Technology is the Accelerator...

Back in the depths of time (Fall 2016), I was apparently reading 'The Innovator's Mindset' by George Couros. If you exist anywhere in the educational twitter-sphere, you can not fail to have noticed this book come across your feed and indeed, my own copy had made the journey from Atlanta to Shanghai.

In his book, Couros talks about learners can (and should) be empowered as leaders through the development of innovative educational opportunities. It's easy to digest but really does speak to the imperatives that exist in education today.

Anyway, Chapter 3, where Couros talks about the role of technology apparently caught my eye. He says, 'Learning is the driver, technology is the accelerator.' I was inspired (Or so my Youtube 'mark as private' videos lead me to believe.) I made a connection between his comment and the role of 1:1 laptop programs in schools, specifically the way in which they're introduced. My former Head of Personal Counseling used to express concern that we gave 11 year olds a Lamborghini without teaching them to drive- which was not an unfair observation.

My brain apparently blended all this together and I created a narrated slide-deck to share my thoughts on how Grade 6 students can be supported in learning how to 'use the accelerator.' It's flawed. The analogy makes perfect sense in my brain but may not make any sense whatsoever to anyone else and if I can find the original slide deck I am tempted to remake it, not least in an effort to sound marginally less pompous in my narration (seriously, am I giving The Queen's Speech?!)

I do think there's something here though, something I want to keep coming back to and working on. Slide deck created in Keynote with images created in Piktochart. It's a work in progress...