Horns of the Dilemma for Faculty: Legacy Demands and Technology Expectations

Every knowledge-based profession is struggling with legacy demands and new technology expectations, and including higher education faculty. In Campus Technology magazine, Trent Batson writes about the dilemmas posed particularly by Web 2.0 technologies. The comments section is lively and entertaining.

"Amidst the Web 2.0 tsunami, life on campus goes on as normal. Faculty members are still expected to publish in traditional journals, still expected to meet their classes in rooms equipped with chalkboards and designed for lectures, and still expected by their students to tell them what they should know so they can write it on paper during a test. Where's the tsunami?"


"Granted, dorms have high-speed wireless, labs have StarTrek technologies, and the business side of the campus is run with software. But, then, oh yes, there are the classrooms that look the same and support the same activities as 100 years ago. The business side of campus had to be quick to change to stay competitive and to run the enterprise more efficiently and up to standards. But the actual main business of the campus, the educational culture and its various instantiations, is surprisingly atavistic."

The full article and commentary can be read here:
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2009/05/06/horns-of-the-dilemma-for-faculty.aspx