Faculty involvement in IT use urged
Gilbert tells workshop faculty key to integrating new teaching and learning technologies

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Services Editor

All campus constituencies-particularly faculty-must be involved in the planning and decision-making process if a university is to successfully incorporate new teaching and learning technologies, education-technology expert Steven Gilbert told librarians, information specialists, computer scientists and administrators during a presentation at UB Feb. 2.

As founder and president of the Teaching, Learning & Technology Group, or TLT, an affiliate of the American Association for Higher Education, Gilbert has assisted hundreds of universities in the United States and abroad in effectively managing the complex organizational issues that accompany the information revolution.

Gilbert began his talk-entitled "Teaching, Learning, Technology and Change: What Should be Preserved and What Should be Transformed"-with a brief but fact-filled and computer-assisted discussion of the history, current trends and probable future of educational technologies in higher education. He noted that, whether we like it or not, the integration of IT, along with its marvels and annoyances, new power bases and addicted but frustrated users, will be even more rapid in coming decades.

To demonstrate a useful way of approaching the difficulties associated with this transition, Gilbert asked audience members to participate in a demonstration of the decision-making process used by the TLT group to assist client colleges and universities.

Groups of two or three persons representing several university constituencies identified the social and educational values they want to see preserved or transformed at UB as the university continues its widespread application of information technologies. From this exercise followed an open discussion of how technology needs are assessed at UB and how the process might be improved. The discussion lasted long after the formal presentation ended.

Calling the IT revolution "an irreversible transformation" of our social institutions, Gilbert said that even with all its problems, the process has been accompanied by a new sense of overwhelming opportunity.

He used 1999 data developed by Casey Green of the Campus Computing Project to cite a 400 percent increase in the use of course-related email since 1995 and a great increase in the use of course Web pages, computer simulations, email conferencing, online readings and other applications by faculty members across the country.

Although the widespread use of IT for distance-learning programs was predicted five years ago, its use for that purpose is not nearly as great as expected, he said. But about 46 percent of colleges offer at least one course online, while only a very small percentage of colleges use the Web for e-commerce or financial transactions with students.

"With the greatly increased access to new educational technologies comes problems," he said. High costs, resistance to change, difficulty integrating useful new applications into traditional courses and difficulty recruiting and retaining IT support staff are just a few of them, he said.

In fact, Gilbert noted that one of the most distinguishing features of the increasing popularity of computer technologies is the thinness of tech support almost everywhere in higher education. He pointed out that the ratio of students to support staff is 1:200 at public and private research universities, 1:350 at public four-year institutions, and even higher at community colleges.

"University-support services are falling behind user expectations, which are rising fast," Gilbert said. "Many universities can't afford to employ even the student technicians they train because the students can make more money in a commercial setting."

The constant upgrades in technology mean that everyone becomes a novice again every three to 12 months, so the already-strained support staff has more teaching to do than ever before, according to Gilbert. And while these specialists are being called upon to teach as well as install, repair and maintain complex information systems, librarians are becoming the tech-support specialists and administrators are investigating and supporting specific pedagogical applications, he said.

The extensive application of information technologies has provoked other problems as well. Gilbert pointed to employee concerns over information overload; frustration over constant changes in programs, systems and processes; lack of training; increased workloads, and users' difficulty in discerning which new applications will satisfy their needs.

There is evidence, too, of increased physical and psychological stress, social isolation, less time and opportunity for personal interaction and complaints of feeling either over-connected or disconnected, he said. He noted that researchers have found that although email and the Internet provide for more social relationships, they're also more shallow.

"Universities have to deal with all this and other problems as well," he said. "They're under intense pressure to keep up with their competitors, reduce costs and implement instructional technologies that improve teaching and learning methods.

"Because there is a lack of conclusive evidence that much of this instructional material is academically effective, however, academic leaders don't know who or what to trust. Institutional paranoia is common."

As a result, college administrators might maintain tight control over the planning, distribution and implementation of new technologies, which he says is usually a mistake.

"Not only does it deprive decision-makers of a pool of creative and intelligent technology users," he said, "but it also provokes frustration and resistance to change." This, he said, often has gummed up the best-laid administrative plans.

"The faculty, for instance, has a vested interest in what's going on in the university," Gilbert reminded the audience. "We've found that they bring important, unique and necessary perspectives to the discussions of how to fold new technologies into the teaching process. For this reason alone it is most unwise to cut them out."

In his work with hundreds of institutions, Gilbert said he has nearly always found the need for a forum where members of the university community can discuss these issues openly. Using workshops, working groups, ongoing roundtable discussions and other structured processes, he said, the TLT Group has taught hundreds of educators to identify and work with the concerns of their many constituencies.

"This process makes it much easier to develop effective strategies to direct and shape the impact of information technology throughout the institution," Gilbert maintained.