I owe the idea for this post to several great thinkers, one of them featured in this slightly dated TED talk by Tony Robbins.   Something we all need to keep asking ourselves from time to time is a little question that often seems to get lost in the madness of a school in transformation.  Why?  It’s a question I always start off with when producing a presentation for anybody from students to teachers and parents.  Without the why there is no ownership.  Without the why there is no empowerment.

If  you cannot explain to a stakeholder why your students are blogging or producing a digital story, then you need to take a step back and think for a minute how you got there.  If your school or tech leadership cannot explain to you why you need to be integrating technology then my guess is that the ignorance is systemic.  This is not uncommon.  Few principals or school directors that I have met have a solid grasp of the power of the interactive web, graphic communication tools, or collaborative workspaces.  21st Century banter is thrown around as though everybody knows exactly what it means, but I bet there’s really only a handful of great thinkers, none of which are anywhere near a school board, that truly grasp the concept of 21st century skills in a digital-age classroom.  It makes for a convenient talking point, but it doesn’t really answer the why question.

There are, however, thousands of talented teachers and tech leaders blogging, tweeting, and podcasting who truly get why they integrate technology.  At one point they probably asked the question themselves, rightfully needing a good justification before dragging their students into the unknown.  If you don’t keep asking this simple yet powerful question,  you or your school will never make any meaningful progress.   So where do you get answers to your why questions?