The biggest obstacle I see to implementing any emerging technology is relevance.

We hear so much about how "cool" new technologies are, and how "revolutionary" they are, when in a lot of cases they're nothing but re-treads dressed up in hipster clothes. (Text-messaging, for example. When I was a kid, we passed carefully-folded “football” notes. They got confiscated, too, just like today’s cell phones. Revolutionary? Hardly.)

Another example is Creative Commons, the "new" way to protect and manage copyrights. Some folks wring their hands that educators and librarians and authors “just don’t get it,” when it fact they get it all too well. We already have a system of copyrights in place! One that was thought out carefully, and that protects artistic and other works--in theory, at least. The fact that music can be distributed digitally now (whoopee) or that e-books can be downloaded and played on an MP3 player (whoopee x 2) doesn’t negate copyright law. In cases like this, you’ve got people with no historical understanding of the core issues focusing on the bells-and-whistles.

I submit that many—certainly not all, but many—emerging technologies fall into this “hipster re-tread” category. And when these technologies fail to be adopted wholesale, the failure will be blamed on myopic educators—not on the true failing, which is the essential irrelevance of the technology itself.

-Emily

I believe the greatest challenge to implementing new technologies is keeping teachers knowledgeable and trained. For any technology to be successfully implemented into the classroom, the teacher must be comfortable with the technology to integrate it into the curriculum in a meaningful way. Administrators must find a way to enhance professional development in a way that allows teachers to keep abreast of new technologies and best pratices for using these technologies in the classroom.

The current generation has grown up in a digital age. Just look around the campus and you can see the majority of students utilizing new and emerging technologies. The expectation of our students is that educators use the technologies available to engage the students in a meaningful way throughout their educational experience. Teachers are going to have to evolve from an individual lecture type format to a guide/mentor that uses technological tools integrated into a social networking framework where students are allowed to proceed through educational levels at their own pace.

The old guard (administrators, board members, veteran teachers, etc.) are not going to be comfortable with the total restructuring of an educational system that they grew up in and has been in place for close to 100 years. Education and professional development for this group is key as well to successful implementation of technology. The change is going to come as our students will begin to demand change. The question is whether we will take the initiative to change or be pulled kicking and screaming.

- David P.

David--I agree that teachers need to be able to use technologies in order to incorporate them intelligently into their curricula.

But why do you assume that just because students are used to something, that their preferences should be catered to by educators? Are you saying that teachers need to issue lectures on iPod, for example, just because a lot of kids today have iPods (and irrespective of whether or not iPods are an effective means of teaching/learning)? This corporate model of "the customer gets what the customer wants" seems dangerously backwards in an educational environment.

Case in point: according to studies, Americans were far better educated pre-World War II than they are today--and that was back when educators couldn't have cared less what students "wanted" (and back when "technologies" were books, lectures, and hands-on).

-Emily

Emily - I agree that technology shouldn't be used at a whim or just because it is the newest thing. However, why not create a podcast of the topic if students are more likely to listen to it on an iPod rather than read a book? Why not create a blog for student questions on the lecture rather than rely on office hours or outdated email?

I think teachers should keep an open mind about using technology to engage students in a way that is relevant to the student and not just with what the teacher is most comfortable with. This is how we get students authentically engaged, by using methods that relate to the students' view of the world. I agree that there are great educators that can teach with a lecture and a chalkboard but is that really fair to our students who have a different view of their educational path?

David P.

I believe that the greatest obstacle that prevents the implementation of emerging technologies in the educational environment is resistance.

Being in education myself, I deal with resistance from my co-workers everyday. Teachers that have been in this profession for 15 years, 20 years, 30 years are resistant to the fact that we have to integrate technology into our students’ education. We are living in a world where everything is becoming electronic or “paperless,” and these teachers do not want to change with the times. Perhaps they feel this way because they are afraid of technology or maybe because they do not want to put in the time and effort into learning how to use it. In my experience, I have come to learn that this obstacle can be overcome, if and when proper trainings on how to use these emerging technologies and how to implement them are offered. Positive outcomes increase when the trainer is someone that they already know and feel comfortable with or they are in the class with someone who will “hold their hand” throughout the lesson.

As for the next five to eight years, I believe that the new teachers that are coming into the field more often than not, are younger and are willing to accept change. Also, they are already tech savvy and those who are not, are more than eager to learn. Those teachers that could not handle change are mostly retired or have changed professions. I dare say this because I have heard it too many times, “I used to be a teacher, until they wanted me to do my attendance and grades on the computer.” Imagine if they had been asked to create a class blog?

