learning to embrace technology.

on monday i was shown this video in a meeting. please watch it.

it seems that my school is making the technology push this year.

it can feel pretty uncomfortable to drag yourself to school on the first day and face an administration that has been getting energized for the past 10 weeks about something they learned at some conference over the summer. you’ve barely got the sand out from between your toes and there’s something new (and often big) to absorb and work into your curriculum in less than a week (my melodramatic interpretation…not something actually demanded of me at my particular place of work).

at the time of the discussion that followed the watching of this video all i heard was cell phones allowed…encouraged even, what students want, what students need…i also heard…you’re not engaging them…use more gadgets to be more entertaining. Of course that was NOT what was being said. i must have had some seaweed lodged in my ears.

i was mad. i was frustrated. i decided this was not for me. i teach ART. i believe in making things by hand. i was wearing a skirt i had made myself for pete’s sake. And so i went home mad. and i complained to anyone who would listen. sorry about that.

but then a funny thing happened.

i was over at A’s house watching a travel show about tokyo and i had an aha moment. the host of the show went from being surrounded by commuters talking and texting on cell phones to a minimalist garden where he was learning ikebana, the art of japanese flower arranging. i thought to myself…ooooohhh, japan. the japanese are able to move ahead technologically, to embrace gadgets AND honor the past, appreciate nature, and make things by hand.

maybe i can do that too. maybe i already am doing that. maybe i’ve always been doing that. maybe...i will like this.