People love things that are comfortable and easy. In a warm and stress-free home or classroom with orderly and tried and true methods we feel relaxed.

Change is something like a windstorm blowing in, making our things and thoughts fly all around. That confusion of items, people and ideas removes us from our safe-zone.  We feel like we are now one of the items in motion and in danger of flying apart at the seams.  We resist it.

In classrooms across America, there is lots of technology change. A changed log-in, an software upgrade, a new app, a new computer, a new curriculum and multiple new areas professional development all add up to a feeling of helpless overwhelm.   The change is tech, administrative and human, and all together at once forms a resistance as solid as concrete.

Teachers, not being educated on the plethora of digital things is treated like they are the “only load bearing wall in the building,” having to figure it all out and use it daily. The administrator, who now has to coordinate all the technology in their district is quickly frustrated. 

At the Learning Counsels National Gathering in Nov. 2018, a panel talk titled “Insistence to the Resistance of Digital” was hosed by A.J. Hunter of STEMscopes. The panel included knowledgeable leaders:

Dewayne McClary, Director, Digital Learning & Innovation, District of Columbia Public Schools

Keith Bockwoldt, Director of Technology Services, Township High School, Dist. 214, Illinois

Dr. Kristy Sailors, Director of Education Technology, IT, Houston ISD, TX

Watch this video to hear the questions asked of the panel:

What forms of resistance to digital change are they running into in their areas?

What needs to be done at the leadership level to tackle the resistance?

How is digital change changing the roles of the teachers and administrators?

It was a very enlightening discussion and knowledge was gained by all the attendees that they took home to help better their “fight” to the resistance to digital.