http://www.xplanazine.com/2003/04/dealing-with-complexity-in-technology-and-education Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:01:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 http://www.xplanazine.com/2003/04/dealing-with-complexity-in-technology-and-education#comment-361 Rob Reynolds Thu, 17 Apr 2003 15:08:00 +0000 http://www.xplanazine.com/2003/04/dealing-with-complexity-in-technology-and-education#comment-361 well, I am more pessimistic than you are, Rob, about the reasons why people complain about changing technology. the technology of cars and the kitchen and all kinds of entertainment machines have changed radically over the past years; people use all kinds of sporting equipment that is certainly complex and that is changing all the time. yet the level of complaint about change has not reached the fever pitch that it has among university faculty. I think the reason that faculty are so resistant to changing technologies for education is that there is a fundamental resistance to technology PERIOD in the world of education. and that, in turn, I think is a product of how deeply insecure many people are about their teaching. they often teach in utter isolation; they get feedback only from students (which they often take the wrong way) and rarely from colleagues; they often were never taught how to teach and are simply making it up as they go along. so part of the problem is not necessarily in the technology or how we present, but how the people using the technology feel about themselves, and about their students. and boy those are some deep-rooted problems... and the failure of most faculty to work with technology very successfully only reinforces this cycle of insecurity. If we could get rid of instructor insecurity, I think many of the issues about change and complexity about become much more manageable... they would not disappear, but they might even turn out to be kind of fun! well, I am more pessimistic than you are, Rob, about the reasons why people complain about changing technology. the technology of cars and the kitchen and all kinds of entertainment machines have changed radically over the past years; people use all kinds of sporting equipment that is certainly complex and that is changing all the time. yet the level of complaint about change has not reached the fever pitch that it has among university faculty. I think the reason that faculty are so resistant to changing technologies for education is that there is a fundamental resistance to technology PERIOD in the world of education. and that, in turn, I think is a product of how deeply insecure many people are about their teaching. they often teach in utter isolation; they get feedback only from students (which they often take the wrong way) and rarely from colleagues; they often were never taught how to teach and are simply making it up as they go along. so part of the problem is not necessarily in the technology or how we present, but how the people using the technology feel about themselves, and about their students. and boy those are some deep-rooted problems… and the failure of most faculty to work with technology very successfully only reinforces this cycle of insecurity. If we could get rid of instructor insecurity, I think many of the issues about change and complexity about become much more manageable… they would not disappear, but they might even turn out to be kind of fun!

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