__ LIPS – Leading in Public Schools

 

I spent some time recently checking out some of the great Podcasts available about all sorts of things.  The ability to choose content to consume at a time which suits yourself is great.  It also gave an opportunity to try out the RSS Feedreader component in the browser I’m using and set up some RSS feeds from a number of places.  One of them is the BBC News site.  This interesting story bobbed up recently, and is interesting when we think about what futures might look like for our local educational service campus, or whatever ‘schools’ as we currently know them may transform into. (The link for this story is at the end of this excerpt.)

Got what it takes to be a head?

      The work-shy need not apply Business and community leaders should be considered to fill vacant posts for head teachers, a government-commissioned study says.The report by PricewaterhouseCoopers told ministers to look at removing barriers to such appointments amid complaints that teachers are being put off by the bureaucracy and lack of rewards. Â

Click here to read the story

I hope that the holidays are going really well for people.  Maybe if you have some time for a bit of reading, there’ll be some posts on this blog throughout the next month of some sites which may be of interest.  Don’t forget that you can use the links to subscribe to be notified of new posts.  And, of course, please feel free to post comments.

Click the story title to read.

Power Up, Don’t Power Down

by Geoffrey H. Fletcher

Back to the question of my hypocrisy. Legislating against social networking sites and banning cell phones from schools may not be directly analogous to stiffening up gun registration laws and making automatic weapons difficult for people to acquire, but it is close enough to make me reconsider both issues.

Isaac Asimov, the great scientist and writer, once said the important thing to forecast is not the automobile, but the parking problem; not the television, but the soap opera. In other words, we need to pay attention to technology’s impact on people. We need to figure out how to use technology effectively and responsibly rather than ban it, and put the onus of responsible technology use on the users: teachers, students, and parents. I think that works for cell phones, MySpace, and the like. I still don’t think it works for guns, but I’m now giving it a second thought.

Geoffrey H. Fletcher is editorial director of T.H.E. Journal and executive director of T.H.E. Institute.