Are Teachers Inherently Innovative?

One of the blogosphere’s more intelligent educators, DanMeyer, suggests that a large percentage of teachers are innovative.

Realize that if you’re a teacher and you’re reading a blog post, you’re automatically seeded in the top 10% of innovative educators. You’ll try anything once. Let’s also go with Jack Welch and assume that 10% of educators are hopelessly and/or willfully incompetent.

Convince yourself, then, that 80% of teachers exist on a sliding scale of innovation and are basically up for grabs. Those who don’t want to try [x] aren’t necessarily bad educators. They may have made a rational calculation that [x] isn’t easy enough, fun enough, or free enough to adopt.

As evidenced by the many comments on Dan’s post, this is a hot-button issue.

Beyond the specifics of Dan’s X and Y musings, the foundation of the commentary got me to wondering; are educators truly innovative, or do they see new technology and flinch, when someone suggests that they try integrating it into their classrooms?

Roush, EdTechSandy Headline First edTech Tweets of the Week List

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no Twitter expert, but as a language arts teacher and long-time edtech expert, I like to think I recognize both good technology and good writing.

Plus, although I know my students would disagree, I like to think I have a good sense of humor.

These things being said, here is the first installment of what I hope will be both a regular and popular list of edtech Tweets of the Week.  My humble commentary is in parentheses at the end of each Tweet. If you think I’ve missed something, please comment. In fact, feel free to comment anyway.

missbrownsword

Digital Media Theme http://bit.ly/b6Ea3h – focuses on persuasive writing and AFL – would love to hear what people think! (It’s informative; plus I teach language arts, so I’m a little biased)

UltimateTeacher

Using VoiceThread for Writing http://bit.ly/aSqKnS @tombarrett Awesome!! Great post for all writers!!! (one of my favorite Twitter pics)

mrspal

  

Check out this great post on the Committed Sardine Blog http://committedsardine.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=778 (How can you not love something called, Committed Sardine Blog)

coryroush

Oh, come on, http://www.fora.tv. If you’re going to auto-play a commercial, at least give me the option to pause it or turn down the volume. (Cory is one of the smartest and wittiest young tweeters I’ve seen)

EdTechSandyK

  All educators need law coursses: RT @mashable School Accused of Secretly Spying on Students Through Laptop Webcams http://bit.ly/d8CZXZ (Certainly not Sandy’s best, but she’ll likely be a regular on this list — a true star in our business)

TeachaKidd

RT @DiscoveryComm: Cannot wait! RT @LifeonDiscovery: LIFE in Pictures – be ready to be blown away. http://bit.ly/ag32eW Premieres 3/21 (Lee is another brilliant teacher, presenter and insightful tweeter)

web20classroom

RT @ktenkely: Dear spammers of the world, be warned, if I ever meet you, I will kick you in the shin. <-And I will get the other one! (He’s nformative, insightuful and  funny — ‘nough said)

MarshaCollier

So true! RT @vanillabean45 I’ve decided I don’t want to be anyone’s friend or lover. I want to be a client. They get better treatment. (There’s a lot to be said for cynicism)

WillyB

Got some good work done after school, though now it’s 5:00 and I’m still at work on Friday. Need to get out! (Anyone working at 5:00 on a Friday deserves to be recognized. . . or institutionalized)

carldowse

  eModeration Station » Activities for online courses: The End http://ow.ly/19mwU about 1 hours ago from HootSuite (If you teach online, you won’t want to miss this article)

 

Tweet This!

EdTech Tweets of the Week

There’s an old saying in teaching that instead of re-creating the wheel, you should “beg, borrow and steal.” Now this is not to be construed as a negative declaration.

Rather it means that teachers have far too much on their plates to create new lessons for every objective they must meet. So, it’s often necessary to go to a colleague and use something they’ve already created.

With this notion in mind, I’m borrowing an idea from another blogger. Starting tomorrow, I’ll debut a weekly blog post called, EdTech Tweets of the Week, which may include sme non-tech tweets from teachers.

This will be a list of tweets that are inspiring, useful, educational or just doggone funny.

If you want to recommend something, e-mail it to me at mark@thepaperlessclassroom.com or DM me on Twitter at markbarnes19.