The Ed Norman Syndrome
Unfortunately, I must say I have indeed experienced this sort of situation in which having top-notch computer equipment is rendered useless by the over-zealous Manager of Information Systems (MIS); for his mission in life, is to prevent or slow you down as much as he can in order to protect the equipment and ensure that no one breaks the rigid rules he has placed on technology usage. Lord MIS rules in his technology kingdom. You must bow to his wishes and desires if you remotely expect to be able to utilize his equipment with some degree of efficiency.
On the other hand, I have also had the opportunity to witness the complete opposite scenario. I have worked at companies where equipment usage rules are virtually non-existent. In this case, the results are pretty similar to the anecdote I described in the previous paragraph. The technology system is running amok, and the environment resembles the wild west: chaos can and will emerge at any moment. In such environment, people are not able to perform their tasks, because law and order are absent. Lack of leadership and organization, sets the stage for horrible things to take place with software and hardware as well. The result is the inability for anyone to make any significant, efficient use of the available technology.
From my personal experience with these two extreme styles of technology maintenance and management, I concluded that moderation is the way to go. On the one hand, one would like to have someone who is in charge of safeguarding the technology for maintenance-related reasons and to prevent abuse from individuals who lack common sense. On the other hand, one must also ensure that the person who has been vested with the responsibility of managing such technology, does not become imperialistic to the point that he now becomes everyone's abuser. I believe that moderate overseeing of technology is the best compromise, for it benefits the manager as well as the user. In summary, moderation brings the most efficiency out of the technology being discussed, while it also allows the technology manager the highest degree of safeguarding without encroaching into effective, efficient use of technology.
WEEKLY ACTIVITY LOG
- Downloaded and listened to Session 7 blog
- Formulated response to Session 7 blog
- Posted response to Session 7 blog
- Continued working on projects 2 and 3
- Read scholar's blog postings
- Posted comments on scholar's postings
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
SESSION 6
BARRIERS TO TECHNOLOGY:
What are the common barriers to technology I see and/or hear in my area?
I work in an area that is perceived in some ways as a leading-edge technology area: Electronics.
Despite of this fact, a common barrier to technology integration I hear and see is the lack of funding due to fiscal budgets. Just like any typical company, our fiscal budget is planned, reviewed, adjusted and adopted; very little room if any is provided for unforseen events. This is particularly true during austerity periods. Ocassionaly, things will change within the budget that will provide for an opportunity for technology integration, provided no other more pressing needs await. Every department within the company has a budget, which usually does not have a built-in discretionary fund; sometimes we have to wait several years to be able to purchase a much-needed piece of technology, because the finances are not in place to make such a purchase possible.
Everyone I talk to, has my personal perception that time has become quite a scarce commodity. I frequently face the same ailment; I have learned to deal with this situation by compressing time. Unfortunately, nothing comes free; time-compression comes with stress as an undesirable side-effect. Hopefully someday soon, we will find a solution to time shortages; such solution should allow us the time we need to more effectively remove bariers to technology integration.
Real Barriers and Proxy Barriers:
It is my opinion that time and money barriers to technology integration are real barriers.
Maintaining a sense of leadership at every level is of paramount importance, for it flows throughout every organization when used appropriately. The gift of creativity is also of utmost importance, because its use will successfully result in the overcoming of technology integration challenges, regardless of the setting. Perseverance is also a key element in the fight for technology integration, for it will allow us to continue forging ahead, even when the going is not going well; perseverance most always results in the attainment of a goal, in this instance it allows us to successfully break barriers impeding the integration of technology.
WEEKLY ACTIVITY LOG:
- Downloaded and listened to Session 6 podcast
- Formulated appropriate response to Session 6 podcast
- Posted response to Session 6 podcast on my blog
- Continued working on my projects
- Read scholar's blogs
- Posted comments on scholar's blogs
-
What are the common barriers to technology I see and/or hear in my area?
I work in an area that is perceived in some ways as a leading-edge technology area: Electronics.
Despite of this fact, a common barrier to technology integration I hear and see is the lack of funding due to fiscal budgets. Just like any typical company, our fiscal budget is planned, reviewed, adjusted and adopted; very little room if any is provided for unforseen events. This is particularly true during austerity periods. Ocassionaly, things will change within the budget that will provide for an opportunity for technology integration, provided no other more pressing needs await. Every department within the company has a budget, which usually does not have a built-in discretionary fund; sometimes we have to wait several years to be able to purchase a much-needed piece of technology, because the finances are not in place to make such a purchase possible.
