C. Marcellus Griffin Blogpost 10- Something to Think About

Everyone in my life knows that I struggle with technology: whether it is connecting the wires of the VCR (DVR), clearing paper jams from a copy machine, or having the patience to keep up with the newest video game or social media sites.  It's a fact- something in my body causes technology to repel against my wishes.

Honestly, I have used this as an excuse for having family members do technical stuff for me around the house, and for the most part, this has served me well.  However, now that I am enrolled in a educational technology course, I am beginning to see the value of improving my technical skill set, and I must admit that I have made significant growth in this area within a relatively short amount of time.

That said, Friday nights are oftentimes regarded as movie night in my house, but it's not quite the picnic you might imagine.    If we are not going out for dinner or something special, I usually want to watch a movie with everyone, but they would rather partake in their video games, which they are not allowed to play during the week.  So movie night usually goes something like this:

I ask my family, "who wants to come up stairs and watch a movie with me?"  I get no response, as my four kids play video games two feet away from me downstairs. Next, I say something like, "that's okay... I guess I'll just go upstairs and watch a sad movie and cry myself to sleep".  Before I can take my fifth step toward my room, my daughter and youngest son give-in with military precision: "Okay dad, I'll watch a movie with you."  Strangely, my wife and two older sons are unaffected, as they continue waste away on the computer or video games.

Anyway, last night, my son, daughter and I watched a movie entitled "Parental Guidance" that really made me think deeply about the significance of technology in my life.  In the beginning of this movie, Artie Decker (Billy Crystal) is fired as an announcer for the Fresno Grizzlies baseball team because he is not up on new technology and doesn't know how to use it. Artie is disappointed because he loved the job.  As an explanation for firing Artie, his boss asks him in quick succession: " Do you have any friends on Facebook?  What was your last post? What was your last update? Have you 'poked' anybody?  Has anyone 'poked' you? Do you know what a 'tweet' is?  Do you 'hash tag'?  Do you play AngryBirds?  Who's your favorite Angrybird? Everybody has a favorite Angrybird!  How many apps do you have?  Everybody has apps! Artie, we need announcers that 'tweet'..

Since Artie's response to all of his boss's questions was either "What??" or "No".  His boss concluded.. "Sorry, my minds made up. (You're fired.)

Though I fell asleep long before the movie ended (as I oftentimes do)  the message of the beginning of this movie resonated clearly:  "The world is changing, and if you don't change with it, you will get left behind."  

I can't wait to ask my kids how the movie ended.

-C. Marcellus Griffin

Blogpost 9- Community Of Practice at a Charter School

C. Marcellus Griffin Blogpost 9- Community of Practice at a Charter School

 

I recently had the privilege of visiting a charter school that uses the Ingenium Learning System.  Ingenium Learning Systems derives it education plan from the RISC model, created by Mr. Richard Di Lorenzo.  By the end of my visit, I had gained so much practical knowledge about the implementation of this model that I plan to discuss the components of this system with my district’s administrative team in an effort to determine whether this type of competency-based education would be useful in our district. 

 

The beauty of the ILS is that it allows students to progress academically at their own pace.  In other words, students no longer must wait until the end of the year to show mastery of the standards before moving to more challenging standards.  Instead, this model allows students to demonstrate proficiency using the POPs (Proofs of Proficiency).

 

Anytime a school takes on a huge undertaking like this, it is expected that the first year’s results will not be drastic.  However, the school I visited has experienced radical API growth in a relatively short amount of time. 

 

In summary, doctoral candidates in the field of education are always inundated with educational theory. Hence, it is very refreshing to observe the practical application of the theories I have studied, especially when the application is effective.  If you have not already done so, you should make it a priority to go out and visit a school that practices competency-based pedagogy.

 

-C. Marcellus Griffin

Blogpost 8- C. Marcellus Griffin-  Competency- Based Education

 

Competency-based learning is based on the idea that students learn at their own pace and should earn credits and advance after they master the material- not just because they have spent a year in a certain class.

Certainly here in the U.S., public education is undergoing drastic changes, especially in states that have adopted the Common  Core State Standards, which aims to boost graduation rates while preparing students for either college or the work force.  In an effort to meet the challenges of Common Core State Standards and competency-based learning ideals, some states have gotten remarkably creative:

Sturgis (2014) Louisiana gives credit for classes that are offered by local business; Rhode Island allows students to earn “digital badges”  outside the classroom for creating business plans; and, Students in Florida and Oregon take massively open online courses, or MOOCS for high school credit. 

