Do we Practice what we Preach?: The challenges of the infusion of technology in HEd.

Are we principled, congruent, consistent and aligned in the messages we communicate as teachers, educators, facilitators, mediators etc? Do we practice what we preach? I am sure that we would all like to think the answer to this question is resounding "yes" but let's take a closer look at the realities.

• We ask students to plan and yet we insist the processes be circumvented in the name of being flexible or agile.
  
• We teach students to work collaboratively and yet our own institutions reward individual success.
  
• We ask learners to make use of technologies to communicate with each other and their lecturers but we refuse to use it ourselves because it is outside our comfort zone.
  
• We expect students to have flexibility in their learning but when we train our teachers we don't teach with that flexibility in mind. With teachers, standardization comes into play as it makes it easier to support.

Perhaps the status quo is a reflection of how much, or little, technology has become a part of our academic lives. What are the factors that influence our adoption of technologies in teaching and learning? How does the tools we use promote the development of technological pedagogical content knowledge? Perhaps it is because technology is adopted on the basis of how it will make teaching easier for the teacher rather than improving teaching for the learner. While being teacher-focused is a good starting point, that is often where it ends. Unfortunately Learners are often not savvy enough to know whether an assignment has been explained clearly enough until they've been asked the proper questions. Would alignment of the curriculum help? I think so, the process is long and probably better to work with someone that could give you and objective view on your course, assignment or module.