Innovate Online – What’s up on take up?

Sarah Lohnes and Charles Kinzer have an article in the new edition of Innovate that I think is very timely. One of the things that nobody who is “old school” can ever even hope to predict is what the younger generations truly want today, to say nothing of what they want a few years from now (is that “logo” for London 2012 really what the London Committee is relying on to get the youth interested in the games again? Give me a break). The article nicely looks at what the deal is (or may be) with students swimming in technology out of class, but then resisting technology while in class.

Students want moderate technology in their courses and they want it used in context. Using a laptop in the classroom often isn’t convenient (this is something that we are talking about now with our new building going up – what about the desks and chairs? Can students actually use a laptop there) for various ergonomic reasons as well as some being somewhat of a social taboo (though could also be thinking about these issues… though I doubt it). It seems that for some classes the physical separation from the world provided by the walls of the classroom is just what is desired by the students.

With this paper stewing the back of the noggin, I think those of us who are trying to match the level of technology integration with the disposition of the instructor are ahead of the game and those that are trying to drop integration, cookie cutter style, onto a department are setting up for a world of pain. This also underscores the need for designers to take into consideration the culture of the students and how they use technology. Teachers should also keep ideas like this or this to make use of the technology as not to fall into the panacea trap.

It may be that technology integration starts a few days into the class, once the designers have a pulse for the class. Having only a small number of technology based assists available at the start and moving on from there might be the best way to ensure that time isn’t wasted and students don’t get a bad taste as to what the instructor is trying to do in the course.