Its Not About the Technology
I believe that anyone can learn the technology necessary to succeed. The mentality is that any student can learn and adapt to the course platform. However, I find it amazing that many instructors bulk at learning new learning platforms. Why are instructors immune from learning new material or technical abilities? What are your thoughts on this?
Often I see a lack of training or apprehension of the technology. Coming out of a traditional on-ground course can be intimidating for many. The key is having the proper training and in an online environment that will fall back to the technical support folks. The future has many more platforms emerging. Integration is bigger than the scope of this course, but will be more important as time moves on. Technology is a great tool and I wonder if we may be on the road to oblivion?
I have actually had the opposite reaction from instructors regarding learning new platforms. I am typically amazed at how open my instructors are about learning new things. Perhaps, if lack of motivation exists from instructors about learning new things, a different approach should be taken to encourage excitement as opposed to opposition?
At our school, we have a mix. Some of the older instructors are not as open to change. We get flack when trying to make changes. However, within my own department the instructors love new "stuff". We have fun learning and implementing the changes.
I believe it is vital for students to incorporate new material to stimulate learning. Also, it is good practice to use supplemental information which enhances the practical application of the subject matter.
The transformation from onsite to online instructor demands that the teacher become a marketer and see the student as a consumer of online technology. With this view point then the instructor must move from thier technology comfort zone into the comfort zone of the student, reguiring them to learn how to navagate the non face to fact word. We have just begun to scratch the surface of thes opportunities.
First, a low-tech comment. The word should be It's = It is, as in It's Not About the Technology. Spelling still counts.
Technology is all well and good if it furthers the cause. I am reminded of 3D movies, of which I am weary. I call it the "look at me" phenomenon. I notice that when viewing the 2D version, the action pauses so the audience can emit an 'oh, wow,' and thereby sacrificing the story line. Can anyone see a parallel to using bells and whistles in an online course? A simple example was in the Artwork and Photographs Lesson of Module 4--the illustrations were confusing and added nothing to my understanding.
The challenge is accepting the fact that We are all Learners. Faculty will have the same concerns when facing the new technologies as students will in learning new concepts. That's awesome...we get to work on ourselves as well.
I am so glad that you posted this question! I have very often asked myself how can we be educators and preach about the importance of learning new things to our students when we have large groups of educators who themselves are not open to learning something new like using technology in the classroom. Having come from the public school sector I would cringe when I would see a rather young teacher not even know how to use a projector or a DVD player and the students would have to run and get it going for that teacher. That is just not right! As educators, we should be the first to realize that education is moving towards Technology in every way. Students use technology and love and if we are not familiar and comfortable we should be the very first to take a course and educate ourselves. Tablets, smartphones, eBooks, etc. they are all here to stay.
Rose-Mary,
This is such a good point. We all need to try new technologies whether we want to or not!!
Shelly Crider
