February 24, 2009

Technophobia

It's easier to give training sessions to people already involved with Educational Technology because you can start your presentation showing the tools and making people enthusiastic by being an enthusiast.

However, whenever I am going to deliver some session to the general ELT public, I try to begin showing them that there is no need to be afraid of technology. There are always those reluctant teachers who think those tools work only with you because you are young, you know the technolgy, etc...

To help these teachers feel a bit more confident, I try to show them that there has always been and there will always be "technology". The thing is that we don't see the technological appliances we use in our daily lives as technological anymore, we simply "use" them, and the same can happen with webtools, as long as we are not afraid and reluctant about trying them.

Here is a video I usually show in the beginning of my training sessions because it
humorously expresses this very idea:


(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFAWR6hzZek)

My colleague Karenne Joy Sylvester has written a very insightful post about this topic too, illustrating these ideas with a personal story of her childhood.

12 comments:

BeyzaY said...

Dear Ronaldo,
Thanks a lot for making this post. I also meet a lot of teachers and students who have technophobia a lot. It is really shocking to come accross such learners in the twentyfirst century as they are expected to be digital immigrants. It takes some time for them to get used to technology .


P.S. I couldn't view the video as I couldn't see a link to it. Is it possible for you to post it again?

Ronaldo Lima Jr. said...

Hi Beyza! Thanks for coming and leaving a comment.

Look, about the video something funny is hapenning. When I came here to leave this comment the video didn't load, but then I refreshed the page and it loaded just fine. But anyway, here is the link in case it doesn't load again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFAWR6hzZek

Ronaldo

Anonymous said...

I'm not afraid of the technology, I'm afraid of the amount of time it takes!

Ronaldo Lima Jr. said...

You have a good point, exploring webtools, selecting what is interesting etc does take up a lot of our time.

Thanks for commenting.

Nina Liakos said...

I love this video; it's one of my favorites. Do you know which language they are speaking? Swedish maybe?

Ronaldo Lima Jr. said...

This video is one of my favorites too, Nina! Good question about the language, I always thought of Dutch, but really have no idea...

Thanks for dropping by!

Ronaldo

Dennis said...

Hi, Ronaldo.

I also really like the video, and I think it's a great way to begin work with those who are not very tech-savvy.

If you read the full description of the video on YouTube, you can find out what the language is.

All the best--

Dennis in Phoenix

Ronaldo Lima Jr. said...

Thanks for visiting my blog, Dennis. As usual, your comment was very useful, thanks a lot for leading me to finding out the language, Norwegian it is!

Ronaldo

Anonymous said...

That`s right I agree with Alex I use and enjoy what technolgy offers us but the problem is time...there are people that spend hours on end `surfing`sometimes on interesting or new matters,but not everyone has that ammonunt of time to spare.

Ronaldo Lima Jr. said...

Unfortunately that's true, Amanda. I too feel I wouldn't be so much into technology if I didn't have working hours for this. But still, one of our roles as educational technology empowerers is to try to make technology investigation and application feasible within teachers schedules. I guess selecting and going slowly, step by step and tool by tool.

Thanks for commnenting!

Ronaldo

Anonymous said...

Excellent blog - you cover relevant topics and I look forward to reading your new post soon!

Ronaldo Lima Jr. said...

Hi Marina, Thanks!

I am having a hard time finding time to write more, but I'll soon do it!

Ronaldo