Too much change?

Recently I was talking to a teacher about her new Windows 8 tablet-hybrid. I asked how she was finding it.

"I hate it," she stated bluntly, "all the menus are different and I cannot print."

And therein lies a problem. Our teachers are not technological experts and sometimes we assume too much about their capacity to understand the technology that they are using.

What do I mean?

Well the comment from the teacher seems to be about the device (hardware). But it was in fact about the operating system (software). She was blaming the laptop for what was essentially a Windows 8 learning curve.

So what?

Well change is often about familiarity more than anything else. Regular incremental change in devices and software breeds more comfort with technological change. Meanwhile irregular large-scale change causes stress and creates barriers and blockers.

What then?

All change needs to be managed. Change management is not a new part of business theory and discourse, but change theory in education is an area where academic discourse and research hasn't filtered down as effectively to middle management. Technology leaders in schools could do themselves a great service in understanding what changes means for an organisation, how they can plan change and how they can effectively sustain change. This is, perhaps, the leadership issue in contemporary education.

From my perspective, the best type of the change is that regular incremental change.

Change the device first. Then change the hardware. Then keep changing in little steps until change is the norm for schools.

The reality is, that is arguably what schools are all about.

Postscript: I will attempt to add some work on change management in Learning Technology when I am not otherwise occu