Podagogy

Recently Alan Levine commented on his blog,

“…but [I] am honestly losing a bit of excitement every over every shiny new marble that comes rolling down the chute. It’s something about moving beyond tool lust to a love of the craft”.

Alan’s comment really resonates with me. As an academic technologist and faculty member, I have the responsibility for exploring emerging technologies for teaching and learning, and frankly, it is hard for me to keep up. And the straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back is the challenge not only of emerging technologies, but developing new and effective pedagogical habits and practices that embrace the cultural shifts exemplified by non-existence of class walls in our student’s worldview (see previous post). How can we help faculty take the risk of stepping outside the boundaries of comfortable teaching practices and integrate a technology that may enhance learning? I think the technologist runs the risk of being perceived as a “gadget guy” even though his passion is good teaching.
It seems to me we have to be very thoughtful in our recommendations to faculty regarding emerging technologies. Eric Kunnen’s comment on my last post regarding the importance of knowing your target audience (a core instructional design principle) applies to our work with faculty as well. Should all faculty use Twitter? Google Docs? Del.icio.us? Well, maybe they should be using a social bookmarking tool. But, what I’m am getting at is the potential benefit of matching (as much as possible) the recommended technology to the faculty member’s “personality” or style. (I am sure this idea could spawn a host of humorous matches [faculty personalities + real/fictional technology]. My point is not that faculty have peculiar personalities (in general), but some technologies simply do not match how they think and work. In my own case, I choose not to use Twitter, but I don’t mind using IM. My preference is to employ technologies that permit me to focus when I need to focus. I know some faculty deprecate IM for similar reasons – to them IM is too disruptive.
Bottom line – I am constantly reminding faculty that tech tools are not the main point. Good teaching is, and that requires stretching ourselves on a regular basis.
What strategies have you employed to convince your faculty you’re all about excellence in teaching and learning, without ignoring the potential benefits of emerging technologies?
ADDENDUM: D’Arcy Norman’s post on addiction to Twitter provides additional insight to this topic.