Friday, January 4, 2008

What Gets Measured

"Evaluate what you want -- because what gets measured, gets produced." -James A. Belasco

Jeff Utecht has compiled a list of essential questions for administrators to pose when conducting interviews for potential teaching candidates.

This list might also serve as a useful self-evaluation tool for educators who wonder how they compare to their peers when it comes to knowledge of essential 21st century literacies.

Never one to pass on a challenge, I've decided to "interview" myself and try to determine whether I'm International School material.

Skill set: average to advanced; some gaps, but motivated and a quick learner

E-mail: use Outlook at school; have gmail and hotmail accounts; comfortable with communicating electronically as well as face to face

Searching online: since I'm a school librarian, doing research and verifying information is part of my daily routine; very familiar with copyright, plagiarism, bias, point of view; practice and preach cyber safety and digital citizenship

Filtering: aware of CIPA regulations but do not feel that they adequately "protect" students; instruction and guided practice, a strict AUP with consistent and appropriate consequences for infractions, would be the course I'd advocate

Blogs: I feel that the blogs I read, in tandem with the Twitter conversations I track, are my best Professional Development activity; started with David Warlick, Will Richardson, Joyce Valenza, and Doug Johnson; now follow over 160 edubloggers. I have my own professional/personal blog which gives me immense satisfaction.

RSS Feeder: without my Google Reader, of course, I could never track so many blogs

Online Communities: Twitter, various nings, a few wikis, Facebook, Pownce, Skype (just beginning)

Learned from my Network: I've begun to experiment with Skype, am getting better at listening to conversations while "chatting" (thanks to WOW); first heard about Animoto & VoiceThread via blogs & Twitter; have bookmarked many graphics sites; added numerous links, videos and podcasts to my del.ici.ous account because of online recommendations from my PLN. I learned that I have many colleagues around the world who are happy to share their knowledge with a fellow learner.

How will the world be different for our students: Change will be the constant; tolerance and willingness to collaborate with people from other nations and cultures is essential; skills are not enough...the ability to continuously "reinvent" themselves will be key; those who are inflexible or incurious will be doomed to lower level, dead end careers and unsatisfying lives

Last new technology learned: just got a new MacBook to explore; love to play with my digital camera; will use both in teaching and blogging

Technology leader: emerging role: I keep mentioning tools to teachers and some have stopped in for further discussion; was given a current events class to teach this year because administrators knew I wanted to share some of my new expertise with students

What I didn't learn in a classroom: I was curious about a "news aggregator" that I had access to from an online course I took; went online and found Google Reader; began reading blogs and felt compelled to start my own. Added Twitter to my repertoire when bloggers kept mentioning it. Now I have continuously updated professional information, a global community of friends and colleagues, and a very satisfying creative venue.

Thank you, Jeff, for giving me the chance to reflect on these questions. I can see my strengths and weaknesses, areas for improvement and key selling points.

It's been a valuable New Year's exercise. All things considered, I think I would hire me.



"Measuring time" by aussiegall

4 comments:

david santos said...

Happy New Year, Diane! And best wishes for a healthy and successful 2008

diane said...

Thank you, David. I wish the same for you!

Liz B Davis said...

I would hire you too! I feel like we have had similar journeys. I'm lucky to have you as part of my network.

diane said...

Liz,

It's meeting people like you that makes online communities so enriching - and so much fun.

I think that those of us who discover and explore on our own value the experience more.

Here's to a lifetime of learning and adventure!

diane