Apr 15 2008
Fluffy thinking in the edtech community…a waste of energy and time
I’ve been thinking a lot about the recent chatter in the edublogsphere (made up word) about the “cocktail party” and “echo chamber” for writing and being read as part of this community. I think it’s time we shift our thinking. Rather than wasting time worrying whether the bloggerati (another made up word) are following what you have to say and the profound effect it is or is not having on the world at large, let’s focus on the the people we can truly make an impact with…the teachers and staff we deal with on a daily basis. Strategic planning and conceptual models are good for creating mission statements and visions but if they’re never followed up by operational discussions, implementation plans, and success reviews we’ve become nothing more than pointy-haired managers avoiding real responsibility and accountability for making a difference in education.
If you want something to write about of value, get away from the theory and “fluffy thinking” rampant in ed-tech and concentrate on the practical, tactical aspects of what can be done to deliver more value to the students and staff. Digital citizenship, immigrants vs. natives, and all the 30,000 foot discussions floating around the internet deliver little practical value to the students and staff members who are trying to make this stuff work day in and day out. If you want to be read write about something worth reading such as the successes you’ve had implementing certain technologies or better yet the challenges you encountered and how you overcame them.
Based on this I am stepping away from the theoretical discussions. I leave those to the experts. I’m a strategist with an eye for implementation and that’s where I’m focusing my time, my writing, and my blog from now on. As for the cocktail party…I’ll be down the street having a coffee at the diner.
Interesting thoughts but don’t we need both… I agree that alot of time has been spent discussing topics at 30,000 feet but the problem seems to me is not that these conversations are happening. instead the problems is that these conversations often fail to lead to meaningful projects in the classroom. Understanding how our students are different from us as digital natives can be a very powerful tool if used to design classroom activities that promote high order thinking while engage with the tech tools students use everyday-
An example so that this is not just another 30,000 ft conversation - voicethread.com used in first grade classroom so students are participating in asynchronous conversation and everyone gets to share on topic chosen by teacher. Combined with short recordings from audio enhancement classroom system help the teacher quickly post new content from class to the site.
You know, those conversations left a sour taste in my mouth as well. Back to work….
Well said.
Matt -
I’m not saying there isn’t a place and a time for strategic thinking, what I’m saying is that the edublogosphere is loaded to the freakin’ gills with it. How many ways can you discuss the innate digital skills of middle school students before realizing it’s worth more to talk about what works and doesn’t work with them. In this case the why is truly “academic”.
We’ve twittered, blogged, bookmarked, tagged, forwarded, and flogged this horse to an amazing degree. What I don’t see is the same amount of energy in capturing what’s been done with the students, the successes and failures, in anything longer than 140 characters.
If we want our teachers to learn to fish, we have to show them how to bait the hook and cast the line…not wonder if the fish are truly hungry.
Art, this is the absolute best post on this topic I’ve read to date. Thanks so much for reminding those of us working in schools of our purpose…”focus on the the people we can truly make an impact with…the teachers and staff we deal with on a daily basis.” Many thanks!
Amen, Brother Art. Preach on!
Miguel
[...] Fluffy thinking in the edtech community…a waste of energy and time [...]
Yes, sharing practical things that work are so very important — I think that is why I’m really enjoying the diigo things that I’m getting. Looking at the feeds from the standard tags is becoming useful to me for this. I agree, lets focus on talking about what is important.
It is about the students and being professional, inspirational, teachers! Best wishes!
[...] I agree with Justin on some of the aspects of his post (Lord knows I’ve railed about the ed-tech echo chamber before) I need to take a few minutes here to counter some of the points that both he and I have made [...]