Chasing the Dragon's Tale

From the NetDay web site comes the survey results from NetDay Speak Up Day 2003:

"As part of Speak Up Day 2003, 210,000 K-12 students submitted surveys on technology and education, sharing their ideas about using technology and the Internet for learning and for fun. NetDay?s analysis of the data reveals interesting findings and themes. Today?s students are very technology savvy, feel strongly about the positive value of technology and rely upon technology as an essential and preferred component of every aspect of their lives."

The complete report, a 34 page PDF file is here: Voices and Views Just a sampling of what the K-3 (that's right, 3rd graders) had to say: 73% responded 'yes' when asked if they use computers to help with their schoolwork. 'Interesting report and a good overview of how the level of sophistication grows with each of the higher level grades...alas we may have a generation coming who will scoff at the idea of keeping up with technology, it may be more of a challenge for technology to keep up with their demands.

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Two requests arrived via email within a day or so requesting RSS Feed information for Chasing the Dragon's Tale. First of all, it is both flattering and frightening that someone else in the blogosphere is interested... I must confess that I thought the Dragon had me on this one...'a slight tail thrashing from the Dragon, I suppose. But thanks to some capable programming/tech support from Byron Marsh, my mis-installation of the Creative Commons license was corrected and the xml stuff magically works! Additional words of thanks go to Elise over at Learning Movable Type for the great information on RSS and syndication... I have added Pluck (Note: Pluck is doing an upgrade today, info may not be available) as my new aggregator and by doing so, feel that I thwarted the Dragon's attempt to gain distance in my personal race to keep up with technology (allow me that bit of delusion, ok?) Learn something new today...and give the Dragon a kick for me!

Posted by admin at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A portion of this weekend was spent in a Courage to Teach Retreat held here in Nashville with about 20 educators, mostly in the K-12 arena. It was not long after my introduction to the group as a Web Developer that my smaller group discussions included chats about technology issues that teachers face in their personal and classroom lives. Three themes seemed to surface repeatedly...the need for more technology (computers), harware that is dependable/secure, and a general fear that the instructors involved will not know enough to make computers productive learning tools. In so many stories that appear on the internet, school boards scramble to implement technology solutions that include infrastructure, hardware, and peripherals THEN wonder why aren't the teachers using the equipment? One such story appeared today in the The Stamford Advocate (CT): School Technology Purchases Scrutinized.

"Questions are being raised about poor coordination between technology purchases and curriculum, a lack of teacher training on new equipment and an overall reluctance on the part of school officials to heed the advice of outsiders and reconsider spending priorities."

Another report in Sunday's paper demonstrates the struggles of steachers and students with training needs. This is probably an over-simplification: hardware (with 24/7 support), training, and curriculum make up essential sides of the educational technology triangle...remove any one of them and the triangle loses its integrity. Constructing one side of the triangle without constructing the other two at the same time runs the risk of an ineffective and/or wasteful result. I am convinced that the teachers in my retreat were sincere, honest, bright, and dedicated individuals... unfortunately their college degrees did not come with an emphasis in using technology, the training on how to use technology as a resource within a curriculum, or any motivation to include technology in their life long learning.. Many of their students will be more technologically advanced when they walk thru the classroom door than their respective teachers... learning together is not an option, it is essential. Chasing the Dragon may mean that student and teacher are running side-by-side instead of running single file with the teacher out front.

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Moving classes to an online environment was not only to be THE trend in education but is a threat to the survival of the traditional residential higher education setting...plus, it is/was an untapped gold mine. If you have been around for the last 10 years, you know the story and have heard the debate.

In retrospect, let's review the pitch (in my best used-car-salesman voice):

• You have all of these great courses...why not convert them to online courses so that your students may study with you from anywhere in the world
  
• You can add hundreds (thousands, even) of new students without having to build new classroom space
  
• Traditional classroom overhead/maintenance will be zero - no HVAC, no floors to clean, less of all the things that are needed to keep a bricks and motor place functioning.
  
• You already have professors. You won't need more. You might even be able to get by with fewer... as soon as your lower level courses are online.
  
• Once a course is online, your university can market the course to other schools and draw a commission on its use for every student who takes it.