The Obama administration gave grants to districts to experiment with the model; the Lindsay district received $10 million from the “Race To the Top” funding. 

Critics of competency-based education system feel that it is too focused on work skill, such as collaboration and not enough on academic excellence and that lower socio economic demographics and minorities may fall farther behind, thereby increasing the academic achievement gap.  However, there are many proponents of moving students through the curriculum as they are ready.  Proponents resent the notion of promoting students “socially” when they fail tests repeatedly.  They feel these students should not be allowed to move forward until they have mastered the standard. 

To learn more about competency-based learning, visit the attached link.  

Competencybased Learning

(hit Control and Click) to follow the link.   

-C. Marcellus Griffin

 

 

Blogpost 7- C. Marcellus Griffin

  Blogpost 7 - C. Marcellus Griffin

Recently, the question “How can educators ensure academic honesty in an online setting was posed to me and to fellow administrators?”  The question was broached in light of the knowledge that the thrust of k-12 educational systems is moving toward a 100% online educational delivery model.  Therefore, the question of how can educators ensure the academic honesty of students in an online setting versus that of students in a face to face setting is very thought-provoking and timely. 

As the integration of technology into curriculum becomes the norm, educators will be faced with increasing academic rigor, while simultaneously ensuring that students remain honest in the submission of authentic work. 

In face to face academic settings, the teacher is present to curtail cheating and to monitor academic progress, but in an online or a distance learning setting the challenge is multiplied.  This task is made more difficult when one considers that students today are more adept at utilizing technology than their teachers are.  So the question becomes, what will be done to ensure that students do not plagiarize their work? 

As an administrator who sometimes struggles with technology in many of its forms, I recognize the inherent challenges posed by the academic honesty question, and I plan to bring this question to my peers when we next convene for an administrative counsel meeting.  The question is timely for administrators in school districts that have recently invested in laptops for their students, in an effort to meet CCSS.  Usually these laptops will have electronic textbooks loaded onto them, which students are expected to use to complete both their classwork and homework.

Thus, students it is imperative that such schools anticipate online cheating and provide both safeguards against it, as well as punishments for it, when it occurs.  This is a very relevant topic for k-12 administrators to discuss, as it is the thrust of contemporary educational systems.  

C. Marcellus Griffin

C. Marcellus Griffin- Blogpost 6-Using New Technology

C. Marcellus Griffin- Blogpost 6-  Using New Technology

I created my very first hyperlink a few days ago, so I want to offer some advice to educators who are intimidated by the thought of infusing technology into their daily lives.  When getting ready to take on a new technological concept, there are a couple things that you will want to remember:

1.  Take Baby Steps

Consider the technological advances that you have made in your career thus far.  Once upon a time, using new technology meant broaching the world of "PowerPoints".  It was truly scary for most of us, but because most of us recognized that PowerPoints represented the wave of the future, we went to professional development trainings; we had the necessary conversations with our colleagues and supervisors; and eventually we got the job done.  In other words, we made baby steps until we could comfortably use technology in our daily lives.  This is the same attitude that we must keep with other forms of technology until it becomes second nature.

2.  Use the help of students and other savvy users.

Let's face it.  Our students/children are oftentimes more tech-savvy than are we.  However, we should not be embarrassed or shy away from this fact.  Instead, we would do well to embrace it and emulate the enthusiasm that our youth have for technology.  In short,  we need to use our youth as resources, because it simply is easier to teach with technology once we understand how to use.  And if we must solicit help from people half our age, so be it.

In sum, educators would do well to have a positive attitude about the influx of new technology into education, because it is never going away.  Moreover, if we have a healthy attitude toward new technology and take baby steps while incorporating it into our daily work, we might find that we have more resources than we had ever thought, such as that which we could get from our students.  Case in point, last week, I created my very first hyperlink by using my student resources.  As a result, today I feel much more confident that I can do it again without their assistance.

Until next week, keep your head together and be prepared to embraced all new challenges- even the technological ones!

C. Marcellus Griffin

Blog Post 5 - Is the Cloud Safe?

