Technosaurus

Yeah, this is how I feel most of the time when trying to integrate technology into what I already know how to do.  When I was an undergraduate student in the early 70's, I took a class in "Audio-Visual Aids."  No, it's not a disease.  It was learning to use the technological tools of a teacher.  We learned how to use the overhead projector, mimeograph machine, opaque projector, film-strips, slide shows (they were actually little pieces of cardboard that fit into about a hundred tiny slots on a carousel that you manually advanced from slide to slide), reel-to-reel tape recorders, and 8 mm film.  Did you know that to edit a movie you needed a razor blade?  My, how things have changed!

And yet, for the first 30 years of my career, it was easy to keep up with the changes in technology. Advancing from mimeograph machines to photocopying was revolutionary, but simple to do.  In 1996, when every classroom in my school got its very own TV and videotape player, there wasn't a single teacher who didn't know how to use them and what to use them for.  A few years later, every teacher got his/her very own computer.  That was pretty easy to handle, making research much faster and enabling everyone to produce assignments, tests, etc. in a snap.

Then all of a sudden, in 2009, every classroom was equipped with SMART tablets, iclickers, ceiling mounted projectors, document cameras, and microphones.  There are more computer applications that teachers can use than any one person can ever know about, much less use.  The minute I learn a new way to use technology, it becomes "the old way" and there's something better to take its place.  Teachers (and not just the old ones like me) are overwhelmed with how fast it's all changing and they feel pressured to keep up.  I hope they don't get discouraged.  I compare technology to what has happened with television.  TV is a fantastic thing to have, but of the hundreds of channels available to me, I really only watch about six of them.  The rest is a vast wasteland of useless crap.  For myself, then, I use the handful of technology applications that are really awesome, keep my eyes and ears open for new stuff, but keep in mind that most of it will not help me do my job better.