I couldn't code my way out of a paper bag

The title of this post is a quote fom Jim Groom at a presentation he made at Duke University in April (embedded below). He is an Instructional Technologist at University of Mary Washington in Virginia, and that quote should give hope to all of us trying to find a new way to do education with technology that may not be the most technically astute. I know it does me, and although I plan to have more technical knowledge at some point it is good to know that this guy seems to be doing it well and self professes, "I couldn't code my way out of a paper bag." All these guys I am following, listening to, and interested in are Instructional Technologists. They are at the forefront of a new way to do education. They are doing what I want to do. Jim talks here about how teachers can use free, readily available products on the internet to use with their students in order to give the students more control, and ultimately help them create identity and engage in deeper, more meaningful learning. He says that he thinks students may actually be approaching their work a bit differently in this environment because they know the work they do is going to be "out there" for all to view online, and with UMW blogs getting alot of what he calls "Google juice" there could be many people seeing the work that students do. (Aside - That also makes me think that Jim Groom is bringing alot of value to his university for relatively little money.) He also shows how, at the same time, with the same tools, clubs and departments on campus can develop their own parts while contributing to a whole. I really like the Google Calendar thing he talks about beginning at about minute 40:00. It's great.. and it's nice for me to see a guy that does not, at first glance, fit into that mold of academia (ie. he seems cool) doing great things in higher ed.