Beyond Technology Integration - Reflection (Week1)

Beyond Technology Integration - Reflection

Reigeluth, C.M. & Joseph, R. (2002). Beyond technology integration: The case for technology transformation. Educational Technology, 42(4), 9-13.

The Article “Beyond Technology Integration” was interesting, and timely. Interesting because it brought my attention back to a focus on Technology Integration in the class room, but also how this needs to go beyond what is generally viewed as integrating technology in the classroom, namely, having a computer in the classroom, and hopefully it is connected to the Internet. The article was timely in that at my school we are in the process of putting our course management system into full production.

The article clearly showed that this is but one more small step towards fully integrating technology in to the class room. For the last several years, we have had pilot projects underway, where we looked at systems such as Black Board, WebCT, eCollege, Moodle, and Sakai. We have settled on the Open Source Sakai Collaboration tool, to host our on-line courses. After reading this article, I now see this as a perhaps a step two or three in the process.

I am convinced, based on experience, that having a course management system of some kind is a “must have”. The course management system won’t provide the instruction. It will however provide a framework that can provide information such as a course syllabus, distribute resources such as presentations and lecture notes, accept submissions to assignments, and foster communications between students and faculty, as well as student to student. In eBusiness lingo, I would term this as S to F and S to S (Student to Faculty, and Student to Student) communications and relationships, as compared to B to B and B to C (Business to Business, and Business to Customer) communications and relationships. The course management system will allow teachers to act as the “guide on the side”, rather than the “sage on the stage”, enhancing their interaction with the students. It will also help to foster “Peer-Assisted Learning”, enhancing the student’s abilities to be “Agents of Learning”, as described by the author.

The “Key Markers that distinguish Industrial-Age and Information-Age Systems”, when viewed from a management perspective, was enlightening. At my place of employment, like many, we have been undergoing organizational restructuring. This included the addition of several new staff members, as well as an outside consultant that has taken on the role of VP. What is most interesting has been the change in management philosophy that has been underway, since this new person’s arrival. While we have seen a significant amount of growth, it has come with a great deal of staff member strife. Having read the Article, I now see that part of the problem lies with the management style of this new person versus the management style of our Dean, who fortunately, I report to. The Dean has an “Information Age” management style. While the new guy clearly uses “Industrial Age” management style techniques. His actions typically follow the characteristics listed on the left side of the diagram. This has led to a lack of communications, lower productivity, and general staff unrest.

My work and management style clearly falls on the right side of the column. While I’m still striving for competence, I am an “Information Age” Manager in training. I have been working in this manner for nearly 25 years. I was taught early on in my career the values of Total Quality Management, team-focused organizational structures, networking, shared decision making, initiative, customer as “King”, etc... I would however suggest that this is still somewhat revolutionary thinking in most work places.

It is clear that the modern work environment is changing. It will require different types of training and learning, to meet the needs of providing “Knowledge Workers” for the “Information Age”. What is not clear is whether or not society is ready for this major change in our way of thinking regarding teaching, learning and working. It is also not clear if society will be supportive of working to integrate technology into the classroom to the level’s necessary to be effective, and the probable increases in the cost of delivering a quality education.

As we speak, Detroit Public Schools is considering the deployment of Black Board to support content delivery. In my opinion, this is a long overdue next step. There is still much work to be done, if we are to see the vision of technology integrated into the classroom to the levels outlined by the author. If however, it works out as it has at my institution I have hope that DPS is moving in the right direction.

After recently going on-line with three hundred new students, new faculty, new systems, new course content, etc…, one of our staff members commented that the more he used Sakai, the more he found out how capable it is. The faculty and staff members working on this project have also begun to use the system and deploy tools that I have never used in the past. In other words, my users are starting to drive the technology themselves, rather than me pushing it out to them. This is a positive sign that our teaching/learning environment is starting to change for the better.

After taking this class, I will have had an opportunity to learn how to use some of these newer tools including “Blogging”, Wiki’s, etc… I hope to be able to assist in guiding my school to the next level of Technology Integration into the classroom.