Dancing Guy Reflection

 Oh, Dancing Guy. I had seen this video and others like it many times, but never with this voice over. What a cool way to explain things!

I think my journey into being a technology leader has been very similar to Dancing Guy in some way. In my support desk days, I was a lone person looking at our data and trying to identify trends. No one was looking at the SD numbers aside from the sheer number of phone calls, but I knew there was more. So I start playing with the numbers. I started generating stats and creating data visualization for people. Eventually, some people started joining in. "Oh, hey, what if we looked at _____?" and I would look into and we'd review things together, eventually snowballing into a complex set of data reporting and ticketing/knowledge base structures used to make all kinds of inferences and decisions.

Something similar happened as an ID where I was more like Dancing Guy's inner monologue. I had faculty think..."Hey...I'd like to use this technology" and there was me in the background chanting do it, do it, do it, helping them. Then introducing them to other lone pioneers of certain technologies. Now, we have made a ton of progress in using proctoring solutions, improved grading structures, and student engagement tools. 

In order to get my faculty to start being the Dancing Guy or the first followers, I needed to build relationships. I started building relationships with by simply introducing myself. I would email my faculty regularly, hold office hours to meet with them one on one, even walk the halls in their building (before the pandemic) to introduce myself. 

Now, during the practicum, I have been networking through Instructional Designer Facebook groups, LinkedIn networks, digital conferences, and meeting with others through the ISDT and SHSU social pages. Relying on my mentor and other current connections, I have been starting to ask about who inspires who and asking for introductions to people who seem at the forefront of innovation.

A specific example of how I have started to empower others to be risk-takers is to by piloting new master templates with onboarded faculty. Working with a French instructor, we designed a template and repository of assessment types for new faculty in their department. As the repository grew, many faculty members started having "Aha!" moments about using these new activity types or coming up with new variations active learning activities. It's been cool to watch.