Cyberbullying

One of the main concerns I hear from teachers, parents, students, and fellow administrators, is in regards to cyberbullying. It seems that with new advances in technology, comes new advances in ways to harm our students. Although the majority of school districts publish a computer/internet acceptable use policy, most school administrators are at a loss when confronted with cyberbullying. STOP cyberbullying is an excellent resource and can be found by selecting the following link: http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/.

This website is useful to administrators in that it allows the user to select a range of ages as a focus group. Obviously, the cyberbullying an administrator confronts at the primary level will be quite different from what a school leader might find at the secondary level. It also clearly defines cyberbullying, how to prevent the problem, how to take action, and defines supporting law. In addition, this website is interactive and user friendly, so it could help to build a bridge among administrators, teachers, students, and parents in dealing with this sensitive topic.

I strongly recommend checking out this website.

21st-Century Learning: The New Visionary Administrator Speaks Up!

Project Tomorrow is a non-profit, national organization whose mission is to better prepare today's students to become tomorrow's leaders. They propose that much of their mission can be accomplished via instructional technology. There is a wealth of information on their website: http://www.tomorrow.org/. Project Tomorrow facilitates many projects, one of which is called Speak Up; an annual national research project which collects and disaggregates data on educational issues and later presents this information to a variety of rather important parties. The website for Project Tomorrow contains useful information for students, teachers, parents, administrators, and virtually anyone interested in improving education for students and better utilizing and integrating technology in schools.

There are numerous workshops available and there seems to be one that is quite pertinent to educational administrators: "21st-Century Learning: The New Visionary Administrator Speaks Up!" While it seems that this workshop has passed ( it was yesterday), the good news is that this is going to be held annually and the video of the panel discussion will be posted on the website. I am including the direct link to the information about the conference, as it provides the purpose and objectives, an outline, supporting research, and presenter background: http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2009/program/search_results_details.php?sessionid=43713824&selection_id=44258330&rownumber=1&max=1&gopage.

"A new breed of visionary administrator is transforming education through technology. Learn about their visions and strategies for 21st-century education."

-Recommended by ISTE's SIGAdmin

Did You Know?

I recently viewed this video and found it to be quite thought provoking. I think it could be a great start to anything from a faculty meeting to a chat with department chairs to a conversation starter with Career and Technology teachers. I have included the video, but to really get a grasp on the multitude of ways this video could be of use, please visit the website: http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/. Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, founders of this wiki really detail the possibilities. Jeff Brenman created this version of the video.



If you cannot access the video, please select the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY.