As connected educator month closed in October, I thought I would share a few of myhyperconnected thoughts. At this time, an educator can get away with just using their email for communication and a land-line phone to contact parents and community partners. As the technical expectations of the 21st century educator expands, should one look into other avenues to demonstrate their worthiness to be deemed as distinguished.

Is it expected for a distinguished educator to be hyperconnected? I don’t believe it’s essential but an important element. To go beyond and impact classrooms outside of your own, having a PLC, usage of social media and vid/podcasts for communication with parents and the community, being a hyperconnected nerd may be a requirement to demonstrate the mastery of your craft.

 What does it mean to be hyperconnected? If you are reading this blog post from two laptops and/or your app on your phone at the same time, you are technically hyperconnected. Hyperconnectivity is just a buzzword for being overly connected to the Internet. Just like everything else, too much of anything is not good for anyone.

IMHO, keeping it simple with technology should be enough as an educator to meet the demands of being considered a 21st century educator. I know of a teacher (for the record, I am not mentioning any names) that fears technology. Are they still a 21st century educator? Yes, but they are cased in a 20th century mindset. This mindset will be the discussion of future posts.