Where does time go….. Time to KISS…

I have had an extremely busy week and a bit since coming back to work after the Christmas break. I had planned to get a podcast up this week but things got out of control and once again I stopped for a break and wondered “Where did all the time go?” This would probably be the thought that I had time and time again as a classroom teacher. I guess in a different role these days it has come as a surprise to me that I am still wanting to know where all the time has gone.

I started thinking about this last night and how our lives have become so much busier in a world that was supposed to supply technologies that made things easier. This would have to be the main reason I refuse to have a blackberry – Why on earth do I need phone calls, sms messages, and my email coming to me immediately!! When did the device take control of my life? I realise there is the off button that I can press when I get home of an evening – But how many people resist the temptation to just quickly check the latest email?

What an amazing world we are living in and things are going to just get quicker and quicker. I had a very respected colleague advise me recently that I should focus my formal studies in areas other than ed tech as I will “out grow” the ability to keep up with the constant world of change. I really appreciated this advice and have taken it on board to have a think about. However, is it true that we may just all loose the ability to keep up with change? At the age of 27 I think I am doing a pretty good job keeping up so far. What about generation X and Y are they going to grow up challenged by technical change one day as well? Or are they so use to change that it will just be something that is inbuilt for life?

I am starting to think that this is not as much of a generational argument as some may think. I believe it depends more on the persons level of interest or need to keep up with changes. Probably two interesting areas of discussion here…. First of all when does personal interest get taken over by sheer need to survive? All techno educators out there probably got into this game out of a interest in new technologies and a desire to see how they could impact education. However, now that many of us have positions that require us to share and utilise our knowledge and passion of these tools, will it ever get to the point that we struggle to keep up and therefore become irrelevant?

This final point is why I believe we need to make ICT and technology in learning all about learning and the learner. There is still a problem with teachers focusing on the gadget or the technology. If we try and simply keep up with technical change, we will eventually do ourselves out of a job – or we will get to the point of hating our job. However, if we continue to focus on the learning and creating a great learning environment, we will quite easily keep up with the change because it will just come naturally as another enhancement in great learning. This is why my award for greates PD of 2006 goes to Education.au – They get it – other conferences that have been around much longer don’t get it at all!! Too many techno nerds that think a PDA or a Smart Board will save the day!!! Then there are the strange agenda driven folk who spend entire conference sessions trying to tell us that we need to spend time worrying aobut girls in ICT!!! Oh please how about we just focus on the learner instead of who is doing what subject at school…. Did it ever dawn on any of these folk that maybe each learner is different and a large part of 50% of our population may not be interested in the subject of ICT (Computer programing). AHHHHH Those people frustrate me!!!! Hopefully most teachers have an interest in learning and the learner. Let’s keep it simple instead of worrying about what tool does what and who has the greatest version of what. There is my 2007 new years resolution – The rule of KISS – Keep it simple stupid!!

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