Yesterday marked twelve years since I started this blog. I didn’t have much of clue about what I was doing. I chose the name Free Technology for Teachers because it was the height of the Web 2.0 boom and everything new seemed to be free. I wanted to try it all out. Writing blog posts about what I was finding and trying seemed like a natural thing to do. Little did I know that so many people would be interested in what I was writing. I also didn’t foresee doing it for twelve years and nearly 15,000 posts. So if you’ll indulge me for a moment, here are twelve quick thoughts after twelve years of blogging about educational technology.

1. I started this in my twenties and I’m still doing it in my forties.

2. Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8 have come and gone.

3. iPads came along and were supposed to revolutionize educational technology, they didn’t.

4. Chromebooks came along and were supposed to revolutionize educational technology, they didn’t.

5. Podcasting became popular, then lost popularity, now it’s back.

6. I taught social studies, was an independent consultant, was briefly a marketing guy, and now I teach computer science.

7. My feelings about social media have gone from love to love-hate.

8. If you don’t know how a company is making money, it either isn’t or it’s making money from your data.

9. RSS was the way that everyone was going to read blogs and websites. It turns out that email, social media, and direct visits is how most people consume media now.

10. The title “Free Technology for Teachers” has been a blessing and a curse.

11. The longer I do this, the harder I have to work to try new things that really excite me.

12. The positive comments out number the negative ones, but the negative ones are usually the ones that stay with me the longest.