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In an age when there’s so much debate about merit pay, test scores, and accountability, I ask myself the question: What can I learn from Daniel Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us that I can take directly back to my school and put into practice? I have reread Pink’s book with this lens, and here’s some of my thoughts.

As a school leader if I rely on carrot-and-stick motivational schemes, I will not get the organizational results I seek. If school leaders are waiting for states to implement bonus pay schemes to solve their problems, they will be disappointed. Pink outlines in his book seven deadly flaws to using carrots and sticks: 1) they extinguish intrinsic motivation, 2) they diminish performance, 3) they crush creativity, 4) they crowd out good behavior, 5) they encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior, 6) they become addictive, and 7) they foster short-term thinking. As a school principal, everyone of these side effects is the opposite from that which I would like foster our school culture. I want teachers and students to be intrinsically motivated: that’s called high engagement. I certainly do not want diminished performance, creativity crushed, and good behavior crowded out by a fixation on “what’s-in-it-for me thinking.” A school where cheating, shortcut taking, and a focus on short-term thinking will hardly take our students into the 21st century. Administrators would do well not to turn to carrot-and stick motivational schemes to foster higher performance.

Instead of relying on carrot-and-stick motivational schemes, as a school leader, I need to foster a high performance culture that values and emphasizes autonomy, mastery, and purpose. What this means in practical terms, as a school leader, I can’t view my staff as pawns in a scheme to get the best test scores. Students aren’t raw materials that to which we as educators add value to by pouring knowledge into their heads. For my school, I would much rather have staff focused on the work rather than “what’s-in-it-for-me.” In addition, my job as principal is create a culture where teachers and students pursue “mastery as an asymptote” as Pink calls it. This means the joy of working comes from pursuing mastery because it is elusive. Finally, as school leader I need to keep our purpose out front. This means keeping purpose maximization, the educational needs of our kids, at the center of what we’re doing.

In the past year, there has been a great deal of debate about what reform should look like, and we who are passionate about kids and education need to be involved in that debate. But even in the midst of that debate I feel these two principles from Daniel Pink can transcend all those reforms. While all those who call themselves education reformers fight over the scraps from the Kings table, as school leaders we can focus on making our schools places where everyone is engaged in education, not worrying about “what’s in it for me.” Schools can be places where autonomy is prized and is the rule, where the push for mastery is the goal, and the purpose is educating our students.

I have repeatedly tried to sell Twitter to my fellow administrators, but it is an uphill battle. Mention the words “social media, blogging, or Twitter” and it seems they either want to race on to the next topic, or their eyes glaze over and I’m fairly sure they’re not hearing what I’m saying. I’ve been tweeting for almost three years now, and I am continually amazed by what it allows me to do. For those of you who might be trying to convince your principal or other administrators about the usefulness of Twitter, here’s some things that I’ve found useful with the micro-blogging tool during the past year.

1. I’ve connected with other educators across the world. Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to so easily connect with an administrator in New Zealand or Germany. I have been able to exchange ideas with teachers and administrators in British Columbia, Korea, and India. I have been able to discuss merit pay, school vouchers, and other policy issues with state leaders. Twitter gives users, and especially administrators, the ability to connect world-wide and to engage in the global conversation about education.

2. I’ve been able to engage in education discussions and conversations with individuals well beyond my own community. For example, through Twitter, I have had post exchanges with Diane Ravitch, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System. I have had the pleasure to discuss education reform with leaders of state education organizations. Twitter gives administrators the ability to connect with leading experts and scholars in education.

3. I’ve collected an enormous list of bookmarks and links on all facets of education. Part of the effectiveness of Twitter is getting connected to the right people. As my own PLN has grown, so has the storehouse of resources I’ve been able to gather. Twitter gives me as an administrator an endless stream of resources to help me do my job, and to share with my teachers.

4. My connections to those in education continues to expand. As I get more and more connected through Twitter, the potential for learning more from other educators grows. When a teacher from Australia recently messaged me with an idea on how she deals with student engagement in her classroom, I was able to help one of my own teachers with that same struggle. Twitter transforms users into global learners, and makes school administrators globally connected administrators.

For those technologists out there trying to convince administrators to get connected, you might sum up my four advantages to using Twitter this way: 1) Global connections, 2) Expert Connections, 3) Resource Connections, and 4) Organic Connections. Keep trying to get those administrators connected. Once they see the above advantages, they’ll be sold.

Here's a list of "Top 100 School Administrator Blogs" compiled by OnlineDegree.org. These are the administrators and administrators' organizations that have engaged in the education conversation through blogging. I follow most of these daily. For an administrator looking for a starting point, you may want to begin with this list.

