It's Not the Tool That's Boring. It's You.

This title is from Michele Martin's blog entry back is September 28, 2009. Michele builds from another blog post by Sarah Harrigan. Really fine conversations and I would like to continue to build upon. A few excerpts. Sarah writes about her inquiry at University staff meeting:

I asked, 'How many of you put your lecture PowerPoints in the VLE?'. Lots of hands. 'How many of you provide anything more than your lecture notes? Anyone put any additional activities in there?'... no hands. I asked them what that might feel like for their students. Was that an interesting or helpful place to be once you'd downloaded those PowerPoint? Were those PowerPoints really that helpful without anything else? Were they engaging? Have to say, there wasn't a great deal of nodding at this point!


Sarah goes on to inquire about what makes a great learning experience. When she asked: a really great activity or experience - many hands went up.



Michele writes: "that's the thing about technology and learning. People are quick to blame the tool, rather than looking first at their own behavior with it."


Makes sense, are my instructor behaviors creating a really great learning activity or experience?
Another direction to explore is (don't forget our human propensity for behavioral polarities) why do so many new online instructors seem prone to designing (and comfortable with) online content delivery courses with little attention to learner activity or experience? 


Less work 
Course syllabus has little to do with learner experience 
Familiar expert, content, lecture knowledge transmission modality 
New to teaching with technology
?

Why do we blame the tool (anything but self) vs. reflection or responsibility or maybe it really is the tool! This opens interesting questions about the relationships between self and the tool and with others through the use of the tool.