Seth Fewell

(Originally posted January 10, 2022 By ~ Microsoft 365 Insider Engagement Team)

Seth Fewell

Like many people, Seth Fewell’s career path was influenced by his parents’ occupations. In Seth’s case, those roles were teacher (his mother) and aerospace engineer (his father).

In fact, some of his earliest memories involve learning about technology with his father, who worked as a senior systems engineer on various aspects of the NASA space program.

“My first memory of technology was my dad teaching me DOS,” he recalled. “I was always tinkering and fixing things. I guess my dad’s engineering blood was in my veins. I built my first computer in high school. Oh, and because of my dad’s job, of course I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up!”

Baby Seth Fewell sits next to his dad working on an early computer.

Instead of going into space, Seth neatly combined his parents’ careers. After starting out as a music teacher, he used his love of technology to land his current position as an instructional technology specialist for a Houston area school district. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Curriculum Education with a focus on educational technology at Texas A&M University.

Seth’s graduate studies and his work both focus on helping teachers prepare young minds for the technology-driven world they will work in as adults, a task made easier by the Office Insider program that gives them early access to the latest software tools.

“In education, we always say, ‘You never know something until you teach it to someone else.’ So how do we reach all these young minds?” he asked. “We have to know what we’re teaching. What is the product or the content?really Long before we could turn around and teach it to anyone else. One of the reasons I love the Office Insider program is because it allows us to learn about the latest innovations before we teach them to everyone else.”

In a recent interview, Seth talks about his career, the types of technology challenges facing educators today, his favorite Office features and tools, and the superhero characters he most resonates with.

How did you get into the education industry?

Seth: When I was young, I started singing, I joined the choir, and things like that. I just fell in love with music. In college, I got a degree in voice performance and a double major with a focus on vocal performance and choral conducting. I went to Boston Divinity School, but I chose not to finish that degree or pursue that career further.

I moved back to Texas, got married, and started working as a waiter while trying to figure out what to do next. My wife suggested that I apply for a substitute teacher certification program. I wasn’t very enthusiastic. My mom was a teacher, so I knew how difficult the job was, and I had no interest in following in her footsteps.

But I wasn’t very satisfied with the waiter job, so I decided to apply. I was accepted to the program, and a few months later, I had my own classroom as a music teacher. They say the first year of teaching is all about survival. My first year was exactly that. I had to learn how to survive in a classroom with 30 kindergarteners running around, and I was a teacher, and a few months before that, I was a waiter. It was crazy, but it was really fun.

How did you get involved in the technology side of education?

In my second year of teaching, we started learning about the tools we would be using when we moved to our new building the following year. My principal was very forward-thinking and said, “When we move, we’re not going to take any of this old stuff with us. We’re going to have full-on technology. We’re going to have smart projectors and smart boards and things like that.” So we went from a 1950s school building with overhead projectors and giant CRT TVs strapped to carts to a new building that was completely digital, or as digital as we could get in 2006.

Seth Fewell

The tech guy at the time said he wasn’t interested in learning new tools. So I raised my hand and said, “Pick me, please pick me!” I sat down with the principal, and he said, “I’m a little nervous. This is only my second teacher training. Do you want to take on this responsibility?” And I definitely did!

I was a technical liaison and got paid a small amount of money, but that didn’t matter to me. I learned all the new tools before anyone else. And after we moved into the new building, it was my job to not only learn about the new tools, but also to support them, troubleshoot problems that arose, and educate faculty on how to best use them.

So when did you transition from a teacher role to a technology-focused role?

Well, I never stopped teaching. I just don’t have a classroom anymore. I taught and worked in a technical role for about seven years before focusing on the technical side of my job.

When I decided to pursue a career in technology, I earned my master’s degree in learning design and technology from Purdue University. I was then hired as an instructional technology specialist at Pearland Independent School District, focusing primarily on elementary schools. I’ve been in this position for eight years, bringing my total to 17 years in education.

What’s one feature that made a big difference to you when Office was released?

The most exciting thing for me was Immersive Reader. When that came out, it really blew my mind. I’ve been in education for a long time, and I must have been in my mid-30s when it came out. I started learning a lot about myself because of Immersive Reader. I found that when I used high-contrast backgrounds, white text on a black background, I could read much faster and remember much more. And I thought, “Wow, how did I learn this about myself now?”

What are some of the challenges you face as a technologist in the education field?

I think the biggest challenge in education is keeping up with all the changes happening in the world. It’s really hard. We have smarter technology, faster and better methods, and teachers are trying to catch up, but it’s not easy. We have to adapt and change our methods and teaching approaches to reach students wherever they are in the ever-changing digital environment. That’s why we have people like me in education to help teachers and administrators keep up with technology, push boundaries, and support and encourage learners to achieve more.

Seth on Microsoft Campus

Technology and especially the Office Insider program allows me to get a glimpse of the future before it happens. I can prepare myself to share the knowledge I gain about these amazing tools. So just being ahead of the curve with things like the Office Insider program is amazing. It’s a lifesaver.

How do you think the pandemic has changed the world of education?

Honestly, I see online education expanding. It’s not going away. It doesn’t have to be “pandemic education.” It’s crisis education. Typically, it’s not a well-designed or well-implemented program. It’s a reaction. There’s nothing we can do about it other than to better prepare for the future.

I think we can get there and offer a well-polished training program online. For example, I love Teams and everything it can do. The assignments feature it has is fantastic. And the new Reading progress feature Awesome. I’ve been a beta tester for that feature for the past year and a half and it’s really great.

Personally, I love the commitment Microsoft has shown to education. The more companies like Microsoft put into education, the better off everyone will be in the future. Our children are literally the future.

It may sound a little corny, but education affects every other profession. We are teaching our children now, and they will be the ones reimagining and reinventing the future of technology, education, and entertainment in 20 years. The mindset we instill in them, the work ethic we help them develop, will literally shape and change the world.

Who is the superhero you empathize with in real life?

I have two. The superhero I empathize with is probably Hawkeye because he is a normal guy but he is really good at what he does. But if I could be a superhero or have superhero powers, I would choose Professor X because of his mind reading ability. That is so handy.

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