Okay, so this blog has been a lot more "intermittent" than I had planned! I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at how easily I got sidetracked. Such is life. But even so, I've been learning and learning and learning since last I reflected here.
The National Educational Computing Conference that I spoke of in my last post was wonderful and, as usual, caused me to once again think about things in new ways. The focus was on innovation and creativity, not on technology. That may sound odd for a technology in education conference, but the point is that we need to move our thinking beyond merely what technology we use or don't or how well we use it. Yes, technology allows us to do things in different ways, faster, more easily sometimes, and to share it with the world in a split second. However, what is the content that we are sharing? One of the speakers, Tim Tyson, principal of Mabry Middle School in Marietta, Georgia, said something that really stuck with me. His students participate in an annual film festival, the theme being "Making the World a Better Place." When he is working with students his first question to them is "what is it that you want to say that is so important the whole world should know it?"
As I move forward in a school year that is already so incredibly busy that I can't seem to come even close to catching up, I try to keep reminding myself to reflect on that question.
