Right & Wrong Places to Use Productivity Tools

Before we share with you the finer points of productivity tools, we wanted to remind our readers that our blog serves two purposes.  First, our aim is to analyze and discuss the current trends in technology to make you aware of how efficiencies and collaboration can be increased.  Second, we want to model how the technology that we discuss can be used.  Remember, we both work in different districts and live in different areas.  We rely heavily on collaboration tools to create each blog entry.  For example, Google Drive and Google Hangouts were both used to collaboratively develop our work.  We also explored new tools available through iOS 7 as viable options to collaborate and create in the cloud.

Document Creation

In the 80’s, desktop publishing changed the world. No longer were we required to sit by our Smith Corona’s and cautiously type our documents with error correction ribbon marking the pages. We could edit. We added pictures. We made banners and posters. We wrote newsletters. Then the web came and our audience broadened. Word processing programs expanded and became loaded with features. Now, we can use these tools everywhere. Document creation is fundamentally important in everything we do. For the most part, every tool is feature-rich, accomplishing more than we would ever use. There are slight nuances that separate the tools, ones that can inform a leader’s choice.

Microsoft Word is the traditional tool many of us have used for more than two decades. It is filled with features, some easier to find than others. While a limited version is available through Office 365 online with collaboration, it truly is a client-based tool that operates independently. Most word processing programs open Word documents and other than being ubiquitous, it has very little that establishes it as a primary tool.

Apple’s Pages continues to have the highest performance in terms of graphical layout and control. The visual presentation allows greater refinement for professional documents and posters presentations. The inspector tool allows for great integration of a variety of media sources. The recent addition of collaboration tools between iOS, Mac OS X, and free web-based iCloud services, creates opportunities for sharing and co-development on a feature-rich platform. The Apple platform is evolving on a weekly basis. Thus the user experiences occurring this Fall may be vastly different than in Spring.

In contrast, Google Docs has the greatest level of collaboration co-development. It’s version history and instant saving allow users to denote changes and return to previous documents without concern. This easily integrated sharing, which is comes with little cost for the general user, dynamically changes the workplace as groups create projects together simultaneously from multiple locations. The combination of Google Hangouts and Google Documents allows for video conferencing as you edit and work. The limitation of the tool is that the products are not as refined as Apple’s Pages nor is the tool as feature-rich as either Pages or Microsoft Word.

Numbers & Data Crunching

Over the past two decades, schools have moved from being high qualitative - low quantitative data organizations to data-rich organizations with extremely high levels of both qualitative and quantitative data. This can be both a blessing and a curse. Many of our staff members are terrific at gathering data, but organizing and utilizing the information quickly and effectively can be a challenge. As leaders choose tools to gather, organize, and distribute quantitative data, there is no clear leading tool.

Google Docs provides the highest level of collaboration for the spreadsheet tools. It’s forms gathering function is easy for staff to use as input tools and the resultant spreadsheets have quick and efficient merit. This combination is fantastic for gathering moment to moment assessment data in the classroom. Teachers enjoy the power for both academic and behavior information gathering. However the tool itself is very limited in terms of capacity. The output graphs are not nearly the quality of the competition and the file size itself is very limiting. While 400,000 cells seems like a lot, once most districts start gathering standardized assessment characteristics across grades or schools, the capacity is quickly reached.

Numbers has a different challenge. Recently revised under iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 Mavericks it now contains simple rudimentary collaboration tools. The charts and diagrams are the best in the business. It is not as well known or instinctive as Excel, as such at times the power is limited. However, Numbers is one to watch over the next 12 months as Apple works to have seamless integration between iOS, Mac, and iCloud platforms. If their game plan works, having the exact same functioning over all devices with their high power displays could be a game changer.

