A Willingness To Not Know

On Mondays, I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider.

Ed Tech Quote. (2023). Uploaded by Kirsten Thompson. Available online at: www.fishbowlteaching.com

Last week one of the #TweetTheHalls prompts asked participants to, “Share your favourite tech tip”. This day is a treasure trove of great ideas and I recommend that you explore through the #TweetTheHalls hashtag on X/Twitter to see all of the great sharing happening through the event. It was from here that I pulled this week’s quote.

#TweetTheHalls Dec 5. My favourite tech tip for teachers is that it is important to demonstrate a willingness to not know, a willingness to find out, and a willingness to explore a solution with your students when working with technology. We teach toward the tech of tomorrow.
— Nathan Koblun (@MrKobesMB) December 5, 2023

Coming off of Computer Science Education Week, this quote resonated with me greatly. It was one of the driving mindsets of the entire event! As we explored a variety of different computer science stations and activities I emphasized to our volunteers and participants that you:

don’t need to know what you are doing YET
we are going to FAIL
we are exploring the WHY and the HOW

I think it is easy for educators to hold an assumption that they need to be the expert in the activities that occur in their programming but I want to encourage everyone to learn together. It is ok to try something new. It is ok for students to see adults modeling failure, resilience, problem-solving, and collaboration. It is ok not to know. It is important to be a life-long learner. Not just in the area of educational technology, but in all areas.

Thank you to Nathan for reminding us of this and thank you to everyone who put this mindset into practice during our recent events!