Our innovative reality – the future is NOW – Change or become Obsolete.

“A leader must inspire or his team will expire.”
– Orrin Woodward, L.I.F.E. Living Intentionally for Excellence

As readers of the blog know, I find Twitter to be an instant and powerful source of learning and inspiration. One of the really cool and powerful things I just came upon is a tweet of a video showing the evolution of the desk from 1980-2014.

Video Link

This short video resonates with me and my life’s experiences and my philosophies as a school leader as I support change for others. My aim and our District’s aim is to Engage, Inspire, Empower.

As I reflect on the video, I guess for my generation we don’t need to “keep up” with changes – we simply live and breathe change. I guess for my life’s experiences, I understand the video and the migration of “stuff” over the years. I guess I understand that no one really sends faxes anymore because we don’t have to. I guess I understand that when I want to look up a word, I add an extension to my browser and my device becomes a dictionary, for example. I guess I embrace progress and improvements in our world because I have lived in the most provocative communication, information, and transformation time in human history. I guess I like gadgets and gizmos because they allow me to learn, grow, and inspire in ways not imagined in my grandparent’s day.

I guess my maternal grandfather who emigrated to the USA in 1907 at age 15 enjoyed flying in an airplane across the USA in the 1960’s as opposed to riding a horse or driving a Model T or taking a train or a boat – all transportation options in his time – because flying from Chicago to Richmond made more sense than the other options. He did not fight progress, he embraced it. My grandfather’s life exposed him to amazing advances in transportation, technology, etc. He chose to progress and grow with the times. He did not have an airplane take him to the USA from Romania – but he did take an airplane to see his family across the country when an airplane was available. he changed with the times.

In 1980 I was 12 years old, Ronald Reagan was just elected U.S. President,The Washington Monument from the WW II Memorial and the world was in for a renewed sense of purpose, power, and jingoistic spirit. In addition, it seems that the past three and a half decades have also provided the most significant transformation of society – communication – information – education – etc. In 1983 a report from the National Commission on Excellence in Education came out and called the USA to action for our nation’s need to improve public education. Since 1983 there have been many transforms, reforms, changes, initiatives, plans, programs, progress, etc. in education. None is more disruptive or powerful in my estimation than the information explosion called the Internet.

Another powerful link is “The Internet in Real Time”

I guess I like the fact that my children will inherit a world made better by advances in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; I guess I support my children’s educational systems changing to embrace and reflect my children’s future – not my or my grandfather’s past!

It’s time to put away the paper dictionaries and get a Chrome extension – the future is now! I guess the time is to use the resources districts like ours have – the digital age is the age in which we find ourselves – embrace the possibilities and enjoy the modern progress – Engage, Inspire, Empower.

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