Fluid changes
So Apple has come out with the iPad. Not news. We knew it was coming. Everyone is venturing their predictions about this, the latest in a successful series of innovations from a company we expect to roll out new things at least once a year. Ed tech people tweet about where the iPad might fit into (or “revolutionize”?) education. David Pogue critiques, the ATT network-busters scoff, and we all read every word of it, secretly wishing someone handed us a free iPad to test and review.
The same week, 721 collaborative groups of creative folks share their latest innovations for digital media and learning. With far less fanfare than Apple — but equal passion and hope– they toss carefully crafted 300 word catalysts for change into a web-based competition for thousands of dollars and a chance to alter the face of learning. [Full disclosure: I am one of them.]
The same week, hundreds of thousands of teachers wrap up their mid-year grades, probably entering them into an online or electronic grade book program designed ten years ago. They dig out the materials for next week and check the plans to see what they want to change this time around. They add a new web site, change the requirements, or find an alternate way to have students explore the topic that comes up next in the curriculum.
The cycles of change and sameness rarely allow any of us much time to pause and reflect. On a Friday afternoon I can become skeptical that those who always plan for change will be the instigators while others who rarely plan for it will only stumble into it. But then I recall last night.
Approximately twenty teachers from Toronto to Florida to Michigan joined in the second session of an OK2Ask offering, excited to create and use wikis in their classrooms. Are wikis new? Maybe not new the way iPads are or DML entries could be, but these teachers welcome fresh ideas: new ways to draw students into their own learning, and new ways to invigorate their own professional lives. Their pace may not be the sam
e as Apple’s, organizing strategic “rollouts” months in advance. The changes they propose are not newsworthy. But neither will be the accomplishments of an individual third grader or a high school health class.
We need to keep some perspective on the relative value of change. Maybe everyone needs a little Friday afternoon skeptical pause to trace the ripples emanating out from the innovations we observe in progress. I am not willing to discount the small ponds. Fluid mechanics sometimes have a funny way of making ripples go a long way with less splash.
Very thoughtful, well-written post. I spend most of my waking hours thinking about the “small ponds,” and how far those ripples can stretch themselves out. From a metaphorical standpoint, the ripple’s only limitation is that which causes it to occur in the first place: the surface tension of the medium itself.
I appreciate your recognition of the natural cycles that emanate throughout our work, and will keep your post as a touchstone during my own Friday afternoon time for pause and reflection. Thanks!
Comment by Tony — January 29, 2010 @ 7:48 pm
Thanks to people like you, ripples are still being created in what were still waters before. Change may be fast, but reaction to the change sometimes isn’t. Wikis aren’t new but there are those new to wikis. Thanks for the post.
Comment by Christine — January 31, 2010 @ 7:43 pm
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