And on college campuses, it’s situational, with uses both in the lecture hall and laboratory on the coursework side, and (perhaps more so) in student life, where you can fill in that evening’s social calendar, order a pizza, make a tuition payment or check out the bar-scene specials even before classes start in the morning.
Anyone fazed by the bewildering pace of it all might want to rethink life on the modern campus. Mike Jeffries, CentralNet director for the University of Central Missouri, said this is part of a tide that won’t be receding anytime soon.
“Many people feel that the major challenge is ‘change,’” he said. “However, change is a constant. And if change is always with us, the real challenge is helping the university community understand that it is the transition from one change to another that really causes problems, and helping people through those transitions.”
Over the past decade, he said, there have been many digital milestones, and it’s important to remember that the Internet and the Web as we know it are less than 20 years old, showing up on the global scene not long before this year’s freshmen did.
On top of current tech events, he said, universities must also be able to see over the horizon, anticipating technologies that will be viable the next semester, next year, or by the time this fall’s freshmen graduate.
How does an administration keep track of that dramatic change and weave it into campus life? For most universities, that effort begins with a formal organizational structure.
“My unit, called Instructional Development and Support, is specifically tasked to support faculty use of instructional technologies,” said Susan Zvacek of the University of Kansas. “Our staff helps faculty members keep up with trends and research on the educational consequences of technology. We can help a faculty member kick the tires and take a test-drive to assess if a new technology aids the learning process.”
In addition, she said, the university’s Center for Teaching Excellence consults with faculty members on the best ways to leverage that technological change within their teaching disciplines.
And many universities, such as the University of Missouri–Kansas City, are actively scouting the changing technology landscape.
“We pay attention to the trades (publications), listservs and shows, and communicate what we see/hear to our colleagues,” said Mary Lou Hines Fritts, chief information officer and vice provost for academic programs.
While campus officials universally hail the easy and quick access to information in the digital age, changes this broad—and this profound—are not without risks. Among them, Fritts noted, are such administrative concerns as safeguarding the integrity and security of data. Other operational hurdles arise simply from the rate of change, said Julie Loats, director of enterprise applications and Services for KU’s information technology department.
“On occasion, expectations about what can be accomplished or provided outpace either the technology or the infrastructure capabilities,” Loats said. “Staying current or ahead of the curve with an ever-changing academic population and with ever-changing technology can be a challenge.”
On the academic side, the free-for-all exchange of what at times passes for “knowledge” on the Internet can be a significant barrier to effective education.
“One of the serious issues resulting from technology’s increasing presence,” said Zvacek, “is the need for students to have stronger than ever skills to identify credible, accurate, and relevant resources.”
But when the information is good, it’s really good.
“The best thing is broad, easy access to information and resources and an ever-increasing ability for that access to be completely mobile,” said Loats. Gone, she said, are the days when faculty, staff and students were restricted to meeting in a single classroom, in one office or location.
“Even within the KU landscape, users can be located across multiple campuses in a single day,” Loats said. “Our ability to leverage the freedom and mobility that technology makes possible is key to assisting people as they live, teach, and learn.”
In many ways, college administrators are still figuring out how to blend the technology into the curriculum. There’s a limit on how many high-tech assets a university can buy, and with tuition and other costs already at historic highs, mandates that students come armed with the latest e-goodies can present problems.
“We have not really looked at these for classroom use primarily due to the financial burden it would place on students to purchase the technology,” Fritts said. “Also, it would be unreasonable to require students to purchase of the technology for only one or two courses.”
But electronic advances are changing the time-honored approach for delivering knowledge.
“E-readers and digital books are going to have to capture the textbook publishers—and that is happening now,” Fritts said. “That’s a person-al preference of students; however, some students prefer to be able to mark-up a textbook. The interesting approach here is electronic chapters, where a faculty member can choose which chapters of a textbook their students need instead of the entire book.”
One other emerging issue: bringing non-traditional students up to the tech speeds that today’s freshman seem to have pre-wired into them.
“Our student population is also becoming more demographically diverse,” UCM’s Jeffries said. Older students, he said, “are not as technically savvy as ‘digital natives.’ UCM has developed analytic programs to gauge a student’s technological knowledge and skills and make the necessary resources available to them.” 