Onionskin

I’m so excited! It’s official. Next month I am going back to working with kids and teachers, as an Engaged Learning Specialist at the middle school level!

I love the fact that my new job title places the focus on Engaged Learning, and that it is a multi-faceted position. I’ll be working with students in a computer lab part of the time, so I’m delving into the brand-new NETS publication eagerly, looking for the changes and seeing how they align with my current thinking about digital citizenship. I’ll be working with teachers to integrate technology part of the time, so I will get to apply some of that new knowledge shared by friends who attended NECC this summer and do what I love most – collaborate and facilitate. I will also be making some changes to the media center, so I am very grateful to have the insights of so many colleagues in my online PLN who have been investigating and blogging this past year about the changing role of the library.

Best of all, my new superintendent and new principal “get it”… They have used the phrases “breaking down walls” and “getting in the way of students’ learning”. Not surprisingly, my superintendent shared with me the highlights of various conversations he’s had recently with Will Richardson, David Jakes and Meg Ormiston. How refreshing to speak to an administrator who doesn’t give me a blank look when I talk about who’s on my aggregator!

This announcement is so new that I haven’t even seen the spaces I’ll be working in next year, so it’s a little hard to “envision” at this point. I’m looking forward to meeting new friends, getting oriented to a new culture, and beginning this wonderful adventure. I’m sure that it won’t be long before my To Do List grows to immense proportions, and surpasses the length of my current list of questions… so I’m getting organized now! I’m looking at Moodle and nings and wikis, and investigating student blogs and podcasting tools…

What tools have been most beneficial to you in your quest to integrate technology? What suggestions do you have for me — things you wish you’d known when you started your last new position? What would you do with a brand new opportunity like this one?

Photo Credit: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=109866&

These three photos came to me in this morning’s e-mail.

I’m still learning how to do basic things with my blog, so there’s probably a better way to embed these photos (like down the left side of the text) but what I want to point out is the tiny text line at the bottom of the third image. You can click on the image to see it. Or I can just tell you that it says, “This is India. It’s where you call when you have a technical problem with your computer.”

Seeing as they came from a well-circulated e-mail, some of you may already have seen them. But this was a first for me, and a rather timely one, as I finish off the last chapters of The World is Flat and get a little deeper into Here Comes Everybody.

Some of us have spent more than our fair share of time on the phone with the people who man the Help Desks. My most recent experience a few months ago was rather impressive. The technician I spoke to was very polite, friendly, and conversational. There was no hint of an accent in his voice – something I recall that Friedman referenced in his book. I asked, casually, about his location. Sure enough, it was India, although the company he worked for was based in Australia.

I recall being a little hesitant to accept Remote Desktop help from the other side of the world, but, well, there you are. In their hands. At their mercy. Because your problem isn’t fixed.

It worked out OK. The solution to my problem was discovered and delivered within record time. He profusely thanked me for my patience. (We’d been on a toll-free call for, oh, fifteen minutes.) But then something unusual happened.

He asked if I would hold to speak to his supervisor. Taken aback, I stammered, “Why?”

“Oh, it’s just something we do here. My supervisor speaks to our callers at random to gain information about our level of service. Do you mind, then?”

I think we need more of this kind of quality assurance here in America.

Photo credit: I can’t make out the website at the top left of each image. If you can, or if you wish to claim the image, comment here and I will gladly post it.