Faculty endorse technology use in class

Ninety-eight percent of faculty say technology is somewhat to crucially important to them as instructors, according to a newly released survey of 65 faculty in the College.

This and other thoughts on the use of technology in the classroom are found in the survey, distributed in the last academic year by the College Teaching, Learning, and Technology Roundtable, following a campus forum on national trends in the educational use of information technology.

The CTLTR was formed in 1997 by the College dean's office in response to a proposal from the Residential College Commission.

Using technology doesn't mean that all faculty members need to handle highly technical equipment and understand programming language, said Frank Wolfs, associate professor of physics and astronomy, who co-chairs CTLTR with Carrie Regenstein, assistant dean for educational technology and director of UCC.

"In the forum, we saw that even simple things like e-mail, list serves, audiovisual equipment, and the web can have a huge impact on the ways we teach," Wolfs said. "Teachers and the course materials become more accessible to students."

Among the survey's findings:

• Forty-three percent of faculty who responded rate the resources and support available for instructional technology as adequate; 26 percent rate it as poor.

• Seventy-one percent say they do not have web-based course material on line; 25 percent say they do.

• More than half of respondents have developed instructional technology to enhance the classroom experience.

• More than half consult peers for help with, and resources for, instructional technology. Thirty-four percent refer to AMES, 23 percent to UCC, and 20 percent to the Multimedia Center.

• While two-thirds of respondents indicate that students are adequately prepared to use the technology faculty incorporate into their classwork, the same percentage say they have not evaluated the effects educational technology has on their courses.

Wolfs said monitoring the use of educational technology in the College will continue on an annual or biennial basis.

"Up to now we really did not have any hard evidence on how widespread the use of the web was, the use of e-mail, the use of list serves," he said. "The survey helped us to establish a baseline against which we can compare future trends."

A disappointing 20 percent of all faculty responded to the survey, Wolfs noted. Because the results of the survey will be used to determine where the University can focus its technology resources, organizers had hoped for feedback from more faculty. One of their goals is to involve more faculty in future Roundtable activities.

To involve more instructors in the process, Wolfs and Regenstein will visit with each department in the College this year to talk about what sort of educational technology investments make the most sense for the University.

To view the full survey, check http://teacher.nsrl.rochester.edu/ctltr/ProjectsSpring98/ResourceDirectory/TechSurvey/techsurvey.html.