The idea of television being just a moving picture radio device, that had me taken aback. New technology appears to be held back by change for the masses until they realize the extent the new technology brings to the user. Weller (p 64), sure makes sense of technology being first utilized by those whom which have not yet bought into the change.
I had the honour to have worked at an organization, which was an international consultation firm. Here, many various business units participated in video conferencing. The story revolves around the infancy of video conference at the workplace. Discovering that people pull cables off the camera tower (then set everything not fixed to the table) then moved it to the floor made for an interesting day. After the first team meeting in the conference room where the hardware wasn’t in the original location, I asked the individual about why they removed the video camera from the desk within the video conference room. The answer still echoes today in my head, as it was stunningly awesome. The employee (titled as a senior manager), used this room for years with telephone conferencing only. The camera took up apparently valuable table space for his printed documents that which were taped to the corresponding television. The adage where you can lead a horse to water cannot make them drink, rings true! Hard to believe on a stern letter from the Regional Leader was necessary to get the senior manager to stop removing the camera from the teleconference room desk. Lessons learned here for the IT department… 1). Employees will take anything not locked down. Missing dongles and remotes were noted in every conference room almost every day. 2). Change is hard, staff eventually learned to use the video equipment correctly, without needing to rebuild the room for the next meeting. 3). New technology was always requested from the staff, then not used. As a short throw projector ($3000 CAN) that captured the work from the wall using special electronic pens was demanded and installed. This room, over the years I worked there, used the projector only. Sad waste of money and hardware.

One of my favorite quotes goes as follows. Nickels, dimes and quarters are made of metal, as change is hard!

Photo by network-data-cabling.co.uk

 

 

 

 

Weller, M. (2020). 25 Years of Ed Tech. Athabasca University Press. https://doi.org/10.15215/aupress/9781771993050.01