Taking Stock

Finally, I feel like I am able to comment about more of the 23 Things that are becoming part of my daily "technology life."
The ITS department is using Google Docs consistently to share meeting minutes as well as spreadsheets that we all need to update frequently. What a time saver!

I have had an iGoogle webpage set up for quite some time. I had set it as my computer homepage but found that it caused some problems so I went back to just making it a link from my district staff page. I am investigating more of its uses like downloading my favorite bookmarks there. I like it better than delicious which I had tried last year and just didn't keep up. I am finding it easier to do RSS feeds to my Google page and thus have everything in one place.
My webpage skills have improved this year as Jean and I are responsible for keeping the Media Website up to date. http://media.mpls.k12.mn.us
This is where we post information that is pertinent to media specialists in the district including media procedures and links to training and staff development. It has been most successful in keeping people informed about Destiny, since this is new to all of us this year. We are also in the process of creating a Virtual Media Center for the district that every media center could link to from their site.
Using Moodle for staff development and professional group dialogues has been a big initiative in Minneapolis this year. In February we set up a Media Moodle as a place for media specialists and tech teachers to post their best lessons. So far the only lessons posted are those that I have done. The issue here is time. We are thinking of strategies to get more people to contribute as well as create time for them to do so. One strategy is to contact specific people to post good lessons we have seen. Another is to create focus groups around specific standards and have people identify lessons, etc that will deliver them. Still another is to spend more time in the schools so that we can identify good instruction and be instrumental is sharing it with the district professional group. Sorry I can't take you to the site. It is password protected.
http://www.doodle.ch/main.html and survey monkey are two productivity tools that I have used recently. After having little success in getting secondary media people to agree on a meeting date, I sent out several dates on Doodle and had 6 to 7 responses in a couple of days. They really liked the idea that they could comment as well as choose dates that would work for them. I think I will be using this a lot.
Survey Monkey is so easy!!! Yes! I am currently creating surveys for media specialists to take themselves and/or share with their staff and students on use of online resources. This will give us much better feedback than the usage reports we can glean from the resource websites.
I am noticing this week how dependent I have become on my laptop that contains a mobile account that syncs with my desktop computer at work. It was damaged at a staff development event on Monday and I may not have it back for a week. OUCH. Coffee shops and public libraries will see a lot of me this weekend.