middle ground?

One thing I have noticed while looking around for social bookmarks, people to follow on twitter, and blogs to follow on delicious is that there are a lot of people who are very passionate about the power of technology in education, who focus their research and their lives on inventing new ways to incorporate it into the classroom, making existent strategies more effective, and communicating about technology to teachers who can put it into use. On the other hand, I know from my experiences in school placements at MSU and as a student that many teachers are adverse to having lots of technology use in their classroom and see only the embarrassing intimidation from a projector they can't seem to get to work just right instead of the endless possibilities. (I have a personal such fear about printers.) Sure there are teachers ready, willing, and excited to hear about a new online classroom tool, but there may be just as many who would view it as invasive on their own teaching style or complain about having to learn about something useless they would never actually try. The real problem, then, is how to bridge the gap between the huge potential for technology in the classroom and its opponents, mostly silent teachers who simply are too intimidated or stuck in their ways, depending on your perspective.

I think the answer to this question lies in simplicity. Yes we cannot even imagine the huge role online learning will play in education in 20, 10. even 5 years, but education technology experts should remember that teachers who are less comfortable with technology need to be fed it in small bytes (sorry for the pun). Providing one useful example of an online resource that really appeals to a specific teacher and their lesson plans may be way more useful than an entire professional development about technology. It may be the key to allowing all students the learning opportunities afforded by technology by encouraging teachers to find some aspect of technology that fits their style, not pressuring them into making drastic changes in the direction of online education.