I arrived in London from my home country, America, last week and promptly made my first foreigner folly. I hopped into the driver's side of my taxi as the driver, Andrew, loaded my luggage in the trunk. Having forgotten about the whole "drive on the left-hand side of the road" rule, I looked at the steering wheel and thought, "Huh. This is odd," just as Andrew (chuckling) showed up at the door and asked if I was going to drive him for a change. I joined in on his laughter, but this was only the first of a string of cultural misunderstandings on my part including feeling uber-intelligent when someone described my presentation as "brilliant" (this same person also deemed a latte "brilliant" later in the day) and becoming a human pinball every time I walked up the stairwells on the wrong side during rush hour on the London Underground.
I was thoroughly humbled, though, last week at the British Educational Training and Technology (Bett) trade show in London. I consider myself fairly well-traveled around the technology trade show scene, but I was totally unprepared for the magnitude and diversity I encountered there. If I thought that my immersion into the British society kept me on my toes, I was swept away by the exposure to representatives from over 100 different countries at Bett. I met educators from China, South Africa, Spain, and the Netherlands to name a few countries. Even our initial greetings made me recognize our differences- a bow, handshake, or kiss on the cheek can be extremely awkward if done at the wrong time. The language barrier, despite the fact that most attendees spoke English, was also no small obstacle to overcome. Different accents and dialects turned some of my conversations into more of a pantomime and charade game than a strictly verbal exchange. I was impressed that no one seemed frustrated or impatient by these interactions; it was quite the contrary. Everyone seemed to embrace the idea that despite our backgrounds, something had landed us all in the same place at the same time, so we tried even harder to connect and communicate.
Through these connections, I began to realize that there were actually some profound similarities in every conversation. As I demonstrated My Big Campus, a safe, social, academic learning platform, the same questions arose over and over. "How will this help our students? How will this make their experience richer? How will this improve teacher efficiency? What are the safeguards?" The same questions surfaced repeatedly despite the palpable differences in cultures and school systems. If we take away the surface organization, scaffolding, and mandated testing from the different countries, we are left with a very real, common, unified need to educate our children in a safe, efficient manner to prepare students for their futures. I was proud to show off My Big Campus to these educators, which allows them to do exactly that. The "ooh's" and "ahhh's" from people all over the world marveling at the product I represented was nothing less than overwhelming. Whereas I entered the arena feeling as if we were all detached vessels navigating the technology world with separate agendas, I soon realized this was a misperception. Every person, regardless of color, background, language, or age was there for one reason: student learning. Tens of thousands of people gathered from all across the world because of a common love of students.
We may have different definitions of "pudding" and perhaps our accents make people giggle as we pronounce words like "aluminum" and "potato" differently. But this I know for sure- despite the news we hear about cultural conflicts, wars, and intolerance, there are some similarities that tether us all together, like the sincere belief that all children deserve a chance at a successful future.
