How have technologies affected you and your organisation??

I have been asked on my Masters Course with the Open University to reflect upon how technologies have affected myself and the organisation I work for. In a one word response for both me and the University I work for 'gradually'sums it up.

For me I have gradually been developing my technical skills and incorporating the use of technologies into my work and home life. The biggest impact for me has come from the internet. I can no longer cope with waiting to find an answer, I need to know straight away and the first place I look to is the internet. Either through my mobile phone or on a computer I need to have access. I also think that as I work advising others on the use of these technologies it is important that I use and understand them myself. If I did not have this role I do not think that I would be using some of these tools. I still do not create a lot of content. I am a bit of a perfectionist, so I am not keen on publishing anything that I do not think is good. This makes creating content time consuming, especially if there is writing involved.

Enough about me, what about the University? Well, for me the bottom paragraph on page 10 of Conole's paper completely sums up the situation. We are in what feels like a losing battle to get colleagues and the university to understand that knowing how to use new technologies and to harness them for learning and teaching is a major issue. Academics need time to be able to develop these skills but to also develop the understanding needed to use this technology effectively. When these technologies are adopted by the top level of the university they are too keen to get the technology out there and being used. They do not think about all the other elements like pilots and evaluation which allow the technology to be refined and proved to be effective.

Conole, G. (forthcoming) ‘Stepping over the edge: the implications of new technologies for education’ in Lee, M.J.W. and McLoughlin, C. (eds) Web 2.0-based E-learning: Applying Social Informatics for Tertiary Teaching, Hershey, PA, IGI Global.