It’s change or be changed. We cannot keep teaching they way we were 10 years ago or even 5 years ago. In order to keep up with this new generation of students, we must keep up with emerging technologies and their integration in education.

-Paola

David & Emily- I agree with David, in order to make the lesson more meaningful, you have to connect it with real world experiences. How better than through podcasting, wikis, blogs, etc.? Differentiated instruction is all about enhancing student's learning by catering to the different learning styles. Todays teachers are required to be flexible in their approaches to teaching and they should be able to adjust the curriculum as far as how it is presented. I would say that emerging technologies play a very important role in differentiated instruction. Wouldn't you?

-Paola

Paola - Change is one of the most difficult things for both individuals and organizations to do. Add to that the challenges inherent in implementing technology and you can understand the reluctance of many to embrace these changes. For many years our educational system has had a system where each teacher is an island where they teach, test and evaluate their students. Technological innovations in education seem to focus on getting teaches off that island and into the broader educational community. For veteran teachers, this impacts their very idea of how teaching should occur so I don't wonder that they would resist change.

I agree that many new teachers coming into education will be more accepting of both technology and change. I also agree with Emily in the point that we can't just thrust technology into our classrooms without good plans to communicate the benefits of the change and how to train the teachers to effectively use the change.

David P.

One of many obstacles that I see that prevents the implementation of emerging technologies in the educational environment is planning. Planning among school districts, administrators, policy makers, and the parent committee must be done prior to implementing technology within the educational environment. The question to be ask is how much time is needed to plan the implementation of technology? The answer should be determine based on the goals and objectives that will be developed by all involved. Everyone involved will have an important role in the success of the implementation of technology and the outcome.

I believe the next five to eight years will be overcome with technology resources in our learning environment. Textbooks will be replaced by e-books and educators will be required to be better prepared in using the technology equipment by furthering their education or other professional development workshops. In order for change to occur, school districts and the educational system will have to seek the funds to implement the change and whether they can fulfill the funds to meet the demands of technology.

--Veronica Baca

David,
I agree with you on the one obstacle in implementing technology is training and knowledge of teachers. I've seen experience teachers not try to learn the new gadgets because they find it difficult to learn the components. Many educators are old-school and feel comfortable with the old learning and teaching. However, if enough time and planning is given to educators to learn and become adjusted to the new technologies then they will find it an asset to the educational environment.
--Veronica Baca

Paola,
Our education setting is made up many veterans and your right that many are comfortable with their way of teaching. Bringing change will perhaps affect their motivation to teach, however, with the resources the school system will provide will probably help the transition. Also, the knowledge and experience the young educators will bring to the teaching field will help the veterans with change.
--Veronica Baca

Paola,

I agree that retraining teachers--or instructional designers, or whoever it is who has to do the grunt work of repurposing material for the latest "new new" thing--is absolutely an obstacle to integrating new technologies into education.

But I disagree that educators' resistance is due to fear or laziness. Most teachers are already working to capacity. To expect them to log additional hours for no additional pay to do work that is essentially differentiation of delivery method (equivalent to making them print their own books when printers were invented) makes sense only if there's a clear educational payback. But because this question specifically concerns "emerging" technologies--80% of which will be forgotten in five year's time--I think educators' resistance is completely rational.

-Emily



-Emily

Paolo,

(Oops! Hit the button too quickly and posted before I was finished.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that whether or not an emerging technology *should* be integrated depends on 1) its usefulness in educating people; 2) how likely it is to stick around; 3) how difficult/time consuming/expensive it is to implement with respect to its actual usefulness. I don't know a lot of educators who truly believe that something could benefit their students but refuse to pursue it.

Whether or not emerging technologies *will* be integrated, however, is another story. I predict a trend toward whatever makes learning cheaper to produce, deliver, and manage. (Yeah, I know--way to go out on a limb. :-) I think online courses like these are going to become more and more prevalent, for example, along with the technologies that underpin them.

Veronica:
I agree with you in the sense that planning is a tremendous obstacle when it comes to implementing these emerging technologies, more so because the majority of the teachers still don’t know how to integrate them into their everyday curriculum. In order to plan, you have to know how to do, in order to do, you have to be trained. Are teachers willing to spend their evenings or give up their Saturdays to go to trainings for something, like Emily mentioned, might not even “stick around?”

