Stuck and Paralyzed

I was struck by the video that a colleague of mine posted on her blog as it illustrates just how stuck some educators are in their traditional ways of doing things and solving problems. When presented with a problem, instead of working together to find an answer, we call for help as if we are a victim of our situation, paralyzed by our circumstances.

The truth is, we have a choice to stay put or to move. To allow others to keep us hostage or to move around the system in a way that we build our own power and unstick ourselves so that we can continue to grow and for the purposes of education, continue to make a difference for the lives of those we teach. We have to learn how to empower ourselves and take risks. How do we do that if we feel as though we are in an unsafe environment to experiment and sometimes fail??

We have to hope that there are brave administrators our there who are willing to put on their sheilds and fight the good fight for teachers to feel safe in changing pedagogy, embracing Web 2.0 tools and changing teaching and learning! And, as my colleague Marcie says, "Negativity is not cool!!"

For those of us out there trying to make a difference, keep going!! Think of yourself in a swimming pool, wherever you are, as in a system, when you move you will cause ripples. As for my target for teachers...still trying to figure that out. I'm not sure we can set one target for all if we can not support it system wide.

I am reminded of a Sesame Street book that illustrates similar principles to Kristin's video mentioned above...where Big Bird has a wagon that just won't go (doesn't have wheels) and then asks "who has something good for wagons" and EVERYONE comes running with something different to help fix his wagon...at the end of the book Grover says..."every day you need a helper, every day I need one too, there's so much we can do together, you help me and I'll help you!"

These simple messages make sense to children...why don't we try them on educators?!

Changing the Discussion

Today I joined my first ning. I have not yet started a blog or a wiki because until today, I had not figured out what to focus on or what cool title to use. Having finished my dissertation research last year, I wanted to take a year off to read and observe others but not necessarily write. In thinking about how to introduce myself on the ning I realized what I really want to focus on (at least for now) is changing the discussion about educational technology...in other words, changing the WAY we talk about technology integration. Others are starting to talk about it also. Not talking about the STUFF (hardware) but the PROCESS of utilizing tools to create more student-centered learning environments. Those of you who know me know that I embrace change as well as discussion so it seemed only fitting that I would create a blog combining the two! : )