How to Decide on Adopting, Waiting or Ignoring New Technology

Often we get so wrapped up in some new technology–-usually because it enables us to do something better, cheaper or faster–-that we lose sight of the fact that it’s the outcome of the use of that technology that matters, whether it makes student learning better or some other function within the district more efficient.

Great teachers I’ve interacted with over the years often grab hold of some new technology and become quite passionate about its use, usually because they sense and see the efficacy of it long before the pedagogy is identified or the outcome of its use is fully quantified. They don't care because they intuitively know what works and helps them strive toward better outcomes.

Ironically, these same teachers often view that use tactically rather than strategically, but teachers simply don't have the time, nor possess the requisite perspective or position, to bring together all the strategic elements to create new curriculum or drive new paradigms of strategic learning outcomes.

Having been with technology vendors most of my career, I can state unequivocally that this is one reason why the K-12 space is viewed by vendors as one mostly comprised of “late adopters” or “laggards” when it comes to embracing obvious and directional technology and why many parents and students become frustrated when they see little change in the classroom model as the rest of the world accelerates technologically.

The pressure from parents, school boards, students and vendors (along with budgetary concerns) makes it incredibly difficult to make strategic choices vs. the tactical ones, which usually contain less risk, minimal need for pedagogy or demand any sort of major rethinking of educational outcomes in order to adopt them. It also means that tactical technology implementations usually equal modest gains and frustratingly slow change.

So what should you do? Rush to adopt new technology that is “obvious and directional”? Wait for the pedagogy to catch up? Or continue to move cautiously and carefully by focusing on strategic adoptions?

My premise is that you should take a giant step backward and focus on the strategic. Look at where accelerating change is taking society and the world and then determine how the technology choices you are making will effect your educational purpose and the outcomes you're trying to achieve.

Danah Boyd, PhD, is a researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a Fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society is someone who is deeply rooted in social media, networks and internet-centric change and its effects on you.

She recently wrote this article entitled, ”It is easy to fall in love with technology…” as a conversation starter for the upcoming Symposium for the Future conference put on by the non-profit New Media Consortium. My favorite paragraph in her article was one that should make you stop and think about the reasons to adopt a new technology (either strategically or tactically), rather than seeing it as some shiny new object which makes your eyes open wide in wonder:

Rejecting technological determinism should be a mantra in our professional conversations. It’s really easy to get in the habit of seeing a new shiny piece of technology and just assume that we can dump it into an educational setting and !voila! miracles will happen. Yet, we also know that the field of dreams is merely that, a dream. Dumping laptops into a classroom does no good if a teacher doesn’t know how to leverage the technology for educational purposes. Building virtual worlds serves no educational purpose without curricula that connects a lesson plan with the affordances of the technology. Without educators, technology in the classroom is useless.

As I read that, I chuckled since it is EXACTLY the sort of conversation smart, savvy consultants, technologists, business development or even salespeople should have BEFORE they enter in to a conversation with a customer about adopting some new technology within the business sector.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been sitting with a senior executive in a corporation who has become enamored with Twitter, emphatic about ”getting our company on Facebook”, or excited and compelled to ”get with the program in this social media stuff since it’s, you know, changing everything” without having strategic goals and objectives created first.

Fortunately it’s usually functional area leaders who see the benefits of having their company embrace new technologies and it’s the senior executives that “don’t get it” or are the ones demanding return on investment (ROI) quantification if they’re to invest in this area (for more, see ”Why Executives Don’t “Get” Social Media.” The result is that a business case is built that takes in to consideration the strategy for moving forward, the outcomes to be achieved (and ones that are measurable), and the various tactical things that need to be addressed along the way requiring investment (e.g., training).

When looking at a technology and deciding on whether you should adopt, wait or ignore it, how should you proceed?

LOOK AT THE SHIFTS
Everything has to fit within your overall strategic direction. Look at the shifts going on in the world–and how they’re accelerating exponentially in many areas and determine what sorts of skills, abilities and acumen students will require to deal with that pace of change and the likely world they'll inherit.

If you accept the premise of accelerating change (and I hope you do if you’re reading this blog) then there is no doubt that students will require a different set of capabilities they're learning now for a world few of us can imagine they’ll be entering upon graduation.

Alexandra Levit, a Wall Street Journal columnist and the author of Success for Hire (ASTD Press 2008) and the forthcoming New Job, New You (Random House, 2010), is a woman who speaks to organizations around the world about generational workplace issues.

In an article for the World Future Society entitled, ”The Future World of Work: A Gen Xer’s Perspective,” Ms. Levit describes a world where, ”… technology is changing so quickly that we can easily imagine future work lives that barely resemble the ones we lead today.”

As a GenX’er (born between the mid Sixties and late Seventies) she discusses:

• The retiring baby boomers (those born between 1946-1964) retiring and what that means for GenX’ers as leaders
• The shift from large corporate career work to contingent, freelance or consulting work
• Work will be distributed and accessible (and doable) by the always on, always connected workforce
• The future workplace will be one of constant change, innovation, and skill upgrading
• The employers of the future will rely on individuals who are willing to work the flexible hours and can leverage the latest technologies associated with an Internet-oriented, nonstop marketplace.

THAT is the world Ms. Levit sees in 2025 and is the one today's kindergarten student will live in when they are nearly done with college.

Since today you're teaching primarily Generation Y (born between the mid 1970s to early 1990s) or the "internet generation," Generation Z (born between early-1990s and end of the 2000s), there is no question the world they'll enter will look as different from today's information age as ours looks from the industrial age.

Today's students will have computers in their pockets and purses more powerful than any desktop workstation available today. Those devices will access an internet through wickedly fast wireless networks that are ubiquitous. The ability to communicate with others--regardless of distance and with rich video, audio and collaborative capabilities--will be profound and come to be expected by all of us.

As you examine, analyze and adopt new technologies, fit them (as best you can) within the world students will enter vs. the one they're in at the moment. In my view, that will inform every decision you make on whether to adopt, wait or ignore some given technology today.