Don't overthink! Do instead!

When I meet other school people, either in person or digitally, to discuss IKT in schools, some often express a rather discouraging feeling of… “we-could-never-do-what-you-do” for various reasons.

Some others feel alone in their IKT effort, where this someone might be the only one who has a blog and is trying to get their mildly interested colleagues on board. A few more look a bit resigned at their one-to-twenty-four setup and wonder how they’ll be able to meet the digital requirements in the curriculum.

Elsewhere, the winds of Jante sweep through a staff room with suspicious colleagues, where a teacher takes up far too much space with their digital creations. Been there, done that, seen it all. It sucks, to use two small words. And on top of that, it’s bad that this is still a reality in 2012 in different schools around our country.

Some have plans and are discussing launching [insert any IKT-thing] at their school and have come various distances in these plans/discussions, but experience that it takes a long time to get anywhere.

I also often hear different forms of “what if we had a…” or “what if we could also…”. I have a suggestion this Monday morning. Skip the plans. Skip the strategies. Skip Jante. Skip the prestige. Skip the lack of resources. Skip the “what if…”. At least for a little while. And DO!

Use the resources you have at hand, however small they are. Grab a colleague who wants the same as you, the more the better (if you’re alone, then you go it alone). Start that blog. Film the lesson you think could help your students and put it on YouTube. Let your students publish their books online and let them become creative producers with an authentic audience. Share what you and your students do. Create transparency between the world and your classroom. Or start one of the many other fantastic pedagogical ideas you carry.

How to concretely work with IKT in school can be written about endlessly. But don’t do it tomorrow. Do it now! Even if it blows hardly at first, it will get better. I promise. Maybe not immediately, but it will come.

Hopefully you have a good school management that gives you/them the space to experiment. Because you must do that. And allow yourself and others to fail. Then you/they will succeed. But you/they must do it and drive it yourself, because no one else will do it for you/them. And don’t wait for that new system the municipality was going to release that is supposed to “fix-everything-and-a-bit-more”, because it won’t.

Everything we do and have done has grown out of pedagogical ideas, needs and reflections that have been bounced between us colleagues. And we have just done. And we do. All the time. Unofficial meetings, bang, let’s go. Put up a site, create a service/project/theme or something else. After that they have either grown strong or died out on their own. Further develop, tear down, build again. Maximize the pedagogical gains and aim even higher. Mix and match different professional categories at the school and let everyone be involved and contribute ideas.

We all see things from different perspectives. Students, Educators, Facilities staff, IT people, Parents… The important thing is that we pick up ideas from those of us who work in or around the operation and create solutions for us, which we own and can influence. Then things happen.

Think simply and don’t think technology. Think always pedagogy and what we want to achieve! And evolutionarily. Develop. Everything can always become better. I go to work with a smile every day, because I know that something exciting and fun is usually happening. New thoughts, ideas and exciting discussions. Great colleagues who always give everything in every situation. And how do we manage this? I don’t know, we never talk about time. Rather about school development and learning. And that’s where IKT comes in as a fantastic tool