Stop It Already

I didn’t attend the ISTE Conference this year.  As I noted yesterday, it’s never held on a July 4 but it was on a July 1.  I enjoyed time with family and fireworks instead. 

At the same time, social media does allow you to track the conversations.  Fortunately, you can follow the discussions with the hashtag #ISTE15.  So, you can live the experience vicariously if you so desire.

I did a bit but felt that I needed to put on my filter a little more than usual.

I didn’t go running through the streets screaming but I could have. 

Over and over, I’d read “So and So says that it’s about the pedagogy and not the technology”.

So, why is “So and So” at the conference then?  Well, from this seat, many are people who write books and speak publically for a living and are trying to get a little notoriety.  Good for them and obviously the credibility has been developed with some to the point that what they say is important.  But how many times do we need to hear it?

I mean, really?

It’s the year 2015.

We’ve lived through so many models and so many attempts to perfect the educational system.  We know that or have always known that learning is a community event with all kinds of social actions and, importantly, relevancy in the eyes of students and parents.  Students so that they maintain focus and parents who want success and will stand fully behind a teacher that engages and pushes students to be constantly learning and improving.

A message from Wayne Hulley has always stuck with me.  “Nobody wakes up in the morning wondering how they’re going to screw up today”.  I’d like to take some liberty with his message and note that nobody goes to a technology conference to find a new piece of technology that will replace the job of teaching in their classroom.

That clearly is the job of teachers.  Instead, people attend conferences to listen to leading colleagues who want to share successes with technology (or whatever else the focus is of the conference).  They want to walk the exhibit hall and engage with vendors who have a relevant product and know how it fits into education.  People attend because they want to refine their craft and make their classroom a more powerful place to learn.

To that end, I just find the original quote a disservice to the profession and an insult to teachers who are doing their best to learn.

Does anyone hear that message and do a forehead slap “Wow we’ve been doing it wrong all these years.”