Rest, refresh and revitalize: ACTA is my time to be inspired.

(please note, I wrote this a week ago.  In light of the recent disaster occurring in Alabama, my thoughts and prayers go to those affected by the tornadoes.  I have many friends and I hope and pray they are all safe.)

I have to admit, I don’t go to conferences to just show off my curriculum. Since I am not an educator, my only real chance to be with educators is at conferences. Sure I have my wares, exhibit, and my booth where I show off my hard work and hope that people will appreciate it; but for as much time I spend selling, I spend more time in academic sessions. This is where I learn, where I refuel and become inspired. This is where I get a much needed perspective.

Often while working in an office, I am engulfed in day to day operations, in running the business and building the company. I don’t get out and I don’t have the proper perspective of being in the trenches. Leaving the office gets me out of that rut.

Last year I was inspired to write a paper on describing technology as an acquired language (which I hope to publish one day). At conferences I learn about the needs of the populace I serve and try to find the best solution. I attend workshops to see what they are learning and figure out ways to improve upon the methods. I am also inspired to share my expert knowledge about technology.

This year I gave a presentation at ACTA: Technology in the Classroom: Integrating Social Media and Lifting the Cell Phone Ban in Schools. Both social media and cell phones are highly controversial topics for the classroom, but they are necessary to be addressed in education. I had no idea how 100 administrators would react to such a speech.

Needless to say, I left the conference intact and the responses I got were inspirational. I really felt that I opened the eyes of many who attended to the possibility of integrating the social network and accepting cell phones in schools. I know it is an uphill battle, but change must start somewhere. I felt this was my best presentation yet and I look forward to many more to come!

This year is the best year yet. I was inspired by what I learned, revitalized by the presentations and meetings I attended and revived by the beautiful Alabama beach. I made new friends and got to know old friends in a whole new way! It was an amazing trip and I left looking forward to what next year will bring.

Building a better e-book: moving away from cheap cop-outs

E-books are heralded as the new way for students to learn! Save trees, fix shoulder problems, reduce eye strain! I find e-books to be cheap cop-outs by publishers just repackaging the same outdated technology called textbooks into a shiny new shell. PDF versions of textbooks do not help 21st century learners any more than if they carried a 50 pound book. Sure, it’s lighter, portable, accessible anywhere, can be searched and bookmarked, but the format, layout, and linear nature of the content remains the same. Students today require more than just a textbook to thrive; they need an interactive, dynamic environment to further develop their multi-media enabled brains.

Books cater to an old method of teaching. Read, digest, regurgitate. Teaching to the test often is the result of such a practice. Teachers who create rich dynamic classrooms do not rely on the textbooks. They mix it up with other resources to help their students grasp concepts the books fail to explain. No successful teacher just uses the book, so why should publishers keep producing textbooks that happen to have an “e” in front of it.

The need for content experts to take published works to the next level is critical in our evolution of education. No longer can authors be content with words on a page with a few graphics and illustrations; they need to enhance the learning experience by keeping up with the current technology (and that doesn’t mean e-books). 20 years ago, books were the norm because that was really the only way to produce the information and have it transported to eager minds.

Rich, immersive, interactive, relevant experiences can now be produced because the technology is out there to produce them. Today the minds of the students are much more complex, even more complex than the MTV generation. The video game generation has opened their eyes to whole new worlds they can control and education needs to mimic that mindset. Our students are self initiated learners. They want to control their own education, much like controlling their characters in a video game. They understand the objective and will work their way to the goal. Books do not give them a semblance of control since their path is already chosen for them.

So why are publishers ignoring this aspect in our social development?

1. The powers that be still believe in the old way of teaching because that was the way they were taught.
2. Creating a learning environment that can be intelligently remixed for the learner. (Imagine a book publisher building a World of Warcraft)
3. They’re lazy.
4. It’s expensive.

I feel that the fourth point really hits home. It’s more expensive to create these immersive learning environments than to just crank out a product that has been established for over a thousand years. So I leave it up to you to decide. Do we continually perpetuate this 1000 year old tradition and settle or do we demand an investment in innovation in education? We can’t afford not to innovate.