Creation of Van Gogh’s Starry Night
Technological innovations hold promise for educators who seek new ways to inspire, motivate, engage, and encourage social and cultural awareness. The innovation-decision process we experience is fascinating. New ideas generate excitement and/or fear, depending largely upon our interpretation of associated risks.
What is it that causes some educators to publicly and vehemently reject even the idea of innovative technologies in education? How do educators experience learning and transformation? How does an educator's public rejection of an innovation influence decision-making of learners nearby?
I ponder these questions after encountering numerous quirky responses to the idea of Second Life as an educational tool. The notion of avatars in 3D virtual worlds has caused both public joy and outrage. Those who indulge, describe the experience as transformational. Those who are outraged leave the room, leaving me to wonder if they had the self-awareness to recognize and reject transformation as it began to unfold.
With SL I am free to think visually and to explore. Webster defines freedom as "the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action." Is it possible that educators are inherently coerced into a lifetime filled with constraints such that freedom generates fear and not relief? Maybe some feel it necessary to impose constraints in both choice (rejection of innovation) and action (doing this publicly) as a way of taking away others' freedom and defending "tradition." Could it be that educators have forgotten how to be vulnerable to new ideas, as students must?
Technological innovations hold promise for educators who seek new ways to inspire, motivate, engage, and encourage social and cultural awareness. The innovation-decision process we experience is fascinating. New ideas generate excitement and/or fear, depending largely upon our interpretation of associated risks.What is it that causes some educators to publicly and vehemently reject even the idea of innovative technologies in education? How do educators experience learning and transformation? How does an educator's public rejection of an innovation influence decision-making of learners nearby?
I ponder these questions after encountering numerous quirky responses to the idea of Second Life as an educational tool. The notion of avatars in 3D virtual worlds has caused both public joy and outrage. Those who indulge, describe the experience as transformational. Those who are outraged leave the room, leaving me to wonder if they had the self-awareness to recognize and reject transformation as it began to unfold.
With SL I am free to think visually and to explore. Webster defines freedom as "the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action." Is it possible that educators are inherently coerced into a lifetime filled with constraints such that freedom generates fear and not relief? Maybe some feel it necessary to impose constraints in both choice (rejection of innovation) and action (doing this publicly) as a way of taking away others' freedom and defending "tradition." Could it be that educators have forgotten how to be vulnerable to new ideas, as students must?
