Something that has long dogged education is the Grumpy Old Man, or Woman. By which, I refer to those teachers who have been in the system for a long time and feel they have ‘seen it all before’ and who generally greet any new idea with a cynical grump and muttering “not that old thing again”. What has taken me by surprise is that educational technology also now has its grumpy old men! What has made this most evident to me has been all the discussion around the concept of the ‘flipped classroom’. I have been very much taken aback by the negative and sometimes cynical comments that it has attracted from some quarters. These comments have suggested that it’s not really a new idea, that one such organisation or another had already tried it/started it/thought about it some years back, or that it is just a silly name. Now I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that technology now has its own Grumpy Old Men, after all, we’ve been working with educational technology for over 30 years and there are many, like myself, who have been involved since the very start. What worries me, though, is that the attitude of Grumpy Old Men could well become yet another obstacle to be overcome by younger people trying to promote the use of educational technology. Quite frankly, the promotion of educational technology in schools faces more than enough obstacles already without adding another, particularly one which comes from people you might reasonably expect to be supportive. Let’s take the ‘flipped classroom’ as an example. Yes, I think most would agree that a better adjective than ‘flipped’ would have been useful but, there you go, it’s what has been chosen so let’s learn to live with it. As to other organisations coming up with it first; no they didn’t. Sure the Open University may have tried something which may look similar but they were not working with school pupils. My point here is; so what if it’s a silly name or it may have been tried before? I do think that the role of people who have been in the field a long time, should be to support newcomers. I accept that such support could be in a critical way. Just because something may have been tried before, does not mean that it won’t work this time round. After all, technology is changing and developing. Maybe, just maybe, the time and technology is right to give something a fresh look and if new people are prepared to do that, then let’s support them! My New Year’s resolution would be to be more supportive of new developments and new people in educational technology, not necessarily less critical but supportive. I’d hope others may do the same.