The clear current leader in the field is client-based Microsoft Excel. This feature rich spreadsheet tool can calculate and display everything well. It holds an extremely high capacity of data and has the deepest set of formulas and tools. For leaders this can be both a benefit and a curse. Excel is great for authoring and organizing data sets. Due to its’ feature rich nature, end-users of data who are not spreadsheet savvy can feel overwhelmed or confused. Excel sheets can require training for typical classroom teachers and support staff. Microsoft just opened up limited collaboration through its’ Office 365 Web suite. For most of the features this is a subscription service, but there are limited free features. For many of us, Microsoft Excel is the go-to tool due to the complexity of data sets we use and the tools available. As we work with district-wide data, where spreadsheets are often 70 - 80 columns and teachers need easy capacity to sort, Excel is the only tool that can handle the job.

Presenting

With every attempt to not date myself, I was around at what I consider the birth of popular presentation software tools beginning with Harvard Graphics 2.3 for DOS 3.0 on a 386 machine, before Bill Gates introduced Windows.  When Microsoft introduced Windows 3.0 my family bought Harvard Graphics 1.0 for Windows. This made life much easier with the Windows buttons to click. We could copy text, paste text, size it, and then color the text by clicking. Then we could click to print the slides. The templates included with the program made it easy to fill-in the blanks to create bullet slides, graphs, tables and charts.  This set the stage for the next 20 years.  

As operating software packages upgraded, so did the evolution of software programs, designed to compete with each other.  We saw endless rollouts of PowerPoint, Hypercard, Harvard Graphics, Freelance Graphics, Aldus Persuasion, and Wordperfect Presentations, and image conscious Keynote product from Apple, to name a few of the most popular.  Realistically, the presentation software scene remained unchanged in general capabilities until the need for collaboration became centralized and evolution was on the horizon.

First, lets discuss Prezi.  Prezi is a great presentation tool for spicing up the mundane presentations that you’ve been experiencing for the past couple of decades. It allows for new kinds of visualizations and opportunities to link imagery to motion, which in turn creates potential for deeper understanding and retention duration.  Most importantly to me is the fact that Prezi has real-time collaboration capabilities.

It should be noted that one of my favorite aspects of Prezi (assuming it is used correctly) is the ability to have movement actually become part of the presentation. For instance, if you are talking about ‘Imagery,’ you can have Prezi zoom in (past the word Imagery) and display examples of the imagery you are discussing. The movement relates to the terms and examples, creating a visual link for the viewer.  Moreover, Prezi is completely free and can be accessed from any web-enabled computer. This is great for districts and leaders who may not have the Office suite on their home computers. Users can easily create Free accounts on Prezi.   

Microsoft has taken their own leap into cloud based solutions to support real-time collaboration.  The advanced communication and collaboration tools offered by Office 365 create an array of opportunities for effective team working. Equipped with mobile solutions and remote access to their work file and documents, users can not only work productively on their own, but also contribute to shared projects with colleagues based in other locations. Changes they make to a file or document are made available to other users in real-time, while instant messaging and conferencing technology allows instant communication. Employees can use Office 365 to remain in constant contact wherever they are, making it easier to work on inter-departmental projects and bring people together from different parts of the business.

However, my preference for presentation is Google Slides due to the level of collaboration and co-development.  Google Slides is one of the most notable simply because at this point, most of us have Gmail and thus Drive accounts with Google. Just like Google Docs, Slides offers all of the core design, formatting, and presentation creation capabilities that you’d find in PowerPoint or Keynote. Just like with PowerPoint and Keynote, you can expect a few things here and there to be different. User interface issues; not missing functionality.  Recently, I worked with a colleague on a rather important presentation that we needed to make to the entire administrative team.  Although template capabilities in both Prezi and PowerPoint via Office 365 may take an edge over Google Slides, we found the collaboration interface to be simple, effective, and free.  We were confident that we would probably note similar results with Prezi and PowerPoint that we found with Google Slides; a highly collaborative presentation in which continuity and shared ownership were at the forefront.

Organizing Collaboration Digitally

The role of leadership in schools has evolved dramatically during the last thirty years. Forward thinking organizations have moved from top-down structures in which superintendents and central office administrators provided guidance, binders, and procedures throughout the district to committee level methodologies in which voices were heard in representative structures, decisions were collective and the committee issued guidance, to a leveled up methodology in which leaders and practitioners work hand in hand to co-create real time decisions and practices within a framework of strategic guidance. Each of these structures requires a different set of tools and leadership practices to be successful. In a top-down organization, the district memo could serve as the distributor of information. Rarely was it time sensitive as the memo served as the beginning of the operational clock of implementation. Within the committee guidance representative structure, communication occurred within the committee & between committee members, but since decisions could only take place during the committee, knowledge development and transmission between periods was less important. As such, distribution of agendas, minutes, and committee documents became important and were time sensitive, but other communication was not.

