Koan
Paul Gandel has set up a series of events that allows the Information Technology staff to meet with various Deans and members of the University administration. Last week’s meeting was with David Rubin Dean of the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communication. By his own admission Dean Rubin isn’t a big fan of technology. Despite, or perhaps because, of that the session was extremely interesting. Before going on it’s important to clear up a confusion which may be mine alone, but just in case. I have always thought of Newhouse as the ‘school of journalism’ in fact it also covers advertizing, public relations, and now days something called new media. Much of what Dean Rubin had to say related to the problems that new technologies are creating for journalism and traditional media, but he also had some very interesting things to say about it’s effects on teaching and learning. Knowing as little about journalism as Dean Rubin purports to know about technology, I won’t try to report on his presentation, but I do want to share some ideas/thoughts that I took away. This isn’t what he said but rather what he made me think about.
- Technology isn’t about good or bad tools anymore than it’s about good or bad teaching.
- Technology is for the foreseeable future inevitable.
- Technology is an ‘enabler’.
- Technology provides amazing opportunities and encourages laziness.
- We need to find ways to use technology to encourage people to use technology effectively.
Take that as a kind of koan, roll it around in your head for a few weeks, see where it leads us.
