Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference
Teaching, Learning, & Technology
The Connected Classroom
April 7-9, 2002
Seeking Appropriate Technology Choices in a Small College Campus and Classroom
|
By: Danielle Bascelli, Kevin Johnson, Rick Langhorst, Tarshia Stanley |
Abstract
The choice of the "right" pedagogical technology use, both campus-wide and in the classroom, is rarely cut and dried. From a faculty development perspective, suitable technology choices emerge from both a sense of the institutional culture as well as a knowledge of the infrastructure, tied to a dialog with faculty. For a faculty member, the choice may be even more intuitive and idiosyncratic. At Spelman College, a small, historically black women's college in the liberal arts, we continue to seek the best use of technology that is appropriate to our infrastructure, mission and faculty. We used assistance from the Bush Foundation to spark a campus-wide effort at extending internet use through our curriculum, largely through WebCT. In our session both faculty and faculty development presenters will look at which technology choices have worked and which have gone awry. We will examine both institutional and individual choices in deciding on appropriate technology and its role in learning in our liberal arts setting.
Description
How does a small liberal-arts college, without a strong technology infrastructure, make appropriate choices for integrating technology into the learning environment? Our panel will show how we tried to make "right" technology choices within our constraints, how we have evaluated those decisions and what implications they might have for other institutions. For small liberal arts colleges in particular, there is a need to make appropriate use of technology without letting technology appropriate learning. Any effort to disseminate technology through the learning environment must address not only curricular inertia but also faculty's legitimate fears not only about their own role in the process but also about concerns that more information does not necessarily mean more learning Part of the effort must be to find technology that is flexible enough to accommodate a variety of teaching styles and comfort levels.
Spelman College is concluding a three-year effort, aided with funding from the Bush Foundation, to disseminate internet use through the curriculum. The integration of technology into our environment was predicated on scalability, platform independence, robustness and ubiquity, among other things. Our panelists will discuss how our effort has been successful at meeting the needs of students and faculty. We will look at questions of what goes into making the "right" technology decision both at the institutional and the classroom level, as well as some of our evaluation measures. We will consider what constitute appropriate technological uses in our liberal arts setting, and we will also look at the privileging of new voices through technology. We will discuss technology adoption strategies campus-wide, within departments and within individual classes in Music, English and Foreign Languages. Panelists will present both faculty development and faculty member perspectives on the use of WebCT as an appropriate tool for distributed learning in our setting.