Jan 29 2008
Becoming an Inspirational Technology Teacher
Donald Latumahina over at Life Optimizer wrote a great piece about the book Fire Them Up! by Carmine Gallo on becoming a company’s “Chief Inspiration Officer.” Coming off the energy and power of EduCon 2.0 I thought I’d try and take Donald’s ideas and focus them on how we can become “Inspirational Technology Teachers”.
1. Feed your enthusiasm. As technologists we’re already inspired to use technology in the classroom and appreciate the short term and long term benefits. Unfortunately we can be dragged down by the setbacks of administrative paralysis and challenge, apathy, and resistance to change. You need to constantly feed your enthusiasm with examples of people who are pushing the envelope and challenging the status quo.
2. Lead. Be a trail blazer. Show the people around you the path is not impossible, the bar is not too high, the obstacles not insurmountable. As Joyce Valenza says, “Be subversive.”
3. Sell the benefit. Gary Stager at EduCon 2.0 said, “Education should be shamelessly self-promoting.” I’m not going to go that far but I do agree with the idea that people cannot choose what they’re not aware of. (Another paraphrasing of Gary…man’s a quote machine.) Help people understand the problem what you’re about to suggest will solve or the direct educational benefit of the technology before you ever discuss the technology itself. For example, “So you want to have your students work on a document together? Excellent. Let’s talk Google Docs…”
4. Show them. Technology doesn’t often translate well to intangible descriptions. If you’re trying to motivate someone to try something, have an example of it similar to your end goal to put in front of them. If you want them to try podcasting, have some good podcasts handy to listen to.
5. Involve others. There’s no such thing as a parade of one. You need to find at least a couple of others who share your vision and can help you walk the walk and toot the horn.
6. Be happy. There will be challenges, difficulties, and obstacles. We recognize that. Don’t dwell on them. Reiterate the goals and benefits and celebrate the little successes as you move along. Watching your first self-produced UStream video can be a very cool moment.
7. Reinforce and repeat. Commit yourself to their successes and make sure the world knows when they win. Help them repeat those successes and over time it will become a self-fulfilling prophesy.
The world is full of nay-sayers and doubters. Take the other side. As Adam from Mythbusters says, “I reject your reality and substitute my own.”
I loved this post! I am a new Technology Integration Specialist this year after spending many years in the classroom. All 7 of your points are right on target with my approach of encouraging my teachers to integrate technology into their curriculum. Exciting technology integration is contagious. I learned this with blogging. I got one 5th grade teacher to try it…now all 6 fifth grade classes utilize student blogs; 4 fourth grade classes are blogging, and even 1 third grade class is blogging. That’s over 220 student blogs, motivating students to write, improving literacy, meaningfully participating in the digital world. It’s a gift to be part of it!