I am a former teacher who left the classroom what seems a lifetime ago. My hope and dream was that I could accomplish the following in building a career in for-profit world:
* have an impact on more children than the 20-30 or so I had each year
* to collaborate with educators from all over the world
* bring my degrees in education, child development, and curriculum development along with my real-world teaching experience to companies that were, in many ways, out of touch or in ivory towers
* accomplish and build and experiment and research educational practices that the traditional school walls I worked within didn’t make possible nor available

I could go on… I have, indeed, accomplished many of these goals. And, like my colleagues who posted before me have stated… I love teachers. I love teaching teachers about the ideas, practices and tools that I think (and see) are making a difference in the lives of students and teachers… Even more so than when I was a teacher myself. Why? Because I get it! I know how damn hard your job is. I know that YOU make a difference no matter if you have 10 pencils and a pile of paper in your classroom or 100 laptops with every software imaginable.

And- yes– there are some companies out there who are making much noise. There are questionable practices in ANY business. This, however, is why I encourage educators to seek out companies to partner with. I invite teachers to challenge the content, critique it, and make sure (demand) that the market has the tools that educators and students NEED.

Whenever I present, I showcase incredible project work from students. I focus on ideas, strategies, tips, lesson plans, curriculum extensions, and PEDAGOGY. The samples I show are, of course, created in my software, but those are also the samples I get sent to me and have releases to show. So it definitely irks when I get lumped into submitting as an exhibitor.

That being said, I have definitely sat through quite a few presentations that were sales pitches without value (sorry to anyone else who has too). I have also worked with many conferences where the incredible people running them take on the full-time job of organizing after their full days in the classroom, so if lumping us all together is what it takes to make the most people happy, I can live with that.

When my two partner’s and I started Tech4Learning 13 years ago, yes, we were looking to start a company. We were inspired by the awesome things we had seen working for HyperStudio and wanted to bring all that great constructivist stuff to every classroom. But we wanted to make a company, not just a product and that does require profits.

While I love working with students and teachers and bringing great products that make classroom learning fun and exciting, our company is also our family. If it takes profits to help me make sure that my employees can get good healthcare, buy their first home, send their kids to college, and have the finances to support their families (we had another new baby added today – congratulations Richard!), then I laud them as an equal partner of our bottom line.

The story from the Bellingham Herald:
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/04/30/2503710/pierce-county-online-school-to.html

All that said, I look forward to being on the SIIA Ed Tech Industry Summit panel with Tom on Monday. As a PowerPoint-free zone, it should be quite lively.

Here is one problem with vendors – did you see the article this week about the school district in the state of Washington state ending an online program provided by K12 Inc. that has been in place since 2006? They decided to eliminate the program because of changes to the contract requested by the company. The dissolution of the contract means the elimination of the district’s online education program. The district expects to lay off teachers as a result of the closure and has instructed families to seek online services elsewhere.

As necessary as vendors are, the bottom line is – it’s the bottom line that rules. Our primary focus as educators is the education of the students; vendor’s bottom line is profits. As long as the two fit together, fine. But if not, they have the shareholders and dollars as primary concern, not the students.

(Except maybe Joyce …)

The article is here http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/04/30/2126809/pierce-county-online-school-to.html