Are academics really digitally savvy? They definitely don’t seem to be that digitally confident… something that is drawn out in the following story:
It is clear, says Cary Cooper, distinguished professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University Management School, that “academics are much more technologically and digitally savvy than ever before”. Yet this often seems to lead to some curious compromises rather than a wholehearted embrace of the paperless future.
“We have the technology,” notes Cooper, “but do I see paperless offices? I see printouts of emails everywhere. Nor do I see a move to make it all digital. Perhaps it’s the insecurity, a lack of trust in technology. What if I take only a laptop to a meeting and it lets me down?”
Cooper believes that the reluctance to embrace progress is “less a generational issue than a question of how secure we feel about the technology. A paperless office requires you to be transportable, so it will make a big difference when we are sure that every workplace has proper wi-fiaccess.”
In the meantime, he adds, it is common to go to a meeting and find “just one person there with no paper, doing it all online”.
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