Now... let's look at the target of that pitch (and feel free to correct me), this is admittedly an unsupported thesis:
• White male senior administrators
  
• Age range 45-70
  
• Institutions seeking increases in enrollment
  
• Institutions looking to control costs of higher education
  
• Average technology skill level of administrator: Email, Word Processing, Spreadsheet (maybe), PowerPoint (perhaps), Beginner web surfer, voice mail

From that description, the date on the majority of the diplomas of this group is pre-1975. So, what experience did that generation have with distance education/distance learning? Correspondence courses were available (for the newer generation reading this, that meant using a typewriter and the USPS to exchange hard copies of your work/responses). Audio recordings on 8 track cassettes were still popular...Phillip's cassettes were gaining ground, a vcr could be purchased for a mere $900. Color TV was becoming more affordable. A quick look at the recording history timeline gives us a view as to what this generation used or introduced.

The point: it is unlikely that the majority of that generation ever developed a comfort level with technologies applicable to today's distance education enviroment. The gap in technology for this (and many genrations to follow) probably began as soon as diploma was in hand and the door to the real world opened.

So, "they" bought into the idea. A study and perfection of CYA (Cover Your A**) was rampant just a few years ago as this (aging) generation of administrators tried to explain weak/zero/negative returns on distance education investments to their respective boards. To make things even worse, some schools who 'committeed' the concept, ended up adopting technologies that were outdated by the time the approval process hit implementation...(This technology Dragon is WICKED!)

And yes, there are still issues:

Who really owns the online course (i.e. intellectual property)?...The instructor? The institution(s)? A combination of the two?

What IS the ultimate technology to adopt? A package deal such as WebCT?, Blackboard?...or an Open Source model?

What does the formula look like to determine return on investment?

Is there significant gain in the depth of learning to justify online components or full online courses?

How can the generational gap be closed without one or the other generations having to suffer the pains of a technology learning curve?

Does Distance Education even belong in higher ed (1989)?

Here's the challenge: Are generational gaps in technology predictable? What criteria should be used to explore generational gaps? Where is the convergence point where technologies and distance education reach a practical/comfortable/affordable level such that they may be implemented as easily as one uses a dry erase board in a classroom currently? Is there a business model that works for brick and mortar institutions, contributes positively to the students' experience, and does not hyper-extend the resources of faculty and staff?

Lot's of questions...these and more bounce off the walls in administrative offices on a regular basis...after all, higher ed was burned once, and no one wants to looks stupid (again). That is the nature of Chasing the Dragon. Ultimately, the answers will be the Tale.

Posted by admin at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This MUST be a mistake. Microsoft did not do its homework on the importance of search features? If that indeed is the case, then the definition of digital divide needs to include a division within the 'have-it-all' segment of society! EWeek reports, "Microsoft Concedes Misstep in Search Market" that includes CEO Steve Ballmer's comment, "That's probably the thing I feel worst about over the last few years?not making our own R&D investment". Personally, I believe that Microsoft should not beat itself up (cough, cough)... it was an easy thing to miss: "About 114.5 million Americans, or 39 percent of the population, now use search engines, according to Nielsen NetRatings. Also, businesses spent an estimated $2 billion last year on search-related advertising and some analysts expect the market to triple during the next three years." (Infomation aquired using a Google search for Search Engine Use) Micrsoft, feeder of the technology Dragon, finds itself chasing the Dragon's tail... Where is that guy from Apple when you really need him! (ouch)

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Yes, the title sounds paranoid. Putting it bluntly: got email?, got spam! John Carrol at SFGate.com provides a lengthy explanation of what is going on in the war between spam filters and spammers as unscrupulous individuals attempt to invade your inbox...and eventually your bank account. This is not geeky, just plain talk about the power of your delete key. Sitting atop an academic perch, the Dragon would love to tell you that all people using the tools of technology are doing so for the advancement of humanity AND that technology itself (Deputy Dragon) can protect us from electronic bad guys. News Flash: You may be doing wonderful things with your newly acquired tech skills...there are those who will do otherwise and those people will take advantage of your insecurities/inexperience to screw things up royally for you! Carrol closes his article with a poignant reference to the size of the digital divide: "According to the BBC, 80 percent of the people in the world have never heard a dial tone. " From that perspective, the small percentage of us that are affected by spammers seems pretty insignificant.

