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.