Wow, that's blatant....

In my in-box this morning, an e-mail from one of the many textbook publishers desperate to find what the Next Big Thing will be when text books "go away" (Ironically - when we ask our students, even the ones taking classes online, "Do you want an online textbook or a dead-tree textbook?" they go about 80-85% for the actual, physical textbook. Some people claim that this will change in future generations but I remain unconvinced based on the number of students using tablets and the like who are still saying they want actual BOOKS)

Anyway. It was for some kind of online resource that I probably won't use. (It may even be for the nonmajors bio class, which I don't currently teach).

But the subject line of the e-mail listed the name of the product, and then said "For the cool profs."

I'm not kidding. I wish I were.

Inside the e-mail, it asked, "Are you one of the coolest professors in your department?"

Like the old joke about "what do you get if you cross an elephant with a rhino," my response is "Elefino." (say it out loud if you're not getting it.)

Coolness is in the eye of the beholder, not the mind of the beheld. Actually, I would argue that if I considered myself one of the "cool profs," and strove to keep that title, it might mean I was a worse teacher than I could be by being true to who I actually am, and not worrying about coolness. If I am perceived as "cool," that is because of how I treat other people or my ability to prepare people for their careers or the opportunities I give in class. It's not because of what technology I use or anything like that.

I've never really been "cool." My angle is more "nerdy." Think Twilight Sparkle, not Rainbow Dash. 

But, there's just something about that e-mail that bugs me and makes me sad. First, the idea that professors care desperately enough about being seen as "cool" that they will take the time to read yet another one of the edutech ads they are barraged with (seriously, I probably get about three per day). And second, that choosing this technology will make you cool. (Technology doesn't make anyone anything. Laptop computers in the classroom do not automagically increase learning. Unfortunately, far too many people have bought into the cargo-cult sort of mentality that if you put technology in a room, people begin to learn better. No. If you put appropriate technology in the hands of people who understand how to use it and are good at applying it to learning, then students will learn better. But I can teach Biostats better with a chalk and a chalkboard than I could with any kind of crazy dancing-ducks animation software.....)

But, I don't know. I get tired of the imperative to be "cool." Not all of us are cut out for that, not all of us WANT to present that image to the world. I thought adults were supposed to be more concerned with having substance than with being "cool." 

I don't have the energy to expend on being "cool."