Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Fear of Change...aka technology phobia

One famous cliche' is "the greatest fear is the fear of fear itself."  Change is something which modifies a teacher's pedagogy. Change is something to be feared by many teachers because they do not understand what change is going to happen and how it is going to affect them.

A seasoned teacher is someone who is comfortable with their teaching pedagogy. Chalk and blackboard, fine enough, "we used it for hundreds of years, why change now?" 

One example of technology is an iPod. It is a generational device. It is a piece of hardware that most Professors do not own, nor can they afford an iPod. Naturally they do not understand how it works and why most college students all have one. An iPod allows students to listen to music in a compressed format. In addition an iPod can view a TV show for only $1.99 a show without commercials. A movie can be rented or purchased on iTunes and downloaded and synchronized to an iPod. A professor can create a Podcast and then send it to his students for review. Audio ipods are easy to create. Video iPods take a little more equipment like video camera and quality microphone. If there is a major generational gap in technology it is with iPods because they are expensive and require a basis knowledge of iTunes and Computer music, videos, and audio books.

This is where the biggest challenge for change exists, iPods for students and none for professors.