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INTEGRATING Technology in Schools, Colleges, and Departments of Education

Posted on: Thursday, 30 March 2006, 09:01 CST

By Lessen, Elliott; Sorensen, Christine

A Primer for Deans

Schools, colleges, and departments of education have as their core mission to prepare teachers, administrators, and other educators. As in virtually all other academic units, the job has recently expanded to include the integration of technology. We are expected to use and teach our students to use technology as a tool to acquire, manipulate, and communicate information. Some technologies, such as electronic portfolios or Web-based modules, also demand increased student responsibility for independent learning and reflection on learning. Meanwhile, technology can help on the administrative side by providing tools for collecting and managing data, assessing learning, documenting activities and disseminating information about them, and enhancing research productivity. In schools of education, further expectations are that technologies such as handheld data-collection devices, GPS systems, and assistive technologies will be integrated into teaching and learning, since these are tools that the students will eventually use in their own classrooms.

So what are the best ways to promote the integration of technology? We have identified four key actions the dean can take: making the use of technology a priority; establishing a technological infrastructure; focusing on development; and creating training opportunities and support for students, faculty, and staff.

SETTING PRIORITIES-THE IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP

It is the role of the leader to set the priorities for any academic unit. While ideally these priorities are developed collaboratively with faculty, at other times the dean must lead. It may well be up to him or her to make technology integration a unit commitment by, for example, including technology in the mission, articulating a technology vision in addresses to the faculty and students, showcasing technology initiatives, and ensuring that the provost and president understand the importance of technology in the school.

The dean must be seen not just as a promoter but as a user of technology. The dean can use presentation software, attend technology training, use e-mail as a primary communication tool, use Web or networking tools to disseminate reports and minutes, create a visible Web presence for the school, and attend technology events. Public relations materials such as alumni publications, press packets, and donor appeals can highlight technology efforts.

The dean needs to set expectations for faculty members regarding the use of technology, beginning with the hiring of new faculty. During the interview process, the dean can ask about the applicant's ability to use technology in teaching and research, tell the applicant about technology initiatives in the school, and describe the kinds of support provided to new faculty in learning to use technology. For current faculty, signaling technology's importance in the tenure and promotion process and in annual merit reviews can be critical. Providing technology for faculty who are willing to use it and reducing clerical support can create additional incentives for change.

INFRASTRUCTURE-THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Second, the dean is responsible for creating an environment where the integration of technology is possible. Faculty, staff, and students must have access to the appropriate technological tools. For instance, in order for faculty to incorporate technology into their teaching, it must be available in the classrooms. This may mean remodeling classrooms or purchasing portable equipment. For faculty teaching off campus, laptops and portable projectors may be needed. Faculty and staff must have adequate technology in their offices, and students need ready access to technology through labs, learning centers, and wireless access points. Supporting technology means providing adequate budgetary resources not just for technology acquisition but for maintenance. And these resources need to be protected during hard times.

Multiple technologies must be supported in order to build an environment conducive to technology integration. Faculty members need computers, of course, but also servers, projectors, PDAs, mimeos (whiteboard recorders), smartboards, DVD players, and assistive devices. They need content-specific materials such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to use in social studies methods classes or anatomy software for exercise physiology classes. Appropriate tools must also be available to faculty for research-for instance, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Ethnograph software, data-editing tools, and video- capture equipment, to name just a few.

Ensuring compatibility within the school is important and can lead to decisions to mandate the adoption of particular strategies or programs. For example, the need for common assessment data on student performance required by accrediting agencies may lead to the adoption of tools such as LiveText or TaskStream for use in creating student portfolios and tracking student competencies. The need to aggregate data across program areas for management efficiencies may lead to the choice of specific database programs. For example, at Northern Illinois University (NIU), all departments are required to use a relational database called Student History and Record Keeping (SHARK) that was designed specifically for it. SHARK provides a common way of tracking student data as well as scheduling, budgeting, and faculty load information. The School of Education at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) has a similar relational database that cuts across all teacher education advisors and dean's office personnel with a potential interface to the university's Office of Institutional Research and Studies.

The dean must ensure that technology initiatives within education are aligned with university initiatives and that infrastructure developments are compatible with the university infrastructure. For example, the school must work with university instructional technology staff to ensure security for wireless networks. If the university adopts a course-development tool such as Blackboard, the dean should encourage faculty to use that resource. Showcasing the faculty use of such tools encourages their spread to other faculty.

Creating an appropriate infrastructure means investing in adequate support personnel, who should be housed in an office that is not affiliated with any academic unit. The duties of this office include purchasing and installing hardware and software; maintaining equipment and Web pages; providing troubleshooting and technical support for faculty and staff; managing servers, labs, and learning centers; providing graphic support for the dean; and training faculty, students, and staff. Technology-support personnel ensure the compatibility of technology applications across projects, including grant-funded ones. To accomplish all this, a key person should be identified to coordinate all technology activity.

DEVELOPMENT-THE IMPORTANCE OF BUILDING A RESOURCE BASE

Increasingly, deans play a key role in developing resources for their colleges that go beyond the base budget, and this is particularly true in the case of expensive technologies. Onetime grants from foundations, corporations, or service and nonprofit organizations can provide seed money for technology initiatives and, if they are coordinated, can help to develop infrastructure. State and federal training, research, and public-service grants, typically multi-year, can be a somewhat more stable source of funding. While some state and federal grants such as Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology are specifically focused on technology, other grant applications may incorporate technology into their goals or activities. For instance, technology training or infrastructure development would be legitimate activities in a Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant.

