Keynoting indeed...
Original Blog Date: February 7, 2007
I am flying back from the TCEA conference in Austin. As I sit down in 18A, a man sits beside me. A few minutes pass by as flight attendants continue to cattle prod the mass of humanity down the very narrow aisle. During this uncomfortable shuffle, people keep saying “Hi Coach” to 18B. A few even stop and ask for autographs.
We take off and Mr. 18B pulls out an iPod. We start to talk about technology - and soon the conversation turns to games in education. I tell him that I work for a company that creates interactive video games for education. He tells me that he just bought a Sony PSP to learn about video games. I showed him that there are games on his iPod which got a big southern smile from him. We talked some more and then he introduced himself as Mack Brown, the Head Football Coach for University of Texas.
His interest in video games and education comes from seeing how consumed many of his players are with video games. He was on his way to speak to 1000 coaches. We shared some keynoting stories and then I started to ask about one of my favorite topics -motivating students. In his case motivating students of the game. You could tell Mack was a natural leader, and very comfortable in that role. He is also an educator. I specifically asked him, “how do you motivate when the game looks to be lost?” He told me that when things are tough at half time it is important to be honest. Be honest and be positive. He told me some great stories of half times when the Longhorns were down, and how he had to get the team to focus. He talked about the need to find the energy to be there for every player. We talked about how leadership doesn't always come from a star player. When you need to turn the game around, the rallying cry comes from the others along the sidelines. Those grass roots leaders who step up to give energy to the team. He said that when they review games they look at the videos of the field and the sidelines. In those sideline tapes you find those turn around leaders.
We also talked about recruiting the best. He said something that really struck home for me: at the top of the list was attitude. The most important questions he asked himself when recruiting was, did he like the player and did the player like him? He told me that if the player doesn't have the right attitude and dislikes you - then how hard will he play for you? I have always believed in the power of the personal connection. Mack just gave me the football analogy. We design our educational role play games to give students personal connections. In our company, we do not have sales people just to foster those real personal connections. It is our personal connections to our educators (players) that make each of us work so hard to win the game (teach). I told Mack that if Travis were here in 18A he would be going nuts to meet someone at the pinnacle of the game like him.
Mack brought out his PSP and we talked more about how to engage the digital learner, how digital media and learning was really changing education and the world. We talked about designing player motivation into a game. It was so cool for me to speak to someone so outside of my world (football - I don't even remember who won the superbowl) and for us to be talking about the same thing - motivating learners. The flight landed and Mack was continuing on while I was getting off at Memphis. As I was getting up Mack did a great favor for me. He said “Steve, let me give you something for Travis”. Mack pulled out a Longhorns Card and wrote a note to Travis. That card is sitting now on Travis' desk right beside his Lamar Hunt picture, and photo of Joe Montana's last snap. When I gave it to Travis I got to tell the story of how I met Mack Brown, and how we saw eye to eye on motivating students. It was a great story about a great connection.
I am flying back from the TCEA conference in Austin. As I sit down in 18A, a man sits beside me. A few minutes pass by as flight attendants continue to cattle prod the mass of humanity down the very narrow aisle. During this uncomfortable shuffle, people keep saying “Hi Coach” to 18B. A few even stop and ask for autographs.
We take off and Mr. 18B pulls out an iPod. We start to talk about technology - and soon the conversation turns to games in education. I tell him that I work for a company that creates interactive video games for education. He tells me that he just bought a Sony PSP to learn about video games. I showed him that there are games on his iPod which got a big southern smile from him. We talked some more and then he introduced himself as Mack Brown, the Head Football Coach for University of Texas.
His interest in video games and education comes from seeing how consumed many of his players are with video games. He was on his way to speak to 1000 coaches. We shared some keynoting stories and then I started to ask about one of my favorite topics -motivating students. In his case motivating students of the game. You could tell Mack was a natural leader, and very comfortable in that role. He is also an educator. I specifically asked him, “how do you motivate when the game looks to be lost?” He told me that when things are tough at half time it is important to be honest. Be honest and be positive. He told me some great stories of half times when the Longhorns were down, and how he had to get the team to focus. He talked about the need to find the energy to be there for every player. We talked about how leadership doesn't always come from a star player. When you need to turn the game around, the rallying cry comes from the others along the sidelines. Those grass roots leaders who step up to give energy to the team. He said that when they review games they look at the videos of the field and the sidelines. In those sideline tapes you find those turn around leaders.
We also talked about recruiting the best. He said something that really struck home for me: at the top of the list was attitude. The most important questions he asked himself when recruiting was, did he like the player and did the player like him? He told me that if the player doesn't have the right attitude and dislikes you - then how hard will he play for you? I have always believed in the power of the personal connection. Mack just gave me the football analogy. We design our educational role play games to give students personal connections. In our company, we do not have sales people just to foster those real personal connections. It is our personal connections to our educators (players) that make each of us work so hard to win the game (teach). I told Mack that if Travis were here in 18A he would be going nuts to meet someone at the pinnacle of the game like him.
Mack brought out his PSP and we talked more about how to engage the digital learner, how digital media and learning was really changing education and the world. We talked about designing player motivation into a game. It was so cool for me to speak to someone so outside of my world (football - I don't even remember who won the superbowl) and for us to be talking about the same thing - motivating learners. The flight landed and Mack was continuing on while I was getting off at Memphis. As I was getting up Mack did a great favor for me. He said “Steve, let me give you something for Travis”. Mack pulled out a Longhorns Card and wrote a note to Travis. That card is sitting now on Travis' desk right beside his Lamar Hunt picture, and photo of Joe Montana's last snap. When I gave it to Travis I got to tell the story of how I met Mack Brown, and how we saw eye to eye on motivating students. It was a great story about a great connection.
posted by Steve Waddell at 12:09 PM
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