These are the Good Times!

The holiday season is a time to be thankful! Lately I have been thankful for all the good things happening in ed-tech. These are good times for technology integration and the continuing evolution of education over all. Here is just some of my favorite things that will be in my stocking of gratefulness this year.

Grant Money: Let's face it, these are not easy financial times for education. Grant money largely funds technology initiatives. Educators turn to corporate and local grants for financial help in many areas. We spend countless hours pulling them together and ship them off just hoping for that magical "yes".  From bus money for field trips to robotics programs, grants are that holiday song we need in order to continue celebrating.

Mobile Devices: Watching technology change over the years has been incredible. In thirty years we have gone from the Apple IIe to the iPad (Tandy to Galaxy if you should prefer). The consumer market's direct effect on changing education is just glorious because it's breaking down a cognitive barrier between the learners' social and learning environment...finally. How lucky we are to be sitting right in the middle of it all and have the imagination enough to use its potential to intrigue our students.

Social Networking: I was never a natural to Twitter. I had too many things to do, so why add one more? More than a year later I find mental peace on the Tuesdays I am able to tune in to #edchat and connect with colleagues with the same curiosity. It is intellectual stimulus that is a weekly exhale. Hashtags and PLN's are changing the way teachers connect and communicate. Thanks to the people who drive these hashtag and PLN trains, educators can globally connect and have an impact in two sentences or less.

Teachers as Leaders: This grass roots movement is bound to change the way that professional development is delivered and viewed by administrators.  The more consistent educators network and use one another as the amazing resource of experiences and expertise that we are, the more we will be a driving force in professional development. It is up to us to use resources available and spread the gospel. I find this exciting because educators have become advocates of our ability to grow from one another's gained knowledge and abilities.

What is next: I look at mobile devices and hashtags and think well, what happens after this? Technology's ability to change and be swayed by social influence is at the heart of many users' emotional bind to its everyday use. Will Facebook be tomorrow's Myspace? Will tablets be erased by the next device? The unknown is what I find exciting and enticing because it means we need to adapt and learn something new. Food and fodder for the brain, I will take two helpings of those please.

There are many other points I did not include here such as robotics, STEA(rt)M, blogging, countless applications, and free internet resources such as Edutopia and Edmodo. These are under my nine branched evergreen tree while Chic sings in the background. What is under your menorah tree?