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I desperately attempt to stay politically neutral when it comes to researching and defining the digital divide...but today's story, United Nations Ponders Nets Future encouraged me to watch my blood pressure, take a deep breath, and ask who do these people think they are? Certainly, the Internet is dominated by a few technologically advanced players across the globe (USA, Canada, Japan, and the countries in Western Europe). These are also the players who pay the majority of the bill to keep the Net up and running. So, what is this all about? Is is about the UN's version of the "Digital Divide"...the big difference between the traditionally defined technology gap and the UN's version is where the "digit" part goes on the bottom line of their financial reports! Advantages of allowing the UN to "manage" the Internet?

It will be run by the world's largest bureaucracy

The technologically advanced nations will get to foot the bill for more repressive regimes to censor Internet activity.

There is an implication that developed nations will rush to do e-commerce with underdeveloped countries

A political organization will be taking on a business that it has absolutely NO clue how to manage Final score: Dragon 4, UN 0 The bottom line here is that the UN has much bigger concerns to deal with than worrying about whether a basket weaver in a Brazian rainforest has a domain name and an Internet connection. That is not to deny the fact that there is truly a "digital divide" between most Americans and the basketweaver. When it comes to Maslow's triangle, however, the Internet wil not solve the problems of developing nations who lack even the basic resources to sustain a population's basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. Maybe a campaign to improve ITC within the UN would be a start. I can package up two tin cans and some string to get things going...but then, it becomes a UN management issue.

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For developing countries, FOSS (PDF) (Free and Open Source Software) allows for affordable access to powerful software packages for Internet project development. Successful implementaion of FOSS programs and code is often dependant upon online communities of support people. Unfortunately, there are costs involved in getting access to these free support communities.

From today's NewsForce article, "Constraints against the adoption and use of FOSS in developing countries":

Despite the many advantages of Internet-based support for FOSS, this type of support is not ideal for many people in developing countries. The digital divide between industrialized and developing countries is also manifested in the cost and ease of access to the Internet. Given that many people in developing countries do not have adequate and affordable Internet access, if any at all, the Internet is not the ideal way to provide technical support to FOSS users in developing countries.

Again a new twist to the Dragon's tale...there is free software available to make your internet development affordable, unfortunately, if you are in a developing country the source of support for your access is an often expensive Internet access charge.

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From www.marcprensky.com: Digital Natives Digital Immigrants(PDF) I discovered this article on the Learners Together ezine, written by Marc Prensky of gamestotrain.com describing the difference between today's learners and "the rest of us".

Posted by admin at 06:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Distance education continues to re-define itself in the post dot-com-bomb era. Whatever moniker you choose: e-learning, virtual classroom, distance education, or multi-modal distance learning - online options for educational experiences have not gone away...different generations do, however, pose distinct perspectives on acceptance. Todays' The Statesman includes an article by Sujata Sen, "Tech on Spec: The Internet Blackboard" that speaks of the current generation of students and what may influence future generations to engage in online learing activity:

"Respondents from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ...pointed out that the key to e-learning doesn?t lie in any particular technology but in finding the right balance between the different delivery channels, or the ?blended learning? approach. (Only)About ten per cent of the students preferred to study completely online and the rest felt that face-to-face or a combination of both was more effective."

New models of multi-modal distance learning are being researched and developed at The School of Educational Technology at Jadavpur. Looking across the technology gap is the instant messaging immersed generation who may raise e-student numbers significantly due to available options for technology-assisted learning. Caught in the dust of the Dragon's tail are educators seeking to learn and implement technologies that upcoming generations are already using as a part of daily routine. So, who then catches the Dragon first: the educator, driven by the demand of the savy student, or, the student who seeks out those who would teach using a new but generationally diffused technology?

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A few days ago, Neilson//NetRatings ran a brief report proclaiming that Three out of Four Americans Have Access to the Internet. Stop the music! Does that mean that 75 percent (74.9% to be precise) of our population above the age of 2 has access to a device at home to surf the Web? Well, that is not clear. If a person has a landline telephone, then they technically have 'access' to the internet...albeit, 'access' may require a long distance or toll call. What was NOT asked in the survey was whether or not the home was equipped with some sort of device (typically, a home computer) to take advantage of that 'access'.

