Faculty Development Issue: When (And How) To Introduce Faculty to Technology

Created by Mark Morton (University of Waterloo) on March 15, 2006

In October of 2005, I emailed about forty individuals who have expertise in faculty development as it pertains to instructional technologies. In my email, I asked them this question: in a workshop or training program that's designed to help instructors learn to use online technologies in ways that promote active, student-centered learning, at what point should those instructors actually be introduced to the technology? That is, should one discuss the technology before discussing the pedagogy, or should one discuss the technology after discussing the pedagogy, or should one blend together the discussions of technology and pedagogy in an iterative manner? As it turned out, there was a clear consensus among the 37 individuals who responded to my query; I discuss that consensus in the attached PDF, which comprises a synthesis of the responses as well as an appendix that includes all of the responses in their entirety. -- Mark
PS I've replaced the original PDF, which wasn't opening in all versions of Acrobat. It now should open in any version. -m

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when-technology-revised.pdf	60.72 KB

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Can't open it, Mark -

Submitted by Joe Clark (Florida State University) on March 15, 2006 - 12:32pm.

Can't open it, Mark - Acrobat gives me an error message about being unable to decrypt it. Is it just me? I tried via two browsers, fwiw.

Hi, Joe -- Sorry, I think I

Submitted by Mark Morton (University of Waterloo) on March 15, 2006 - 1:38pm.

Hi, Joe -- Sorry, I think I originally saved the PDF in version 7.0 of Acrobat. I've now re-saved it, and re-attached it, so that it should open in any version of Acrobat. Thanks for letting me know. Mark

Thanks, Mark - works fine

Submitted by Joe Clark (Florida State University) on March 15, 2006 - 11:12pm.

Thanks, Mark - works fine now.

Thanks for sharing. I would

Submitted by James Fadden (Allegheny College) on March 15, 2006 - 1:25pm.

Thanks for sharing. I would also consider the third options you identify as optimal. Discussing pedagogy and the possible tools that support the method in context with one another makes most sense. One difficulty I can see with it, is that on some campuses there is a group that deals with instructional technology and a group that deals with faculty development. This divide (whether intended or not) between those responsible for developing pedagogical skills and those responsible for teaching the instructional technology is sometimes hard to bridge.