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Consider for a moment the impact of Web 2.0 on a professor working in academia for 20 or 30 years. The flattening of knowledge production and the ease of access to information represented by Web 2.0 technologies in many ways negates the concept of the “sage on the stage” or even traditional notions of scholarship. This world is not what most professors are used to, and many are threatened by and therefore resist this kind of change.

These concerns must shape our strategy for gaining acceptance of any new technology. First, a technology must be evident to the user as potentially useful in making his or her life easier (or more enjoyable). Second, a technology must be easy to use to avoid rousing feelings of inadequacy. Third, the technology must become essential to the user in going about his or her business. This “Three-E Strategy,”

The central theme of our BBQ flavored conversation was t he challenge of getting reluctant teachers to buy in to the spirit and practice of a 21st century school.  Since the principal was at the table, I suggested that the use of digital networked content be part of the evaluation expectations for teachers, and that it needed to go much MUCH deeper than just saying, “We want you to do one technology-infused unit this year.”  I suggested that all relics of learning and teaching that are shared, must be digital.

Students would be working, but in the same spirit of the work they engage in when playing many of the video games that they spend time with. Their work would be such that they are constantly asking questions, and are in constant need of information and collaborative arrangements for inventing solutions

They will also need to dedicate much time to responding to discussion forums, occasional synchronous chat sessions, grading projects, and maintaining their online classrooms.

Unless keeping up with tech trends is made a high priority by the administrator, I can see how keeping up with it all would quickly fall by the wayside because of other, more important priorities

I do think that principals should keep up with technology mainly because luddite principals cannot possibly show the value of technology applications in the classroom if they are so deskilled themselves

Administrators could subscribe to one useful blog, such as Instructify, http://blogs.learnnc.org/instructify, and read it on a regular basis. In today's day and age it's easy to access information quickly