Everyone I talk to, has my personal perception that time has become quite a scarce commodity. I frequently face the same ailment; I have learned to deal with this situation by compressing time. Unfortunately, nothing comes free; time-compression comes with stress as an undesirable side-effect. Hopefully someday soon, we will find a solution to time shortages; such solution should allow us the time we need to more effectively remove bariers to technology integration.
Real Barriers and Proxy Barriers:
It is my opinion that time and money barriers to technology integration are real barriers.
Maintaining a sense of leadership at every level is of paramount importance, for it flows throughout every organization when used appropriately. The gift of creativity is also of utmost importance, because its use will successfully result in the overcoming of technology integration challenges, regardless of the setting. Perseverance is also a key element in the fight for technology integration, for it will allow us to continue forging ahead, even when the going is not going well; perseverance most always results in the attainment of a goal, in this instance it allows us to successfully break barriers impeding the integration of technology.
WEEKLY ACTIVITY LOG:
- Downloaded and listened to Session 6 podcast
- Formulated appropriate response to Session 6 podcast
- Posted response to Session 6 podcast on my blog
- Continued working on my projects
- Read scholar's blogs
- Posted comments on scholar's blogs
-
Friday, February 9, 2007
SESSION 5 - BEST PRACTICES
RESPONSE ITEM:
As Dr. Newberry explained in his Session 5 podcast, Technology Integration can take many forms. The selection of Best Technology practices is shaped by a number of factors, some of these could be the instructor's approach, the level the instructor is teaching, the subject matter the instructor is teaching, etc. Ultimately, the determining factor as to the selection of a best practice rests in the mind of the beholder, for what to one instructor may appear to be as the best practice when it comes to delivery of knowledge, may not make any sense at all to another instructor. Once again, the answer to the question of what is a best practice rests within the mentality of the instructor given a particular educational setting.
There are indeed, many ways to integrate technology in every educational setting. I believe that the best practice is that which successfully reaches the students and ultimately succeeds at conveying accross to the students the materials and knowledge goals of the lessons. It is very possible to succeed by using many approaches. The decision of which best practice to utilize lies within the instructor's realm and capability. Thus, there is no right or wrong approach to best practice, for its approach is relative.
As part of my response to this assignment, I will cite Power Point as a case of Best Practice. I became gradually acquainted to Power Point, first as a student while attending Junior College. Some of my instructors used this practice to present their lessons to the class. I felt the presentations were very good and I became interested in learning how to use this technology, so that I could integrate it to my personal knowledge base. Thus, my curiosity led me to tinker with power Point, until I reached a level of proficiency where I was able to create simple, but concise presentations.
Eventually, I transfered to this university and my classes actually required me to create Power Point presentations. Thus, I was the able to utilize the skills I learned. I have sucessfully used power point many times. Although I do not consider myself a professional at hanling Power Point, I feel comfortable with this technology. I feel I have integrated this technology to my best practices personal knowledge base.
I really like Power Point because of it's flexibility of application. For example, one can use power point to display text. Power Point can be used as an outline for purposes of a presentation; the outline is presented, while the instructor fills-in the titles with additional details and information. Power Point can also serve as a presentation by itself, because one can add a number of slides that can be run like a mini-movie.
In Power Point, one can also insert sound in every slide. Lastly, depending on your level of expertise, Power Point can be utilized so that it approaches movie quality. By using Power Point in a way that is presented as seamless slides, in which one can add video and sound. When used in this manner, one gets the best out of Power Point.
Power Point is not state-of-the-art technology; it has been around for several years now. I believe it is a very useful technology to use, for it can be used in so many different ways to satisfy almost any imaginable application in the educational setting. Power Point is as flexible as the user's capabilities.
Despite the fact that this is not a new technology, I am amazed at how many people know very little about it. People's level of knowledge about this and other technologies varies, depending on the setting discussed. This explains the knowledge disparity. perhaps more time is needed before more people discover the technological value of Power Point, and incorporate it in their personal knowledge base as a best practice.
WEEKLY LOG:
- Downloaded and listened to Session 5 podcast.
- Formulated a response for Session 5 blog.
