One two-part article featured on the main page caught my attention. It's titled "Teaching with Technology: Facilitating the Process." Part 1 is about "Strategies for Adopting Instructional Technology." The authors, Ric Keaster, Leroy Metza, and Angela Hillegass, start by pointing out that P-12 teachers must learn to use technology in order to incorporate it into their classrooms. "Likewise, instructors in colleges of education cannot teach prospective teachers to use technology unless the faculty, themselves, use technology in the college of education classrooms as a part of their instruction. There is something about 'modeling' that goes a long way in education, regardless of the level of education under consideration."
(This certainly sounds familiar given what we're doing in IT 6750.)
Obviously, as the authors point out, this will involve "two primary areas of new knowledge where faculty members need professional development: online instruction and face to face instruction." The article "deals with . . . the need to provide faculty not only with the technological tools for enhancing instruction, but also with the knowledge of how to best use these materials to maximize the time faculty spend with students in physical college and university classrooms." It then examines how this was accomplished in the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences at Western Kentucky University.
The process included the following steps:
- Creating an atmosphere and culture for change
- Developing and communicating the vision
- Planning and providing resources
- Providing training and development
- Monitoring and checking progress
- Continuing to give assistance
