Academic Cultural Realities vs. Technology's Promise

In spite of reported strides in technology adoption in higher education, this article, Horns of the Dilemma for Faculty: Legacy Demands and Technology Expectations, offers a view of the reality inside academic culture.

Source: Web 2.0 (05/06/09), a publication of Campus Technology.

Adopting the Latest Greatest Tool

With the continuous development of new and cool tools for teaching and learning, making sense of it all is becoming quite a challenge. Should faculty strive to integrate the latest greatest Web 2.0 technologies? To what end? Aside from teaching, instructors must engage in other critical and time-consuming responsibilities. Compared to past technologies, Web 2.0 tools are more user-friendly and appealing to explore independently. However, for a number of instructors, keeping up with "what's new" is not necessarily highest on their priority list. Their bigger concern is finding the time to integrate such technologies in meaningful ways that markedly enhance learning as well as current teaching practices.

Ironically, the abundance of new, often free, and easy-to-use technology tools may not translate proportionately to increased adoption of technology in academia, at least for now.

Revisiting Web 2.0: Narrowing the Technology Adoption Gap

In my previous post, I addressed the potential of Web 2.0 technologies to become the "great equalizers" when comparing technology adoption among early adopters and laggards in higher education. A number of issues have been documented on why technology is not adopted in the classroom. Among laggards, navigating through the myriads of Web 2.0 technologies might be a forboding task. A meaningful approach to help them along would be to select classroom activities and recommend technologies that would enhance their delivery or comprehension, for example. The idea is to bridge the disconnect between technology adoption and potential benefits and at the same time, frame the rationale for making the transition to teaching with technology. The pros and cons of selecting any technology should be discussed, such as the time required to update information. In the mind of the instructor, the relationship between effort and rewards is significant in determining the extent of personal commitment to changing existing teaching practices. Another option would be to form small cohorts of like (or unlike) minds to provide peer support, and a platform for exchanging ideas on concrete practices. Instructors appreciate the opportunity to share their expertise and to learn from each other; this strategy provides such an outlet. As part of this effort, Web 2.0 technologies should be employed to communicate, collaborate and interact with the technologies directly in order to further demonstrate their potential. Modeling technology use increases the possibility of its adoption in the classroom.

Web 2.0 Apps: Equalizers or Alienators in Higher Education?

Web 2.0 refers to Web technologies that aim to enhance creativity, collaboration and information sharing. When used appropriately, these technologies such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, social bookmarking services, and media depositories can readily promote closer web-based communities and social interaction without much of a learning curve, or increased investment in resources. Studies on technology adoption have classified technology users at different levels; on one extreme are the early adopters, and on the other, the laggards. While the characteristics of Web 2.0 applications can be formidable assets to anytime, anywhere learning, one wonders if their availability and ease of use has had a significant reduction in the number of those who would normally be considered technology laggards in higher education. In other words, has the rate of technology adoption changed among laggards as a result of the onslaught of Web 2.0?

Are some instructors missing the opportunity to move online learning (or learning in general) forward by failing to adopt Web 2.0 technologies? Naturally, instructors who have been generally less likely to adopt technology in their classes may still need a little nudging regardless of the ease in use of a technology. A proactive role of faculty development would be to demonstrate, with concrete examples, how Web 2.0 technologies can enhance teaching and learning. Furthermore, an emphasis on the capacity of such technologies to improve human contact and interaction might just earn them the role of the "great equalizers" when it comes to technology adoption in higher education.