From: technews <technews@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Faculty Wariness of Technology a Challenge (Chron of High
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 09:44:58 -0500
Faculty Wariness of Technology Remains a Challenge, Computing Survey Finds
By FLORENCE OLSEN
Academic-computing officials say their biggest challenge is still getting
faculty members to work with technology, according to new data being
released today by the Campus Computing Project
(http://www.campuscomputing.net).
Nearly 40 per cent of the senior information-technology officials who took
part in the project's annual survey said that helping reluctant faculty
members bring technology into their teaching was the hardest part of their
job. Last year, more than a third of those who responded said the same
thing.
"I think it's fair to say that many faculty members have ceded to their
students the whole issue of technology skills," said Kenneth C. Green, the
founder and director of the Campus Computing Project.
Anecdotal evidence, he said, even suggests "there is a new kind of oedipal
aggression in the classroom" that pits students against faculty members.
Using their superior technology skills, business students on some campuses
"are going after their professors on content as well," checking The Wall
Street Journal and Business Week on line before going to class so they can
keep a step ahead of their professors, said Mr. Green. "And that's right at
our hearts."
This is the 10th year that Mr. Green, a visiting scholar at the Center for
Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University, has conducted the
survey.
More than 25 per cent of the academic-computing officials surveyed ranked
"providing adequate user support" as their No. 1 issue. A smaller group--
nearly 15 per cent -- said that financing the replacement of aging hardware
and software was their chief concern.
Two of the biggest issues affecting the I.T. industry -- the year-2000
problem and electronic commerce -- ranked low as concerns of the campus
officials who took part in the survey, which asked questions about academic
rather than administrative computing. Less than 1 per cent of the survey
participants named Y2K as their biggest I.T. challenge, and only 7.6 per
cent reported that their institutions were set up for electronic commerce
through their campus Web sites.
Mr. Green said the new data suggested that colleges and universities would
find a middle ground between "high touch and high tech" in classrooms, using
information technology to enhance, but not replace, traditional lecture
classes. Nearly half of the campus officials who took part in the survey
also said that their institutions were offering one or more college courses
that students take on line, using the Web as their classroom.
According to the survey's findings, the number of I.T. personnel available
at colleges and universities to help students and faculty members with
teaching, learning, and research varies widely, depending on the size and
resources of the institution. Community colleges, on average, had only one
I.T. staff member to support every 800 students, the study
found.
The ratio at four-year public and private colleges and universities was, on
average, 150 students to one I.T. support-staff member -- better than the
ratio for community colleges, but still higher than is recommended in the
business sector. The Gartner Group, a Stamford, Conn., research firm,
advises its corporate clients to provide one I.T. support person for every
50 to 75 employees.
According to the new data, the proportion of classes being taught in
computer-equipped classrooms and laboratories is nearly unchanged -- 24.9
per cent this year, compared with 24.4 per cent last year.
Nearly 30 per cent of the officials who took part in the survey said their
institutions were using information technology to reduce their instructional
costs, and almost the same percentage of participants said their
institutions were considering such a move for the next fiscal year. For the
most part, academic-computing budgets have remained stable this year,
averaging $8.8-million at private universities and $5.2-million at public
universities, the study found.
Mr. Green is presenting his findings this week in Chicago at the annual
conference of the League for Innovation in the Community College.
Senior technology officials from 557 public and private colleges and
universities in the United States took part in the survey. Printed copies of
the full report will be available for $35 in December from the Campus
Computing Project, P.O. Box 261242, Encino, Cal. 91426-1242. Summary results
will also be posted on the project's Web site
(http://www.campuscomputing.net).
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Copyright 1999 by The Chronicle of Higher Education