Manitoba Mafia

Teachers Resist Innovations: Innovations Teachers Resist

Laura Atkinson, Pat Sadowy, Karen Smith, and Stan Straw
University of Manitoba

This chart was distributed at Inkshed 2000.

WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY TEACHER COMMENTS

Teachers retain ownership of their materials. "I'm not giving away my information to online education. They won't need me anymore once they have my stuff."

Teachers maintain better class control. "How can I be a media mentor when the students interact more with the machine than me?"

Teachers avoid legal action. "Who know what students are looking at on the Web? Filters just don't work."

Students do not take on the bad habits of
their teachers. "I look like a fool." (Teachers have fears and problems with technology that could be transferred to students.)

Students do not waste time on things they
already know. "Students know how to use technology anyway. Why bother teaching it?"

Students appreciate literature through the intended genre "Shakespeare didn't use a laptop."

Students "get to the meat" of learning "Technology just gets in the way of my teaching."

Students perform well on their exams. "I'm being evaluated on how well my students perform on English exams and the integration of technology is not part of that testing."

The workplace is less stressful. "I was eager to use technology but the system just wasn't set up to handle it successfully. . . So I gave up trying."

Back to Winter 2000-2001 Contents

WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY	TEACHER COMMENTS
Teachers retain ownership of their materials.	"I'm not giving away my information to online education. They won't need me anymore once they have my stuff."
Teachers maintain better class control.	"How can I be a media mentor when the students interact more with the machine than me?"
Teachers avoid legal action.	"Who know what students are looking at on the Web? Filters just don't work."
Students do not take on the bad habits of their teachers.	"I look like a fool." (Teachers have fears and problems with technology that could be transferred to students.)
Students do not waste time on things they already know.	"Students know how to use technology anyway. Why bother teaching it?"
Students appreciate literature through the intended genre	"Shakespeare didn't use a laptop."
Students "get to the meat" of learning	"Technology just gets in the way of my teaching."
Students perform well on their exams.	"I'm being evaluated on how well my students perform on English exams and the integration of technology is not part of that testing."
The workplace is less stressful.	"I was eager to use technology but the system just wasn't set up to handle it successfully. . . So I gave up trying."