Welcome to K12EduBuzz.com. I am Jean Tower and I appreciate your visit to my blog. I encourage comments and look forward to online conversations with my readers.

What do Effective Leaders Do?

What do effective leaders do? Is there some elusive quality that good leaders possess? Something they are born with, that others can’t learn? I read about leadership a lot. I have some favorite authors, many of whom deal with leading change. As an educational technology leader, I recognize that much of what I do [...]

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ISTE Conference Keynote

ISTE has announced the winner of their first crowdsourced keynote:
The ISTE 2010 Keynote Committee is delighted to announce the results of its first ever “Crowdsourced Keynote” project!
After nearly two weeks of voting and more than three months of input gathering, Hawaii-based educator Dr. Jeff Piontek has emerged as the people’s choice to headline one [...]

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ISTE Webinar

I have signed up for the ISTE webinar:
Make the Leader-Shift:  Strategies to Develop Transformational Leadership
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
1 pm Pacific / 2 pm Mountain / 3 pm Central / 4 pm Eastern
From the ISTE site:
Effective and sustainable leadership is essential to survive and thrive in our ever-changing world. Transformational leadership inspires organizations and their [...]

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Earthquake in Haiti

It seems that during every disaster in recent years the world has been quickly informed about it by the people on the ground and in the middle of it. I read tweets, blogs, and messages about the Indian Ocean Tsunami, the water landing of US Air Flight 1549 on the Hudson River by Captain [...]

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Fun Photo Editing

People often comment (positively) on my Facebook profile image and ask how I did it. I used Dumpr to create a special effect, taking a rather boring photo of myself and styling it like a Rubik’s cube.
To try this yourself, go to http://www.dumpr.net/ and choose the Rubik’s cube effect. Select an image from your [...]

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Massachusetts CTO Clinic

CoSN, in conjunction with METAA, the Massachusetts state CoSN chapter, will host a CTO Clinic on April 26, 2010 at Holy Cross in Worcester. CTO Clinics provide professional development designed specifically for the school Chief Technology Officer (administrator for technology).
See the announcement at:
CoSN Events
and on METAA’s web site:
METAA Events
CoSN members from the New England [...]

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Is Technology Considered a Critical Element in your School District?

Is anyone else experiencing a direct conflict between budgeting and technology expectations? The Boston Globe has a front page story today, Schools bracing for deep cutbacks. It talks about cutting “into the marrow of the classroom,” cuts in recent years having been supplies, texts and infrastructure, and this round of reductions being more [...]

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Cool Tools

Articles and workshops about cool tools for teachers abound. Here are a few cool tools for administrators.
Cool Tool #1: My Favorite Scanner
I have a small Fujitsu scanner on my desk, the Scansnap 300. It is amazing how much this has changed how I handle paper in my office. Mine is over a year old, [...]

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10 Reasons to Conduct a Technology Audit

Reason 1:
To assess your progress against goals and objectives set forth in your technology plan
Reason 2:
To assess your technology program against national and state standards
Reason 3:
To raise awareness about the successes and challenges of technology in the schools among all constituencies – school boards, superintendents, technology directors, principals, teachers, students, parents, and community members
Reason [...]

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Strategic or tactical?

Do you spend more time visioning and planning the future or coping with the problems of today? Are you constantly putting out fires, or are you creating a technology infrastructure and department that prevents fires? I strive for a balance – I need to be concerned about and help with the issues my users [...]

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