 

C. Marcellus Griffin - Blogpost 5-  The Cloud

When I tell you that I have a million electronic Usernames and Password, I'm afraid it is not an exaggeration.  However, because a friend recently suggested that I use "the cloud" to store all of my passwords, I have been weighing the pros and the cons for the past few days.

For years, I have struggled with finding ways to manage my passwords:
I have tried to keep the same passwords for various accounts. This didn't work, because some accounts require alpha numeric passwords, and other do not, or, some accounts require passwords that are much longer than others.  When this didn't work, I recorded all of my passwords onto one calendar.  This actually worked, until the new year began, and I was faced with having to transcribe all of the passwords onto another calendar, or not.  I chose "not".

Finally, this year, I thought I  had stumbled upon the God-sent answer to my password woes, when one of my friends showed me some of his vacation pictures that were in "the cloud"- The Cloud.

"cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer's hard drive. The cloud is just a metaphor for the Internet. It goes back to the days of flowcharts and presentations that would represent the gigantic server-farm infrastructure of the Internet as nothing but a puffy, white cumulonimbus cloud, accepting connections and doling out information as it floats. " (PCMag.com)


At the time that he showed me, he prefaced the conversation by saying, it's not necessary for me to keep the pictures in my phone because they are in the cloud.  He then logged onto his compute, and, within minutes, I was viewing his vacation pictures.

The cloud would allow me to store all of my passwords in a virtual location, which means the only password I would really need to keep handy is the password to The Cloud.  The thought excited me until I conversed with my wife about it.  She believes that all of our passwords are much safer on paper, located in our home than they are if they are located in a virtual location.  As she stated, "I don't know who has access to that [Cloud] information!"


I chewed on that thought while conducting internet research and discovered that Steve Wozniack shares my wife's concern.  He was recently quoted as saying,  "I really worry about everything going to the cloud... I think it's going to horrendous.  I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years."

After reading this article, I decided my wife was right again.  Therefore, I'll be purchasing another calendar tomorrow when I accompany her on her daily visit to Walmart .

C. Marcellus Griffin

C.Marcellus Griffin Blogpost 4 Community of Practice

C.Marcellus Griffin's Blogpost 4-  Communities of Practice

In today's blogpost, I want to remind everyone that, as educational leaders, we must remember that we do not know everything.  In fact, it is perfectly acceptable to be a part of a Community of Practice.

Communities of Practice: groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly (Wenger-Treyner, 2012).

In order to have a Community of Practice, you must have three essentials:  

1.  A Domain

2.  A Community

3.  Practitioners

By "domain", I am referring to the terministic screening or "shared competence" that must exist in order for members of the Community of Practice to have an informed discourse.  Nurses, pharmacists, computer technology experts, etc., all have a shared competence which allows them to speak intelligently with one another within their respective professions.

The word "communities" suggest that there must be time for members of the group to get together to share concerns, ideas, best practices, etc.  This is very important, in establishing a Community of Practice.  During these meetings, members share notes, ask for advice, ask for templates, etc.  The meetings provide an insulated, safe place for this sharing to occur.  

The word "practitioner" simply implies that the members of the Community of Practice must be active practitioners, as opposed to folks who happen to be knowledgeable in the area.  In order for them to be competent within their field and in order to be helpful to their colleagues, the members of the Community of Practice must be "on the floor", as opposed to " in the stands".  Former practitioners are not regarded as being a part of a Community of Practice, by definition.

Communities of Practice are known by other names, such as thematic groups or tech groups, but the concept is the same:  Practitioners working together for mutual benefit within their field.  

-C. Marcellus Griffin

Blogpost 3- C. Marcellus Griffin

Blogpost 3 - C. Marcellus Griffin

 What educational technology area/topic would you most like to explore and why? Share what you know about his topic and how this technology can enhance your current and future leadership position.  Note: This topic may become the Literature Review assignment or can be part of your dissertation literature review

The educational technology area that I would most like to explore is the podcasts.  I plan to create an educational podcast featuring experts in the area of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and the achievement gap as it relates to African American students and White and Asian students.  In the podcasts, the experts will espouse their expertise in the area while sharing personal anecdotes, tempered with a sense of urgency, yet humor so that people will connect with the message and be inspired to be a part of the change that needs to occur within the public school systems of America. 