- Posted response in blog.
- Posted Project 1 podcast.
- Finished Project 1.
- E-mailed instructor and advised of Project 1 status.
- Continued working on Project 2.
- Continued working on Project 3.
- Read scholar's blogs.
- Posted comments on scholar's blogs.
As Dr. Newberry explained in his Session 5 podcast, Technology Integration can take many forms. The selection of Best Technology practices is shaped by a number of factors, some of these could be the instructor's approach, the level the instructor is teaching, the subject matter the instructor is teaching, etc. Ultimately, the determining factor as to the selection of a best practice rests in the mind of the beholder, for what to one instructor may appear to be as the best practice when it comes to delivery of knowledge, may not make any sense at all to another instructor. Once again, the answer to the question of what is a best practice rests within the mentality of the instructor given a particular educational setting.
There are indeed, many ways to integrate technology in every educational setting. I believe that the best practice is that which successfully reaches the students and ultimately succeeds at conveying accross to the students the materials and knowledge goals of the lessons. It is very possible to succeed by using many approaches. The decision of which best practice to utilize lies within the instructor's realm and capability. Thus, there is no right or wrong approach to best practice, for its approach is relative.
As part of my response to this assignment, I will cite Power Point as a case of Best Practice. I became gradually acquainted to Power Point, first as a student while attending Junior College. Some of my instructors used this practice to present their lessons to the class. I felt the presentations were very good and I became interested in learning how to use this technology, so that I could integrate it to my personal knowledge base. Thus, my curiosity led me to tinker with power Point, until I reached a level of proficiency where I was able to create simple, but concise presentations.
Eventually, I transfered to this university and my classes actually required me to create Power Point presentations. Thus, I was the able to utilize the skills I learned. I have sucessfully used power point many times. Although I do not consider myself a professional at hanling Power Point, I feel comfortable with this technology. I feel I have integrated this technology to my best practices personal knowledge base.
I really like Power Point because of it's flexibility of application. For example, one can use power point to display text. Power Point can be used as an outline for purposes of a presentation; the outline is presented, while the instructor fills-in the titles with additional details and information. Power Point can also serve as a presentation by itself, because one can add a number of slides that can be run like a mini-movie.
In Power Point, one can also insert sound in every slide. Lastly, depending on your level of expertise, Power Point can be utilized so that it approaches movie quality. By using Power Point in a way that is presented as seamless slides, in which one can add video and sound. When used in this manner, one gets the best out of Power Point.
Power Point is not state-of-the-art technology; it has been around for several years now. I believe it is a very useful technology to use, for it can be used in so many different ways to satisfy almost any imaginable application in the educational setting. Power Point is as flexible as the user's capabilities.
Despite the fact that this is not a new technology, I am amazed at how many people know very little about it. People's level of knowledge about this and other technologies varies, depending on the setting discussed. This explains the knowledge disparity. perhaps more time is needed before more people discover the technological value of Power Point, and incorporate it in their personal knowledge base as a best practice.
WEEKLY LOG:
- Downloaded and listened to Session 5 podcast.
- Formulated a response for Session 5 blog.
- Posted response in blog.
- Posted Project 1 podcast.
- Finished Project 1.
- E-mailed instructor and advised of Project 1 status.
- Continued working on Project 2.
- Continued working on Project 3.
- Read scholar's blogs.
- Posted comments on scholar's blogs.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Weekly Activities
- Downloaded and listened to Session 4 podcast.
- Took podcast notes.
- Began work on data-gathering for projects one, two and three.
- posted response items.
- Read scholars postings.
- Posted comments on scholars blogs.
- Made some necessary changes on this blog.
- Took podcast notes.
- Began work on data-gathering for projects one, two and three.
- posted response items.
- Read scholars postings.
- Posted comments on scholars blogs.
- Made some necessary changes on this blog.
SESSION 4
Session four podcast addresses the concept of "Diffusion of Innovation."
In his book, Mr. Rogers discusses how the adaptation of a new idea flows thru a group of individuals. The rate at which new ideas are accepted by society is determined by their willingness to adapt to a new idea. Individuals are always somewhere within the five levels Mr. Rogers described: Innovators, Early Adapters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Lagers. In our society, everyone is at a different level of comfort when it comes to technology. Naturally and by extension, organizations of every conceivable type are also afflicted by this relative willingness of society to adapt to new technological ideas.
