Season 1, Episode 1: What I Believe

Transcript:

Welcome to the 90 Second Integrationist Podcast, Episode 1.

The Internet didn't need another podcast or another voice talking about education or technology or education and technology. But here I am, so perhaps the best place to start is to let you know why I'm doing this, give you a brief synopsis of what I believe.

In his TED Talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, Simon Sinek advocates for the idea that people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Go watch the 18 minute video of his 2009 TEDx Puget Sound Talk, the link's on the website DesigningEducation.org.

Here's what I believe. I believe that every student can learn and can learn to define and achieve what the highest level of success means for them. I have to thank people like Michael McSheehan and Elise Frattura for challenging me years ago to spend some real time constructing that idea, putting it into words.

There are a lot of people who kind of know what they're about, but they can't tell it to you. They operate based on a set of values that they have never taken the time to reflect upon. They operate in the what, and occasionally in the how, but rarely in the why.

The why is a scary place. It requires us to take a stand on something. It makes us be about something. It influences our decisions, our choices, our actions, and our thoughts. Great ed tech that doesn't help real kids really learn isn't really great ed tech.

Join me at DesigningEducation.org.