One author says “If we employ emerging technologies in our work, we should also be prepared to experiment with different lenses through which to view the world and with different ways to explore such ideas and practices as knowledge, scholarship, collaboration, and even education. While doing so, we should also remain cognizant of the fact that resistance and failures are possible, and, if documented in the literature, helpful.”

Another chapter notes that, “While expectations have run high about instructional radio, television, personal computers, computer-based instruction, the Internet, Web 2.0, e-learning, m-learning, new-name-learning, and the impact of these tools and technologies, results have often been disappointing (see Cuban, 2001): “showcase” learning environments, disengaged students, and technology-enhanced instruction that merely replicates face-to-face teaching seem to be the norm and the standard to which we have become accustomed, rather than the exception. As a field that seems to find joy in the development of acronyms, terms, and catchy descriptors (think i-learning, student 2.0, education 3.0) we seem to quickly traverse innovations in the hope that the next technological advancement will be our holy grail”

And yet another, “is it the emerging uses of technology, or the emerging technologies themselves, that will ultimately lead to more meaningful, transformative, and engaged online learning? Through the collaborative investigations, shared case narratives, and emerging technology research initiatives illustrated throughout this book, we believe these convoluted theoretical questions are evolving quite nicely into practical design challenges: a wonderful and welcomed progression for our field.”

I am sure you can see the issues raised here between technology, practice, theory, design, and so on. Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you have the time to read the book. Conversation is always welcome and invited

However, and perhaps this is because I struggled to change the way that I taught for seven years against so much indifference in my school and with some of my colleagues, I found it a little too celebratory. The realities of school reform and pedagogical change are not just about looking at the success but also exploring the failures or the near-successes — or indeed any of the notches along the spectrum between the positives and the negatives — and learnfrom these as much as the out-and-out successes. It is the engagement, through action and reflection, in “problem re-identification” that I think is missing from this piece. As Groundwater-Smith and Mockler (2005) have said, with regards to practitioner research, we need to move ‘beyond celebration’. They suggested a desideratum in practitioner research should be the willingness to engage in disputation and vigorous debate with yourself, and/or with others, and felt that there is often more power in critique than applause.

I am not sure that I have put myself across quite right, and do not mean any offence in my observations, but I have been considering this for many hours since reading the conclusion yesterday while walking the dogs and felt that I should comment as invited.

Thanks for the chance to read and have the chance to make observations about your work

Ashley