This program at Royal Roads is called \u201cLearning and Technology.\u201d The reason is because recent developments in digital technology, like in many industries, is fundamentally transforming education. The purpose of this program would be to prepare its students to help the field of education adapt to the latest developments and make the best use of them. But, the changes are still too recent to have a full perspective of their impact, and to adequately determine how to deal with them. Much of the literature we are studying shows that the field is still trying to define the nature of the transformation, and what significance it will have for education. Effectively, although they don\u2019t seem conscious of it, educators are trying to make sense of how much of their traditional roles and functions can be maintained in spite of the changes, instead of assessing how they may need to adapt to fundamental changes to their roles.<\/p>\n
The struggle to interpret the impact of technology is the same as what I\u2019ve seen in my own field of web development. The digital revolution is a broad one, but the underlying technology at the heart of the transformation is first the advent of the personal computer, and finally the Internet. I\u2019m not the first to say it, and it\u2019s too early to determine the extent of its impact, but I also believe we are undergoing a transformation as significant as that of the advent of the printing press. The problem is that, from its outset, many prognosticators, in their zeal to identify where the impact might take place, have tended to exaggerate the transformative potential of technology, or stated so too early. This is a tendency known as cyber utopianism. It has been aptly depicted in the Gartner Hype Cycle.<\/p>\n
A blog I read a few years ago identified the greatest problem facing technology. The problem, though, is not a technical one as most would expect. Instead, according to the author, the greatest challenge is communication. The reality is that the new technology is of a level of sophistication and complexity that is often far beyond what the average person is able to grasp. And, it introduces a whole new vocabulary. And the new words don\u2019t necessarily refer to new tools, but also new concepts. Therefore, as a service provider in technology, it can be difficult to communicate the nature of solutions or offerings.<\/p>\n
What happens is that people unfamiliar with technology feel pressured by the hype. But too often, it\u2019s just a fad, and frequently a very expensive one. Too often, in education in particularl, schools and institutions have witnessed huge expenditures in attempts to keep up with the change. With the pace of the bureaucratic process in public institutions usually being out of step with the pace of technological change, those expenditures are often too ambitious and too late.<\/p>\n
This is where I have found the literature in this course and this program enlightening, and confirming my own experience as a project manager. Often what is discussed is “change,\u201d because the assumption is that change is a constant. This seems to be a lingering symptom of technological utopianism. Not discussed is the need to first assess what is the nature of that change, in order to first determine how it should be addressed. Failures in implementing change are attributed to faulty methods of managing change, instead of technological implementations that often should have never been considered in the first place.<\/p>\n
From my experience, the two most helpful strategies are the leadership approaches described as adaptive and reflective. There are many attributes conventionally expected for inspiring leaders. But leaders also have to be visionaries, who recognize what changes need to take place, and what will be of benefit to the organization, and ideally, the society at large. In my personal experience, what I\u2019ve discovered is that, in the current state of technological change, leaders need to be reflective, and question their own wisdom and not be embarrassed to admit that they don\u2019t understand a certain technology. They can\u2019t know everything. There\u2019s too much to know. I believe an effective leader in this day and age is one who has the courage to doubt the hype, and the humility to seek advice from others. We all have different talents. Leadership is a skill. It\u2019s to be respected as much as technological expertise. A leader\u2019s job is to recognize where the gaps in knowledge exist, determine who has the expertise to fill them, and to coordinate talents so that decisions are made from collectives of experts who are provided the opportunity to contribute their knowledge where appropriate. And that\u2019s how, I believe, we can avoid falling for the hype, and ideally, properly adapt to change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This program at Royal Roads is called \u201cLearning and Technology.\u201d The reason is because recent developments in digital technology, like in many industries, is fundamentally transforming education. The purpose of this program would be to prepare its students to help the field of education adapt to the latest developments and make the best use of … <\/p>\n