weeks like days
Monday and Tuesday of this week, the entire Information Systems Group met for two days to build a mission statement and to discuss how we want to handle communications internally and externally. I was really impressed with how quickly we settled on a mission statement that worked for everyone– we probably beat some kind of world record for creating mission statements. I really like this IS staff. Smart, responsive, and lots of fun. Mi piacciano. Mi piacciano. So here it is, in all it’s glory… the UCLS IS Mission Statement…..
The Information Systems Group’s mission is to:
- Serve our students by empowering school community members to take full advantage of technology to learn, grow, share, and create within and beyond our walls
- Serve our faculty, administrators, and staff by providing reliable, effective solutions and technical support for their instructional and operational needs
- Enhance our school’s sense of community by thoughtfully applying current and emerging communication tools
- Contribute leadership and direction for school technology efforts
Don’t you love it? Don’t you want to hug it?
In other news: the geniuses downstairs have installed a new reservation system that is user-friendly and will allow each World Languages teacher to reserve or cancel reservations for the lab whenever and wherever they like. Said geniuses also transferred all of this institution’s previous blogs to the WPMU (WordPress MultiUser) at blogs.ucls.uchicago.edu, so now I can really ham this site up (with the help of another genius who knows Adobe Illustrator better than I). That genius designed a prototype for the new IS web page, which is fabulous.
On Wednesday, I spent all day learning the HR ropes. Found out that a lot of things are due by next Tuesday the 31st, so I sort have to get hopping with that. Today, I learned about retirement and remembered why I should become a real estate mogul in the next 10 years (so I CAN retire).
Thursday, I doodled until I came up with a draft logo for the lab that I’m actually fond of. Needs to be professionalized, but what do you think?
It looks decent from the front and the back, which is nice, because it might eventually go up in the hall windows. A cross between the OS9 logo and the headset. I like it because there are 3 faces, which have deep meaning, of course: the face of technology, the profile of the student and another of the student’s interlocuter [ooooo, big word], whether that be a teacher, someone on Skype in Argentina, a parent, a classmate, or maybe even a fellow avatar in Second Life. I’d like to do more to lab decor-wise this year. Looking forward to getting ideas from the department on that.
Also looked at a bunch of software trainings offered here on campus, some of which I hope to attend before the summer ends. I’m on the wait list now for DreamWeaver and PhotoShop tips. Here at the University of Chicago, we have resources at training.uchicago.edu and it-training.uchicago.edu, the USITE campus computing centers, the Digital Multimedia Lab in Regenstein, and a new language lab somewhere over in Cobb that I haven’t seen yet.
My Italian class ended this week. I wasn’t able to make it to as many classes as I wanted to, but it was just the sort of refresher that I needed. A great teacher with a lot of engaging, peer-based language activities. She moved very quickly and kept things fun and the few 3-hour sessions that I did attend always seemed to fly by. I just found a great audiobook on iTunes, by the way, that I really like: Dr. Blair’s ITALIAN IN NO TIME. I really like the way he tells stories and slowly integrates grammar in a simple and very limited way. Now I’m wondering if I can actually visit Italy during the Holidays. Wouldn’t that be loverly…
Cleaned out the electronic cords and stuff from the faculty storage area. I have a pretty good idea what is in the “inventory” up here now, cable and software-wise. The furniture people still haven’t come back to me with drawings, so I haven’t been able to order the lock cabinets for storing all this stuff. Piles abound.
Started a rudimentary filing system and began putting the YuperStar notebooks together. My ideas about the program keep morphing. I think Blue will represent doing something to learn the technology itself–at home, school, work–with no special concern for classroom application. Green will be the application, experimenting with stuff, failing, succeeding, and whining, until finally … Yellow = landing on an application that really works for each individual teacher — saves time, is engaging, AND an effective language acquisition tool. I’m thinking that whenever a teacher finds a YuperStar application of technology, I’ll shoot a 30-second synopsis video of the activity, starring the teacher of course, and post it here and on the /wll blog. oh yes– and my other brilliant idea: an almost weekly drawing for anyone that has accrued dots during the previous time period, no matter the color. iTunes gift certificates, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, a Friday breakfast roll, or something fun like that as a reward. I’m sure the department will have ideas.
I picked our fearless leader’s brain for more ideas on technology integration. Here were some of his words of wisdom.
- Don’t try to master new curriculum and new technology at the same time.
- Take Small Steps
- Not everybody has to do the same thing at the same time
- Prepare scaffolding beforehand to expedite process.
- Doing it well takes way more time than you think
- Always have a plan B. Technology will fail sometime.
For more where this came from, visit IS Director Curt Lienick’s blog.