Earlier this fall, I posted 5 Considerations for Allowing Students to Use Personal Computing Devices on School Wireless Networks, which was a quick summary of considerations for administrators contemplating providing students with Wifi access in their buildings. Recently, I’ve received some comments and emails from various school systems who want to know more about how we are providing that access. Some even want to know how we dealt with administrative and IT department reluctance to let go of the “control” that comes with allowing students to use their own computers and technology devices. It’s really quite simple, the control we feel by requiring students to use school district technology is quickly becoming an illusion. As technologies continue to evolve, we are going to have to to be more progressive and realize that such control is gone.

As students begin to use smart phones more and more, our battle to control what they bring into our schools is lost. These smart phones that provide mobile hot spot access give students Internet access that we have no way to control. Then there’s the mobile Wifi devices. While these are not currently in wide spread usage, I expect as prices come down, you’ll see students using these to access the web, thereby bypassing the school’s network entirely. Add the fact that whole cities are offering citywide Wifi, and you have yet another control issue. If your school happens to be located within a city, you have to consider how you’re going to “control” students’ access to this network.

The real issue is how can we maintain students’ safety and network security, not control over what technological devices they use in our schools. We can effectively help students be safe while accessing the Internet and maintain network security by using a strong combination of hardware-software solutions and simple monitoring by staff. A well-written procedure or policy outlining Guidelines for Student Access, Consequences for Violating AUPs, and Disclaimers can help guide schools in providing wireless access to students. I explained more about these in my earlier post here.

If you would like a copy of our Procedure for Granting Students Access to Internet, just send me an email at john_robinson@nccs.k12.nc.us. I would be glad to send you a copy of our procedure.

If your state is like mine, your district is facing massive budget cuts. Technology budgets are not likely to escape the knife either, but if we want to maintain being 21st century leaders in our schools, we need to find ways to get the most out of our technology dollars. Too often, administrators turn to cutting support staff and new technology purchases. If your district is like ours, the IT department already has a full plate. Cutting new technology purchases also can hamper innovation and experimentation. There are places to consider when stretching your Tech budget. Here’s my six suggestions for stretching your district or school technology funds.

1. Consider using open source software rather than purchasing more proprietary software. For example, instead of forking out 55 dollars for those new Microsoft Office licenses, just use Open Office instead. Or, just don’t purchase the 2010 Microsoft Office Suite. Honestly, I’ve used it, and there just isn’t enough added functionality to warrant an upgrade from Office 2007. School systems can save a great deal of money by getting rid of the thinking that every time a software comes out with a new version, it needs to be purchased.

2. Consider using cloud applications instead of desktop or server applications. Our school district saved considerably by switching to Gmail rather than using Microsoft Exchange and running our own server. Our Technology department is now free to focus on other issues rather than trying to keep an email server operating. Also, our system now has access to Google Apps, which reduces the need for many other applications.

3. Use In-district staff for technology staff development rather than looking outside your district. If your district is like ours, you have experts using technology in their classrooms. Instead of looking for expensive outside staff development, get your best tech savvy teachers and staff to conduct staff development sessions. Our school system did that very thing last summer and it was an amazing success.

4. Develop policies and procedures that allow students to use their own electronic devices in schools. Trying to maintain that all important student to computer ratio is an expensive undertaking. Many of our students already have the laptops and other devices. Consider providing them with wifi access so that they can use their own devices for Internet activities.

5. Use free or low-cost web 2.0 applications as much as possible. There are still tons of free and low-cost web 2.0 tools for use in the classroom. For example, there’s blogger for blogging and Edmodo is a great free social media solution. Even if you find yourself paying for a web 2.0 solution, they are still much cheaper than trying to find software to be installed on your district or school network. Take advantage of Web 2.0.

6. Use solutions like Dropbox to avoid having to purchase flashdrives and other data storage devices. I vote think that Dropbox is one of the best web products of last year. There is absolutely no need to use a flash drive or any other storage device as long as you use this product. Web products like this one are being introduced all the time, so it really pays to be aware of what is available. Look for any solutions that prevent having to purchase additional hard ware.

Obviously there are even more ways to stretch tech budgets. What do you see as some additional ways to keep your school and district on the cutting edge of technology for less money? Feel free to share.

Let’s face the truth. There’s no reason to spend another dime on purchasing licenses and software for Microsoft’s Office Suite of programs. School systems have too many much cheaper options (like free or almost free) rather than continuing to purchase the popular office suite that most often includes MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel, MS Access, MS Publisher, and MS Outlook. School systems can save bundles by using other open source solutions or even cloud-based solutions. Here’s my three favorite replacements for Microsoft Office.

