I was just listening to an old Lagwagon album, and it got me thinking about producing quality media. If you surround yourself with poor quality, you tend to create things with poor quality. If you surround yourself with the best, you tend to make the best. Here are few examples, rants, metaphors for you…
Great Things All Around
In the 90s, my cd player played lots of punk rock music. Full of intensity and diy attitude, bands like NOFX, Lagwagon, MXPX, and Blink 182 were playing lots of shows and making lots of music. They were putting out cds cheaply, which meant that they were recording them cheaply. Since I listened to this non-stop, when it came time for me to engineer my own music, it ended up sounding a lot like the cheaply made (earlier) recordings of these bands. For my senior project in my undergrad, I recorded ten bands; I thought it sounded amazing, but in reality, it sounded like cheaply-recorded music. It wasn’t that I was bad at recording–it was that I was great at imitating recordings. Since I listened to albums that were poorly recorded (and loved them), I recorded albums that sounded the same… bad.
Let’s apply this to teaching. If you spend time with teachers that deliver lessons the same way year after year, you will less inclined to work hard and create an innovative learning environment. Remember what your mother taught you about hanging out with the wrong crowd? She was right. And so am I. Conversely, if you hang out with teachers that are working hard, you will work hard. A strong work ethic becomes the norm. And this isn’t just in the classroom–I’m also talking about spending time with quality teachers on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TeacherTube, uStream, SlideShare. Read their blogs, watch their videos, listen to their podcasts, read their tweets. And, most importantly, interact. Write back. Ask questions. Give suggestions.
So, take a moment and subscribe to all ed tech teachers on twitter I love:
http://twitter.com/billselak/edtech/members
Or, here’s a list of ed tech teachers on twitter; hand pick the ones you want to follow.
Diverse Crowd
Follow lots of different types of people. When you interact with tech people, you learn about technology without the focus on education. When you interact with education people, you learn about education without the focus on technology. Find bloggers, podcasters, teachers, celebrities, old friends… anyone that’s good at what they’re doing. The wider the variety, the better. You will become a better ed tech teacher (and person) as a result.
How do you create quality? Are there any other places I need to visit to develop a stronger PLN?
Oh yeah… don’t forget to share this with your quality friends.
