I was pleasantly surprised when I read the transcript of Mayor Bloomberg's state of the city address last week. After reading through the expected education coverage regarding state test scores and teacher evaluation, I came across the mayor’s remarks describing how Fred Wilson and an NYC teacher in collaboration with the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) are opening a Software Academy.Working in education over the last few years has piqued my interest about how schools and districts think about incorporating technology education into schools. I’m not referencing projects like one laptop per child or School of One, where the emphasis has been on implementing new hardware or software in classrooms. Rather, I'm talking about the technology education that provides students with the opportunity to devise solutions to real world problems by; conducting a needs assessment, reflecting on how technology could provide relief and then, design, test and implement a solution. I’m passionate about this kind of technology education because participation in computer and information science courses helped me to develop and hone unique skills that I’ve used at every juncture in my career.For whatever reason, my parents put me into a computer class at the age of 7. I loved the experience and still remember the satisfaction of "painting" colors across the screen and knowing that I had written some commands to make it happen. (My favorite color was a cross between fuchsia and mauve). I didn't really encounter programming again until I was 14. In the interim, I made up for it by playing games, learning all about America Online (AOL) and mastering Microsoft Office 3.1 and beyond. Prompted by my older sister's experiences with the famed computer /French teacher and my own interest, I signed up for computer science as my freshman elective. I was one of two girls in the class. In those days, we still had to boot the computers up, disk A, then disk B, and input some commands to start up our machines.But it was there in that small room jammed with computers and a large conference table (which is now reminiscent of many of the developer spaces I’ve been in) is where I learned about the value of flowcharts, about infinite loops and recursion, about bubble sorts and much more. It was such an empowering experience to take inputs and constraints, various solution paths and newly learned code and transform it into a working function and then to press F5 to "Run" the code and see our creation come alive.It was my also my high school teacher who spoke to us about majoring in computer science and introduced me to what would become my alma mater. I applied after hearing that it was a good school for computer science and that they were interested in creating more opportunities for women. My years at CMU, especially the last two that were wholly focused on design and development helped me to become a different kind of thinker. Since then, anytime I interact with technology, be it an ATM, the credit card machine at the grocery checkout, or an app on my iPhone, I look at it as a system of inputs and outputs and always find myself wondering "how does this work?" There were two ideas from my undergraduate studies that have stayed with me, both imparted by the head of our program at the time, Dr.Weinberg; first - software development was all about people, process and technology and second - technology will continue to evolve but the ability to problem solve and think strategically is something that will transcend time. He was right. My career to date has taken me into the private, non-profit and public sectors and regardless of the context, I have been able to draw on the approach to solutions development that I learned and practiced from a young age.So, when I hear about a new campus that will be built to center around this kind of thinking, I'm exhilarated. There is so much opportunity for students to learn about solutions development within the context of technology versus the "technology in the classroom" approach. Students will be exposed to a whole host of challenges and ways to approach them that are different than other subjects. Software development is layered - students will interpret a problem and perhaps conduct a needs assessment, in doing so they will learn the context and then they will need to understand the technology (the data systems, the software, the front end, the user experience, etc.) to implement the solution. The will internalize the mantra: design, build, test and repeat . The opportunities are endless and this is the kind of learning that is directly connected to college and career readiness. No standardized test can ever compare.