-Paola

Emily:
When I was writing my original post and I mentioned that some teachers are afraid and/or lazy (not those words exactly) I was drawing from real life experiences and I had several "veteran" teachers on my campus in mind. All year long our school district offers tech trainings to anyone that wishes to attend. Even now, during the summer, they are holding a Tech Summer Camp for those of us who wish to learn how to integrate emerging technologies into our classrooms. We even get to take home sample lessons that we can build or modify according to our grade level. I have asked several of these teachers of whom I was referring to earlier if they would accompany me, but all they do is complain about it being too hard, not understanding what to do or how much time it takes. As a new mom, the last thing I want is to take time away from being with my son, but I chose this profession, which means that I have to attend aferschool and/or Saturday trainings and be in constant professional growth. How can we expect our students to be the creative and innovative thinkers of tomorrow, if we can't provide the tools they need to do so?

Emily,
You make a strong case on the obstacle being relevance towards emerging technology. I agree with David in that we should concentrate on technological resources that will address students interest and meet their needs. Teachers shouldn't just select a tool due to it's features or cool design. Your point of view could be a great case and used for future research.
Veronica Baca

One of the biggest obstacles I see to implementing emerging technology, I hate to say, is funding. I have been in the educational technology field as an educator for 10 years and one of the components that often impede emerging technology is the willingness to allot funding to what is often viewed as “a flash in the pan.” For every piece of new technology, there are only handfuls that will prove useful in the educational realm. Too many times, a new piece of technology has emerged only to prove ineffective at the task for which is purchased. This is the nature of the business. I have seen programs come and go, and it’s sinful at the amount of money that is wasted in these ventures.
The cure to the problem is the use of proper planning and research. Technology advancements are part of our lives. It’s about time that school districts and the legislature put some serious manpower into the implementation of emerging technology. I work in a district where there is a huge department that deals with the acquisition and implementation of technology, but even then, funding is an issue. Even with all that manpower, our school district is still very wary of emerging tech.

--Kerry B.

David, I agree with you.

Teachers need to be trained properly, and they need to be receptive to new technology
The purpose of myself and the other Campus Technology Trainers at my district is to help teachers implement technology into their curriculum and to facilitate the integration of any new programs that the district sees fit to push down the pipeline. Our administrators leave it up to us to conduct the staff development trainings when it comes to technology. Up until recently, the students were leaps and bounds ahead of the teachers in their technology knowledge. Adding Technology Trainers at the campus has helped close the knowledge gap a bit.
If my position didn’t exist, there would be serious problems with the implementation of technology at my campus; my position smoothes the transition between old and new technologies. More districts need to allot funds for these positions. In the long run, it will pay for itself.

Paola, Humans fear change. This is a fact of life.
If we can effectively and gently transfer educators from the old to the new, “unknown” technology, they would be much more comfortable in its use and embrace it more readily. I have experience this numerous times over the years and it is difficult. Not to be ageist, but it does make a difference. The younger educators who are already immersed in a digital world have almost no difficulty, it is, as David said the “Old Guard” that have the most difficulty; and not just because of the technical aspect, but the overall resistance to change.

Kerry,
You actually hit the spot on the biggest obstacle which is funding. I believe every school district faces this problem. I know our school does. Every year I ask by principal what can we do or what do we need to get more technological tools for our teachers and the answer I always get is money. It would be great once in a chance if we can just order what we want without the hassle of seeking the funds.
Veronica Baca

David, I agree that training can be a huge obstacle in so many ways. First, teachers have to be receptive and willing to be trained. There also needs to be a dedication on the part of the school district and the school to maintain teachers and continue training. I worked in a district that spent tens of thousands of dollars training teachers only to pink slip them all in the spring, and not because they were bad teachers. I find that even for myself, with a willingness and ability to try and learn, there is a lot always to maintain, and then even more to learn.

Veronica, Planning makes too much sense, but it is amazing how little of it is done sometimes. It is not enough just to buy new technology or a new program without understanding the needs, the direction of movement desired, and then a clear plan of how to get there. One school I worked in was seriously failing NCLB. But instead of planning and working to fix the problems, money was spent on random programs without training or an actual plan to implement them. They spent $10,000 on a reading program that no one knew how to use, wanted to use, or was going to use. It doesn't matter how good something is if there is not a specific, planned goal.

Kerry, I agree that funding can be a huge issue. I think, though, there are a lot of technologies out there that don't require a lot of extra, if any, money to use. Training is something different, but there are ways to do that on minimal budgets as well. It is easy to get excited about new things that can cost a lot of money, but perhaps we could benefit by looking at what is already so prevalent and accessible. For example, Smart Boards, pretty expensive. Blogs, Wikis, text messaging, all pretty cheap and available.

