EDTECH Challenges

The NMC Horizon Report 2013 Higher Education Edition outlines six challenges that higher ed is facing with regards to technology implementation and institutionalization.  The challenge that I addressed was that of educators not utilizing new technology in their instruction or their research.  I chose this issue for several reasons.  First, I had been fighting the need for implementing novel educational technology in my classroom, before I enrolled in this M.E.T. program.  Second, I see that only about 2-3 out of the forty or so faculty members whom I directly work with have actually integrated technology into their classrooms.  My final reason for choosing this challenge stems from a series of e-mails regarding a technology workshop that was presented at the college I teach at as part of a series of faculty development workshops and student success initiatives.  A colleague of mine developed and was to present the workshop, which was about the use of Google Voice and Cel.ly as a possible alternative to using e-mail to keep in contact with students.  Weeks before the workshop was presented, an invitation and RSVP e-mail was sent out to all faculty.  The responses to the invitation were a little disconcerting.  Faculty members from all across campus reprimanded my colleague for attacking and belittling the use of traditional e-mail, while others proposed hypothetical scenarios just short of smartphones destroying all of academia.  This response made it clear to me that there was at least some resistance to technology on campus.

As the Horizon Report explains, this issue is pervasive in higher education.  At my campus, there are technology workshops presented monthly and which faculty may voluntarily attend for professional development and those all-important flex hours.  The two workshops (Camtasia and Google Voice) that I attended this past semester had in attendance an audience of about a half a dozen instructors.  Granted there are constant schedule conflicts and other more immediate issues like lesson planning and grading that may take precedence over a professional development workshop; however, this might be an indicator of how far down a teacher's to do list learning about technology is.  In my department, only a few instructors use new technology in their teaching.  I shamefully admit that I was not one of those few.  

To remedy the current state of technology use on my campus, several solutions might be implemented.  Offering more than one technology workshop every month and at varied hours during the week may give busy educators more flexibility in choosing a date to attend a workshop.  Devoting a portion of all departmental and campus-wide flex days meetings to the introduction and implementation of technology in the classroom  would ensure that all faculty have at least some exposure to educational technology.  This could be made mandatory if necessary.  A requirement that a certain fraction of faculty flex hours be derived from educational technology workshops could be implemented.  At the departmental level, faculty need to see the immediate benefits of implementing technology.  With that in mind, field/content specific materials could be created for demonstration at departmental meetings.   

In my video, I focus on the more immediate challenge of "selling" educational technology to the department chair.  As only a small fraction of instructors in my department use  technology I thought that it would be most beneficial to go to the chair to suggest departmental level technology workshops and possibly to get immediate feedback about implementing technology.  I also very briefly cover the idea of individualized learning (Challenge #4).

Below is my video.  I apologize for the corny dialogue.  Comments, criticisms, and suggestions are greatly appreciated.  I used Go!Animate to create this video: