Today was our first day at ISTE wandering around the Colorado Convention Center. I am traveling with several other members from our school district: Chris Ludwig, High School Science Teacher, Nancy Westfall, Technical Support Coach and Carol Noll, Superintendent. There are so many events over the course of the next couple of days to choose from, it is very difficult to decide where to spend your time.
The opening kickoff was an entertaining event with Mario Armstrong giving a fun and lighthearted demonstration of what its like to be a new teacher with a great idea using technology. While some were scoffing at his success in getting his pretend technology project up and running, I have found that it is very much the case if you are committed and present a clear and good case for your project. The message in the drama was valuable – he didn’t give up, he didn’t get discouraged and he kept on going despite being shot down several times from various groups.
What I took away from that kickoff was a reinforcement of my belief that it is important to “know your stuff” when you want to do something totally different and change an old method of performing some task. It’s important to have a clear definition of what exactly you want to do, why you want to do it, and even some examples of others that have done it and had success. Most of the time, leadership is reasonable and will be willing to invest (emotionally or financially) in a project that looks like it has the potential for success. Without sounding too much like a motivational speaker, you have to believe in your project and be excited about it.
One thing I found across so many of my experiences is that people spend a great amount of time working against the system, trying to fight it at every turn and change it, sometimes just for the sake of change. What I have found as a more effective approach is to learn the system inside and out, find out how to use it, and go from there using the system that is already in place. So much energy is spent fighting processes, policies and procedures that are entrenched and extremely resistant to change. Some of these are not only resistant to change, but fortified against it. To me, this is wasted energy and can be refocused and use the momentum of the system against itself.
On the flip side of that, just because something is new and exciting doesn’t mean that it is better by default. Sometimes tried and true methods are better. They may be old and aged and designed by our grandparents, but it may be only a slight augmentation or adjustment is needed to bring them up to date. I have encountered people that are pushing for change just for the sake of change. Out of change can come amazing and innovative ideas and processes, but that is not always the case. While I love changing ideas and moving forward, sometimes these things just need to be left as is and our energies focused on something that will benefit more from change.
Speaking of old methods, let’s talk about the keynote with Jean François Rischard. I am sure that somewhere in all of those Power Point slides was a message. However, I missed it because it was simply not at all engaging. I was sitting at the Blogger area and I enjoyed the heckling from them much more than I enjoyed the presentation. It was a strange thing to be sitting in a group of innovators and people who are working in the system, looking for ways to bring it into the 21st century, while the keynote speaker was droning on with an incomprehensible Power Point presentation. It was an interesting irony, to have the keynote speaker at a conference that seems to showcase innovation and new technology tuned out because it was, well I’ll just say it, a boring presentation.
There are so many lessons that can be learned from that keynote presentation, it’s difficult to even find a place to start. As I’ve said before, I’m not an educator by trade, but watching that was like watching an investor presentation, complete with graphs and flow charts and inappropriate clip art. There was a great sense of disappointment (if that’s the right word) in the tweets about having the conference open on such an ironic note. I fully expected someone to stop it in the middle and say, “just kidding, this is the exact wrong way to give a presentation,” and then the real keynote would begin.
I know, at least in the group I was sitting with, the keynote was not well received. We will see what the mood is tomorrow, but from here they can only go up. Mr. Rischard has my sympathies if he is a Twitter user and sees the tweets about his carefully prepared presentation. I have a hunch, however, that he does not participate in the social web.