This is an interesting article, and seemingly as relevant to my new position in Science as it is with the position that I’m leaving here in Education, Sharon Kopyc as an article that seems to hit the nail on the head.
I think that it should be obvious that students are using technology to to research, collaborate and handle administrivia much in the manner that their instructors do, but there is a distinct gap when it comes to how instructors handle technology when it comes time to teach. Part of this issue, to me seems to be the IT vs IT that I wrote about, and Kopyc mentions this as well, there is trust and perhaps reliance on information technology, but there is little knowledge, regard or any other positive attitude toward instructional technology. Without the trust, there can be no participation, and that is what is seemingly sinking the use of EDIT.
So, the way out of this is, again like Kopyc suggests and like the TechPD unit has been doing in the Faculty of Education and how the Digital Design unit will be doing in the Faculty of Science is to develop that trust and understanding of the instructional technology. I think this is central to getting the use of technology off the ground as it is the only way that the “regular” IT folk can get back to doing what they have to do to support the systems, as opposed to being show-horned into being EDIT folk as well. Of Kopyc’s three suggestions (forums, fellowships and just-in-time training), I think that the ones that can get the most traction are the forums and just-in-time training. These are significantly cheaper than arranging release time for a fellowship and they seem to have the best results when it comes time to empowering individuals.
It’s always good to find some affirmation in the literature out there.
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