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Besting the Big Blue Blob
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W hen it comes to professional earning, there is
a lot of focus on training,
funding, and technology.
Though these are certainly
important—critical even—
they represent only the tip
of the effective tech integration iceberg.
What about the unseen
mass under the water? For
sustainable change to happen, it is our personal icebergs—the behemoth blue
blobs below the surface—
that we each need to best.
What’s under the tip of
your professional development iceberg? What keeps
you clinging to the ice? The
same things that prevent us
from growing personally
can prevent us from growing
professionally as well. Often
unconscious influences,
such as unresolved past
experiences, perceptions,
motives, tolerance for
change, and self-esteem
(yes, not just students
struggle with this), work
against us. These influences
make up the bulk of the big
blue blob. They are the most
frozen parts and, therefore,
the hardest to address.
To tackle my own iceberg,
I recently sought the help
of a professional coach (as
in one who coaches people
about their professional
lives, not athletics. I haven't
tackled that particular ice-
berg yet). She explained that
what we pay attention to, or
focus our energy on, directly
contributes to who we be-
come. And, of course, who
we are directly affects how
we respond to new things
we encounter. In other
words, what we see shapes
who we are and what we do.
For example, as an editor, I
pay most of my attention to
what is wrong with some-
thing. That may make me
a good editor, but it is dif-
ficult for me to see what is
right with things. If there is
a silver lining, I see the black
cloud. Even my choice of
the iceberg metaphor here is
indicative of my need to
keep working on this.
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Point/Counterpoint discussions.
Follow L&L’s editors on Twitter Senior Editor Diana Fingal
@dianafingal
Managing Editor
Paul Wurster @Paul_Wurster
Associate Editor
Andra Brichacek @andramere
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❝
Once learners rediscover the joy of learning and
the feeling of success, they can understand its value.
See page11
❞
tech we like
Check out the useful sites the L&L team
discovered while producing this issue.
Eli Pariser’s TED Talk:
http://bit.ly/hZSF78
After watching this TED Talk, Kate Conley
is now afraid to surf the web (page 6).
Concord Consortium Mixed-Reality
Labs: bit.ly/136i0s4
Paul Wurster is fascinated by hands-on
mixed-reality physics activities (page 10).
Learning Resource Metadata
Initiative (LRMI): www.lrmi.net
Andra Brichacek likes tags that make educational resource searches easier (page 16).
Adventures in India Blog:
comeonalong.blogspot.com
Tamara Kidd likes Nancy Casolaro's
virtual class field trip to India (page 30).
Educational Meditation:
educational-meditation.com
Diana Fingal is intrigued by Wild Divine's
Educational Meditation program (page 46).
