This metaphor is wonderful for creating a relevant educator. I just wonder if we need to keep on recommending tools or if we can recommend ideas and approaches that are supported by tools.
Your metaphor for relevance in the classroom is wonderful. While most of my salads have fewer ingredients than what you recommend, I think the point still widely holds. Walking in to a classroom where the educator has carefully considered how she is modeling life-long learning is delicious.
I do wonder, though, on your/our reliance on “name brand” items to put into our relevancy salad. By mentioning Twitter or YouTube, do we discount any social network or video service that isn’t those? What if we recommended the idea rather than the product. Say, “creating lasting connections with others online” or “using video for reflective practice”. Could those be like the amazing olives that we get at the olive bar of our grocery store that have no name brands attached to them?
More than anything, I want the classroom (and the teacher) to never be dependent upon a single device or product for its learning. There are just too many opportunities for exploration and change to limit a learning salad to Newman’s Own dressing or Chiquita Bananas.