I got to thinking the other day about some of the technology practices that are now a part of the way I work and think. It started the other day when I mistakenly closed my gmail tab instead of another one. My gmail tab is always the left-most tab and always the first thing I open after clicking on my browser. Without gmail open, I momentarily felt lost. Even though there are other tools to keep organized, over time my e-mail box has been a way for me to manage external communications and my own to-dos. This is just one of many of the technology /computing practices that I realized I have adopted over the years, starting I suppose with our old AT&T green screen. Here are some others:Command-X, Command-A, Command-C, Command-V, Tab, Tab, TabI am not one of those people who get scared when my mouse isn't working, which often happens to our battery operated mac mouse. From a young age, first on a PC and eventually on a Mac, I quickly learned all of the shortcut keys needed to navigate any operating system. I am perhaps more artful with the four direction keys and the command key than I am with the mouse or my own finger because I've internalized these buttons. Date_DocName_versionnumberMy old team can probably provide stories for my obsession with appropriately naming documents. However, this is the way I kept organized. I used to get so irate when I would get a document that said something like "presentation1" or "mathhs." Those aren't document names! How are you supposed to find that in three months. My rule is the date, the document name which has to be descriptive and the version number. This became particularly important in an environment where everything gets checked, rechecked and checked again. To allay confusion and frustration, this was (and still is) my mantra for naming documents. It also speaks to my philosophy around contextualization. You need to provide people with some sense of what they're looking at, otherwise, it's just noise.Ctrl-SI remember my sister telling me when she was maybe in 9th grade or so, that she had typed up an entire paper, only to lose the entire document. She stayed up the rest of the night redoing the assignment.Somewhere between that an my own similar debacles in college, grad school and the workplace, I've become an obsessive saver. Even though auto-save is now a key feature in Microsoft Office, in online blogging platforms and other other tools, I still save. I make sure I know where it is saved and that I, myself initiated the save. I probably hit "ctrl-S" or "command-S" every 3-5 minutes while working on a document automatically.QWERTYI know the qwerty keyboard. I memorized it at 11 thanks to a required typing elective in 6th grade. I got better by typing the words I heard in conversation out with my fingers. I was determined to become a fast typer, and glad I persevered - I just did a typing test and I did 91 WPM. Makes writing e-mails that much less of a chore!Sub-folder, Sub-folder, Sub-folder...Just as I can't stand clutter in my closet, I can't stand it in my folders, so like many, I practice the art of "sub-foldering." It saves me time and angst. Sure, your content is nested within some filepath like Admin>Taxes>2011, but, the effort on the front end of creating these folders is well worth it when you can find your taxes in seconds! A related practice, is saving downloads from websites, e-mail, etc. into the folders by right clicking and opting to "Save as" into a specific folder, versus keeping everything in my Downloads folder.So why did I mention these? Well first, I am by no means under the illusion that these are the best practices or that others don't do these things and more. However, I can say with full confidence that these practices and others I've adopted over time allow me to use my computer more efficiently and focus my time on creating. You could even argue that what I've described are a set of non-traditional technology literacy practices that I've continued to tweak since I began using my dad's AT&T Green Screen. The real reason for this exploration is that I spent the last few months with middle school students at a "tech" focused school whose technology practices I've had a chance to observe. Through class assignments, they have mastered programs like iMovie, PowerPoint and MS Word as well as a whole host of educational video games. On the flip side, I've seen some of my students struggle with simple things like where a file goes when they download it from e-mail because the file structure hasn't been explicitly explained to them. Exposure and practice has helped them to learn the use of very technical tools, but occasionally it doesn't seem that it provides the conceptual understanding. So where does that come from?Is it more time with resources? My thought is that some of these things need to be taught, be it some of the "soft" tech practices and more concrete ones like how files and data get stored.I'm curious to know if anyone out there agrees, disagrees or has thoughts about things they've observed with their own students or even themselves.

I hope everyone is well rested after the holidays. This is the first time in a long time, I can honestly say that I feel that way. I did something I haven't given myself the chance to do in five years, to enjoy the art of creation.I spent most of the week leading up to Christmas in the 9x10 space that is my kitchen. On the Tuesday before Christmas, I cooked for nearly 10 hours. Eight of those delightful hours were devoted to making various treats for friends and family and two of those hours were devoted to making a large south indian meal for my husband who on occasion is known to ask for such a thing.It was perhaps the most exhilerating day I've had in a long time. I had all the recipes in my head, the preheat temperatures, the ingredients, the cooling requirements. After a few days of thinking about the recipes and how I would execute this plan, I went to work. I started with the cookie doughs I knew had to cool in the fridge, then onto some items that could be popped in the oven, while I prepped others. Within a few hours, I had dozens of chocolate chip, peanut butter blossom and sugar cookies on every surface of my apartment. There was also a tub of fresh homemade granola and a few trays of magic layer bars - just minutes of effort but tons of enjoyment for all who partake, and a childhood favorite of mine. And of course, a Christmas classic, peppermint bark. As I moved through each of the recipes and techniques, I felt like I was dancing.Was it simply the freedom of not having work the next day? Or the excitement of a new project or the novelty of baking on a Tuesday? What motivates one to have this type of limitless concentration? Why is this possible with some projects and not others?As I embark on my 2012 journey... a list of projects and goals that I hope to accomplish in the next few months, I am also excited to consider why and how we are motivated to learn and how that can be translated into the classroom.More to come on this topic.

