In my experience as a grad student, sometime-educator, spouse of a secondary ed teacher, and technophile one of the primary barriers you’re going to run into is knowledge. In particular, this revolves around what a person willing to acquire, and who delivers that information. Basically, this involves the following:

1. Lack of Willingness to Learn Beyond the Basics – This is the one wall I run into the most frequently. Too often it seems that there is a failure to grasp the capabilities of a technology simply because users refuse to learn about that technology beyond what their current situation requires. This habit of knowing “just enough to get by” inherently limits the user, and often keeps them working within their prior paradigm, albeit in a digital environment. As a result, creative uses of technology tend to go unexplored by those users. Once a user understands the capabilities of all the tools at their disposal, then creative solutions to problems and new methods of working can take shape.

2. Unqualified People Posturing as Experts – This is something that absolutely astounds me. Too often I’ve heard of friends (particularly those I know in secondary education) who have been forced to sit through in-service sessions on technology, only to be given information that they know to be patently false. From simple nomenclature errors (referring to Mozilla Firefox as “Mazola” – like the cooking oil), to flat-out falsehoods (saying that Macs and PCs are incapable of sharing Microsoft Office files), it’s a shame that there are some folks out there making a buck at in-services and “teaching” them incorrect information. There have also been some horrifyingly inaccurate descriptions of wikis, RSS, and other up-and-coming technologies.

In regards to the question involving the user-friendliness of technology: while a poorly designed/implemented technology should not be excused from criticism, neither should those users who are unwilling to crack open the user manual for software or hardware. It seems that there is a meme centering around the idea that all forms of technology should be intuitive; no additional education required. Yet, we all have to go through a learning process in order to drive cars, use telephones, operate stereo systems, and run the washing machine. None of these are particularly “intuitive” to our most primal behaviors, even though those examples are relatively simple in their execution. As you move to technologies where the use isn’t explicitly defined, and their potential results are limitless, you end up with a much steeper learning curve. Ultimately, though, it’s a curve worth tackling, but one which requires taking the time to learn how to use that technology.

As for the hardware solutions available to users, there are other low(er) tech options that should be considered (outside of Tablet PCs). Some classrooms over the past 5 years have used PDAs (PalmOS and Windows Mobile) in conjunction with folding keyboards to create a low-cost method for creating the paperless classroom. Students have a solution that permits keyboard or pen-based input, and still allows them to use their documents on a full-size computer at a later time, if needed.

Palm provides some examples of their success stories in education at:
http://www.palm.com/us/education/studies/

On a personal note, I’ve used PDAs and external keyboards with great success in my graduate studies as a paperless approach to note taking, brainstorming, and even the generation of full-blown papers.

Just a few thoughts to ponder…