Shifting Platforms/Shifting Paradigms

A Shifting Platform

Those who follow my blogs might have noticed that I have been somewhat behind in articles and podcasts (particularly the latter).  I have been neglectful of my digital world because of a whirlwind of activity in the corporeal one.

Without going into too much detail, in the past month I have been asked to leave my position as Assistant Principal of Mater Dei High School to become the Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Orange.  The suddenness of this possibility, decision, announcement, and transition has been staggering.  Leaving Mater Dei after 28 years in only a few weeks time is frightening and heartbreaking.  However, I am excited about new opportunities and challenges in my new position.

What this will mean to my digital life is unclear.  I intend to keep up the Shifting Platforms blog, and I hope to get back to providing podcasts and screencasts on To Tech as Jesus Did before long.  I hope to continue building my network of other school leaders on Twitter, and, let’s face it, I’ve never been good with Facebook, so no change there.

Though I will be dealing with  a broader range of schools and issues, I am hopeful that I can bring my experience and the great things that I learn each day to schools and to teachers in my diocese and beyond (one of my chief concerns that was addressed during this process was my need to continue presenting at conferences and workshops).

So as I shift from one platform to another, I look forward to sharing with you the shifting paradigms I find as well.

Or to quote my favorite poem from Tennyson:

Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.

There’s Too Much to Do! …and Now There’s Buzz!

Sometimes I am jarred into awareness of the difference between my world and that of the average (do I dare say normal?) educator.  Working with social media, Twittering, reading and writing blogs, listening to tech podcasts, and playing with new gadgets really does give one a different perspective and a different set of daily assumptions.

But Google Buzz, Google’s new foray into the Facebook/Twitter social media space,  may have pushed me over the edge.  I opened my Gmail last week to see Buzz added to my inbox menu.  I had heard about this new service on Buzz Out Loud that morning, so I was anxious to get to it.  I watched the short video that Google posted on the site and moved into my Buzz page…and the gears (not Google gears, my brain gears) ground to a halt.

Of course, I blame the media. Google’s 2 minute video was colorful and lively and did everything but explain how to use Buzz or what to use Buzz for!  The commentators in the morning weren’t much more help.  ”It’s like Google Wave light,” many suggested.  The only problem with this is that I tried Google Wave and decided that I didn’t know how to use this or what it was for either.  I had made my peace with waiting f0r the platform to develop or waiting until I needed something that my current tools didn’t do.

So I took a few feeble stabs at setting up my Buzz page.  I associated my Twitter and Picasa feeds and followed a few people that I knew.  Then the next day the security concerns broke (rather exploded).  I’m not as concerned with these as others, and I was pretty sure they would be worked out soon (it appears that they have).  Frankly my concern wasn’t that people were getting too much information from me, but that my pathetic Buzz page was a list of my Twitter postings and nothing else.

I’m always fighting with teachers who insist that they don’t have time to learn about new technologies and new media, but Buzz even pushes my buttons.  I wonder what it is for, how to use it, whether it is redundant to what I am using already, whether it will gain enough traction to be a productive tool, whether Google will pull the plug and have it disappear just as I get used to it, whether it is safe, whether I have sold by soul by agreeing to the terms of service.

Am I alone with this, or are there tools that send you over the edge?