I was working on an assignment for Ed Research tonight. I was required to create a questionnaire and while working on it, it hit me: Why not use google docs for this assignment? The other part of the assignment is to bring a transparency copy of the questionnaire, so the entire class can view it at our next meeting. Of course, my brain, left unchecked, went down the path to the end and I've chronicled that below.
We are a graduate level class, training to be National Board Certified teachers. We should be using every available technology resource at our disposal. Yet, we are using transparencies. Technology that has been around since 1945 and widely used in education since the late 1950's. It gets my ire up when I see a blatant disregard of the use of free resources, especially in education. People whine and moan about not having the right tools to do the job, but, honestly there are many tools, which sit unused. We could very easily email a link to a googledoc to the professor, who could then show our questionnaire to the class through a computer projector. Instead, we will print out an actual transparency sheet. Yes, we will waste plastic. Good job. Way to be environmentally conscious, but that's a whole other post. I won't even go there.
So, here's my question: Why not? Why does this particular program not embrace technology? Is it Tradition? Ignorance? Laziness? Honestly, I don't know. I suspect its a combination of several of those issues.
These are not rhetorical questions. I really would like to find some answers. I want to affect change in the system. I'd like to find out why, in some sectors of higher education, technology is shunned and in others it is embraced. Is it strictly a professor's preference? Is it program leadership? Is it discipline specific? If you know, I'd sure like to find out what you have to say.
I wonder if its too late to change my research question?
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