Change Skepticism
When I looked at the Technology Adoption Curve, I knew immediately that I am neither an innovator nor an early adopter. I approach every change with what I like to consider a healthy dose of skepticism. I have never been one to wait in line for the newest technology if I had something that was meeting my needs perfectly fine. I even had a hard time making the transition from MySpace to Facebook back in the day. Why would I want to give up the wonderful feature of having my favorite song play when someone opened my page? I could list many other examples of change being hard for me, but it would just make everyone question what I am doing working on an EdTech endorsement.
The change that I am going to focus on right now though is when MakerSpaces became a popular topic in library circles. It took some time for me to jump on board with this idea. In fact, it took years of seeing people show up at Dynamic Landscapes and talk up a variety of Maker tools before I started to want to know more. I had been in education long enough that I had grown a little wary of change. I had worked in schools that had new principals just about yearly and every new leader wanted to ditch everything that was being done for some new thing. I had come to expect that most new ideas would be gone if you just waited a year. I think that my hesitancy was a fear of failure in an area that I knew so little about. I was afraid of what Fullan refers to as the "implementation dip." You see, I am a recovering member of the "fixed mindset" mentality. I am only beginning to see failure as an opportunity for learning. I grew up afraid to ask questions in school , worried that I would prove my lack of knowledge and people would think I was dumb. I never wanted to be seen making a mistake. The idea of teaching something that I knew absolutely nothing about was terrifying and I didn't even want to think about it. It took me a couple years to really get on board and take steps to learn more. After attending one or two sessions at Dynamic Landscapes, I decided to spend a week at Create Make Learn one summer. There we were encouraged to display and celebrate our mistakes. It seemed a little crazy to me at first, but it made me feel better to know that I wasn't the only one there not doing everything perfectly. Since I have started to incorporate technology more with my students, I have had to get much more comfortable with making mistakes. I make them all day, every day... and my students don't seem to mind one bit. I have actually gotten really good at modeling how to gracefully make mistakes and admit to them. My students seem comfortable doing the same. I think it is helping all of us feel comfortable and learn together.
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