You may remember Michael Wesch. He has done quite a bit of note since that project (here and here).
He is, however, re-evaluating the role of technology in the classroom after receiving reliable reports that his methods don’t always work for other teachers:
A Tech-Happy Professor Reboots After Hearing His Teaching Advice Isn’t Working
…Then a frustrated colleague approached him after one of his talks: “I implemented your idea, and it just didn’t work,” Mr. Wesch was told. “The students thought it was chaos.”
It was not an isolated incident. As other professors he met described their plans to follow his example, he suspected their classes would also flop. “They would just be inspired to use blogs and Twitter and technology, but the No. 1 thing that was missing from it was a sense of purpose.”
A constant theme for this blog, and my approach to technology, is to experiment (or better yet, play) with different ways of doing things. Some things will work, some things won’t, and it won’t always be the technology that works or doesn’t. Sometimes it is the people using or implementing the technology that don’t quite “fit” into the picture.
There is nothing wrong with this; the challenge is finding the best technological fit for the people and the situation. Rarely does a “perfect” solution come about, but experimentation can help to bring forth a “good” solution, and that is often the best result.
