changelog @ tengrrl.com: Searching for Miracle Tools

I've finally got goals written out for FY08, and they call for a lot of tracking and logging and scheduling. My head is swimming as I try to figure out what tools will work for which part. I think that I need three different things:

A system to track different content for ReadWriteThink (RWT) and Inbox that lets me apply tags or index the content. I need to be able to report on a quarterly basis that X lesson plans addressed NCTE's strategic goals focus on (as an example) multimodal literacy. Mostly I think I'll need numbers and percentages. I may need intersections (e.g., X lesson plans addressed (1) multimodal literacy and (2) elementary students). But in addition to numbers, I'm probably going to need to point to the related lesson titles or Inbox columns. A running tally wouldn't be enough. It's more complex than that. So, do I need a spreadsheet? a database? something else?
A system to schedule and track Inbox topics and promotions for all the staff involved to use. Each week, I write the Ideas and blog and search for news. Some other folks on staff choose the final news stories. Once I know the focus, I pass that info along to the marketing staff, and in return, they send me details on the announcements for each week. I need to create some kind of schedule that allows for longer-range planning. Right now, most of this happens on Monday. I think I need a giant table with columns for strategic governance focus, likely current events, ideas focus, blog focus, and related announcements. Possibly breaking out the announcements by the different areas (conventions, books, journals, professional development, membership). Is it a giant, shared spreadsheet?
A system for a learning log that documents info on publications, positions, policies, etc. that is used to inform RWT and Inbox work. As an example, what I need to do is read an article, position statement, or similar document and then log the details on that piece, noting how it might connect to specific issues. I think some kind of tagging or indexing is paramount. A sample note might be something like this:
"article name: rest of article name" from Journal Name explains how a teacher used small-group reading activities to explore the way dialects are represented in Huck Finn. Topics include literature, dialect, small groups, secondary, adolescent literacy, reading, Journal Name.
At first I thought I might need something like a hopped up and branded del.icio.us system that pointed to the Web pages for these things (they'll all be on the Web in some way, though the public might only be able to get to abstracts). Now I'm wondering if it's just a super blog with tags. Ideally, though, I'd need to be able to find intersections of tags (e.g., resources on secondary + literature). I don't know that there's any blog tool that does that. Hmm. I think it's far more than a spreadsheet, and I think tracking all this on paper would be counter-productive. Maybe there's some other tool that would do what I need.

So I need three miracle tools, ideally tools that are very simple to manage and set up. Hmm. Time to incubate for a while. Maybe the answers will come to me. At least I have some freewriting on what I need done.

Thursday, August 16, 2007