Infuse it!

jhagen — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:23:27 +0000

In the posting titled “I don’t want to integrate it, I want to embed it!“, Jeff Utecht wrote that the word ‘integrate’ gets on his nerves. I’ve also pondered this for some time because it gets on my nerves too. But I’ve come to the conclusion that the word ‘embed’ is also inappropriate. To embed is to fix (an object) firmly and deeply in a surrounding mass. The image that accompanied Jeff’s posting was perfect it must be said. What I don’t like about the analogy is that the technology remains a separate (and in the image, an immutable) ‘thing’, an opinion shared by other commenters. I agree with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach (and others) that technology ideally should be like heat or air. That’s why my word of choice is to ‘infuse’, which means ‘to fill or pervade’, whilst ‘fusion’ means ‘the merging of different elements into a union’. Isn’t the fusion of Learning and Technology what we’re striving for? Which makes me wonder: if mass and energy are equivalent (E = MC²), are understanding and learning also (U = LT²), where T = Technology?

(Learning Technology) ² » integration

Infuse it!