Rethinking Technology Implementation for Lasting Impact
Upon reading these two chapters, I found myself reflecting on how technology has evolved in my own life. As a millennial, I vividly remember the first computer in our house. It was massive, extremely loud, and we even had a separate phone line for dial-up internet. Fast forward five years, and I was downloading songs from LimeWire and crashing our poor HP computer every few days. MSN Messenger became a permanent fixture on my desktop. When I got my first laptop, it came with a set of rules-‘you can’t have it in your room, it has to be where we can see it, and it must be turned off after midnight’. My parents weren’t particularly strict about our computer time (or what we now call screen time), but they did want to make sure we were safe and using technology responsibly. Reflecting on my personal experience, I was particularly struck by several key points in the readings that made me rethink my own views on technology in education.
Bates (A short history of educational technology, 2022) takes a formal approach to discussing the history of technology, focusing on the evolution of communication methods over time. He begins with the foundation of oral communication and traces the progression through each technological advancement, illustrating how each new development built upon and surpassed the previous one. I found the mention of a paradigm shift intriguing-how society tends to adopt the latest innovations based on the assumption that they are fundamentally better. Bates argues that new technology never truly replaces old technology; instead, it becomes more specialized, serving a specific function while older technologies continue to exist for other purposes.
Watters’ (The history of the future of ed-tech, 2014) approach feels more ‘story-like,’ offering a personalized take on the history of technology. However, I found it more difficult to follow, probably because my familiarity with the broader history of technology is limited to my personal experiences. One aspect I appreciated was the link to culture, particularly the idea that while it is easy to create new technology, changing human behaviour around it is much more challenging. This reminds me of the generational divide I observed at work during the implementation of a new fully digital charting system-doctors will write orders and prescribe medications online as well. It is an interesting shift for a field that has historically relied on paper documentation, especially given the ‘if it’s not charted, it’s not done’ mantra drilled into us in nursing school. The behaviours around this change have been interesting to observe. Newer nurses who have grown up in a digital world have adapted quickly to the new system, while the more experienced nurses are resistant to the changes. So far the transition has not been as smooth as I think it could have been, which mirrors the cultural resistance that Watters describes. This has led me to reflect on how we can provide better support for all users during technology transitions.
Moving forward as educators, I believe the implementation of new technology has become somewhat of a lost art. I cannot count how many times a representative has come to our unit with a new ‘fandangled’ device meant to replace something else, spends 15 minutes explaining it, and then disappears. As a results, nurses are inconsistent with its use, and the technology’s potential is not fully realized. A bit more thought and troubleshooting would go a long way. Perhaps it is time to call for a concrete plan for implementing technology that is actually useful for those who are expected to use it?
References
Bates, A. W. (2022). A short history of educational technology. In Teaching in a digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning. Vancouver, BC: Tony Bates Associates Ltd. Retrieved from https://eddl.tru.ca/eddl-5101-educational-technology-for-learning-fall-2024-webster/week-1-getting-started-introduction-to-educational-technology-fall-2024-webster/
Freepik (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.freepik.com/premium-ai-image/female-doctor-nurse-cartoon-isometric-people-computer-hospital-technology-healthcare-concept-vector-illustration_133693323.htm
Watters, A. (2014). The hidden history of ed-tech. In The monsters of educational technology (pp. 7-31). Retrieved from https://eddl.tru.ca/eddl-5101-educational-technology-for-learning-fall-2024-webster/week-1-getting-started-introduction-to-educational-technology-fall-2024-webster/
September 8, 2024 at 7:42 pm
Hello Jamie,
Excellent post, one which I can relate to extremely well. Growing up in rural Newfoundland, technology was quite absent. We had the basics- an old desktop computer with dial-up internet. It wasn’t until late high school and early university years that I started using a cellphone, mainly due to the fact that cellphone towers did not service my hometown. Fast forward to my nursing career here in British Columbia where I was bombarded with technology that I had no idea how to use. Reflecting on the day online charting came into our unit on Perinatal still makes my stomach flip upside down. The tech support team would say “Oh, its easy, you just…” but at that point, my eyes were crossed and I no longer understood the English language.
Technology in healthcare has become a competition. Companies continually inventing new devices and making them increasingly complex. But is this actually improving the quality of patient care? Or is it just wasting valuable nursing time on tasks that are distant from direct patient care?
September 10, 2024 at 10:53 am
Hi Jamie,
I appreciated your reflections, especially the connection between personal experiences with technology and its broader impact on education and healthcare. Your point about newer technology often failing to fully replace older systems resonates with me. I agree that without proper implementation and support, the potential of new tools often goes unrealized. It’s interesting how you highlight the cultural resistance to change, especially in fields like healthcare, where new technology could dramatically improve efficiency but meet generational pushback. This aligns with Bates’ and Watters’ insights on how technology integration is about more than just the tools—changing behaviours.
I wonder how a more thoughtful approach to support and training could help bridge that generational divide and smooth transitions.
Thanks for your insights!
September 10, 2024 at 10:54 am
Hi Jamie,
I appreciated your reflections, especially the connection between personal experiences with technology and its broader impact on education and healthcare. Your point about newer technology often failing to fully replace older systems resonates with me. I agree that without proper implementation and support, the potential of new tools often goes unrealized. It’s interesting how you highlight the cultural resistance to change, especially in fields like healthcare, where new technology could dramatically improve efficiency but meet generational pushback. This aligns with Bates’ and Watters’ insights on how technology integration is about more than just the tools—it’s about changing behaviours.
I wonder how a more thoughtful approach to support and training could help bridge that generational divide and smooth transitions.
Thanks for your insights!
September 17, 2024 at 3:26 pm
Hi Jamie,
I have also experienced the generational divide you speak of in regards to older staff versus younger staff. When I began teaching (2008), I was very much aligned with the new technology and seemed to have an innate capacity to use it! Now many years later, I find myself struggling to keep up often looking to younger leaders willing to teach me. There are many though who don’t embrace new technology and are wanting to do what they have aways done. I also have experienced new technology being implemented with little instruction and often it falls to the wayside. There can be much tension in resistance when new tools are introduced. Human behaviour is hard to change!
September 18, 2024 at 2:08 am
Hi Jamie,
Great observations on the growth in technologies and the poorly supported current implementations you’ve seen. A key component of my current job is to deflect calls for new platforms by insisting on a ‘problem-based’ approach to the adoption of new tech and/or the switching between similar platforms (this is also reflected in the assignments in this course).
We always have to consider the cost in time, training and design work required by new technologies. A new platform at our (very small) university needs a minimum of 6 months for a roll-out with live training, videos and tutorials in place at the 3 month mark.
One interesting early technology, the Palm Pilot, was originally targeted at medical practitioners in the 1990s. The form of the tool was initially tested by having doctors and nurses carry around different wood shapes at work to see what design would work best. A friend of mine tested a class set for two years at BCIT, it worked quite well but they were withdrawn at the end of the trial.