Research Paper Intro

Over the past two decades technology’s everyday applications have grown exponentially, leaving certain parts of society behind. The education system has struggled to keep up with the rapid change, but as can be seen in Cathy Davidson’s essay “Project Classroom Makeover”, there are examples of success in incorporating technology into teaching and learning. The iPod Project at Duke, that is discussed in her essay, is one of the major pieces that will be examined in this paper because it was revolutionary, laying the groundwork for iTunesU and even the first Podcasting event. On the other hand, there are salient challenges posed by the introduction of technology into the large traditional education system. Some issues such as fiscal issues can be easily identified but here the focus will be on the human side of the challenges and resistance of a 21st century education that incorporates technology. Linda Moerschell describes in detail the resistance from within academia itself in her article “Resistance to Technological Change in Academia”. While the aforementioned texts focus are more narrow, Raymond Horn tackles the bigger picture in his book Understanding Educational Reform: A Reference Book  where he examines the problems with any restructuring of education. After looking at the challenges and the resistance to technological restructuring in the education system it becomes clear that the implementation of technology into education faces challenges due to human resistance, rather than limitations of the technology itself, and needs to be approached through a more collaborative methods in order to make the transition effective.