                     Historically, African American students have been under served in the U.S. public education system for decades.  Social scientists have reviewed data and have arrived at many conclusions as to why African American students tend to under perform academically in comparison to their White and some of their Asian American counterparts.   Some of the purported rationales include sociopolitical issues that date back to slavery, the Eugenics Movement, the Jim Crow era, the socioeconomic reasons, as well as reasons related to the lack of culturally responsive pedagogy in public education.

                     It is inconceivable that there will ever be a day that everyone is in agreement as to the root cause of the pervasive problem.  In fact, there remains a population of scholars who do not feel that there is a systemic problem at all.  Some scholars are of the mindset that African American students underachieve academically because they are simply lazy.  Regardless of where scholars stand on the issue, the salient truth is that the status quo for educating students of color has been ineffective.  Thus, it is vital that a new approach is implemented with fidelity, so that this population does not get left further behind in this educational race to the top.  With my podcast project, I want to launch and perhaps monetize a radio show prototype that will both entertain as well as educate America on what needs to be done to improve the achievement of African American students.

Blogpost 2- C.Marcellus Griffin

Blogpost 2 –  C. Marcellus Griffin

My personal technology journey taught me that I have always interacted with cutting edge technology, despite my recurring feeling of being inept when it comes to technology.  However, I think the biggest difference between the way I interact with technology now and the way I interacted with technology in the 1980’s and 1990’s is that, back then, I was part of a more cohesive personal learning network.  In other words, as a teenager, I was always socializing and matriculating as part of a personal learning network. I gained most of my technical “know-how” as a result of the people I socialized with and via pop culture of which I was a part. 

On the other hand, now that I am an adult who has little to no leisure time for fraternizing with my peers, I am extremely limited in my time to keep up with technological advances, because I am too busy working out at the gym (or contemplating going to the gym), doing homework (or contemplating doing homework), or spending quality time at home with the family.  The truth is there simply is not enough time for anyone to become an expert in today's avante garde technology, unless this is your field of study.  

That said, I must confess that my personal learning network consists of the people with whom I work on a daily basis, and my motivation for learning technology is that my livelihood depends upon it, to a certain extent.  That is, if I do not demonstrate a certain level of technology competence, I could easily be replaced by someone who is more competent in this area.   

Blog Post 1- What I know about blogging- C. Marcellus Griffin

Blog Post 1- What I know about blogging

Granted, there is still much I need to learn about blogging, since I don't regularly read blogs.  However, I view blogs as a virtual reflection space, since people use them to reflect on their thoughts and to comment on people/events that matter to them. 

Blogging topics are endless,  and people seem to enjoy commenting on blogs.  In fact, I am almost certain that I have observed "blog arguments" (if you will), on controversial topics ranging from politics to fashion, which leads me to believe that blogging satisfies an appetite that most people have to air their opinions and to counter those of others.   Undoubtedly, I can hardly wait to start an educational blog on a topic that is important to me:  "How to educate students of color."  I realize that someone may render a response with which I don't agree; hence, it will be interesting to monitor the direction and tone of the discourse, since I harbor a love/hate relationship with "drama".  I look forward to the challenge.  Setting up the blog is probably the most difficult aspect of managing a blogging site, but once this step is completed, managing a blog appears to be fairly simple.


How might blogging enhance my leadership position?  I am ambivalent about the benefits of blogging as it relates to my leadership position, because I believe that I should blog about matters that are close to my heart.  At the same time, I recognize that, whenever I am passionate about a topic, the line between professional discourse and mean-spiritedness becomes thin and blurred. So, I  must remember to exercise caution so that I remain "professional" whenever I am in this arena.


Two educational leader bloggers that are prominent are as follows:

Cathy Nelson (also known as Cathy Jo Nelson) and Cool Cat Teacher.   Cathy Nelson blogs about ways to integrate technology into education.  Cool Cat Teacher also shows teacher how to integrate technology into education.  However, Cool Cat Teacher has recently advised that he is moving from Blogging to Wordpress for the following reasons, which I am sure will be part of our discussion at some point in Ed Tech 580: 

1.  Wordpress has more add ins and flexibility

2.  Google's new terms of service

3.  Free can cost you everything: pay for valuable services

4.  CoolCatTeacher.com won't be blocked in schools like most blogs are. 

Thanks for reading.

-C.Marcellus Griffin