EdTech Heroes 5 Resolutions for 2017
Each year everyone seems to make resolutions for the new year in order to hold themselves accountable for self-improvement. We here at ETH believe in many of the same ideas and want to set some goals for ourselves for 2017. As you keep reading below, you will see our 5 goals for this upcoming year. Feel free to add your resolutions and goals in the comments at the end.
1. Promote Digital Citizenship - Last year the Indiana Department of Education started to push digital citizenship across the state. Michelle Green (@mrs_g) has done a wonderful job of promoting digital citizenship through many avenues. Last year, Indiana had its first "Digital Citizenship Week" during September 12-16. She also headed multiple #INeLearn chats on Thursday nights. Within our own ETH group, we have digital citizenship certified educators. Our goal is to become a group of Common Sense Education certified digital citizenship educators so we can also help promote #digcit in our work. This goal leads us into our 2nd goal.
2. Increase our own certifications - Within our group, we have Google certified educators, Google Trainers, Common Sense Media certified educators, Apple certified educators, as well as other certifications. We feel in order to be on top of many things edtech, we should be leaders in these areas as well. Certifications are not just labels that we hope to attain. Many of these certifications include invitations to be a member of professional learning networks where one can learn from others. Over the next year, we hope to obtain more certifications in hopes to become better connected and better educated.
3. Be the first to take chances - We LOVE education. We LOVE technology. And we LOVE to be the first at trying new things. The wonderful thing about being a leader and trying new things is that you can also be the first to fail. One of our favorite sayings about what it means to FAIL is that it is the First Attempt In Learning. One cannot learn without failing. Over the past couple years of being together as a group, we have been some of the first educators to add technologies, such as drones, Spheros, 3D printing, and MakeyMakeys, to our lessons. This has not lead to immediate success, but it has lead to many trial-and-errors and lesson revisions. We hope to continue to be the first to take chances throughout 2017.
4. Have an Innovator's mindset - One of the lovely things about technology is the opportunity to innovate. Technology gives the students, and the teachers, to do something more than what one can do with only paper-and-pencil. Technology gives us all an opportunity to create, to collaborate, and to innovate. We constantly throw ideas back and forth to each other. Through collaboration, we work together to make our lesson ideas even better. Innovation is more powerful with collaboration. It is a core belief in ETH.
5. Become an official non-profit organization - EdTech Heroes has been together for over 2 years now. During this time, we have learned together, laughed together, and even cried together. Our relationships have formed a bond that is at the core of ETH. Because of our strong bonds, we hope to finally file our papers and become a non-profit organization. We will continue to be a strong advocate for everything education technology. But we would also like to grow our brand and grow our group. Our strength is our relationships and we hope that by becoming our own non-profit group, we can give back to all of those that have helped us along the way.
So there are our resolutions for the year of 2017. What are yours for this year? How can EdTech Heroes help you accomplish your goals? Comment below. Have a Happy New Year!