Nielson defines Internet access penetration as "the percentage of people aged 2 and over living in households equipped with a fixed line phone, who have home access to the Internet, though not necessarily logging online during a specific timeframe".
OK, let's be fair:

75% of Americans above the age of 2, (not to be confused with the per centage of American homes) have a landline telephone

Because this same group has a landline telephone, is is technically possible to access the Internet...who knows, Aunt Sue might show up at the door with her laptop and say. "Hey, let's get online!"

This same group with access as described above, may or may not log online "during a specific time" (whatever that means)... perhaps it is time to check the specific logon time schedule. See the full PDF here. Nielson made great headlines with this one...but whose tail are they chasing? (And...if this cynicism is out of line, the apology is ready and waiting)

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A bridge across the digital divide Jill Cueni-Cohen reports in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette.com that a nondenominational Christian mission, Lighthouse Foundation, continues classes that encourage senior adults, homeless young adults, single parents with young children, and young children in Butler County to get hands on training using computers. Rev. Jay Geisler, founder of Faith Tech, commented on the digital divide:

"..people in rural areas are not as computer literate as those in urban and suburban areas, which made the Lighthouse facility a perfect candidate." "Lighthouse courses already have a long waiting list. They have a strong volunteer base, a strong mailing list, and they're doing a lot to let people know that it exists."

Tom Richey, the Lighthouse Foundation's associate executive director added the following:

"...providing computer classes is just as important as providing food and shelter." "It would be easy for some to say there are hungry people, why are you messing around with tech classes? I'm a semi-technical dolt myself, but I also believe that this is no longer a frill -- it is increasingly a necessity for quality of life." "...people who don't use computers often feel inept and left behind. They might have a computer, but they can't even turn it on -- and when their grandchildren try to teach them, they don't have the patience. It really impacts people's self image. " "But you just have to do it -- usually in the company of someone who knows what to do." "In our first class, we had a 10-year-old home-schooled boy and an 83-year-old man who wanted to get up to speed...it cuts across socioeconomic boundaries, and is open to everyone."

The article makes an interesting comparison between the acceptance and diffusion of the telephone as a technology (now considered a necessity by most Americans) and the computer. The Dragon notes that recognition of the gap in this case came from individuals who are not generally associated with academia or those who are looking down from high tech perches. These are people generally associated with lower socio-economic status whose struggles often include the simplest of human needs. With recognition of the technology gap came two sets of outreached hands: one from those in need and another from a socially concious agency reaching across the digital divide to the other. Significant also to the Dragon were references to fear of computers by senior citizens, particularly "fear of destroying it, deleting something, damaging the computer." With the sucess of the Lighthouse Foundation, the Dragon is asking, where is the best place for construction to begin in spanning the digital divide? The Dragon has been at home in academia, business, and govenment for some time... are there real and perceived barriers that would prevent academia (and others) from adding bricks and mortar to the construction project? More importanly, are the doors too threatening or too hard to open to even have access to the construction zone for those who want in? So, this tale is more sociological (perhaps sociodigital)...but the Dragon is interested.... and it feels pretty good to have a social agency hanging on to the tip of the tail.

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Here's a new twist on the concept of generational gaps in technology: even the current generation, immersed in technology, demonstrates that the pace of technology produces 'haves' and 'have nots' in terms of dealing with problems associated with technologies. Recent email attacks by the MyDoom virus reportedly have frustrated the technically savy when dealing with others who infected personal computers (and networks) by carelessly, inadvertently, or stupidly opening an executable file attached to an email. In a report by Amy Harmon, "New Digital Divide Pits the More Adept Against the 'dummies' ", published in the International Herald Tribune the gap is a source of frustration for both the pros and the newbies:

"The tension over MyDoom underscores a growing friction between technophiles and what they see as a breed of technophobe who want to enjoy the benefits of digital technology without making the effort to use it responsibly...Some in the techno camp imagine requiring a license to operate a computer, just as for driving a car. Others are calling for a punishment that fits a careless crime. People who click on virus attachments, for instance, could automatically be cut off by their Internet service providers until they proved that their machines had been disinfected. And some, tired of being treated like free help lines, are telling friends, relatives and random acquaintances to figure it out on their own. "

So, the Dragon can turn on its own 'tail' and create problems with the diffusion of technology. If there are intergenerational gaps in the diffusion of a technology as this article suggests, this is bound to have serious implications compounding the gaps between current and other/older generations.

