My Metamorphosis

by Guest Blogger, Marion Ginopolis

Loosely extrapolated from the definition in Wikipedia, metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal’s form or structure through cell growth and differentiation usually accompanied by a change of habitat or behavior.

My metamorphosis from a digital immigrant to a digital native with an accent (see Marc Prensky) did not involve any conspicuous change in my form or structure; my change was behavioral and resulted from the interaction with one person.

One person has the power to truly make a difference. Will Richardson, in a recent blog posting, references the Power of One video, created by a student of Marco Torres, which focuses on the difference made by one vote. There’s another equally powerful video with the same title, Power of One; this video, however, focuses on the difference made by one person. It is a video I used when I was instructing online teachers for the Michigan Virtual High School to demonstrate how one person can have a dramatic impact on others.

That one person for me was Deb Woodman, a fifth grade teacher at Quarton Elementary School in Birmingham, Michigan. This truly gifted educator patiently taught me to embrace technology with a passion nearly equal to hers. She transformed me from knowing little about technology to using it as a valuable tool in my work. If you want to see the impact this one teacher is having on students, check out Deb’s classroom website!

Administrators can start their metamorphosis to digitaleaders by finding just that one person. Look around, s/he is probably right in front of you!