Are you questioning the reality of your classroom?

When it comes to technology, we're often focused on the tool. It isn't that the tool isn't significant or cannot possibly revolutionize our classrooms, our lives, our ways of thinking, but how often to we think about our thinking as we approach our tool? In my classroom, I teach students a lot about metacognition, but how often do we use it as teachers to analyze our choices and ideas?

Recently, I came across this article from Inc. regarding Elon Musk's problem-solving process. While the author of this reflection does not interview Musk, he reflects on his use of Aristotle's First Principal. I'm no philosopher, but Straus explains in the article, "A key element of First Principle thinking is that just because something is 'known by nature' or true in the universe does not mean it has ever been articulated and described by humans." He explains that it is Musk's willingness to question the 'reality' or nature of the expense of batteries which has led him to revolutionize the cost of batteries by finding new solutions to a problem others simply accept. As Straus explains, "... in First Principle thinking, you forget what has been, you erase what is assumed, and ask questions based on your desire for what is possible." Some of the things we accept as truths, we need to stop and question - stop accepting. For Musk it was the 'truth' that all (large) battery packs are expensive to create. He questioned it, he found a new solution. Steve Jobs had a similar idea at Apple - "Think Different."

What would you want to be possible in your classroom? What is stopping it from being possible? Are you accepting a reality you need to question more thoroughly? As we move forward as educational and technology leaders, we should really start there.