Sue Archer's List: edtech

• spend an average of close to eight hours per day using entertainment media,
• Generation M²: Media in the Lives of eight- to 18-Year-Olds,” found that children devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes to using entertainment media during a typical day. However, because they spend so much of that time “media multitasking,” they manage to fit a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into that 7 and a half hours.
• The relationship to that and the classroom seems to place a greater burden on teachers to compete for [students'] attention and keep the student engaged. While interactive teaching technologies are not the whole answer, they are [an] instrument by which teachers can break through the clutter,” he said. “When teachers are given the opportunity to [use interactive technologies,] they are in a better position to compete with the commercial media for the minds of the student.”

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• Change agents cannot succeed without great persistence. Change is a complex and labor-intensive process that arouses feelings and emotions.
• change agents must be fully committed to see projects through to completion.
• Change agents must be prepared to stand up for their projects, even if it means tactfully challenging powerful executives – including the senior leadership.
• Change agents must act as "voices of conscience" when any mid-course corrections are contemplated.
• The best change agents are tactful and diplomatic. "Political skills" are necessary, not so change agents can join in the game, but so they can better understand it.
• Change agents have to be able to operate during times of instability and uncertainty.
• change agents need strong analytical skills.
• Change agents must learn to take apart and reassemble operations and systems in novel ways, and then determine the financial and political impacts of what they have done. At the same time, good change agents must be flexible enough to work around roadblocks and handle evolving priorities.
• People skills – team-building, forging strong interpersonal relationships and communicating within groups – are mandatory for good change agents.
• To manage resistance – a natural part of the change process – change agents must start by understanding and acknowledging the resistance. They need a lot of empathy, with good listening skills. Change agents must be able to put themselves in the shoes of people affected by the change. Resistance is most damaging when it remains unnoticed. I

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• What types of individuals can mobilize a system to change? What are the specific skills  required to promote integration across multiple systems? Where in the system should the change agent be placed?
• True change agents must be comfortable assuming different roles at  different times.
• he change agent must also be able to  articulate and promote a vision of  a different way of doing business and have the energy and drive to rally diverse stakeholders in support of specific  strategies and tactics.
• This means that the change agent  must also be an effective advocate
• he change agent must understand and function in cooperation with many  different systems
• understands the specific interests and needs of the  varied systems involved in the change process and promotes a dialogue that transcends the familiar limitations of  categorical thinking and rigid silos that restrict the activities of traditional  managers
• earn the trust of numerous stakeholders who must collaborate to promote effective change.
• a change agent who wins the enthusiastic  support of one system may find that other systems have automatically  become suspicious of his or her  activities.
• Change agents will have a greater chance to succeed if they are permanent employees who have the ability to withstand  unfavorable initial reactions to  integration proposals.

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• Typical   barriers to change are unexpected changes in the external conditions, a   lack of commitment in implementation, resistance of people involved, or   a lack of resources.
• The change agent’s or change leader’s capabilities   have a major impact on success or failure of the project, and on the   extent of potential unwanted side-effects.
• The following article describes required capabilities of good change   agents
• Change agents always need the ability to get all people affected by   the project involved, to ensure their support and commitment.
• This   includes the ability to communicate, to understand and to take into   account

  

  opinions and doubts of others
• Many   change projects challenge the existing cultural framework of an   organization. Efforts to change such lasting values, however, lead to   resistance and denial. More than in technology-related projects (e.g.   implementation of new software), it takes the acceptance and the support   of all people affected by such projects to make them succeed. It is the   change agent’s task to generate this acceptance in order to implement   change with the people, not against them.

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• A growing body of research suggests that the invasion of the digital age is literally rewiring our brains, eroding skills once considered essential for a happy adult life
• ichard Ling, a technology professor at the University of Copenhagen, has been studying the concept of constant contact for a decade.  No longer do people call each other at home or at work, hoping to fin
• Being in constant connection with friends, family or employers can be both stressful and demanding.
• constant contact seems to be cheating people of the ability to plan, and to commit to pla
• Some experts think these subtle changes are causing great harm to our neurological well-being.  Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan made a series of dramatic claims about the way digital devices are rewiring young brains in their 2008 book “iBrain, Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind.”  Most of their assertions aren't pretty. Given that adults commonly consume two, three or even more gadgets at once now -- all while carrying on conversations with people – they are beginning to lose their ability to focus and concentrate, they say. They describe a phenomenon called "continuous partial attention," a state of divided attention which leaves people unable to perform tasks that require concentration. Worse, it leaves its victims less and less able to connect with and empathize with each other, they said. 
• (People) no longer have time to reflect, contemplate, or make thoughtful decisions. Instead, they exist in a sense of constant crisis -- on alert for a new contact or bit of exciting news or information at any moment."  Under that kind of stress, the brain secretes cortisol and adrenaline, creating a temporary high followed by depression, leading to something the authors call "techno-brain burnout."
• When face-to-face contact is replaced by excessive digital media, a child's neural circuits can atrophy and the brain may not develop normal interactive social skills.
• He's worried that technology that was supposed to make our kids learn faster and smarter is actually robbing them of the ability to think.
• It's fair to ask, then, where the fault lies for "The Dumbest Generation" -- with overexposure to digital media, or with adults who don't force the kids to turn off the laptops and listen once in a while.
• brain studies show the deleterious effect of too much digital media impacts all ages.  In fact, older people are less equipped to deal with overstimulation and hyperconnectivity. 

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