I sat back and listened a lot to the hand holding discussion and it occurred to me that we seem to be sharply divided along gender lines. The women in the group seemed to be more apt to extend the handholding and focus on relationship building. This is where I fall - I know that my best skills as an educator are those that allow me to read people's comfort levels, frustation levels, and be able to not be sucked into them. It may take me a long time before they are comfortable setting off on their own - but that comfort level is worth all of the time it took to get there.
Not being a man, I can only speculate on this next part. Please don't take offense! Personal independance seems to be valued over face to face relationships when it comes to tech learning. They are willing to sit with people but more quickly feel that the onus of responsibility is with the learner, not the trainer.
I am curious...who launches from the nest more quickly? Is it those who have a face to face person or a boot? Or is that gender specific too?
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I respectfully disagree with your gender idea. Although it is true that males tend to push towards being more self-reliant, I don't think we all push the onus of learning on the learner. There are times where hand holding is very appropriate, and then there are times where you need to push the baby bird out of the nest, after the hand holding. The thing that people who push the bird out of the nest need to be careful of is to not be arrogant about the push, male or female.
I naturally tend to qualify situations in terms of gender. I feel that this is a very legitimate topic, polemic, if you will. I feel that there is a lot of emotion behind the a lot female faculty members in response to new technology; their reactions are verbal, reactionary if you will. Not that male faculty members aren't reactionary as well, they tend to be more "behind the scenes" in terms of dismantling or "nay-saying"... This is, however a very real issue. I agree w/Lydia...it takes a very socially savvy tech coordinator to handle all sorts of reactions and fears; albeit passive aggressive or overt. I would prefer to accentuate the positive in our strand; move forward from fears and doubts...there is a truck load of self-deprecatory attitudes...just be brave and jump in... have faith that no one is judging...certainly not w/in the confines of the summer tech institute.
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