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Case Study
Teaching with Technology: Facilitating the Process
Part 1: Strategies for adopting instructional technology
8/29/2007
The LiteratureAl-Bataineh and Brooks (2003), citing the International Society for Technology in Education, listed some of the common challenges being faced by university education instructors as follows: proactive leadership from the education system, educators properly skilled in the use of technology for learning, student-centered approaches to learning, assessment of the effectiveness of technology for learning, technical assistance for maintaining and using technology in the classroom, ongoing financial support for sustained technology use, and the policies and standards for new learning environments.
According to Al-Bataineh and Brooks, there is an increasing need for a critical evaluation of technology resources. Everyone involved in the education system, not just instructors, needs to become knowledgeable in the understanding and use of technology.
Moody and Kindel (2004) measured the extent to which the use of technology in the classroom influences student learning. The faculty survey focused on inefficient and ineffective methods of incorporating technology for instruction. Fitch (2004) explored the importance of instructors' seeking feedback from students on the use and effectiveness of using more technology-based classrooms. Traditionally, a limited number of students would have raised their hands, and only one student would have been called on to answer an instructor's question. Now, technology introduced into the classroom offers more instructor-class interaction through the use of keypads. Students individually enter responses into a keypad at their desks, allowing for multiple students to respond simultaneously, which in turn provides more feedback for the instructor and greater interaction between students and instructor.
Meletiou-Mavrotheris, Lee, and Fouladi (2007) conducted a study that compared the learning experiences of students from a technology-based college course with a group of students with non-technology-based instruction. The authors stated that using technology seems to have an impact on students' perceptions of the course, and students who have access to more technology in the classroom seem to enjoy the course more and have an increased appreciation for the subject matter. Not incorporating technology into the classroom leads to superficial and poorly interconnected knowledge. Sturgeon (2005) stated that faculty members implementing more technology in the classroom believe students have more opportunity to "freely participate, listen, and use critical thinking skills" (p. 69). This method of classroom instruction allows for a less superficial means of learning; students are not merely just taking notes during lecture. Whittington (1987) found that students who use distance educating technology perform better than students who use traditional face to face methods of learning.
Important also is the professional development of college and university faculty.
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