Online anonymity creates a mob mentality

This was the title of a recent article in the St. Petersburg Times. David sent this to our team and several others. This concept of 'gossip sites' has been a popular one of late. The ability to anonymously post to those sites or to anonymously comment on articles written creates this 'instant' viewer/reader interaction that our traditional media sources are craving.

Well, at a minimum, it's the viewers or readers that they crave. Our current ability to digest content in rapid-fire fashion (and the preference that most have for the quick details rather than the 'full version') are, IMO, causing this reaction from traditional media sources in a frantic effort to maintain viewers or readers.

Our local news station has begun accepting Twitter responses to news stories and reading some of these comments on the air. Articles are easy to find that detail the job losses that these folks are facing. Yet, as one of the linked articles point out, the air time and amount of content is staying the same or even increasing in these times. This explains some of the reason why your 'news' stations and online newspapers are turning into interactive rooms full of, in many cases, drivel. Anything to keep them on your site rather than someone else's.

Desktops and 'client management' tools

I received an email from a vendor the other day, asking me to pass along information about their client management tools. I didn't sent it, since that tends to open Pandora's Box and give everyone justification to ask me to forward countless emails to districts.

At any rate, the whole conversation made me think about the low-cost or no-cost tools that our KETS vendors have today that might assist districts with management of clients. Our school districts spend millions of dollars on computer replacement and, when asked about the value of KETS contracts, the low cost is immediately mentioned. I would encourage districts to take advantage of your vendor relationships and ask about or take advantage of free tools that they may offer.

A couple of these vendors have a 'free' version of a management product and a more elaborate fee-based version. It appears that both Dell and HP have partnered with Altiris to have client management tools built for their products. Lenovo has a ThinkVantage suite of tools, some of which (like Rescue and Recovery) are included with new systems at no charge.

Bottom line: If you are interested and you don't know what's available, ask your vendor of choice and use your leverage to make them a true partner in what you're trying to accomplish.

KSBA article awareness - ARRA & Title I

Many of you may have already seen this, but I wanted to make you aware of a KSBA article discussing communication to districts regarding ARRA and Title I funding.

The article also discusses another email to superintendents that notes a decrease in textbook and/or 'flex focus' funding, as well as mention of a forthcoming email regarding district funding requirements for the ongoing operational costs of Infinite Campus.

Collaboration - who knows who might find you...

I talked to John David Son this morning, who was surprised to see that his district had been recognized as part of a rather popular blog. The blogger is attempting to find model 21st-century schools and districts. JD swears that he didn't submit his own name (hmmm) and that someone, somewhere had submitted their district for inclusion.

It's not a bad link at all. When I look at the highlights for some of these districts, I note that we have several districts doing these very things. Let's not lose sight of the fact that, in comparison to the majority of other school districts around the country, our state and region has nothing to be ashamed of when discussing technology in our environment.

Web 2.0 session follow-up: What mic was that?

I guess I'll do a quick product plug from my impromptu effort at using UStream to broadcast our Web 2.0 discussion this week (which went VERY well, by the way). I was using a run-of-the-mill webcam and it was placed some distance away, which naturally led to fair video quality at best. Expect the student video to be of much higher quality, and we'll be working to get that archived in the near future.

The audio, by all accounts, was not bad at all. Kudos to Kenny and Linda in Henderson County for bringing the Telex M-560 USB microphone. I had seen Kenny use this at the regional TIS meetings and asked him to bring it along. According to this reviewer, this microphone was originally created in an effort to provide a good voice recognition solution that wasn't attached to headphones. Though you can read various reviews that debate the effectiveness of the voice recognition, the microphone was more than adequate to use as an audio source for our UStream broadcast.

I would have linked the product, but I think it's been on the market long enough to no longer be available. Here's an Amazon link stating as much...

In advance of the Web 2.0 session...

I did a quick search for "best web 2.0 tools" and the second hit was a link to Kathy Schrock's Teaching Tools, hosted by Discovery Education. I'm sure you've heard of many of the tools mentioned, but the link is worth a visit to (1) find some tools that you perhaps hadn't heard of and/or (2) get quick ideas on how some of the tools familiar to you can be used for instructional purposes.

For instance, I've never heard of EtherPad, but the idea of a free, real-time, no sign-up required collaborative note-taking tool has some potential. For a group brainstorming session or conference call notes, this could have some real merit. I continue to be amazed at what's out there and, as apps like this and Twitter prove, the application itself doesn't have to be terribly complex.

CyberSafeKY

I would say that KY K-12 CIOs should expect to hear this term in the future. CyberSafeKY is the new name for a three-year initiative based on collaboration between KDE, the KY Office of the Attorney General and Kentucky Child Now. More information can be found here.

For those familiar with the i-Jam initiative, this feels like a re-branding of i-Jam. The focus remains around the promotion of safe use of technology in Kentucky. As mentioned in my March 2 blog post, there may eventually (mid/late October) be a regional institute in the Bowling Green area that our CIO's might be interested in attending.

Impero article

This is an article discussing Impero software, used by Franklin County and Frankfort Independent school districts. We've had a district or two that has been looking at this software.

A few 'recovery' links

Whether you call it 'stimulus' or the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), people are curious about these funds and there are various sites available that attempt to inform. I'll link a few I've been made aware of, though I've yet to take the time to dig through them to see what's buried within:

Recovery.gov - maintained by the "Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board". I feel better already. :)

Kentucky at Work - This is our state's implementation of the ARRA. 30 cents of every dollar is flagged for education.

Hilary Goldmann blog - she is the ISTE Director of Government Affairs. This link has her twitter name flagged as well. One of our state folks said that she's been pretty regular about updating this blog as she learns details.

USDOE's recovery site - this is where I found some of the budgetary numbers that were linked in a previous blog post.