Are you behind?

Will R referred to a very interesting post by Collin in which he says:

"Bottom line: it's not time to start thinking about technology. If you haven't started yet, it's time to catch up. If you don't know how to put together a QuickTime movie, you're behind. If you haven't futzed around with sound tools, you're behind. If you're still thinking about how to do web pages, you're behind. If you don't 'get' blogs and wikis, you're behind. If you don't think that the Grokster case has anything to do with you, you're behind. And I could keep on going. There is nothing wrong with writing an essay, a view, a site, whatever, addressing those who are (by now) late adopters, but why in the world would exhortations to think critically about technology have any effect on those people when they've been hearing the same song for years now? The net is changing education, journalism, politics, science, culture, etc etc etc. If you're not keeping track of those changes, you're behind. Pure and simple."

As I may have mentioned before, the college where I work is not very technologically advanced. Our students aren't very tech savy, even! But the faculty are definitely behind, by Collin's definition.

The problem is, as he indicates, how do we get them to change? I think the only way to do it is by example. The more of us who are out there trying to use technology regularly, the more we get our students to use it, the more these other folks will be curious. We have to make it seem fun and easy -- because none of them/us want or need any extra work. So I say, rather then spending time encouraging teachers to get on the technology bandwagon, show them! Show them what they are missing. If all this is as great as we say it is, people will want to try it once they see it in action.

At least I hope so!