Thing #6

Okay, after several weeks I have decided maybe, just maybe blogging is pretty cool. I have been searching and reading several blogs. Some I like and others........ Before this class, I'm not sure if I really understood the power of a blog. You see, I have a side business and I make crafts. For years everyone has been telling me that I need a website. So I have researched and have been trying to create the "perfect" website, but what I have really learned is without a lot of $$$$$ the perfect website does not exist. All I wanted was a place to put pictures of my crafts, tell what they are and how much they cost. It would be a place were people could go and look at my stuff at their leisure and if they are interested in purchasing them, email me. Well guess what???? That is a blog. Then I found all these other people just like me with the same crazy ideas as me and low-and-behold, I'm not alone anymore!!!!!

My favorite blog so far is Today's Creative Blog. It is a blog for crafters to share their ideas.

As far as educational blogs, check this one out: Dangerously irrelevant. This is the guy who did "Shift Happens". His blogs are really insightful in an educational way. He posted a blog about 7 Steps to success When Working with Administrators". He states that those of us that work in Educational Technology can assist our principals and superintendents by the following:

1. Administrators are unknowledgeable, not evil. Recognize that most of them are dedicated educators who want to do the right thing but may not have the necessary knowledge base or skill sets.
2. The world has changed. Help them see the big picture: the larger, deeper societal shifts and transformations that form the external context within which schools are operating.
3. We need to keep up. Help them see that the larger context is a desirable and/or inevitable destination for school systems generally and for their school organization specifically.
4. We’re not keeping up. Help them see that the school system’s not where it should be in regard to the big picture. Create cognitive disconnects for them between their school organization’s status quo and the desired destination.
5. Facilitate success. Help them gain the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to move toward the desired destination.
6. Rebut the naysayers. Help them counteract the inevitable yabbuts (“Yeah, but…”; “Yeah, but…”).
7. Rinse and repeat. Do this over and over again until they, you, and the system win.

Good rules to practice!