After some soul searching, I determined that I fall in the category of the Early Majority group of individuals. I was able to make such determination by analyzing how I determine when it is time to acquire new technology. I found that since I have experience in electronic design, I also know that when a new product is released in the market it is overpriced: from the business standpoint, this is when the big money is made; there is no competition and the demand for new products is usually high. New product introduction is also the time when all the Research and Development that went into creating the new product must be recovered. Just as important, newly released products have the inherent tendency to have bugs, glitches and/or design flaws. These facts are enough for me to prevent me from purchasing new technology as soon as it appears. In my view, it is better to wait until a product has proven itself to be reliable, problem-free and available at a reasonable price.
I will use cell phone technology as an example: when cell phones first appeared in the market, these were a true novelty, a technological breakthrough, a product which looked quite promising. I also found out how expensive these devices were and how the customer was not only being charged for outgoing calls, but for incoming ones as well; the product had coverage in very limited areas at the time and calls were very frequently dropped. I decided to wait a few years to allow these problems to go away; I knew the technology would become more reliable, the prices would drop and the features would also be more plentiful. I finally decided to purchase a cell phone for myself and my wife and daughter. As I anticipated, there were indeed more features built into these phones: movie recorder, photo camera, sound recorder, internet access, calendar, calculator, notepad, etc. I was very pleased with the prices as well as the service fees. I am still not happy with area reception: my calls are still sometimes dropped.
I must admit that the reason I decided to purchase these phones for myself and my family, was because of necessity; we needed to maintain frequent communication due to ever-changing time schedules among us. Cell phone purchase then became a reasonable thing to do to solve our time scheduling problems. I do not believe I hesitate to change; I welcome technological change, because of the nature of the work I do as an electronics technician. In my field, things are never the same; new products appear all the time. Products that survive on the market, simply come back with more features, more powerful and smaller than before; sometimes the fast pace of technology can be unsettling.
In his book, Mr. Rogers discusses how the adaptation of a new idea flows thru a group of individuals. The rate at which new ideas are accepted by society is determined by their willingness to adapt to a new idea. Individuals are always somewhere within the five levels Mr. Rogers described: Innovators, Early Adapters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Lagers. In our society, everyone is at a different level of comfort when it comes to technology. Naturally and by extension, organizations of every conceivable type are also afflicted by this relative willingness of society to adapt to new technological ideas.
After some soul searching, I determined that I fall in the category of the Early Majority group of individuals. I was able to make such determination by analyzing how I determine when it is time to acquire new technology. I found that since I have experience in electronic design, I also know that when a new product is released in the market it is overpriced: from the business standpoint, this is when the big money is made; there is no competition and the demand for new products is usually high. New product introduction is also the time when all the Research and Development that went into creating the new product must be recovered. Just as important, newly released products have the inherent tendency to have bugs, glitches and/or design flaws. These facts are enough for me to prevent me from purchasing new technology as soon as it appears. In my view, it is better to wait until a product has proven itself to be reliable, problem-free and available at a reasonable price.
I will use cell phone technology as an example: when cell phones first appeared in the market, these were a true novelty, a technological breakthrough, a product which looked quite promising. I also found out how expensive these devices were and how the customer was not only being charged for outgoing calls, but for incoming ones as well; the product had coverage in very limited areas at the time and calls were very frequently dropped. I decided to wait a few years to allow these problems to go away; I knew the technology would become more reliable, the prices would drop and the features would also be more plentiful. I finally decided to purchase a cell phone for myself and my wife and daughter. As I anticipated, there were indeed more features built into these phones: movie recorder, photo camera, sound recorder, internet access, calendar, calculator, notepad, etc. I was very pleased with the prices as well as the service fees. I am still not happy with area reception: my calls are still sometimes dropped.
I must admit that the reason I decided to purchase these phones for myself and my family, was because of necessity; we needed to maintain frequent communication due to ever-changing time schedules among us. Cell phone purchase then became a reasonable thing to do to solve our time scheduling problems. I do not believe I hesitate to change; I welcome technological change, because of the nature of the work I do as an electronics technician. In my field, things are never the same; new products appear all the time. Products that survive on the market, simply come back with more features, more powerful and smaller than before; sometimes the fast pace of technology can be unsettling.
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