Technology (Innovations for Education)
Teaching Digital Natives
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When it comes to
campus technology, the
concept of rapid change has
become something of a cliché. But that doesn’t
make it any less real. With each new batch of students,
it seems, expectations grow when it comes
to classroom technology, communications and
support services. At the same time, institutions
of all types are striving to train and equip faculty
and staff with the tools needed to serve students
who have grown up in a digital age.
With an eye to both the present and future,
here are thoughts from a number of experts on
strategies for meeting this ongoing challenge.
“There is a great temptation to jump at
the newest technologies. It’s easy to lament
the technology arms race, but it’s a real phenomenon.
Parents and students want the
best possible education that prepares them
for the future, and that often equates to the
latest and greatest in their minds. Being
able to offer the latest technologies is a big
selling point for colleges and universities.
Our technology-rich classrooms are important
stops on campus tours. They communicate
important values about the institution
and show that this is a place where active
learning with technology will happen.
“Discerning whether these technologies
actually enhance learning is quite another
story. It takes time to study the impact of
technology on learning, and those results
need to be peer-reviewed, replicated and
considered carefully. Technology does not
work at the pace of careful peer-reviewed
studies. Much of the research that we find
on the impact of technology on learning is
mixed. Many studies show it makes little to
no difference, while others suggest it does.
“Find meaningful and ongoing ways
to learn from your faculty regarding their
technology needs. Invest in strong support to
help faculty integrate (not just use) technology
in their courses. Additionally, develop
innovative and ongoing ways for faculty to
learn about technology and incorporate it
into their classrooms. Trainings are good,
but technology showcases, individual meetings
with faculty, open houses and shorter
workshops can help draw faculty into using
technology more effectively.”
— Dr. Matt Johnson, associate professor,
Department of Educational Leadership,
Central Michigan University, Mount
Pleasant, MI
“It is vitally important to understand the
tools and resources that you already have
at your disposal and to take a functional
inventory across the entire institution of
which services these tools provide. This
inventory should be focused on what the
tools DO rather than the product that they
are related to. Otherwise, one department
may, for example, pursue a specific video
collaboration technology without realizing
that the department next door is already
utilizing a similar product.
“Additionally, the technical expertise
and financing for learning technologies
should be centralized within the organization
to ensure that all staff and students
benefit from the institution’s access to the
tool. People are incredibly creative at finding
their own solutions when they have a
clear understanding of how a specific tool or
system can work for them.”
— Matthew Cooper, associate provost,
Center for Learning and Technology,
Thomas Edison State University, Trenton, NJ
“Every institution needs to have a
very keen understanding of the needs and
expectations of its students, staff and other
stakeholders, as well as those in the future
(taken into consideration shifts in the
education market). Each school can’t be all
things to all people so there is a great deal
of researching, surveying, and analysis —
quantitative and qualitative — that needs
to take place to keep investments aligned
with institutional goals and strategies.
“College leaders should know that
students presume accessibility: lectures
online, resources online and that their work
and assignments will be accepted online.
They must accept that there is a different
depository space for ‘things’ and add office
hours, appointments, grades online. Many
students want to ‘own’ their portfolios in
the cloud so they have access to work from any place at anytime. Most students like
chat rooms and engage there. Conversations
are compartmentalized and portable. To
keep pace, educators must understand these
trends and grow with the times.”
— Charlene Aguilar, education practice,
Witt/Kieffer executive search firm,
Oak Brook, IL
“There are many ways colleges can
make best use of technology depending
on their needs and resources, but here are
a few ideas that have worked at Adelphi
and elsewhere in higher education: ask the
faculty to lead the way — fostering faculty
leaders in each department or unit who
can liaise with the instructional design
staff and with IT can be very effective, as
can forming an educational technology
committee within each unit; forming a
work group that consists of instructional
designers, faculty, staff and students who
can set goals and priorities for educational
technology at the institution. Another
effective approach is to offer sustained professional
development programs through
the teaching and learning center in the
meaningful use of educational technology
for teaching. Yet another idea is to offer
incentives to faculty and/or programs in
the form of teaching grants, stipends or
certificates for developing pedagogies that
make use of educational technology.”
— Susan Lambert, director of
the Faculty Center for Professional
Excellence, Adelphi University,
Garden City, NY
“Digital learning modalities provide ease
of access, affordability and inclusion for an
ever-evolving, growing, digital-savvy, higher
education population.
“It is imperative that we focus on pedagogical
innovation and active learning approaches,
and use adaptive learning tools and
technologies to reach the students of today,
and in the future.”
— Dr. Ulanda Forbess, director of
Faculty Professional Development and Distance
Education, Wildfire Institute, North
Lake College, Irving, TX
“There’s no shame in being a fast follower
rather than the first out of the gate. Institutions
can afford to wait to see if technology solutions
can produce results. And it can also be beneficial
to experiment with tools that peer institutions
are experimenting with. Professional associations
and other networking organizations can
help institutions to evaluate solutions together
so that their individual risk is mitigated.”
— Dr. Peter J. Stokes, managing director,
Huron Education, Chicago
“My best advice to college leaders
would be to involve students in the planning
and implementation of technology. Since nearly all our students are ‘digital
natives,’ we should encourage advice from
them on how to effectively implement
technology into our courses from their
perspective. We often try to pigeonhole new
technologies to make them fit with our old
methodologies. Students are early adopters
of most all new technology and think
outside of our box.
“Investing in technology is wonderful,
but spending a good deal of time with
instructors on how to implement the technology
is invaluable. Having colleagues,
students and peers share how they use new
technologies specifically is very important.
Too often training becomes simple presentations
on how new technologies ‘could’
be used, and then faculty and staff are left
with the enormous, nearly impossible task
of figuring out how it ‘should’ work
for them.”
— Dr. John McCullough, chair, Education
Department, Clarion University of
Pennsylvania, Clarion, PA
“It is far too easy to focus on getting
the latest technology and lose sight of the
purpose of technology in the classroom.
Technology is not an end in itself; it is
a tool to create high-impact, engaged
learning experiences. In our experience,
the most learning occurs when faculty
have clearly defined learning objectives
and consider which mix of tools will best help students achieve those objectives. At
times, an engaging video or a game-like
simulation may be the best tool to promote
learning. But, at other times, learning may
occur best when students are confronted
with real problems (including ill-defined
objectives, limited or imperfect information,
time pressure) and asked to apply and
integrate what they have learned within
those typical real-world constraints.
“In the classroom, as in the workplace,
figuring out how to teach students how to
get information from a colleague who may
be recalcitrant or inarticulate may be as
important a learning opportunity for students
as figuring out which technical tools
to use to analyze the information. Keeping
the focus squarely on the student learning
experience enables colleges to prioritize
and limit investments in technologies to
those with the greatest promise to benefit
students.”
— Dr. Alison Davis-Blake, professor of
Business, Ross School of Business, University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor
“Application and use of technology generally
lag behind the pace of technological
advancement. Experience with developing
useful applications with existing technologies
drives innovation that may allow universities
to leapfrog intermediary states of
technology development and advancement.
These experiences tell you what else is possible
if technology could be advanced even
further and to anticipate the availability of
that technology.
“There are many possibilities for
bringing technology advancements into
the classroom without necessarily making
a huge investment. The challenge is to
bring along a generation of faculty members
who may not necessarily be conversant
with new technologies — continuous
and focused training is important. Some
of this will cease to be an issue as a new
generation of faculty arrive on campuses
around the country, well versed in the
new art.”
— Dr. Linda Schadler, vice provost
and dean of Undergraduate Education,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
Troy, NY
This article originally appeared in the issue of .