I believe resistance to change is one of the major obstacles. I teach at the middle school I attended fourteen years ago. I work alongside many of the same teachers who were at the school when I was a student. Throughout my six years on the campus, I have gradually seen a small number of teachers embrace some of the new technologies we’ve been presented. On the other hand, there are those who have balked at any attempt to integrate technology.
There are multiple reasons why any one person might not be interested in the new technology – cost, training, implementation, time to learn, etc. I just have a problem with people who are negative just for the sake of being negative and set in his/her ways. Anything new will involve work; teaching is still a job. I think many older teachers (not necessarily in age but teaching experience) get in a rut/settled in what they need to cover and how they are going to cover it. We all know change is inevitable. I wonder why some feel the need to fight against the current.

CRod

On David's first post he mentioned that schools need to keep teachers "knowledgeable and trained." This is definitely true. In my district we have 1 technology prof. development day in the SPRING. It usually covers the basics - Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. They usually throw in something like Claymation or Kidspiration; you can make a safe bet that whatever it is that is presented will not be available on your home campus. We get one day out of the year to learn the new material and generally never bother with it again. All faculty and staff in the district from counselors to janitors to bus drivers must attend some kind of technology training. Usually by 11 a.m. the server is slow enough to make everyone annoyed; by lunch time you've done all the playing/experimenting you can do but have to stay until the "sticker gods" pass out attendance stickers. It is just looked at as a complete waste of time. Unfortunately, people go into the tech day not expecting much.

Veronica touched on another good issue - planning. I can think of two different software packages that have been purchased during my time that were simply awful. If anyone had taken a moment to consult a TEACHER for a review or recommendation, thousands of dollars could have been saved or put to better use. Instead we were stuck with an awful program for 3 years that essentially no one touched. These companies come in with fancy shows and cute demos, throw in a couple of reports and sufficiently confuse (impress) the administration enough to convince them to purchase the program. It boggles my mind that people who rarely, if ever, deal with children or the classroom anymore are allowed to make these types of decisions.

CRod

Emily stated that the major obstacle was relevance of the technology and its staying power. While it is true that there are going to be many emerging technologies that come out with a bang and quickly disappear, there are also many that prove to have much staying power and relevance. I wonder if '80% being fotgotten in five years' is a bit inflated. I also don't think that the majority of educators' resistance is because they are looking into the future and thinking that the tech won't be around. I don't want to use the word lazy; maybe a better term is comfortable. There are many who feel "what I've been doing has worked fine. Why do I need to change/add this?" What they have been doing may get the job done, but I would hope that people, educators especially, would want to challenge themselves. We have to want to achieve more than the bare minimum. This just makes me think of the saying, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten."

CRod

CRod - Change can be a scary thing for many people. It is also a difficult thing for a leader to get everyone moving in the same direction when trying to implement a change. One thing that you did mention in your post was that many times teachers are not part of the selection process. Allowing teachers to be an active part of a cross-functional selection committee for new technologies allows buy-in from the very group that will have to be using the product. Implementing change is much easier when the stakeholders are vested and have ownership of the decision.

David P.

Kerry,

I think that this "new" phase of technology - the so-called Web 2.0 offers some pretty exciting "deals" for the technology director, i.e. free and easy to use. When I go do workshops, in almost all training, I "push" the free stuff. I have been to too many inservices that demonstrated cool new software, like Kidspiration. Really fun and easy to use. So the teacher gets back and faces a multitude of things they must do before they can actually purchase the software; a year or so later when all things have come together and the software is there, they have forgotten how to use it. With free software, like Photo Story 3, or web 2.0 products, they can go back and immediately implement the new skills they have learned. I think the new web-based products will eliminate many headaches that district technology directors have faced in the past. No need to buy Microsoft Office - use Open Office or google docs. No need to buy Dreamweaver or whatever version of Front page is out there. Use Nvu or other open source software, etc.

I have spoken to several tech directors who have moved to the open source or web-based products because of declining technology budgets and so far have been happy. This is allowing the funding to go to training - which is really where it needs to be.

Rebecca M.

Yikes! $10K without a specific, measurable goal? (Sounds like a couple of the behemoth companies I've worked for in past years, when the right hand didn't know what the left was doing and personal politics was the rule of the day.)

This is probably going to sound naive on my part, but who in education actually has the power to make decisions regarding emerging technology? Both in terms of "yes, we're going to commit to the time and effort it will take to incorporate this into our curricula," and "yes, I have check-signing authority"? Because I'm wondering if this discussion on teacher reticence isn't somewhat misplaced. Do teachers actually have the power to make decisions? Or is it school boards, or administrators, or...? And--not coming from a teaching background, I've heard of NCLB but don't really know how it affects purchasing or instructive objectives. How much does the NCLB initiative dictate technology/spending decisions these days?