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The artcle in DreamHomeTour.com is over two years old now, but the author identifies a generational gap within the real estate agent community as being divided by those under 35 and those agents who are older than 35. Tech Gap Looms in Listings Avenues, published October 28, 2002, points to a level of resistance to change from traditional lead generation to Internet Data Exchange (IDX) and/or Virtual Office Web sites (VOWs)...particularly in the agent group above the age of 50. Of particular interest to the Dragon, was a quote by Daren Bien of Keller Williams in Austin, Texas:

"Anything with a three-letter acronym like 'IDX' or 'VOW' sends shudders down their spines. When we started talking about 'IDX' with agents, (only) about 20 percent of them understood and embraced it. But when we called it 'online broker reciprocity', (more of them) understood it. It is not a question of understanding the value of broker reciprocity and other tehnology tools. Technology types just need to package them in a fashion that's easy to grasp"

So, for those of us wanting to understand the generational gap and diffusion of technology, there is a lesson here to exercise caution in the naming of an application or technology that may sound 'cool' to a younger generation, but literally frightens off what might be an accepting older generation. The Dragon did notice the care that Mr. Bien exercised in describing these two new technologies as "online broker reprocity". It is a good thing he didn't call it "OBR".

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Forms are in, dues are in, and in a few days/weeks, Paul will be an all-inclusive member of the International Society for Technology In Education. The group is attractive for several reasons: the white papers (available to members only) sound intriguing, the site includes an activist quality, and finally..it is written in ColdFusion, my preferred development language. OK, so I am in. If you have had a particularly exciting ride with ISTE, then drop me a note. What have I gotten myself into this time?
So, what's with the picture? It was a year ago today, that Paul considered blogging information on Technology Gaps... this is just a reminder that all of this should not be taken too seriously, there IS a life out there.

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The race to catch the dragon's tail is a tough one in the business world. Small businesses are adopting basic techologies at an increasing pace, however, large businesses continue to raise the technological bar...and by doing so, manage to maintain a technology advantage between themselves and small businesses. Statistics Canada published a report last month titled, "Information and Communication Technology Use: Are Small Firms Catching Up?." (The complete report is available in PDF.) The Statistics Canada report, written by Mark Uhrbach and Bryan van Tol, provides statistical information on where small business made gains in technology during the period 2000-2002. Significant to the report are the technologies used to define the different gaps. Use of PCs, email, and internet access are criteria where small business have made significant gains. The criteria where large businesses have increased the rate of acceptance include: website, online purchasing, online selling, and high speed access. A full year of data, 2003, is not included in this report...and that is OK. In technology time, a year a significant period. In an expanded list of criteria for the technology Dragon, where should wireless access, the pda(s), internet delivery via the power grid, and multi-lingual web sites fit into business technology advantages? As the report shows, the use of PCs, email, an internet use is approaching a high level of diffusion. How much longer will it be before email rolls off the list and joins the ubiquitous telephone as a technology that we take for granted in business operations? It took the telephone nearly 100 years to reach diffusion within the industrialized world, my, how the technology timeline (flash) is compressed!...and the tale of the dragon moves on.

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Defining technology and defining technology gap seem to be an ongoing struggle. By many accounts women are a growing percentage of college populations, but are they advancing technologically to make up any perceived 'gap' between men and/or the current technologically immersed generation? Is it possible that the technological gap is widened, perhaps inadvertently, by a woman's choice? In the March 8, 2004 Business Section of the Naples Daily News, Theresa Stahl interviewed two executive women and asked for their reactions to an AAUW study indicating that women are still concentrated in traditional female-dominated professions and are not positioned well to move to higher paid IT positions. From the article, Local Executives Discuss Women's Advancement in the Workplace, Stahl asks Adria Starkey, a gulf coast regional president of Wachovia Bank: "Is there a technology gap between males and females? Answer: (The study says) that women are getting further and further behind in the technology industry. I disagree with some of that. I think that women make choices on what they love. Science and math are where girls drop out in middle school. I think the educational system is trying to address that issue. I haven't seen it. There are as many girls (as boys) on the math team. The number of women applying to engineering school is as many as guys. It's not gender (discrimination) as much as choice. Women have a tendency to be social, and technology isn't social. I'm not sure (fixing computers) would stimulate you. You don't want women to do things just to make the numbers move. You want women to do what they want to do. " Although I am not comfortable with the generalizations that "technology isn't social" and "..not sure (fixing computers) would stimulate you"...I can certainly understand the perception that love affairs between women and technology aren't exactly making headlines. Can we define the "technology gap" between men and women? Is it possible that closing the gap is not a priority of women?

