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Case Study
Teaching with Technology: Facilitating the Process (Part 2)
The means to bring about change
9/5/2007
- You already do a very good job supporting my use of technology in the classroom.
- I'd like to be shown how to make full use of the document camera, also how to make video clips and insert them into PowerPoint presentations. I need more help with webpage design.
- I would just like to say thank you for all the technology services you provide and also all the personal assistance that is available when problems arise. [The staff] are valuable assets who give immediate service when problems occur. Also, thank you for being able to transfer videos to DVDs. This has made teaching and presenting material easier and more effective. Thanks again for the wonderful services you provide.
Caveats
Some cautions should be offered before concluding this text. The first caution simply echoes what is found in the literature when the issue of providing technology for faculty is discussed (e.g., Holland, 2001). Technology is nice; it is flashy and has the capability of making one feel on the cutting edge of instruction. Since they have grown up with it, students are accustomed to technology and feel comfortable when it is used in instructional settings. However, technology simply for technology's sake might do more harm than good. While faculty obviously cannot use technology if it is not available, neither can they use it when it is available if they don't know how. Training must be provided; engagement on the part of faculty is essential; and demonstrated payoff must be in evidence for most faculty to consider engaging in any training efforts, let alone actually employing technology in their instruction.
Next, administrators need to make sure that the instructional use of the technology is both appropriate and effective. Many faculty get hung up on PowerPoint presentations and believe that they have reached the summit of Mount Technology. As most are aware, PowerPoints are just fancy presentations of overheads; in fact, they hold the potential for being worse than no technology in some cases, since they tend to lock faculty into a restricted, linear presentation. Technology offers so much more than this fundamental use of this innovation. Make sure that faculty are aware of what all is available to them, and provide them with an appropriate picture of how these technologies can enhance their instruction far beyond what mere PowerPoint presentations can do.
Finally, while leadership is encouraged where the purchase and use of technology are concerned, there can be drawbacks to being a campus leader. The text above has discussed the college's uniqueness on campus regarding the equipping of the classrooms with technology. It is indeed the model that other colleges use when they request funds for equipment and classroom improvements. However, when funds are made available to colleges, CEBS generally is seeking to fund from an "enhancement" point of view; the other colleges are seeking "foundational" accommodations. It is natural for senior-level administrators to pursue parity across the colleges, and so most requests from the other colleges get funded when funds are available. However, CEBS has been able to provide what is necessary to support more than adequately the technology development and needs of the college's faculty and will continue to do what is necessary to continue to do so; that is what facilitative leaders in educational technology do.
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