{"id":63,"date":"2004-09-03T17:21:51","date_gmt":"2004-09-03T22:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/hag\/2004\/09\/03\/ctl-talk-adoptingsupporting-new-technologies\/"},"modified":"2004-09-03T17:21:51","modified_gmt":"2004-09-03T22:21:51","slug":"ctl-talk-adoptingsupporting-new-technologies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/hag\/2004\/09\/03\/ctl-talk-adoptingsupporting-new-technologies\/","title":{"rendered":"CTL talk: adopting\/supporting new technologies,"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three separate strands of conversations have intersected in interesting
\nways this week: the post “learn…teach…learn…repeat<\/a>” and Chris R’s
\nresponse to the Classroom Support thread, along with a discussion
\nhappening on a CIT<\/a> list. The first has to do with use and promotion of
\nblogs and the second with faculty reaction (resistance) to new
\ntechnologies. The last has to do with how students are reacting to the
\nnew requirement to register their computers via NetReg and the
\nchallenges in integrating them with UVMs network.
\nIn all cases, though, the common theme is how new technologies are
\nadopted. As Chris M. points out, when every new tech toy is overhyped,
\nhow can one even determine, much less decide to adopt, what will be
\nuseful? Chris R. points out, and rightly so, that technologies can have
\na positive impact on teaching and learning, so why should there be such
\na resistance to their adoption. The CIT discussion parallels that plight
\nby bemoaning the lack of interest or amount of confusion among new and
\nreturning students to their computers, and their seeming unwillingness
\nto do what’s needed to provide a safe, virus-free environment for all at
\nUVM.
\nFor those of us who spend our time at that intersection between new
\ntechnologies and hesitant users, this can be a tricky place. Should we
\ntry out every new technology or wait until it has proved itself? Should
\nwe demand that anyone who uses a computer on campus exhibit a particular
\nlevel of literacy or should we just “do it for them”? And of course the
\nage old question: does support mean we’ll fix what’s broken. Or, to
\nframe it in terms of the fish\/fishing parable, does support mean we’ll
\nfeed you fish, teach you to fish, or take you out in fish-filled waters
\nand throw you off the boat, assured that you’ll come up with something.
\nBut I digress. To bring the focus in a bit: blogs. A couple years ago
\nwhen I first encountered blogs my reaction was “nice, but I’ll wait and
\nsee.” Now I think that was wrong. Yes, to invoke the over-used McLuhan
\nidea, new technologies are not usually going to be much of a departure
\nfrom those preceeding them. As such, they may not look like enough of a
\nleap to get excited about. But it behooves those of us in that
\nintersection to explore and test not only the new technology as it is,
\nbut the new technology as it might be. In this case, not “what do
\ncurrent blogs look like, or do” but “what might the blog model lead to
\nand how can we shape it to be useful.”
\nUnfortunately, though a university environment might seem to be the
\nperfect place for such experimentation, the fact remains that such
\nexperimentation, with its obvious potential for many failures and
\ndead-ends, will often be at odds with the need to spend effort fixing
\nwhat’s already in place. That is, fixing the plumbing leaks often
\npre-empts exploring new possibilities.
\nIn the realm of technology, where managing expectations and
\ncommunicating possibilities seem to be so difficult, the ability to
\nsuccessfully adopt and promote a new idea is especially challenging. We
\nthink we know what might be a great idea (using blogs, making sure all
\ncomputers have up to date virus software, etc.) but the time to
\nimplement those good ideas is competing with other needs (get ready for
\nclass, navigate conflicting media systems in classrooms, and do your
\nhomework\/do your research).
\nSo what do we do? A couple ideas:
\n1) Continue to experiment. Don’t ask for a technology to be proven
\nbefore trying it out. Try it. (Yes, I’ve started blogging…)
\n2) Don’t expect adoption without determing need. Find a way to
\ncommunicate that need. People have to believe a technology will fill
\ntheir needs before they’ll use precious time experimenting with it. For
\nexample, how many people didn’t see a need for WebCT before Shirley
\nshowed them some of her uses for it?
\n3) Hope and pray that the administration will continue to let us
\nexperiment to the extent that we have, even though they don’t provide a
\nheck of a lot of support for what could be some really neat ideas
\nmore…??<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three separate strands of conversations have intersected in interesting ways this week: the post “learn…teach…learn…repeat” and Chris R’s response to the Classroom Support thread, along with a discussion happening on a CIT list. The first has to do with use … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16784],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digital-humanities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/hag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/hag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/hag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/hag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/hag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/hag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/hag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/hag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/hag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}