A Snapshot of Steps towards Change through Educational Technology

Abstract

Personal computers entered the scene in the 1980s, and the keepers of academe are still holding their breath for changes they expect must come, or hope can't come, or perhaps have already come without anyone's notice. The progress of university educational technology over the past quarter century has been ironically frustrating. Universities brim with masters of computing technology. Universities pioneered the Internet, and university researchers were among the first to explore it. For every economic sector, virtually every human endeavor, there are cadres of university experts ready to hold forth on how that activity is being reshaped by information and communication technology. Yet for university education itself, change has been modest. To be sure, modern universities have large information technology budgets and students make heavy use of computers, with text processors replacing the typewriters of 25 years ago and Web browsers replacing trips to the library. But the classroom has been relatively untouched, and the rhythm of semesters, lectures, notes, and exams unfolds in 2008 much as it did in 1983, or even in 1883. If real changes will come to university education through information technology, they will come along two dimensions, each of which has nervewracking implications for traditional institutions. First is the actual conduct of teaching and learning. There is an increasing unease today that university instruction is not as effective as it should be. Here information technology can be both motive and means for change. For example, as it becomes easy for students to access instructional material through the Web, the significance of lectures as sources of information