Blackwell Synergy: Br J Educ Technol, Vol 36, Issue 6, pp. 933-935: Editorial (Full Text)

 





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British Journal of Educational Technology
Volume 36 Issue 6 Page 933  - November 2005
doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2005.00565.x

Editorial
Daniel W. Surry
Associate Professor1
Educational technology is a field based on change. All of the products, theories, ideas, practices and tools developed by educational technologists are, at their core, intended to change the way people teach and learn. Even a relatively minor change in the teaching or learning process, whether in schools, business, the military or higher education, can result in significant stress not only to those individuals directly affected by the change but also to the entire instructional system. Large-scale instructional changes, moving to a web-based curriculum, for example, can represent significant milestones in the life of any organisation and often require large investments of time, money and other resources to fully implement. In fact, many changes, both large and small, are never fully implemented, and many are quickly discontinued and forgotten.
If we accept that change is a fundamental aspect of educational technology, then we must also accept that the study of change has to be a fundamental part of educational technology research. Change, while gradually gaining wider acceptance, remains an underappreciated and underrepresented area of the educational technology research. I have spoken to several people over the years who seem to think that we already know everything important that we need to know about change. These people seem to believe that change is a well-defined, intuitive, ‘common sense‘ process or, at the very best, that prior research has revealed all the insights into the process that it can provide. There also appears to be a feeling amongst many people that change theories and models from other fields (eg, agriculture, counselling or economics) are directly adaptable to educational technology, thus making research on change in our field redundant. Obviously, I disagree wholeheartedly with these positions. The study of change is not only an important part of educational technology research but also a source of a rich variety of interesting, relevant and enduring questions to explore for scholars.
The papers included in this special issue provide a few examples of the broad spectrum of change research carried out by educational technology professionals. The first paper in this issue, by Joseph and Reigeluth, provides an interesting insight into the process of systemic change within a small rural school system. Their paper focuses on readiness for change and the ongoing nature of the change process. The second paper, by Ravitz and Hoadley, explores the relationship amongst professional development, shared resources and the diffusion of innovations. They see sharing ideas and digital resources as essential tools for facilitating change. The third paper in this issue, by Andrew Hannan, focuses on change in higher education in the United Kingdom. His paper summarises the results of three projects and provides a holistic perspective of the relationship between innovation and the culture of higher education. This issue‘s fourth paper, by Billig, Sherry and Havelock, focuses on the important issue of sustainability. Their paper describes a project that managed to exist well beyond its initial implementation and examines the factors that contributed to the project‘s long-term success. Stephen Kerr, the author of this issue‘s fifth paper, takes a more wide-ranging theoretical approach. In his paper, Kerr provides a fascinating discussion of seven ways that current educational technologies are changing the way we interact with information and describes a model for educational change. Grant, Ross, Wang and Potter, the authors of the sixth paper in this issue, report on a project to facilitate the integration of computers in the classroom through a process of shared resources. They describe the impact of a pragmatic alternative to the ‘one student, one computer‘ philosophy and discuss the factors impacting the integration process. The seventh paper in this issue, by Gervedink Nijhuis and Collis, describes the development of a tool to support the performance and increase the job satisfaction of online instructors. They also describe a plan for implementing performance support tools in higher education.
The seven papers in this issue, focusing on systemic change, professional development, change in higher education, sustainability, change models, technology integration and performance support innovations, cover a wide range of questions and populations. Taken as a whole, the papers provide an interesting snapshot of change research in our field. Anyone searching for a research area should be able to identify several possible topics and methods from reading these papers. It is interesting to note, however, that there are a number of important questions and populations that are not covered in this issue. In addition to the areas covered in this issue, change researchers in educational technology could find important topics related to change in business and industry, the military, government agencies and non-profit organisations. Amongst the many topics not covered in this issue are important questions related to individual innovativeness, communication channels, differences amongst various adopter groups, organisational factors that facilitate implementation, technology attributes and many others. Change research offers researchers a virtually endless supply of fascinating questions that are intellectually challenging, professionally rewarding and relevant to the day-to-day lives of many people around the world.
I would like to thank each of the authors who contributed their time, energy and expertise to this issue. Each of them was enthusiastic, professional and committed to submitting a quality manuscript. Each of the authors met all of the deadlines, usually with quite a bit of time to spare. I would also like to thank everyone who reviewed the articles formally and informally for this special issue. Special thanks to Marshall Jones of Winthrop University, Susan Land of Pennsylvania State University and David Ensminger and Michael Barrington of the University of South Alabama, each of whom went above and beyond the normal duties of a reviewer and returned thoughtful reviews under very tight deadlines.
In conclusion, working on this special issue has been a tremendously rewarding experience for me personally, professionally and intellectually. I hope more people梤esearchers, publishers, editors, professors and managers梬ill come to see the study of change as vital to the future of our field. I also hope that this special issue will serve to further that goal in some small way.
Daniel W. Surry
Associate Professor1
British Journal of Educational Technology
Volume 36 Issue 6 Page 933  - November 2005











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1College of Education, University of South Alabama
To cite this article
Surry, Daniel W. (2005)
Editorial.
British Journal of Educational Technology 36 (6), 933-935.
doi: 10.1111/
j.1467-8535.2005.00565.x
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