One of the challenges to envisioning a Web 2.0 focus is pushback that can occur from faculty. Especially at smaller institutions, many instructors are overtaxed in their teaching and administrative duties. Asking faculty to adopt new technologies into their pedagogy is asking them to significantly increase a workload that is already heavy....And the result can be that if and when these overtaxed faculty members do need to use some form of technology in the classroom, the IT department handles it.
At small schools, this IT department may simply be an IT person, who must support students, faculty and staff in understanding and effectively using any and all technology tools. Thus, this IT person is also overtaxed.
Luke Fernandez contributed an interesting article to EduCause Quarterly, "An Antidote to the IT - Faculty Divide", about the relationship - often strained - between IT staff and faculty. I do not completely agree with Fendandez, particularly in his concluding recommendation that IT people need to reach out to faculty more. Particularly at a very small college where there is only one IT person, this places a huge amount of effort on one end. In truth, everyone needs to be persuaded that Web 2.0 technologies are really not that scary or difficult to use, and that these technologies-moderately easy to adapt to - are essential to student success in the 21st Century.
But I want to highlight one of Fernandez's thoughts in particular because it does not, I believe, reflect this school's situation:
Fernandez writes that "From the point of view of many faculty, the growth of IT more often advances the interests and market-oriented perspectives of the administration, solidifying and securing the powers of the administration over faculty and narrowing faculty's ability to teach with a modicum of autonomy. Rather than fostering a spirit of free inquiry and creativity, IT seems complicit in the promotion of "factory" models of education where innovation and exploration are sacrificed to automation, efficiency, and the codification of standardized business processes."
If technology is embraced by all, if learning communities are formed for faculty members who are experimenting with technology, if the IT person is invited to/included in faculty committees and meetings, if the IT person is seen as more than someone with a set of skills and instead as a mentor to faculty members.....then the inclusion of technology will not, perhaps, be so fraught with tension.
Purpose
Research Question:
How can the College's Graduate/Professional Studies programs be enhanced or reconfigured in order to meet the changing needs in Northeast Ohio?
This is an attempt to capture my research process and to share my research findings with as many people as possible. My project goal is to research workforce needs and economic development projections in Northeast Ohio in order to provide recommendations for program enhancement, particularly in Graduate and Professional Studies.
I chose to conduct my project in this public manner in order to explore one aspect of the type of technologically integrated learning for which I am advocating. I have not blogged before, so bear with me.
Early posts merely reflect information gathered. As I progress, my later posts will be more analytical and synthetic. I invite any and all comments, thoughts, musings, questions, and connections. The more personal input I receive, the more meaningful my recommendations will become.
If I have learned anything in the past few weeks, it is certainly that there are many important things that I just don't know, so help me out if you see the need.
Please click on the links that are in (almost) every post to get detailed information from the source itself.
How can the College's Graduate/Professional Studies programs be enhanced or reconfigured in order to meet the changing needs in Northeast Ohio?
This is an attempt to capture my research process and to share my research findings with as many people as possible. My project goal is to research workforce needs and economic development projections in Northeast Ohio in order to provide recommendations for program enhancement, particularly in Graduate and Professional Studies.
I chose to conduct my project in this public manner in order to explore one aspect of the type of technologically integrated learning for which I am advocating. I have not blogged before, so bear with me.
Early posts merely reflect information gathered. As I progress, my later posts will be more analytical and synthetic. I invite any and all comments, thoughts, musings, questions, and connections. The more personal input I receive, the more meaningful my recommendations will become.
If I have learned anything in the past few weeks, it is certainly that there are many important things that I just don't know, so help me out if you see the need.
Please click on the links that are in (almost) every post to get detailed information from the source itself.
Labels
- 21st Century Skills (18)
- technology (18)
- professional development (8)
- Web 2.0 (7)
- personal development and technology (6)
- Liberal Arts (4)
- STEM in NEO (4)
- workforce needs in NEO (4)
- business and technology (3)
- Global awareness (2)
- healthcare (2)
- planning (2)
- regionalism (2)
- Public-Private collaboration in Higher ed (1)
- Regional education (1)
- economic development (1)
- revitalization of NEO (1)
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