The e-pioneer is not intimidated by a dog in the manger.
Opposition to the use of technology by all teachers in a school sometimes comes from an unexpected source: the resident computer specialist. Experts may begrudge the fact that others are coming into their domain and fear the loss of their position, or even their job.
This reminds us of the Dog in the Manger fable of Aesop.
A dog, wanting to take an afternoon nap, jumped into the manger of an ox and lay there cosily upon the straw. The ox, returning from its work came up to the manger and wanted to eat some of the straw. The dog, in a rage, being awakened from its slumber, stood up and barked at the ox and attempted to bite it whenever it came near. At last the ox had to give up the hope of getting at the straw, and muttered, “Some people often begrudge others what they cannot enjoy themselves.”
Could it be that computer experts resent sharing computer facilities with others? Perhaps they can only teach computer literacy; they can’t eat the curriculum straw, but are not going to make it easy for other educators to use the technology. They may even make access to technology – and life in general – difficult for their colleagues.
It is the task of the e-pioneer to remove the dog in the manger. The easiest way to do this is to help the computer expert to become an e-pioneer.
Click here for more food for thought for e-pioneers.
We are currently doing a technology audit in 20 schools in district North. We have made quite a few interesting findings. One of them is that the ‘dog in the manger’ is common phenomena in the high schools, where CAT has taken over the Khanya labs. The CAT educator would not allow any other educators in the lab for fear that the technology would be damaged.We also found that there is now an increasing awareness for technology amongst educators than a few years ago. Educators are starting to complain and I can only see this swell of protest getting bigger over the next couple of years. This is good. Educators start to see the value of technology.More and more want to use it.