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The summer holidays are quickly approaching here in the States and while our fancies turn to thoughts of vacations, beaches, cookouts, and other frivolity we should keep something in mind…a lesson taught to us each year we manage to forget by the time school begins again. The most effective tools we have are the ones simple to understand and implement. If you do not have to struggle with the operation of the tool, the completion of the task is more efficient and effective.

In the project management schools of thought no project is to begin without a mission statement and a charter. The concept of defining the “mission” of a technology tool for your students provides you the yardstick (or meter stick as warranted) to determine if the tool is delivering on it’s promises to you and your students. Will a word-processor help your students write better? Probably not. Will it make the reviewing and editing processes more efficient? That’s much closer to the possible result and a better measure of the tool and it’s classroom viability.

“If you only have a hammer everything looks like a nail,” is the common paraphrase of a true axiom. If you only have one or two tools you have no choice but to push those tools to their limits in pursuit of your project goals. I’m not saying you shouldn’t investigate other tools, improved systems, and newly developed technologies, but you want to avoid becoming the tool collector with 10 different word processors available but no resulting work.

Identify your specific goals, look for the tools that match those goals, and evaluate the tools on those merits. Keep it simple and your students will thank you. No one would drive a car if it had the controls of a 747 to do the same job. Those controls could come in handy someday, but as part of the educational process they just get in the way.

Kick back, relax, and think…”how can I make my student’s lives simpler?”

Why is it that the Educational Technology field seems to go through a regular crisis of identity? Every few months we’re trying to tag ourselves with another name to convey what we do and how we do it in using as few words as possible. The concept of being an “Edupunk,” fighting the system and pushing the boundaries is an old one. Do we really need a name? Should we call the ones who whine without acting “EduEmos”? How about the ones who charge in without thinking through the repercussions, “EduCowboys”?

Let’s stop worrying what our “brand identity” is this month and focus on what differentiates successful EdTechs from the unsuccessful ones:

1. Ability to change the rules of the game.
2. Adapt those rules that cannot be changed to make them work for rather than against your students.
3. Use the tools you have and innovate rather than always looking for the next, latest, and greatest thing.
4. Excellence in sharing your success with more than just other EdTechs but administrators and parents as well.
5. Recognition of the “echo chamber” for what it is. You can stand all day on the edge of the Grand Canyon and listen to your own echo, or you can hike down in and experience it for yourself.

What’s in a name?