ELECTRICCHALK

John "K" (by-nc-nd)

I really like the people I follow on Twitter. They generate a real buzz of excitement about stuff that is happening that I find very energising.

The thing that gets the Tweeps I follow particularly excited is novelty. When a new idea, device, article appears that challenges a widely held preconception Tweetdeck just lights up as the thoughts bounce around like popcorn.

It’s a fairly trivial example but take the arrival of the 11th Dr Who last week (Matt Smith, brilliant BTW!). Science fiction is not a common topic amongst the people I follow but there was a certain amount of glee (common noun) about the arrival and “post-match” analysis.

I think this whole issue of novelty is important. Articles like this one suggest a strong link between novelty and learning so it’s not just about “oooh, look at the shiny!”

I loved working with kids for the moments when you show them something or they discover something for themselves and you can really feel the buzz as they get stuck in. I think that the people that make the best, most inspirational teachers are the ones who tap into this yearning for novelty and exploit it mercilessly.

There are many complaints that the world of technology never stands still. Devices become obsolete in a matter of months and sites like Bebo go from the peak of popularity to the dead pool in what seems like the blink of an eye. It’s actually what makes technology such a thrilling thing to follow. Educators need to develop different skills to manage these changes but if we expect our students to be able to adapt to a changing economy and society, the least we could do is follow suit.

Two of my new colleagues, Will and Steve, introduced me to the term digital fluency the other day as a way of describing the ability to keep up with a fluid tech-verse. It’s a topic I want to come back to in the future.

So, what I’m saying is that all the people that I follow on Twitter are Novelty Junkies. I suspect it’s not the technology itself that attracts most of these tweeps but the constant arrival of  new resources, devices, news and innovation.

AFTERTHOUGHT: I’m writing this a few days later after following @daveowhite’s keynote at the Plymouth Elearning Conference. There have been one or two tweets about how the idea of “perpetual beta” is accepeted by “players” (people deeply involved in examining new technologies) but anathema to “pragmatists” (people who are interested mostly in implementing tech to help them perform a function – not bothered by exploring). I find the idea of a world in perpetual beta quite liberating – nothing is ever quite finished, everything is in a constant state of renewal and flux and the community and conversation are part of the development. I don’t think I mean just with technology either; ideas, learning, relationships, art, architecture, music etc etc.