Okay some things are fads and cyclical ones at that. There have been technological fads in education that faded quickly. Brand names don't spring to mind. I recall a silly device that looked like an etch-a-sketch but scrolled a role of paper through it. Who knows what the point of that was. Film and TV in the classroom had a nice long run. Apple //e computers had a long run compared to the current generations that flip over every three years it seems. Film, TV and computers were not fads. They transformed the classroom.

I guess you understand all of that. What people will have difficulty adjusting to is the new rate of change. It is no longer practical to hold out for a sustainable technology that can be introduced across the systems and become the standard practice. We are in hyper change and the digital technologies and infrustructure are plastic beyond anyone's expectations. 1 + 1 = 3 at exponetial rates. Elluminate, Ustream, Facebook, Twitter, and soon Google Wave are the tools of the moment. They are the current generation of tools that have either coopted prior technologies or replaced them. In 12 months it could easily be something you and I have not heard about. The reluctance of many to adopt new technologies lies in their competence with those technologies and their ability to see the underlying common structure and language of this medium (and so adapt easily to incremental change in software design). This reluctance also is a result of our prediliction for building continuity and order into our educational system. Twitter will be yesterday's news in September, why invest time and resources into it? Interesting times we live in.