For the past two years, I have spent a great deal of time trying to help teachers and administrators use technology to transform educational practices. The skill levels of participants is extremely varied, and would probably be similar to the skills of educators in most schools. The challenge for all of us educators is to continually learn and improve to ensure that we are successful.
A recent post on Educational Technology Guy summarized some of the essential important points from a keynote speech delivered by Foursquare founder Naveen Selvadurai. In his keynote, Selvadurai talked about the factors that he identified as keys to success. These factors are certainly relevant to any type of new learning, and certainly technology!
Be Curious — look at things and wonder why. Wonder if something can do more. Wonder if you can make something better or different. Ask why? Ask how?
Keep Learning — never stop learning. Be a life-long learner. Learn because you are curious. Learn because you want to better yourself.Don’t Be Afraid to Fail — no one succeeds on the first try. For every great success, there are hundreds of failures. You learn from your failures and they help you succeed. We should encourage students this way in school also.Be Passionate — be passionate and excited about what you do, no matter what. Why do it if you aren’t passionate or don’t care. This goes for everything you do, from cleaning your room to doing your work.Keep Good Company — be around people who share your values and beliefs. Be with people who are passionate, curious, and keep learning. Surround yourself with people who will help you succeed, not lead you to failure or troubles.
Hi Nick,
I agree with you about age not being a factor. My mom was one of the leading people in my life to teach me about technology — She also taught me about WW2 because she remembered it from her childhood. =) My mom was a genealogy guru and used tech for her research. When she found out she had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, she took tech to the next level to stay connected. We video conferenced 3 times a week via iSight (back before I think Skype even existed); she got me into making movies (iMovie) to share special events with her; and, introduced me to forums to help her learn more about her disease and connect with others. So, I absolutely believe age is not a factor, but living those five keys to success will affect generations.
Thanks for this post!
Kind regards,
Tracy
G8 tips. Thanks for sharing.
Tracy,
Your example really highlights how people can/will embrace technology when they see how it will benefit them. Hopefully, more and more educators will see all of those amazing things technology can do for them and their students.
Nick
I agree with those five recommendations, but I have to add that even with all the curiosity in the world and the higher education, my biggest problem is finding the TIME to work with what I’ve learned. Through college classes and professional development training for work, I have heard about a number of exciting things to try pertaining to technology in the classroom. The problem is that there is never enough time to just sit and play around with what I’ve learned. I almost wish that the “powers that be” would not teach us as much, but allow for more time to work on the few things that were discussed. I know for myself, I would then actually use it in my classroom because I felt comfortable with it.
I would agree that many PD models that schools operate under certainly have some major flaws. They fail to give individuals
and teams the time to work. With that said, I also think that our best teachers will continue to be the ones who put in the extra time to teach themselves new things. This idea certainly isn’t unique to technology. Time is certainly a key component to the success of any initiative.
Nick Sauers