Things haven't been quite as obvious since. The problem is one of perspective. Humans are great at building better mousetraps, but tend to forget that the better mousetrap might also change what it means to be a mouse, or more importantly, what it means to be a hunter of mice. The interaction between us and our tools is a two-way street - we may very well redesign them, but if we're not careful (or even if we are), they're inevitably going to redesign us too.

We'll use the simple word processor as an example, though we could use any other technology just as well. Word processors like Word or Word Perfect were born with a list of capabilities we were hungry for - copy/paste, sophisticated formatting, spell-checking, re-use and transportability in an editable format. That was what we wanted, and how we designed it. Here's a brief list of how it has redesigned us:

• We do our own typing. Fifty years ago, almost all typing was done by specialists - secretaries and stenographers. Word processors are so ubiquitous that we all use them, but the result is that many of us spend a sizeable portion of our day just doing purely clerical tasks. We've fired our secretary, and added his/her workload to ours!
• We're all expected to be experts. Dissertations have been written on effective document layout, font selection, text size, margin size, etc. Suddenly, we're all making decisions about these things, without any training or background.
• The bar has been raised. A typed document used to be little more than text. Now, with the capabilities built into our tools, we're expected to produce documents with color photographs, icons, graphs, maps. Because we can (or, more properly, because our tools can), we must.

The list can go on and on, and the same problems can be found everywhere technology has found a home. Email is easier than "snail mail," but now we spend 20% of our day on written communication. Digital photography is easier than the darkroom, but now we spend hours longer managing the deluge of digital pictures, and print almost nothing - because it's no longer a task we just drop off at the drug store.

So what to do? Chuck all of this technology aside, and ignore it? Tempting, but...

...As I began, it is all a question of perspective. In an age where passivity can be considered a social disease, and where technology changes happen too fast to follow, we seem content to allow things to happen to us without our even thinking about it. Who wants us to generate better, prettier documents on our own - is it us, or is it the people who sell us the software? ...or set our personnel budgets? As any good teacher will tell you, no one will change unless s/he allows change to happen. We must become thoughtful users of our tools, and monitor the changes to us that they imply. Back to our word processor, here are some things to think about...

• Demand that the tool reflect the task. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!
• Delegate! If someone else has the skills and the time, let them! (Although the Office of Instructional Technology isn't a collection of typists, we're here to help your job be easier!)
• Be content with your old software. The standard remark is that 95% of the users utilize 5% of any word processor's capability. If you don't need to upgrade, why would you?

Statistics show that over 5,000,000 households have turned off their Internet access. Although I would never recommend such drastic measures, it implies an action that is equally appropriate for any technology, including television. You can just turn it off, and get out your pencil. After all, you can determine how much you let your world redesign you!

        --Jeffrey L. Jones, Editor