While I've been fortunate enough to participate in the CIC technology forum, I've been thinking about the overall theme; "evolution vs. revolution." In my experience, the idea of what makes technology fit in to either of these categories is the impact of the change. The impact of evolutionary change doesn't really extend beyond the tool itself. It may be a speed or efficiency improvement, or something that may make the way that you use the technology itself more comfortable or responsive, but it doesn't change any rules, culture, or society.
Revolutionary change acts as a catalyst to help people re-evaluate the way that they do things - it does change the rules, behaviors, and even the culture. It may start off as a series of evolutionary changes, but when you look at the overall impact, it is clearly a game-changer. Portable technologies has had a lot of revolutionary impact. Consider life without mobile phones, or GPS, or mobile computing. Online technologies like the teaching and learning environment, social networking, communications that break down borders and bring people together. The loss of any of these technologies (and so many more) would have a significant impact on our present culture.
Our challenge, as experts in managing, maintaining, and improving technology (in education or in any other industry) is to work with our communities. We all need to engage with the people that we're helping to find more opportunities for technology to act as a catalyst for change - change that benefits the community. How can we use technology to help create an environment that gives people the confidence - and provides the time and tools - that allow them to re-evaluate the way that they teach, or connect to other people, or manage resources? How can you provide technology that gives users more time to focus on the things in their life that are most important?
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