Technology and Learning Disconnect

What do you think of when you hear the words “technology for teaching and learning”? Conditioned by my work at NITLE, I think of web 2.0 technologies–social, collaborative, in the cloud and out of the classroom.  The reception of a recent presentation with my colleague Nancy Millichap at the 2010 AACU annual conference, reminded me that I might hold a minority view.

Our presentation, “Virtually Anywhere: Sharing Effective Practices for Innovation in Liberal Education,” pointed up how innovative faculty at NITLE colleges are using interactive videoconferencing to share their ideas about using technology in their teaching with other faculty who have similar interests.  (See Nancy’s recent post for more information.) With my predisposition to web 2.0 technologies, I was surprised at some technology attitudes that were revealed both at our session and at the conference in general.

AAC&U encourages active discussion at its conferences, which greatly benefits the speakers, by providing feedback and insight, and the audience, by keeping them in engaged.  As we discussed the kinds of innovative technology use that faculty might share in these videoconferences, it became clear that many participants first thought of course management systems, like Blackboard or Moodle, when they heard the words “technology for teaching and learning.”  For them technology has an administrative application rather than a transformative potential to enhance learning when integrated into the curriculum.  In other words, technology is a useful tool for productivity or management, but does not contribute to learning, other than making it more accessible and more efficient. E-portfolios were another popular technology discussed at the conference, but again they were often seen as a tool to aggregate materials for efficient assessment rather than a way to transform teaching and learning.

A second assumption about instructional technology is that the use of technology for teaching and learning happens primarily in the face to face classroom.  This assumption leads to technologies like PowerPoint, clickers and smartboards.  Now, all of these technologies can be used quite effectively to enhance teaching and learning, but we often see them used lazily (e.g., Edward Tufte’s famous invective against the cognitive style of PowerPoint). I think this assumption stems from the idea that learning happens in the classroom, when or rather because the instructor is there.  It is related to another common attitude we saw at the AAC&U conference, that teaching and learning is only a concern for faculty.  By contrast, most NITLE programming, like our upcoming Summit, emphasizes the partnership between faculty, technologists and librarians to promote student learning.

Such partnerships may help with another common reaction we saw to our presentation–the sense of isolation among faculty who are teaching with technology.  As we described a network of faculty who share their innovations in the integration of technology and pedagogy, many faculty in the audience felt like they had found their place, their people.  They wanted to connect with other faculty like them because they felt isolated on their own campus; I have a sneaking suspicion that these faculty members did not share the prevailing opinion that the only application of technology for teaching and learning is for presentation or course administration.  Likewise, session participants resonated with the idea that faculty want to learn what they need to know just in time, rather than to learn generally about technology integration into teaching and learning.  In this sense, they are much like their students who are conditioned by gaming and web 2.0 technologies to learn a technology on the fly by trying it rather than by reading the manual.

So what is it that I, these isolated faculty members, and indeed the rest of NITLE believe about technology for teaching and learning?  Technology can be most powerful when used to expand the classroom, by linking students to the world, or to break down the barriers keeping learning inside the classroom, by encouraging students to think and learn in the field.  Like AAC&U we believe in integrative learning, a linking between individual courses, and between courses and the extracurricular world.  We believe that technology can facilitate that integration and encourage reflection on it, e.g., when a student blogs a discovery outside of class that is relevant to the topic being studied or reflects on a portfolio of work that represents what they have learned across four years of college.  As strong believers in liberal arts colleges, we privilege face to face time for the interaction it allows between students, faculty, and other students.  Rather than hiding behind a PowerPoint presentation, faculty should collaborate with students and encourage them to work with each other to develop their own learning.  Outside of the classroom, technologies should continue that collaborative learning and cultivate a desire to learn everywhere, not just when in class.

I’ll step down off my soap box now and say that I’m not alone in this belief, not even at the AAC&U conference, where I often noticed the opposite view.  Moreover, I’ve outlined these views not to demonize them but rather as an instructive reminder for myself as I seek to promote technology innovation in liberal education.  The integration of technology for teaching and learning is not the primary goal for every faculty member or administrator.  As I prepare workshops like “Technologies for Teaching and Writing,” I appreciate the friends who remind me that course management systems can be useful for teaching and learning and, since they are adopted widely on campus, are a great place to start as I seek to scaffold the application of technology for my workshop participants.  If I want to get past this perceived disconnect between technology and learning, I need to overcome my disconnect with those who view technology differently.

Have you noticed other preconceptions about technology and learning?  Please share them, and your ideas for overcoming them, here.

See earlier posts on the 2010 AAC&U Annual Conference.