IT in Service of the Relationship

Technology is such a devil's mistress.  On one hand she'll flash a smile at you with entrancing eyes and the next she'll puke on your shoes after humiliating you on the school gym floor.  Yes.  She is a wiggly beast.  

In the recent past technology in education meant hardware and software. How did we extend our capabilities to do new things in the classroom.  As our abilities grew so did the hardware and software. So did the capabilities to do more new things. In fact our capabilities quickly expanded to the point that further advances in data gathering without concomitant increases in our ability to analyze that gathered data will soon be more damaging than fruitless. It will confuse even the most bureaucratic system into paralysis.

Information technology in school districts today should be leading the way in educating kids. I know that might sound naive or somehow confused about how schools work but it's true in a way that was not possible in the past.  The golden rule in education is that IT supports education. They don't make outcome decisions, they don't make curricular decisions, and they certainly don't tell educators how to educate.

But educators are voraciously inquisitive. The good ones will drill into you and poke around for a bit until they think they know how you tick. Once they believe they've got a good handle on how you roll (psychotherapists call this knowing someone's 'religion') they know exactly how to challenge you, how to reward you, how to soothe and rattle you.  How to relate.  They test and refine their understanding of their students so often and so artfully that learning becomes the logical fruit of genuine relationship.  

And, In the past IT couldn't help educators engage in this complicated process of engagement and prediction and now it can.  Not only can IT help clear up a scheduling snafu on the fly it can tell you which kid is gonna get freaked out about it.  

And, guess what?  Kids who get freaked out about schedule changes tend to need a little help in English Comp.

So, now not only can educators build better relationships with kids, institutions can build better relationships with kids and relationship is the foundation of a good education.