Climbing Hills. Welcome to EdTech!

Courtesy of Pixabay- Give them a coffee!

I am a Triathlete. That sounds amazing. According to my USAT membership and the handful of Triathlons I have participated in, it's true.

What made me decide to become a Triathlete resonates into why I chose the career of educational technology; I love the challenge.

In the beginning, training for a Triathlon was hard. I had a few personal challenges to overcome (I drowned twice as a child, so you would say swimming was my first hurdle). But what I remember the most about tackling my training, was over coming those hills.

I purposely would find overly elevated hills to become stronger and stay focused. Man, they were steep. But keep in mind, whether you're training for a Triathlon, or to be the best Educational Technologist ever, the hills look a lot bigger from a distance.

Once you start climbing the hills, and I suggest you do, you become a master and able to defeat anything.

Today I received a phone call from a fellow new-to-the field colleague from a neighboring school. {I currently work in the private sector so this is not unheard of.} The gentleman on the other end was, for starters, passionate about his job, but was as equally upset.

“I don't understand what I did wrong.” He puzzlingly states over the phone. “I was trying to teach my students new skills and tools that will lead them in this global economy” he explains in reference teaching the children about (and not how to create an account) the business-social networking site LinkedIn and the administration frowned upon it. “I feel like I am shaking everything up and creating a ruckus!”

Me? “So, you're saying you're doing your job. Great!”

After listening to this gentleman for over an hour declare his views on the future of educational technology and how social media will soon be the catalyst of how we function as human beings, he explained how discouraged he was about the effects that have unfolded since he began his career in September pushed me to write this post.

We are never going to evolve as educators whilst we are standing still.

We need to be innovators, forward thinkers.

We are not only educating our students for successful scores on standardized tests but, we are also teaching them how to survive in a global society.

So, my new friend, if you feel like you are shaking things up and creating diversity, then you are on the right path.

I remember being the new kid the block in this field. Back in the day (insert cane), I too had my days of trial and error. It wasn't until late that I have just about perfected my limitations.
To this day I still may unknowingly knowingly still upset or shake things up by my forward thinking. And I'm okay with it. I trained for the hills.