Open Office: An Open Source Replacement for Microsoft Office

For a complete and comparable Office Suite, OpenOffice will do anything that Microsoft Office will do. Well, it will do everything most of us need to do. Best of all, it’s free. It has a word processing program called Writer, a spreadsheet program called Calc, a presentation program called Impress, a graphics program called Draw, and a database program called Base. And, you can add the open source desktop publishing program, Scribus to replace Microsoft Publisher. Administrators would do well to look at OpenOffice instead of paying money for an office suite. For more information check out the Open Office web site. For information about Scribus, an open source desktop publishing solution, check out the Scribus web site.

Cloud-Based Replacement for Microsoft Office: Google Apps

While some might not have quite bought into the idea of moving to using Google Apps, our system has made the full conversion. We have Gmail for email, along with all the other Google Apps, including Google Docs. Admittedly, Google Docs’ word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and drawing software don’t have every single bell and whistle found in Microsoft Office, but these apps are  fully functional, and the sharing and collaboration possibilities make it even better for our uses in education. Throw in the Forms app, which I think is so easy to use and powerful, who needs Microsoft Office any more? I might also add, a school system can save thousands of dollars by choosing to use Google Apps, which is a substantial savings. For more information about Google Apps, check out the Google Apps for Education web site.

Another Cloud-Based Replacement for Microsoft Office: Zoho

I really can’t entirely attest to how much this particular solution would work as a system-wide solution, but I have used many of the apps personally. Anyone can set up and use a free account, but Zoho boasts that it offers discounts to non-profit institutions.  Zoho has productivity applications like a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software, but it also has much more. It offers users collaboration apps for chatting and document collaboration. In addition, it offers several business applications which might be useful in education settings. Zoho’s productivity applications are as functional as Google Apps. They might not have all the features of Microsoft Office, but if you really examine what you do with an application, I bet it will do everything you need to do. For more information about Zoho, just visit the Zoho web site.

I know there are countless other applications that are excellent candidate as replacements for Microsoft Office, but these are three that I have had the most experience with. Open Office offers a desktop office suite with the same functionality as Microsoft Office without the license fees. Google Apps and Zoho Apps give schools a cloud-based solution without ever having to worry about purchasing upgrades every three or four years. As administrators when we look at getting the most for our technology money, we need to look at alternatives to software like Microsoft Office. Perhaps it’s time we quit purchasing those expensive Microsoft Office licenses and use free or close to free solutions instead.

I stumbled across an article entitled “Singapore Looks at Strengthening School System Further.” The country’s prime minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, states in the article that while his country performed reasonably well on the latest PISA assessments, they must keep up the efforts of continual educational improvement. Interestingly, he cited the reasons for this was because of stiff competition from “European countries like Finland and Asian giants such as Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, and Shanghai.” Notice there was no mention of worrying about stiff competition from the United States. Perhaps we’re too busy chasing educational fads and fashions and magical silver bullets to pose much of a threat to Singapore or any of those other countries at the top of the PISA list.

Ultimately, what was more interesting to me were the measures Singapore is considering as they try to strengthen their educational system, or rather the measures they were not considering. No where in the article is there mention of  1) increasing testing and accountability, 2) providing merit pay for teachers, or 3) privatizing education for the sake of competition. Instead here’s what Singapore is looking at:

• Strengthening teacher-student relationships in secondary schools: They want to increase the level of social-emotional support for students and career guidance. What are we talking about doing in the United States? Bill Gates and Secretary Arne Duncan are talking about increasing class sizes which will make it even more difficult for teachers to provide levels of support for the students they teach. Also, our ed reformers want to dangle carrots in front of teachers so that they will work harder to increase student test scores.
• Singapore wants to strengthen core skills in English and mathematics. How? Certainly not by doing what corporate education reformers are proposing by increasing the number of tests students take, and then tying teacher tenure and pay to those test scores. Instead, Singapore is looking to produce better instructional materials and provide “allied educators” to support teachers as they learn to teach and use these new materials. In other words, they are looking at improving teaching practice and professional development support instead of more tests and searching for bad teachers to fire.
• They are looking at their investments in education including the levels of access to education because they note '”the widening income gap” in their country. What do our education reformers want to do? Secretary Duncan and the corporate reform crowd ignore our widening income gap and high poverty rate among children. Instead they are looking for “supermen” who can walk into classrooms and magically provide high test scores in the face of one of the highest rates of poverty among developed nations.

Perhaps Singapore’s prime minister is correct in not worrying about competition from us any time soon. There’s nothing to worry about because Secretary Duncan and his education reformers are looking for someone to blame (teachers and their unions), trying to find magic silver bullets (charters, more testing and accountability), and trying to de-professionalize education, while ignoring real issues like poverty. I would not worry about any threats from us either.