I woke up today in a melancholy mood. The day I had been dreading for a few weeks had arrived - my yoga teacher would teach one last class before moving to the west coast. When she told us a couple of weeks ago, I was surprised at how affected I was by this news.In the last few days, I’ve been thinking about my yoga journey and why it mattered so much that my teacher was moving. I began coming to this studio three years ago on a Saturday morning, in search of a respite from an otherwise stressful work week. After my first class, I knew I had found a special place. The atmosphere was calm, the teacher I had was really thoughtful, supportive and welcoming and the studio itself was beautiful - a little intimate corner carved out in an otherwise bustling city.About a year and a half ago, a new teacher, we'll call her Jane, started to teach my Saturday morning class. The first time I attended her class, I left a little deflated. Jane’s sequences included many advanced poses that required strength, confidence and knowledge I hadn't developed yet. Those first few months with her, I struggled to keep up and was simultaneously conscious of the other students aptitude, strength and confidence Despite my feelings and my occasional frustration at not being able to do everything, I continued to attend because I still loved the practice of yoga. During her first few months as our teacher, I remember a session where Jane had us doing a very difficult sequence and people were exhausted but she implored us to push on. "I know it hurts and I know you want to stop, but push through it, don't give up, remain here, remain present, don’t give up because you can do it.” Her words hit me - I had always found it easier to stop, to slow down or to give up because my arm muscles were screaming or my abs just didn't work that way. But hearing her words of encouragement and to some degree, her incredulity that we would give up I was pushed to persevere.Thinking more about my experiences I realized there were two other things that really helped me over the last year. First, Jane always began class with an adage, a quote or a short reading from a seminal yoga text. She'd weave these themes into the class, as we moved through sequence after sequence and then close with a complimentary quote or adage. It always seemed that no matter what the theme, it somehow connected to where I was in life. Her approach helped me to see the bridge between the philosophy of yoga and the physical practice.Then there was the idea of breath; the idea of using the inhale and exhale to move in and out of a pose. Every time we would move into a pose that would challenge us physically, Jane would make sure to remind us to use our breath to regulate our actions. Intensely focus on breathing helps you to forget about the challenge in front of you - because the second you think about how hard something is, it becomes unattainable. For example, if you think about what a tree pose from side plank really is; balancing your weight in one hand and leg, while the other leg balances on your standing leg, it will intimidate you. But if you breathe through it and just focus on inhaling and exhaling, the pose will happen, or at least that's the hope.Looking back to when I began these flow classes with Jane, I would never even attempt to do the more difficult poses. I would just simply give up. Over time, I gained the confidence and strength to try poses that once seemed out of reach. I attribute a lot of this mental and physical growth to my teacher who consistently told us that we were capable of achieving anything, we just needed to focus, breathe, listen to our bodies and perhaps most important, soften our hearts.A great teacher can transform our lives. They can take the shy students who don't think they can achieve and foster in them a belief that they can accomplish anything they set their mind to. They can aid in the learning process by providing examples, by modeling and by making connections between class and our own lives. They can create a space so welcoming that students are excited about taking chances. This is what Jane did for me. So thanks to Jane and to all the teachers out there who help students to grow, learn, and change.

How can we build meaningful online learning experiences for educators?If you're active in the tech and ed space, you might be thinking that this need has been fulfilled by the many tools that have filled the marketplace over the last few years. There is certainly an abundance of technology available and so much of it for free, that it seems practically impossible that anything would be missing. However, upon closer examination, it seems like a lot of the tools being developed fall into the following categories:

• Classroom Management & Data (e.g. Edmodo, Echalk, Datacation)
• Content Management, Lesson Planning (e.g. BetterLesson.org)
• Assessments (Adaptive / Formative) & Student Centered Learning (e.g. Acuity, Achieve 3000)
• Communications with Parents (e.g. SnappSchool)
• Content Sites (e.g. ReadWriteThink.org, Edutopia.org, PBS.org)
• Teacher Evaluation & Professional Learning (e.g. MyLearningPlan, Teacher Compass)

(There are of course other buckets and even these could be defined or grouped differently, depending on what you see the core functionality for these products. In some cases some of the applications above fit in more than one bucket e.g. Edmodo which has collaboration, community and planning functionality).Many of these resources were developed to help teachers save time so they can focus on the most important aspect of their work - teaching! This is not only happening in education but in all industries where everyone is adopting new tools, new apps, new ways of organizing our work/to-do lists etc. Then, there is another bucket, which is largely driven by the state and federal reforms around using data to inform instructional decision making. Race to the Top (RTTT) has spurred a lot of growth in this industry, with companies looking to capitalize on the new expectations that all teachers, schools, districts are collecting and analyzing student data to ultimately impact changes in classroom practice. RTTT has also set expectations for teacher performance management and evaluation, which has also spurred a lot of growth in the tech-ed world. A new group of online platforms are being developed now to help schools and districts implement teacher evaluation systems that do everything from recording notes from principal or peer observations to filing formal teacher ratings. These systems also provided related online PD to help teachers refine their skills/content against pre-determined rubrics for effective teaching practice and in some cases also provide collaboration spaces.The last group of teacher evaluation/professional learning tools may seem like they are the best response to the question I posed above, but I will respectfully disagree. I'm not convinced that the learning experiences in these online environments is going to necessarily have lasting or meaningful impact for two reasons:

• they are situated within the context of an accountability system that requires the teacher to fulfill some set of online courses to show "growth" in their knowledge and skill within their subject/content area and/or pedagogical practice.
• they are tied to rubrics/definitions of effective teaching that don't necessarily include the perspectives of teachers and educators within the schools, so they are not authentic to the schools' needs.

I will have more to say on this topic, but this is laying the foundation for a subsequent inquiry into this question.