Posted by admin at 08:53 PM | Permalink

Several theorist have identified similar stages of technology acceptance and seem to agree on the concepts of early adopters and later adopters (Diffusion of Innovations - Everette M. Rogers) with a varied assortment of steps in between. Over the weekend, while 'training' my laptop to recognize my voice, the thought of generations-to-come and how they might view the silliness of an argument over 'qwerty' or 'Dvorak' keyboards struck a note in the definitions of stages of technology. Voice recognition technology is not new. DragonDictate for Windows 1.0 arrived on the scene in 1994. The diffusion of the technology has been relatively slow. As of this writing, no one is touting a system that is 100% accurate and few hardware developers include voice recognition/transcription software with their products. I would guess that we are still on the low end of the diffusion curve with early adopters still struggling, but gaining ground, to work out the bugs in their software investment... I include myself in that group.

There is an "Aha!" moment coming in our future: the epiphany that points to the keyboard as an unnecessary device... the Appendix of a computer whose life becomes a victim of computer hardware/software evolution. And with that epiphany comes a group, the keyboard challenged, who are opportunistically propelled into geekdom by instantly acquired publishing skills

Although voice recognition is considered a relatively new innovation, the impact on keyboards for computers and/or computer appliances may be as significant as the introduction of the remote control for the family television. Is is even possible to puchase a television without a remote control? (Note, that there is life without a remote) Using that analogy, how far away are we from purchasing computers without a keyboard, but with a highly sophisticated voice recognition system? When viewed as an inclusive technology of the personal computer and not a software technology in and of itself, voice recognition will allow the user to bypass steps in the technology acceptance process path and yet reap the rewards without a slow and tedious learning curve...thus the epiphanic opportunists. Perhaps this is a person who sat on the sideline as technolgy passed by until the day arrived when, voila!, there is no need to struggle with acquiring skills to access a technology (i.e. typing skills, grammer, word processing, etc.), those steps are skipped and that person's existing skill set is sufficient to bridge the technology gap that may have appeared insurmountable. Some might argue that this would categorize such a user as an early adaptor of the new technology, the voice recognition computer; however, as the timeline of technology introductions compresses further, the likelyhood of epiphanic opportunists evolving into a well defined classification increases... food for thought.

Posted by admin at 03:40 PM | Permalink

If for some odd reason this site shows up in the seach engines, allow me the disclaimer that Chasing the Dragon's Tale has nothing to do with acupuncture or the book, Chasing the Dragon's Tail, authored by Yoshio Manaka. With great restraint, many of the puns will be avoided...no needling around the subject, just sticking to the point (argghhh...'sorry, it was a moment of weakness).

Posted by admin at 03:31 PM | Permalink

Should this be "Dragon's Tail" or "Dragon's Tale"? Technically, if you follow the analogy and imagery, it should be 'Tail"... in terms of personality, the double-entendre may either mean that this will be an interesting and readable work, thus the "tale"; or, this will be so dull and boring that "Dragon Stale" will be the epitaph of this project. I'm pulling for the "tale" (pun intended)!

My tale begins with an undergraduate student interested in technology in the late 1960's who departed academia and entered the professional workforce with hopes of saving the world. The same student, committed to life-long learning, has been chasing the technology dragon for over 30 years now and has noticed that others, with similar academic backgrounds, lost sight of the dragon years ago. The gap between what students learn about technology while in school and what is actually happening with advances in technology after a student leaves the classroom, is the "gap" that I wish to explore. Is that gap measurable, predictable, or significant to the quality of life? Certainly, there are historical models of technologies introduced in the past. Are there relevant comparisons to today's gaps and those of such things as the telegraph/telephone/cellular sequence? Is this just anoter study in the diffusion of technology? We shall see.

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