The dean can also focus fundraising efforts on technology initiatives, from annual fund pleas targeted to technology needs to major gift solicitations for specific initiatives. Specialized mailings can be used to solicit for particular projects, or appeals for technology resources can be incorporated into other mailings. A campaign targeted to faculty, staff, retirees, or alumni can include challenges-for example, retirees can challenge current faculty to raise an equivalent amount of money for technology uses.

Meanwhile, a prospectus to build an assistive technology laboratory with a naming opportunity or to establish an endowment to provide computers for students with demonstrated financial need might be developed for a major donor prospect.

Partnering with other groups or agencies to share resources is a final strategy. For example, two schools can share the costs of a server or of laptops available for checkout. SIUE's Schools of Education and Nursing shared the cost of a Bod Pod, a technology used in exercise and wellness programs. Cost-sharing initiatives with other units on campus, such as academic computing, can be beneficial.

Partnerships with school districts or other \agencies can be used to develop resources for field-based programs. For example, at NIU, the gerontology exercise program shared the costs of treadmills with a retirement community and purchased a laptop cart for a school to use with pre-service clinical students and K-12 students. Co- written grants can provide resources for both groups. For example, a school district wrote a grant with one college for acquiring specialized computers and software that could also be used for training pre-service teachers.

TRAINING AND SUPPORT-THE IMPORTANCE OF SUPPORTING PEOPLE

Finally, a key role for the dean is to ensure that the students, staff, and faculty in the school receive the appropriate training and support they need to be successful and effective users of technology.

Students need various kinds of support, including training in specialized technologies, labs or learning centers that provide access to the materials and hardware and software needed for classes, and access to wireless networks. Other kinds of support include workshops, open lab time with support personnel available, online tutorials, and technical instruction during class time.

Staff need opportunities to upgrade skills and learn new ones. For example, SIDE required all clerical staff to receive training in Excel (and the dean attended the first training). In one department, chairs and staff jointly attended training sessions on using the new integrated data management system. Specialized training can be provided on or off campus when needed for specific projects such as when one college provided the tuition for a community college class taken by a staff member who needed to learn the skills necessary to maintain a Web page for alumni.

Faculty training and support are critical to success in making technology integral to any academic program. The strategies used in training are important in conveying the message that technology is a tool, not a topic. For example, in teaching faculty to use LiveText, it is important to go beyond technical mastery of the software to the role of the program in collecting and aggregating student data for assessment purposes. Training can be provided in one-on-one sessions or small group workshops. Technical support staff members play a role in training but do not take on the role of "doing" technology for faculty.

Peer training can be an effective strategy. For example, SIUE purchased laptops and software for creating an observational coding system to be used with teacher candidates in the field and in methods classes. The faculty who were trained to use the software subsequently trained the pre-service teachers' supervisors. Involving schoolteachers who work with the preservice candidates helps ensure that future teachers have a better opportunity of seeing technology used appropriately in their clinical settings.

It is important to set the expectations of new faculty's expectations early. At NIU, all new faculty are required to participate in a semester-long course (three hours each week, plus assignments) on integrating technology into teaching. This expectation is conveyed during the interview process. New faculty members are provided with a course release during the semester they take the technology course and are also provided with a PDA. Subsequently, graduate student assistance and stipends can be provided for faculty who develop online modules. These incentives, and others such as support for pre-conference workshops on technology, can encourage technology adoption by both new and existing faculty, who should also be persuaded to attend university- level training sessions and guest lecturers on the potential of the new technologies.

CONCLUSION

Our intent here has been to share what two education deans, and probably other deans both in education and in other colleges, have done to incorporate technology into their discipline. We have certainly been rewarded for our investment in technology integration. Our ultimate goal in this arena is to prepare teachers to use technology in their classrooms. But in addition to having students who are better prepared to meet the challenges of teaching in the technological age, another outcome has been that faculty are now beginning to see the effects the use of technology can have on student learning.

This realization is apt to have a revitalizing effect on faculty members who may be ill at ease in the new environment at first. And staff often find that by updating their skills, they are also updating their roles, thus creating in them a different sense of responsibility and engagement in the management of the unit. So a dean's leadership in this arena has the potential not only to ensure that our students have the skills to succeed in the classroom, but to improve the conditions of work for everyone.

Signaling technology's importance in the tenure and promotion process and in annual merit reviews can be critical.

Supporting technology means providing adequate budgetary resources not just for technology acquisition but for maintenance.

The strategies used in training are important in conveying the message that technology is a tool, not a topic.

Elliott Lessen is dean of the School of Education at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He has taught special education and elementary education, served as director of special education, and has been named a distinguished teaching professor. Christine Sorensen has been the dean of the College of Education at Northern Illinois University (NIU) since 2001. Her research and publications have focused on distance education, the integration of technology in education, and organizational change; she is also coauthor of one of the leading texts on educational research methods. Prior to joining the NIU faculty in 1996, she was a research and evaluation specialist at the Research Institute for Studies in Education in Ames, Iowa.

Copyright Heldref Publications Mar/Apr 2006

Source: Change

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