions may be made to the Michigan State University Museum Photographic Exhibitions Fund at https://www.givingto.msu.edu/gift/

When we poll students on technologies they would like to learn in the MAET program, iPod/Pad app development is high on the list.  If you’ve ever ventured into the world of app development you know that you need some pretty serious coding skills to get started.  I didn’t want this to thwart the students from getting excited about the potential for app development – so – I created the following quickfire!

Quickfire title: MAET (pre) #appjam
Length: approximately 1 hour

We started out by talking about the two main sides to app development – form and function.  I showed a few quick screenshots of Xcode and ran a sample project dowloaded from appsamuck.com to give everyone an idea of what an app looks like on the back end.

We then talked for a second about the importance of form, or user interface.  I of course used Flipboard as the gold standard for beautiful UI.  We dug into the backstory of Flipboard by watching this short interview with the CEO and co-founder Mike McCue:

Then, we watched a minute of a lecture from the other co-founder, Evan Doll

(Note that Evan is one of the primary lecturers on the free online class series on app development from Stanford!)

We then took a look at the jobs currently available at Flipboard.  At a quick glance, it’s easy to see that it takes a whole SWARM to develop (and maintain) an app.

With these thoughts swirling through their heads, I gave them the definition of an #appjam. Now, it was time to brainstorm.  Students were given a sheet of paper (old school tech) with the word “form” on one side and “function” on the other.  They had 5 minutes to brainstorm the following:

Think about your teaching practice (even a wicked problem you have with your practice.)
Brainstorm the form and function for an app that you could use in your class

Once they had thoughts scribbled and sketched, they had to pull up the app store on their iPod touches and search for their competition. With over 450,000 apps in the app store, do apps already exist that fit their vision? Can apps be repurposed to reach their goals/dreams?

After they had time to brainstorm, the next stage of the challenge was revealed.  They were given the following scenario:

You are given a set of classroom iPod Touches.  Give us a specific example of how you would use the set in your teaching practice.

Students had 10 minutes to dump their ideas into a google spreadsheet with the title of the app, grade level and thoughts on how they would use the app. (Results here.)  Then a few brave volunteers offered to go infront of the “hiring committee” (me) and answer questions related to their use of the app they researched and how they would answer the above scenario in an interview.

Then, we brought the conversation back to app development.  The goal here was to help the MAET students realize that the next killer app can come from a few scratches on a piece of paper and that you don’t have to go it alone to reach the goal of developing an app.  There are some amazing coders out there looking for partners – for example – here is the young man I mentioned meeting at the MACUL conference this past March – Andrew Rauh.  (You can follow him on twitter @a_j_r.  Andrew (along with his team) created Monarch Express (check it out!) Connecting to the developer community on twitter is one way to help make the app dreams sketched out in class today a reality!

Here’s the Keynote I used along with the activites

Here are a few other resources to check out to help get the ball rolling on mobile app development (thanks @hickstro for the links!)

http://www.learncast.com/

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/12/learn-iphone-ipad-app-development.html

http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2010/12/30-plus-tools-for-building-your-own-mobile-app.php