The Technology Habit
This post is part of an ongoing series of chapters from the book CHOICE. Please view this post for an introduction and table of contents. To keep up with each new chapter published, please subscribe.
“What I do everyday matters more than what I do once in a while.”
Gretchen Rubin
Learning with technology needs to be a habit in the district. Technology should not be sometimes used or every so often used for a specific project. Even if it’s only 10 minutes a day. Technology needs to become part of the school day.
Don’t do one big project a year that uses all the technology. Use a little (a or lot of) technology everyday in your teaching and learning.
Habits over tools. Make consistency the priority rather than finding the perfect tool or the new tool. Once you have consistency in using technology in the classroom, introducing new tools becomes easier and easier.
Getting the technology in the hands of the students in only the first part of a 1:1 program. Next is building the technology habit. This goes hand in hand with the previous chapter, Learning How To Learn.
Author Comments
Providing a peak behind the curtain of the thought and writing process.
It takes months to build a habit and days to break a habit. When I first started as a Technology Director in a district, I wanted to get people used to using technology for more than just email and document creations. So I introduced chat to the district. It’s a very simple gateway use of technology. Everyone understands how to text on their phone and this is just an extension of a habit they already have.
I implemented a rule for myself and let others know. If you send me an email, it means you need an answer in 24 hours. If you send a chat, it means you need an answer in an hour. Soon, many others adopted this rule and chat became ubiquitous in the district.
Rather than hunting someone down, or scheduling a meeting, or sending an “URGENT” email, people could just chat. This habit eventually found its way to students and created an entirely new way for teachers to work with their students.
How do you use technology daily in your school district or classroom?