Teaching For A Living

Thanks so much for taking a peek into my journal here at WAT.

Let me introduce myself: I’ve been an independent teacher, trainer, coach, and consultant my entire working life. Over 35 years.

I’ve produced media of all kinds since my first job, writing radio ads for an underground music station in 1967. I’ve been teaching and learning on the internet since before we had Windows or graphical browsers. Over 20 years now. And I’ve been studying the emergence of a new, global, digital culture since before most of realized what we were creating using computers together.

For my whole adult life, my work has been helping other people get from Point A to Point B faster and less expensively – and more enjoyably - than they could without me.

And, until now, I’ve quite purposefully avoided making a commitment to blogging on a regular basis.

Why?

Bottom line: I was waiting for the rules of engagement online to morph from more and more subtle command-and-control games to fair, two-way exchanges that benefit both parties. From serial monologue to genuine dialogue.

In other words, I was waiting for social networking to start taking hold in business, education and politics.

And it has.

During the latter half of 2007, I watched Web 2.0 shoot past its adolescence into young adulthood.

Early in January, 2008, I watched Facebook sponsor and debrief the most substantive political debate I’ve seen in three decades.

And, in my own participation in two dozen social networks, I’ve been watching global dialogue accelerate to the point that I can see the best way for me to manage my participation is to open this blog space and host the conversations I want to be in.

So, Ta-DAAAH!

Welcome to my marketplace here at We Are Teachers! And please let me introduce you to my new online teaching business, MAW'S TOOLBOX – a place for teachers, trainers, coaches and consultants to discover the Web 2 that works for you.

My marketplace here at We Are Teachers is

1) a place to engage with me and teachers of all kinds who realize the environment for “teaching” and “learning” has definitively changed - in other words, we're just not in Kansas anymore!

2) a place for people so excited by Web2 tools and strategies that we’re transitioning our careers into online teaching businesses

3) a place to share what we’re learning as we connect directly with global learners – anytime and anywhere they need our help – outside conventional systems and conventional “courseware”

4) a place to start turning your expertise into a reliable new source of CA$H for your and your family.

Why have I opened MAW'S TOOLBOX?

Well, the inescapable truth is that as we crossed into the 21st century, people stopped trusting people who are trying to influence them.

This means people no longer trust teachers, politicians, marketers… or anyone else who tries to “lead” them.

People trust people like themselves: their peers. (Hence the emergence of social networks, peer-to-peer exchanges, and the myriad forms of informal, online learning, including all Google searches.)

In this environment, people whose livelihood depends on them sharing their expertise with others have to start by 'joining the conversation' - rather than overtly selling others their thoughts, opinions, products or services.

Think about that for a minute.

What’s important about the primacy of peer-to-peer transactions for people who want to lead conversations in our chosen fields of expertise?

New business. New politics. New education. New economy.

Well, among other things, it means we have to be willing to give away great value to win attention.

Using dialogic, interactive Web 2 tools and strategies, when we give away great value – when we deliver something that produces real, practical, quantifiable benefits in the lives of others – we establish relationship with them.

We build their trust.

And when we do that, people give us their attention.

When they grant us attention, we win influence.

Influence inevitably leads to action.

And, in business, action translates into substantive exchange, including cash.

So? What do these changes in business have to do with education?

How about everything?

Now that the global economy has morphed into a global knowledge marketplace, we are on the verge not just of revolutions in business and politics.

We are smack in the middle of a revolution in education.

For teachers, trainers, coaches and consultants, what’s ahead could either be a “gold rush” or a “disaster,” depending on how we adapt.

In the new, global knowledge marketplace, it’s time for teachers – of all kinds – to settle for nothing less than a substantive exchange (including adequate cash to take care of ourselves and our families) for our willingness to help others build the value of their intellectual capital – i.e., their critical thinking and problem solving skills.

And that’s why I’m launching this blog here today at We Are Teachers, friends.

The revolution’s underway and I can’t play on the sidelines of this one any more than I could the one we started back in the ‘60s.

I’m itching to get out on the dance floor, to add my aging voice to the choir that’s already singing.

And I can do that best now by hosting a conversation here.

So, tell me, what excites you most about the challenges of teaching and learning in the age of Web 2.0?

And how are you planning to make a decent living helping others act smarter?

I’d love for you to post your thoughts and feelings here in this blog today, next week, and in the months ahead…

Thanks so much for listening to mine today.

I promise I’ll make shorter posts, whenever possible. But today’s a big day for me…