3b. Maintain and manage tools

Evidence of competence in ISTE-CS

The first time I truly thought about this indicator, I had no idea how to interpret what it said. You manage a class through expectations and norms...but digital tools need neither of those things. So how do you “manage” digital tools? Some of the keywords I would now use to describe this indicator are: settings, licensing, and system requirements. I have probably never blogged about this directly, but it’s something I have devoted a fair amount of attention to throughout the DEL Program.

Maintaining and managing digital tools is about…

• ...share settings, collaborator limits, and storage limits. For example, while developing the workshop proposal, Students, technology, and new Google Sites, I had to look into how many people can collaborate on a Google Doc at a time. The current magic number is 100; see Share files from Google Drive from Google Drive Help (n.d.) for more information. Also during this project, I realized that I had misunderstood the Google Docs share settings for years, and therefore had been improperly managing the access settings on my Google Docs. When you get a “share link” for your Google Doc, you can choose what kind of access someone with your link will have. The setting looks like this:

Well, I thought that there were three links - one for each setting. So if you wanted to allow someone to edit you doc, you choose and copy the “can edit” link; if you only wanted to allow someone to comment, you choose and copy the “can comment” link. This is entirely wrong. There is one share link, and everyone with it can do whatever you last set the setting to. Not knowing this could potentially cause problems; as far as I know, it never caused me any.

• ...who is allowed to install and use a program, and how they can use it - i.e., terms of use. For example, the student version of MATLAB says, “Student software is for use by students on student-owned hardware to meet course requirements and perform academic research at degree granting institutions only. It is not available for government, commercial, or other organizational use” (MathWorks, n.d.).
• ...system updates and compatibility between systems and versions. For example, can your student who is using an Apple computer join the video meeting in Microsoft Teams? This is something that came up for my cohort during our Microsoft quarter (the rest of the time we used Google products).

Maintaining and managing digital tools is an ongoing activity since programs are constantly updating.

References

Google Drive Help. (n.d.). Share files from Google Drive [website]. Retrieved from https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2494822?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

MathWorks. (n.d.). Buy MATLAB student software [website]. Retrieved from https://www.mathworks.com/campaigns/academia/ppc/google/buy-matlab-student.html?s_eid=ppc_6162840202&q=student%20version%20matlab