Keeping Up/Reading the Research
Nearly a year ago, I wrote a weblog entry titled, “Who Should Keep Up With the Research.” Clearly, anyone who is in a leadership position, making decisions about technology, learning, curriculum and pedagogy, should have a knowledge base on which to rely when making these decisions.
How can our educational leaders acquire this knowledge? They might try blogging, or reading any number of interesting and informative ed tech blogs. They might also try reading research studies on their own that can help provide them with the ‘data’ they need to make important educational decisions. I see more and more evidence that little of this actually happens, which leads to decisions based more on whims than on relevant knowledge and data. And I’m wondering why we allow this to happen. Are schedules too busy—too full—to keep on top of current trends in educational technology? Are we ruled by the minutia I mentioned several posts ago?? Frankly, there is no excuse. If you can’t read to gain knowledge in this field, then you can’t make sound, reasonable decisions grounded in real knowledge.
I’m curious what others have experienced with this issue.
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