Contributions of technology to my career

I've been thinking about how technology can contribute to my role as instructor and researcher, and the ideas keep coming and going. What makes such question somewhat difficult is the fact that technology is around us in our everyday lives, and this includes the classroom. It is in a way like conducting an ethnography, in which a participant observation has to be performed, and an objective eye used on the familiar tools that I, and many more, employ in our daily work.

Due to the well established written culture in our academic milieu, word processing tools of all sorts are not only helpful but essential. These tools include the traditional word processors; however, any other form of digital print is also fair game. For example, the internet in general provides immense resource of information, and most of it in written format. Although the format itself is well established, it is the exchange and editing of the information what makes the technological tools so important to my area. Simple email messages help connect ideas. Web sites present relevant (and irrelevant) information that can be used for complementing, contrasting, inciting, or simply entertaining thoughts. Web 2.0 is giving the reader the opportunity to participate in what he or she reads online. Blogs, for example, have been used as an interactive tool in classes, in which students not only comment and debate particular topics, but also help each other in their learning. On the instructor side, such digital tools have given the educators possibilities to organize and present materials in more efficient ways, and in ways that approximate to current trends among the new net generation. The increase connectivity seen in both students and teachers (as well as among researchers) has blurred the boundaries between the classroom and the "outside world," transforming both sites into an integrated learning environment. This raise a question, though: as an extension, does the classroom becomes part of the "integrated entertaining environment" that was part of the outside world? Since the same technology is used for both work and entertainment, how do we separate them? Do we want to separate them?

On a different note, the integration of pictures, videos, and words has created a new format for information to be presented, represented and manipulated. Multimedia is breaking the solid walls of the printing culture, and academia is giving in to this inevitable format. Presentations make use of multimedia, web sites, podcasts, video casts, even virtual office hours are possible. Academic journals are on-line and available to eager researchers and readers in general, saving trips to the local library in the middle of the night. I personally think that the embrace of multimedia could be a more emphasized in academia. Although we make use of different technologies, we still need to write a document that will be printed (even if only digitally). In other words, to inform our audience about the advances of knowledge we are proposing, we still resort to plain words (with some charts, tables, and eventual pictures).

As of now, I'm already using many tools to improve my classroom presentations, to contact colleagues and students, and to help with my own learning. I still need to explore more the Web 2.0 to create my network of contacts, and to carry more collaborative projects, but I believe I am on the right track for these endeavors. Here is my blog, a small contribution toward my connectivity to the world.