I’m an educational or learning technologist which in my case means an educator with a background in English as a foreign language learning who has spent more than half of his working life engaged in trying to get technology to work for teachers or, more recently, attempting to create engaging learning experiences for learners through the medium of virtual world technology.

Very early in my ed tech journey I realised for someone to work with ed tech successfully, at any level, they need to get used to seeing things from a couple of angles – become a sort of a hybrid ed-tech person. While they started out and remain educators, the awareness, insights and skills they develop along the way should enable them to step outside their initial professional paradigm and enrich their view of the possible. It’s important to retain a foot in both camps though and remember which leg bears the weight: if they switch to being enthused mainly be the tech, there is a good chance they may lose sight of the main concerns of their core audience – the students they are trying to help. Teachers don’t always make great innovators – this is something I’ll come back to in another post.

More recently as education systems world wide at all levels have been outflanked by the uptake of digital lifestyles amongst the students it has became apparent that balancing two perspectives isn’t enough any more for educational technologists. What is required is a kaleidoscopic view of the multitude of factors which impact on education and learning: how do people use technology generally? Which consumer trends may create educational opportunities (or problems) if not addressed? Hardly earth shattering insight I grant you but I am often struck by the dangers of too narrow a view in educational fora. Sometimes it can be futile to describe the educational potential or value of a technology purely from within an ”educational’ paradigm – it’s too limiting

That is why this blog will look at the impact on learning technology from a number of areas:

• education generally including primary, secondary or tertiary issues provided they have a general lesson
• consumer trends
• lessons from the entrepreneurial world (ideas which are worth investing in and ideas which are worth persevering with in an not-for-profit context have a lot in common)

The blog title crossed wires reflects the intersections and overlaps implied above. The links have a bit of that as well. The implication of an element of confusion is deliberate. Without that deliciously entitled cognitive dissonance disrupting the way we think, our synapses won’t snap as creatively. In order to add to that creative dissonance, I hope to invite guest bloggers along the way.

Now, what’s next? ….

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