Journalists & Geeks: A Lesson for Educators?

Amy Gaharan, who blogs about online journalism for the Poynter Institute, had a post this week that relates to my questions regarding what industry is really asking for when they say they need creative, innovative thinkers. Here's a brief segment:

Right now, it's becoming obvious to many journalists that our field sorely needs lots of top-notch, creative technologists. Developers for whom software is a medium, and an art form. Developers with a deep passion for information, credibility, fairness, usefulness, and free speech.

Once more, we see creativity and technology combined.

A comment on Amy's post by Rich Gordon on the PBS MediaShift Idea Lab also got me thinking:

Too many journalists don't respect technology development as a creative activity -- they think developers should just build stuff they want. Too many technologists don't respect journalism as an intellectual activity -- they think journalists just pump out content for their algorithms to process. Too many journalists really don't like technology change; they blame it for hurting media businesses, threatening their livelihoods and diminishing the quality of news available in local communities. Too many technologists think it's not their job to worry about the negative impact of technology innovation on media companies and journalism . . . .

Do we see a similar dynamic emerging between teachers and those who create technology?

Go to Poynter.org to read the whole post by Amy Gaharan. (Go to the post by Rich Gordon too.)