December, 2003, Steven W. Gilbert, President, The TLT Group

FROM TLT-SWG-98 12/17/2003:
Below is the text of a Speculative Argument about how information technology can help improve teaching and learning, increase student retention, clarify and improve course ownership, reduce plagiarism, and help build community.

Do you agree?  Do you have data or examples that support or contradict any of the points?

Speculative Argument?

[Note:  "Enable" is not the same as either "guarantee" or "require."]

1. New applications of information technology offer new tools that enable us to add our voices in new ways to synchronous and asynchronous interaction.
    

2. Integrating our own voices enables us to personalize interactions in new ways.
    

3. Personalizing interaction enables us to increase engagement in new ways.
    

4. Educators can improve student retention (completion of courses) by increasing student engagement in courses in colleges and universities.  Students are likely to be more engaged in courses where faculty are more obviously engaged.
    

5. Faculty members can clarify course ownership by personalizing their contributions - making courses more distinctively their own.  Faculty can be more visibly engaged in their own courses by personalizing their interactions. 
    

6. Students are less likely to plagiarize if they can more easily perceive the value of distinctively personal contributions in others' academic work, and if they believe that more personalized versions of their own work are also possible and valued.
    

7. More personalized participation and active engagement are essential elements for building community.