Tech Like a PIRATE. Matt Miller

when a risk is worth taking.

      Here’s how Maverick decided whether a risk was worth taking. He sized up the situation. He weighed the possible options and each option’s outcomes. He decided whether the potential benefits were worth the risk. Then he acted.

      When we think about the risk-to-benefit ratio in the classroom, it looks more like this:

       We find something about our class that we’re not satisfied with.

       We decide that we’re ready for a change.

       We start to brainstorm better ways of doing things.

       When we come to a solution, we worry about failing.

      We educators tend to be a skittish sort when it comes to failure. (That’s interesting, because we encourage our students to try new things and risk failure every single day.) Risk scares us. It keeps us from pursuing our best ideas because, we tell ourselves, something might go wrong.

      But what if those things that feel risky aren’t so risky at all? What if our fears had very little substance?

      It’s time to reframe the term risk.

      You know what doesn’t feel risky? The status quo. Education as expected. Talking at students. Marching chapter by chapter through a textbook. Assigning mindless worksheets. Teachers have taught this way for ages. It isn’t going to rock the boat or ruffle anyone’s feathers. If we teach this way, we can fly under the radar, avoid parent phone calls, receive satisfactory evaluations, and keep our jobs. So goes our inner script, even if we’re not always even aware of it.

      Teaching to the status quo feels safe. But is it safe? What if it doesn’t get results? And what if we continue to teach using the same old techniques even though we know they’re not getting great results?

      Seen in this light, the status quo is not safe, but risky.

      The definition of risk is a situation involving exposure to danger. Teaching that feels safe, but where students are less likely to learn, is risky. It’s even, in its way, dangerous. Anything we do that doesn’t help students realize their potential is dangerous. Risky. A wasted opportunity.

      Safe, comfortable teaching is simply risky teaching.

      Let’s take it back to our Top Gun analogy. As a fighter pilot, Maverick could have relied on the “safe” combat tactics, the ones that other fighter pilots used. But against Jester, the same old tactics would have led to Maverick’s demise.

      For Maverick, safe flying was risky flying. Jester was going to beat him.

      For us, safe teaching is risky teaching. If playing it safe isn’t getting us results, we can’t keep doing what we know doesn’t work—even if change makes us comfortable.

      When Risk-Taking Is Safe

      If safe teaching is risky teaching, what should we do? If traditional teaching isn’t getting us the results we seek, breaking tradition is the safest thing we can do. Taking some risks.

      Taking risks means we must try new ideas that aren’t guaranteed to succeed. Let’s go back to that thought process so many of us know all too well:

      1 This lesson just isn’t getting results.

      2 There must be a better way.

      3 Oh, this idea would be cool!

      4 But what if I try this and it fails?

      Is Failure Really Failure?

      As we’ve seen, we can make better decisions if we’re clear on our definitions. We just used the word fail. We asked, What happens if it fails? So let’s define what we mean by failure here. Let’s say that failure is when we try something new and it doesn’t achieve the results we expect. It fails to meet our goals. Failure doesn’t sound so scary when we define it, does it?

      What if we do fail when we take risks? What if we try and just don’t get the results we want?

      A few things happen:

      1 We probably aren’t any worse off than when we were sticking with “safe teaching.” What you were doing before wasn’t getting results, either. That’s the whole reason you went through that four-step thought process above in the first place!

      2 When we see failure as a dead end, it’s crippling. We can’t see it that way, though. We must see failure as a way forward. That makes it empowering. Use the word FAIL as an acronym: first attempt in learning.

      3 Failure lets us make progress the way a scientist does. When scientists study something, they hypothesize their idea and test it out. If it’s a success, they use those results to move forward and strategize. If it’s a failure, they analyze the results to improve for the next time. We can view ourselves as teacher-scientists: either we’ll succeed or we’ll learn how we can improve.

      Your failures aren’t really failures. They’re data. Your failures are data. And you can use that data to do better in the future. A good scientist wouldn’t scrap valuable data by giving up! Avoid saying to yourself, “I’ll never do that again.” Instead, let’s just add a couple of words. Instead, say, “I’ll never do it that way again.” Thinking “never again” is a dead end. It stops us in our tracks. “Never that way again” is empowering. It provides a way forward.

      We identify what’s ineffective in our classroom. We try something new that has tremendous potential. Our failures aren’t really failures if we learn something from them. Our successes are leaps and bounds better than the “tried and true,” ordinary way of doing things. And we’ve created a class that students want to come to, where we have their rapt attention and they’re engaged.

      Does this “risky” teaching sound risky after all? Taking some risks in our teaching is actually one of the safest things we can do.

      Things to Know Before Reading This Book

      In this book, we’ll dive deep into seven principles through which tech can create an amazing, effective learning experience. Here’s what you’ll get:

       Plenty of examples you can use right away or modify for your own classroom

       Stories from practicing educators who are using these tactics

       The big picture, the “why?” for using them

       The inspiration you need to propel yourself forward into enthusiastic action

      Plus you’ll get some new hooks! In Teach Like a PIRATE, Dave Burgess shared student engagement hooks you can use—with questions to ask yourself—to boost the “wow” factor of class. Tech Like a PIRATE adds new hooks to the PIRATE collection!

      Keep the following in mind as you read this book:

      1 Apps change. Apps disappear. If a particular one doesn’t exist by the time you read this book, never fear! Figure out what makes your targeted activity tick. Then do your best to find an alternative app. By the same token, some of my instructions on how to use apps aren’t future-proof, but don’t worry! You might need to improvise, but an app’s core features—the experiences it makes possible—aren’t likely to change all that much. Remake the activities I suggest for your purposes and your content.

      2 My examples are heavy on Google tools—specifically Google Slides. I’ve made that choice because lots of schools have access to the G Suite