Natural transitions

Technology has been in my life as long as I can remember. My parents were technology project managers. They were always aware of technology's place in the larger and future picture of corporate America and every day life. While this is great in retrospect, it was miserable when all I wanted was to take piano lessons and my parents felt Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing was a much better investment of their seven year old's time.This was incredibly hard to trust when I was watching Alex P. Keaton sit down at a type writer.

In college telnet was the way to electronically communicate and it honed my skills to a point that would make Mavis Beacon cry with pride. My love for music somehow, through a series of haphazard events, transitioned into a writing career for magazines, online and print. My curiosity of an Email address found me at my first paid position for one of the (then) largest content providers of music information. All of this through technology before the year 2000.I was on Email lists and built a social network of friends around the world; thanks mom and thank you Mavis.

Years transpire, the internet rockets, dot-com's plummet, and I find myself in education, teaching in a small-town school that had little awareness of technology application.How did I get here and where is Mavis when I really need you? I had never been in a setting where technology was a choice and not a requirement. I saw so much possibility for change and slowly began to shift part of my focus into education technology. The networking skills I once used to connect musicians is now used to connect teachers to resources and keep me informed through social networking. The search engines I used to use to find record labels and events, I now use to find lessons, wiki models and new outlets for student creativity.I am starting to take notice that technology isn't so much about change as it is about readiness to transition and
transform the environment to a place that speaks to the audience (te[a]cher and student).


I once asked my mom if corporate America knew that CDs were ready for public market before their launch, why did they wait? She said the public wasn't ready and does not respond to being pushed. I remember and apply this to technology professional development sessions I lead and attend. I also remember that even though I thought Alex P. Keaton was so cool to question the future of politics, maybe it was time for him to meet Mavis too.