What is your influence?

I had the thrill of getting to attend a presentation done by the very inspiring Ako Kambon, he is from the Visionary Leaders Institute. I have heard a lot of keynote speakers, but never to the degree of this gentleman. Ako was amazing! His presentation was interactive, he was very comfortable and part comedian I am sure of it, in fact his delivery of jokes was similar to that of Eddie Murphy. He was down to earth, intelligent and very approachable.

The purpose of his presentation was to inspire teachers to go back to the classroom and teach to the current day student. Too many teachers are teaching ineffectively to our generation of techies.

One of the most shocking pieces of data he presented was the change of influence over the decades. I jotted them down so that I could share them.

1950's

1. Home
2. School
3. Church
4. Peers
5. TV

1980's

1. Home
2. Peers
3. TV
4. School
5. Church

1990's

1. Peers
2. TV
3. Home/Media
4. School

#10 Church

2000's
Media - important to note that most children/teens use one device for the media - their lifeline the cell phone..
Videos (TV & games)
internet
computers
movies
TV


With this he asked everyone in the audience who had a cell phone to raise their hand; as you would expect there was about a 99% participation. The he asked how many of you have yours on you right now? Again, same participation, "how man of you have it shut off?" crickets! He followed with "Why on earth would you expect a child to shut theirs off if you don't shut yours off?" Another point he made was rather than try to enforce a rule that is never going to succeed why don't we teach our educators how to use the cell phone as a tool! I am happy to note that there are lots of teachers that are using the cell phone as a learning tool already; but it is the first time I have heard of a administrative level personal embracing the idea.


His presentation made me think about how I will teach to Emma, and how much drastically different growing up will be for her vs. when I grew up. What will be her #1 influence? I hope and will work to make home her first influence.