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I’m not an educator and my colleagues are not either, but we embrace new technologies all the time. I would think that the main reason that many educators resist technology is that they are afraid of wasting their own time, and that for them, technology changes too fast. I would understand that if you start learning a new software for example, and then you find out that as soon as you start using it, there is a new version of the software, and that it is significantly different or worse than the prior software, and that the older software doesn’t runs in your machine any longer. Even though these challenges exist, I’m always an early adopter of technology (time and money permitting). Not long ago I wanted to buy a professional HD video camera, but they’re expensive, and I also needed a machine that could handle the video stream load. I then found that Canon digital photo cameras were starting to be used for video. I didn’t hesitate twice to buy one of those cameras and try it out. The quality was phenomenal, and it was almost 7 times cheaper. It didn’t do zooms or rack focus very well, but I learned and adapted. After almost two year since then, now my production coworkers are starting to use these types of cameras for video. Where I work is a community college, so I don’t think it counts as a business, but I did work in some prior businesses, and I remember being amazed at how they can keep some very old technology, right next to the latest stuff. They would buy a great piece of hardware, and connect it to dinosaur systems and lower their prime potentials.
I do remember a while back, I went to visit a friend librarian, and he was showing me a smartboard (the only one in the school) that no teacher could figure out, or find a good use for it. I was flabbergasted at this. I started to explain how you needed a projector to illuminate the smartboard, when he stopped me and said that the teachers thought that projector were too new to the classroom, and that transparencies were easier to make and control. If I had coworkers like that I would go insane. This was maybe 5 to 6 years ago… Let’s learn to take risks and sneak in a new technology to the classroom every week…
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