Thomas Education

At our school, some teachers click ReplyAll unthinkingly to many e-mails, causing 100 people to receive irrelevant (and sometimes inappropriate) replies. I would like to provide some constraints or reminders, so that a ReplyAll button requires an extra thoughtful step, in hopes of reducing the irrelevant spray of replies. One simple but over-general answer is to automatically display a confirmation dialogbox after clicking ReplyAll. In My Humble Opinion, that is not too irritating to always confirm after clicking ReplyAll. However, it could become a Settings option, either as a personal or domain-wide setting. Another option would be for the system to analyze how many recipients are addressed in the reply, and prompt for confirmation if there are “too many” – just as the system now prompts for confirmation if I reply to an out-of-domain address. (How many is too many? again, a domain-wide Setting is a logical place, with 10 as a reasonable default value). Yes, the Group off...

I subscribe to several blogs and websites and feeds about politics, technology, education.  Some seem to be consistently interesting, and some well-written deeply engaging.  EdSurge has been consistently interesting, keeping its finger on the pulse of the education business, and as well the ed.tech business.   Their articles are usually quick summaries that leave me wanting more.  This time I find a more in-depth piece that is worth posting on the bulletin board and presenting to my Head Of School.  Shuc hi Grover's article about the 5th C in 21st-Century Learning is a great overview of the concept of Computational Thinking, particularly in the distinction between CT and CS -- it's not all coding!  Fifty years ago we wanted to be Programmers (analogous to "coding");  then programming became clerical, lower-level work -- higher-order thinking is done by Analysts.   This analogy matches Grover's distinction between coding and Computatio...

I enjoy hearing new words, and old words in new contexts -- India has one of the largest populations in the world of English speakers, so naturally they have developed some unique characteristics. When we lived in India, my favorite new word was "preponed"  -- the opposite of postponed.  And our family's favorite saying was "it is just coming", typically expressed by a vendor who wants to keep his customer happy, regardless of the actual whereabouts of the package. Here in Qatar we hear more as well: Yesterday on the telephone I was making an appointment to have the car checked, and reported the current mileage as one-one-four-thousand.  He responded "one lakh fourteen thousand, yes?". I didn't miss a beat.  "Yes: one lakh four thousand" .   (yes, technically, "lakh" is Hindi for the hundred-thousand unit; but it is viewed as universal in India)   And today I receive this tweet from a colleague in my church choir: AVOI...

How to best track staff absences? Schools generally have elaborate processes to track student absences and lateness.  In fact, our Student Information System (Rediker) began as a computerized method for tracking attendance, then expanded to gradebook and report cards, etc. Tracking staff absence is an after-thought in many schools, especially when starting up. What is the purpose of tracking faculty absences (and lateness): Payroll office needs confirmation of workdays and sickdays, to properly track contract fulfillment and adjust salary accordingly; Principals need to plan substitution schedules, and counsel staff regarding any issues; Colleagues need to adjust collaboration plans (with both teachers and other classrooms); Community members aid others who are sick or bereaving; Social groups want to know about members of the group, particularly that they are fulfilling their obligations to the group; Parents want to know when their child’s teacher is abs...

Google announces that in Gmail they are now automatically converting addresses and phone numbers into clickable links.  I am not happy about this; in my experience, such automatic links cause more trouble than they are worth.  However, I understand that it looks sexy and makes people feel that the computer is providing service.  I submitted this comment to the GoogleCloud discussion board: I think this should be an optional setting (perhaps turned on by default, with a checkbox to allow the admin to turn it off, analogous to the recently-introduced   QuickAccess   function). Setting default actions for phone and e-mail are not terribly obvious in the Mac OS, and some organizations allow or encourage members to use different VOIP or mail apps, particularly in an international setting like mine. For example, Apple really wants everyone to use Apple Mail.  But AppleMail connects with gmail via imap, which does not actually delete messages -- our users...

Qatar is an unusual country -- kept alive by its tribal pride and its stunning oil&gas wealth.  Since its indepdendence in 1971, when it refused to join the other Arab Emirates as part of their Union, Qatar has charted an independent course.  Its neighbors were always a bit suspicious, and often jealous, of Qatar's independence.  This was reflected in several diplomatic spats over the years, and an abortive coup attempt in 1996.  It flared up suddenly last June when the neighbors clamped an embargo.  When we lived in Saudi Arabia in 2011, we witnessed the patent takeover of tiny neighboring Bahrain by Saudi military forces.  Qatar is determined to avoid that fate, and Bahrain is determined to bring cousin Qatar into its same orbit, along with the UAE.  We have never heard the Qatari Emir speak, until a re cent interview with Charlie Rose, for CBS' 60 Minutes program .  This is quite a PR benefit for Qatar, as the video paints the picture ve...

E-mail is a relatively new form of asynchronous communication, falling somewhere between paper memos and phone calls.  People are not always conscious of the consequences of behaving as if it were paper or talk.  Following are some guidelines I wrote for our staff. E-mail tips: On your computer, use Google-Chrome for school gmail Login to gmail first, before google-drive or docs or photos or classroom Better NOT to use the computer’s “Mail” app Use “Mail” or another browser for your personal e-mail On your phone, use the Gmail app for school gmail Better NOT to use the phone’s “Mail” app One reason: AppleMail cannot actually delete gmail items Another reason: helps keep professional and personal e-mail separate Always include an informative subject line some e-mail systems consider blank subject line to be junk We read the subject line to decide whether to open the e-mail itself We want our students to use good language double-...