I guess you already have your opinion on the big question, and the answer depends on the people composing this important constituency on campus.
However, with a new generation of students considering their cell phones, instant messengers, laptops or iPods as life lines, the question has become an existential one for people in charge of IT in universities and colleges.
So important, indeed, that it was the topic of a panel discussion at Educause 2005, the big conference threatened by the imminent arrival of Hurricane Wilma in Orlando, FL.
In an article titled “Beyond ‘Toys, Travel and Food’” published this morning, Doug Lederman from Inside Higher Ed reports on this session “Faculty Incentives and Rewards” held yesterday at the conference:
“Many of the ideas revolved around what Glenn Everett, director of instructional technology at Stonehill College, a small private institution in Massachusetts, called “toys, travel and food, always food†— practical rewards, like improved equipment, travel to conferences and lots of meetings (preferably over a nice lunch), that entice faculty members to overcome the inertia or fear or other disincentives that tend to work against innovation.
[…]
But while “tried and true†financial incentives and care and feeding may work to some extent, Everett argued, such steps don’t nearly overcome the most significant disincentive for faculty technological adoption: the fact that the time and energy that professors must invest in embracing new technology is typically not recognized or rewarded in the tenure process, which still overwhelmingly favors research over teaching at many institutions.”
But, what if faculty members were already tech-aficionados when they arrive on campus?
Then, technology adoption wouldn’t take too much of their time from the required research and publishing work. It would also improve at the same time their teaching (as well as their coolness-factor) with their students.
This is why an initiative such as the one launched this year by the School of Education at Drexel University makes a lot of sense – even beyond the buzz it generates about the program.
By introducing the latest tech-toys – I should probably stop calling the iPod Video a toy – in its Education academic programs, Drexel will train teachers that embraced new technology.
