This link has been bookmarked by 3 people . It was first bookmarked on 11 May 2008, by someone privately.
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28 May 08
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11 May 08
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the faculty is just as ardently trying to prevent any change. They’re obstructionists because they either deny things are changing (for example, one still thinks the Internet is a fad that will disappear) or they’ve grown too comfortable teaching the same curricula year after year for 20 or more years. They are tenured and so can’t be fired, and the doctrine of academic freedom allows them to teach whatever they see fit.
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The latter group interests me a lot more than the small number of chained-to-the-barricades dinosaurs (who also exist in every newsroom) — because they are very different from the dinosaurs. They are not resistant because they think the Internet is a short-lived fad, or because they fail to see its potential, or because they are in love with the smell of ink on paper. Rather, they are resistant because they don’t know how to train themselves — they are waiting for someone to hand them a tool and show them how to use it.
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One approach to this is to say, well, those dummies should just get up off their lazy rear-ends and learn some new stuff.
But the one-quarter (or fewer) who have already embraced the new ways are the ones who can do that — who have the capacity, the personality, the self-confidence, to do it. The half in the middle (again, ignoring the dinosaurs; someday they will die) are not going to change just because someone says it’s good for them, or even necessary.
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the faculty is just as ardently trying to prevent any change. They’re obstructionists because they either deny things are changing (for example, one still thinks the Internet is a fad that will disappear) or they’ve grown too comfortable teaching the same curricula year after year for 20 or more years. They are tenured and so can’t be fired, and the doctrine of academic freedom allows them to teach whatever they see fit.
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The latter group interests me a lot more than the small number of chained-to-the-barricades dinosaurs (who also exist in every newsroom) — because they are very different from the dinosaurs. They are not resistant because they think the Internet is a short-lived fad, or because they fail to see its potential, or because they are in love with the smell of ink on paper. Rather, they are resistant because they don’t know how to train themselves — they are waiting for someone to hand them a tool and show them how to use it.
-
One approach to this is to say, well, those dummies should just get up off their lazy rear-ends and learn some new stuff.
But the one-quarter (or fewer) who have already embraced the new ways are the ones who can do that — who have the capacity, the personality, the self-confidence, to do it. The half in the middle (again, ignoring the dinosaurs; someday they will die) are not going to change just because someone says it’s good for them, or even necessary.
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