-Emily

Kerry--

I love your characterization of waste on flash-in-the-pan technology "sinful!" I totally agree. When you're already working in a sector that's seriously hurting for resources (but, paradoxically, is expected to train the next generation) you can't afford to waste $$ nor teachers' time. Going off half-cocked--even if the technology is "free" (and I don't believe there's such a thing as a free lunch in technology, but that's a discussion for another time) you're still consuming precious resources: teachers' time.

I spent about a decade of my own professional time working on emerging technologies, most of which either crashed and burned in the marketplace, or were killed before they saw the light of day. (Yes!! THAT'S why she's such a cranky Luddite!! ;-) Every creator of every single technology swears it's the Next Best Thing. And only a microscopic few of them are actually right--meaning that their technology is more useful, and at a lower investment of time/money, than any alternative--*and* will be around long enough for people to recoup their investment.

But how do you tell the righteous from the flash-in-the-pan? Specifically, what criteria do the people with decision-making authority use to decide which technology is worth investing all-too-scarce resources in? Do they say, "it's free, so what the heck, let's use it?" Or "this will allow us to reach specific educational objectives that we couldn't reach otherwise?" Or "this will allow us to reach current objectives for $X less per student?" Or something else entirely?

Your gig sounds terrific, by the way... I hadn't heard of this kind of position before, but it sounds to me like you're critical to the successful implementation of *any* new technology on campus, emerging or not.

-Emily

I am probably going to echo several of my classmates’ responses to this discussion question. I strongly feel that teachers’ attitudes towards emerging technologies and their hesitance to implement change in their classroom are the biggest obstacles facing the integration of emerging technologies in educational settings today.
Currently, we still have educators in our campus that are still teaching in the same fashion as they did when they began teaching ten, twenty, or even thirty years ago. They are highly unwilling to change their ways or even entertain the idea of using some technology in their classrooms to deliver their instruction. Some of my colleagues would still be using paper grade books if administration had not given all of us a directive several years ago to use electronic grade books. It is these educators that very set in their ways and there is nothing or no one that can convince them to give emerging technologies a chance in their respective classrooms.
Within the next five to eight years, I envision mandatory distance education courses in high schools where students would need to take a certain number of online courses to meet their graduation requirements. Michigan is already implementing this statewide. The University of Texas at Austin is already offering online high school courses (see link below).
I strongly feel that an attitudinal shift needs to occur before emerging technologies are embraced in educational settings. This attitudinal shift needs to occur in our district and campus leadership and it needs to be mandated to the professionals working with the students. Otherwise, emerging technologies are never going to make an impact education.
http://www.utexas.edu/cee/dec/
-Marco

The two biggest concerns for grid computing is 1) security and 2) costs.

Security:
Computational grids provide great amounts of computing power by sharing resources across vast networks. End users need assurance that their resources are safe and not misused. Most importantly, end users want a chain of accountability for others actions on the grid. Managing user authorization is difficult in this kind of distributed environment. Resource managers (grid owners) find it difficult to manage user access across large network domains. Uniformity in security policies would be impossible to achieve for so many unique clients. To address issues of security in the research environment would require acceptance that in very large distributed systems it will be impossible to base authorization on individual user identity. Teams working on research data require a high level of data confidentiality and provenance, which makes using 'outside' network resources undesirable.

Costs:
The primary market for grid computing today is profit organizations. Schools are typically not profit centers. It will be difficult computing the ROI for grid computing in higher education environments. Scalability and flexibility are common factors in implementing computational grids, neither synonymous with schools. On-demand availability, CPU time, disk space, and secure access factor heavily into grid costs. Without the business market, schools will have difficulty funding grid projects.

As an IT director, I see the benefits and pitfalls of "free"technology. We know the benefits.

Support is the biggest pitfall. I have 15 engineers that support our campus. They need immediate access to support for just-in-time solutions. I don't expect them to know all the answers, just know how to get them quickly.

It's like car insurance. It's not important until you need it. Hardware and software support and maintenance are required in our operation.

Grid and free technology is an oxymoran.

~ dawn

Paola -
For faculty, it's always about time. Resistance should not be mistaken for fear or laziness. Faculty are subject matter experts. They experience problems allocating the time for learning and implementation. I do not advocate that faculty need to know and do it all. I do support back end processes and resources that make their jobs easier and achieve student success.

~ Dawn