Leveled-up co-created leadership requires more sophisticated tools for information flow and collective collaboration.  As a result of the breadth of technology available today, it’s necessary to categorize the wealth of tools into five distinct areas; Task/Project Management Tools, Coordinated Calendaring, Collaborative Brainstorming Tools, Collaborative Project Suites, and Communication Tools.

The first area we’ll discuss is the concept of Task/Project Management Tools.  Project management tools have evolved from simple spreadsheet products to sophisticated, cloud-based project information portals. The obvious trend in project management software, as with almost everything in information technology, is a move toward cloud-based systems. In order to maximize collaborative productivity, constituents need to be able to simultaneously access, add, change, or remove information from any location. Sharing in a collaborative environment allows for seamless discussion, while transferring information back and forth to each other is inefficient due to the need to decipher the additions that your colleague added to the project, document, or general work. These project management portals are becoming more common as the collaboration capabilities of project management tools improve.

A few years ago, while working for a large k-12 district we had the opportunity to create something special. Our community was growing and our population was transforming. Each year we were building several elementary schools. As we grew, so did our second language learner population. Within one year, this community doubled in size. With this challenge came the opportunity to move from an ELL resource model to a Dual Language learning community. What a delightful task. Teachers, leaders, and board members worked hard, researching services, tools, and instructional strategies. The work was limited by our time together. Passionate people who would diligently work between meetings spread through a 16 school district could rarely connect to share their insights. While the program grew, at times our energy and program development were hindered by our proximity. It was an amazing product that we created but that process came at great sacrifice to the individuals involved.

The ideal project management tool should eliminate a big chunk of mundane work.  The tool notifies members of the team about due dates and overdue tasks.  When tasks are done, employees simply click on a link in the reminder notification to set tasks as complete. The information that the task is complete goes directly into the shared workspace, so there is no more need to gather status updates through meetings and emails, and there’s no need to copy this information from emails to project files. Project management software such as Trello, Reminders, Tasks, shared calendars and other tools keep people on the same page.  Stakeholders have direct access to reports and schedules updated in the real-time, so there is no need for them to pull that information from the project manager. The status of the project is at their fingertips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the web.

The good news is that project management tools continue to evolve in terms of capabilities and user interface.  The general direction is toward more integrated process and knowledge management systems, and efficient natural user interfaces.  Project management tools are gradually becoming integrated project information portals with capabilities far beyond simple project tracking and reporting.

As the sophistication of these products continues to grow, however, so too does their complexity.  An effective project management tool should never become the focus of a project manager's life, the project implementer’s life, or add time to project activities.  If a project manager has to spend too much time learning a product's features interface, their ability to actively manage the project process diminishes, totally defeating the purpose of the tool.

The task of hiring quality candidates had become burdensome because we continued to embrace a dated system throughout the interview process.  Simply put, the data we were collecting on potential candidates was not being loaded into a centralized database.  With new leadership coming into the district, we needed to collaboratively and remotely establish new hiring protocols via a project management tool because we were unable to physically meet with the new instructional leaders to accomplish what we wanted to do.  Based on recommendations from colleagues, we settled on utilizing Toodledo.  The tool allowed numerous members of the team to remotely plan and collaboratively create in real time without ever stepping foot in the same room.  Quite seamlessly, new hiring protocols were established well ahead of the established hard deadline and they were implemented in time for the most recent hiring season.

In a world of collaborative leadership and distributed responsibilities. Effective use of digital task management tools can build trust within the organization and increase pace, productivity, and efficiency. Collaborative organizations thrive on effective communication. Leaders who effectively use the right tools for their organization can enable their constituents to be prepared and successful.

by. Dale Fisher & Matt Rich