The Tools We Use

Dear friends,

At the beginning of 2020, a few months before everything shut down for COVID-19, I had the chance to sit down with the head of Bloomberg Beta, Roy Bahat. Bloomberg Beta is a venture fund that invests in the future of work, so it is no surprise that California Governor Gavin Newsom tapped Roy to join the state’s Future of Work Commission last year. Unlike many in Silicon Valley, his take on the future is wonderfully humane (see, for instance, his TED talk on work and dignity.

I knew it would be interesting to get his take on how we could prepare ourselves and our students for what even then was an uncertain future. Take a look (2m video):

Not only do our tools matter, but it matters that we’re choosing them consciously, not just because we’re in a particular role or space, or because someone else has told us what to use. Let’s take a moment to explore a few facets of this idea.

Choose your own tools

For students, it’s great when schools can provide strong tools for learning. In the United States, it remains the case that there’s tremendous inequity from school to school and district to district about the level of tools available to students. Funding isn’t the only issue though. There’s also a pedagogical stance to be considered.

In some of the schools I have worked with, each subject had its own very specific tools. In English, students might use Word or Google Docs to write a five-paragraph essay, for instance. In math, they may use Excel or Desmos. On one level, this is fine—these tools are open-ended and powerful. There are times we can do more, where we can have our students ask themselves “What kind of problem am I trying to solve?” and “What’s the best way to solve this, and present my solution/ideas?” Many of the same tools may be in the mix, but the students will also gain the metacognitive practice of matching tools to challenges.

As adults, we should be just as choosy with the tools we use for teaching, managing our teams and projects, and leading.

Leadership & Tools

The tricky thing is that as leaders—whether in a classroom, school, or district—our responsibility for outcomes tempts us to control the means. If we want our teachers to be comfortable picking the best tools for their work, how does that change our process, budgeting, assumptions, and professional development? If we want our students to have the cognitive flexibility of owning their toolbox, what must we do differently to enable that?

Tools and Practices

We do well to remember that tools are connected to specific practices, for good or not. In the case of screen and media addiction, Chad Wellmon points out, “Apple, Twitter, and Facebook want us to believe that it is all up to us as individuals to learn how to say yes or no to their products. Just like…the gambling industry wants us to believe that it's simply up to us not to gamble when we go into these casinos…But in reality the industry spends a tremendous amount of money to design these casinos with their flashing lights and suggestive sounds—all in order to create an endless feedback loop that draws people in. Similarly, Silicon Valley builds cultural jigs to keep us wrapped up in their ecosystems.“

A Few of my Favorite Tools

I’d be remiss if I didn’t share a few of tools I’ve discovered in the last few years. If your needs are similar, please check them out and let me know what you think:

Ever struggle to find a Google doc, or some other file on Google Drive or Dropbox, etc? This tool installs a quick keyboard shortcut on your computer that makes finding cloud documents as easy as finding something on your computer. It’s called Command-E (the keyboard shortcut!) and you can download it here. It’s been a game changer for me.

Range is software for teams, whether your team is a few busy people in the same building, or a remote team (aren’t we all now?) spread out across a city or around the globe. Range is terrific for daily check-ins and tracking long-term team objectives, and integrates really well with Slack. The people at Range care deeply about how people work well together, and it shows.

Range’s co-founder and COO Jennifer Dennard spoke at our February Future of Work and Education event. Her talk “How Learnings from the Future of Work Can Change Your Day-to-Day,” (41 min) is a valuable look at improving the working lives of teachers and educators.

Briefly noted:

Stanford Graduate School of Education’s educators have started sharing their findings and resources about remote teaching and learning here.

Please Share and Subscribe!

Like what you’ve read? Please share this with your friends and colleagues and professional networks.

And don’t forget to subscribe!