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Portfolio of Strategies for
Collaborative ChangeChange
– for Planning and
Implementation
TLTRs, LTAs, (V)TLTCs, STAs, and FLASHLIGHT
The TLT Group -- March 14, 2002
[Also see: http://www.tltgroup.org/gilbert/strategiesbase.htm]
Steve Gilbert introduced the
Portfolio of Strategies, TLT Roundtables, Low Threshold Applications and
Activities. , and Tthen Steve Ehrmann
introduced the Flashlight Program. – all with a focus on how these elements fit with
participating ITAP institutions.The two
talks focused on how these resources fit together to help ITAP institutions.
In an
environment of rapidly increasing complexity – more options, limited resources,
ill-prepared institutions and individuals – Choosing only one
strategy for improving teaching and learning with technology doesn’t work –
never has and never will. Nor does it
make sense to pursue too many goals and spread your institutional or individual
effort too thinly – even in the present environment of rapidly increasing
opportunities, challenges, and complexity. Each
college or university needs a process for carefully selecting, implementing, and modifying its own
set of strategies.
On every campus, expectations continue to
grow faster than available resources.
The “Support Service Crisis” gets worse as both institutions and
individuals face too many attractive alternatives. No one, alone, has enough time and expertise to make the most of
these choices. New applications of
technology are making new forms of collaboration both essential and
possible. It is time for
“Collaborative Change.”
Our approach offers a way of describing your current
situation, analyzing your options, and developing a selective “portfolio” of strategies
appropriate for your institution, division, or department. choosing
only one goal for improving teaching
and learning with technology doesn’t work.
Nor does it make sense to diffuse your
effort evenly across all conceivable
goals. The following approach offers a way of describing
your current situation, analyzing your options, and developing a “portfolio” of
strategies appropriate for your institution, division, or department. We recommend a “Portfolio”
including balanced mixture of visionary thinking, realistic analysis, flexible
planning, and
pragmatic implementation – a Portfolio of
Strategies for Collaborative Change which includes these six features or characteristicselements (each of which can be supported by a growing set of resources
from The TLT Group):
1. 1. Institutional
Educational Mission
(and Vvision
for improving teaching and learning with technology)
2. 2. Foundation
(Minimum requirements for technology, support service infrastructure, and
information literacy)
3. 3. Wide/Shallow Projects,
Programs
(Plan for annual
initiatives or improvements, each of which benefits many faculty members and
students – well-beyond a single course or department)(Something a plan
for annual initiatives or improvements, each of which benefit for almost everyone, every year)
4. 4. Narrrow/Deep
Projects, Programs
(a Sset of mMore
focused, extensive, expensive, risky programs, each of
which provides dramatic
benefits but often for a fewrelatively smaller
fraction of the total institution)
5. 5. Culture of Collaboration and
Learning
(Developing a
“Nurturing Community” in which colleagues help each other)(Developing
a “Nurturing Community”)
6. Thoughtful Planning,
6. Assessment,
Implementation
(Tools and approaches that generate information to can aid,guide Revision and successful implementation, program
revision, and realistic
bBudgeting)
A coherent,
well-publicized set of strategies can help transform skepticism, fear,
wastefully confused decisions, and reluctance about change into confidence and
focused energy. A Portfolio of Strategies for Collaborative Change
can help you preserve what you cherish most about your institution while achieving
new goals for educational quality and
accessibility.
On many campuses there is
a new
dedication to
engaging and serving almost all the faculty in using information technology to
improve teaching and learning. Within
this context, The TLT Group offers strategies, services, and resources through these programs:
·
TLTR
A diverse, institution-wide advisory group like a local TLTR (Teaching, Learning, and Technology Roundtable) can be especially valuable in developing and guiding
the implementation of a Portfolio of Strategies. TLTRs are most effective when “sponsored” by the Chief
Academic Officer or other top academic administrators – to whom the Roundtable can offer perspective, advice and recommendations about the most challenging
educational technology-related policies and decisions.
·
LTAs
& (V)TLTCs
An LTA is a Low Threshold
Application or Activity – beginning with a teaching/learning application of information
technology that the potential user (teacher or learner) perceives as not intimidating, not
requiring much additional work or new thinking, and having low incremental costs for purchase, training, and
maintenance. A well-selected collection of LTAs can be especially
cost-effective when
used in Teaching, Learning, and Technology Centers or within other “Wide/Shallow”
professional development programs that encourage and support collegial coaching or
mentoring.
·
STA
STA (Student Technology Assistant)
or similarly structured programs can grow well beyond the common pattern of a
handful of students who casually supervise public computing labs. Training and supervising students who can help support academic uses of technology efforts while extending their own learning
becomes ever more cost-effective -- especially when an institution is committed to integrating information technology more widely
and deeply.
·
FLASHLIGHT
The Flashlight program
provides an approach and tools well-suited to designing studies and collecting
the kind of information that can guide both major strategic plans and the implementation of
specific educational uses of technology.
Flashlight services and resources are being used at levels
ranging from collecting
student feedback within individual courses to inter-institutional collaborations for setting programmatic benchmarks and sharing
data.
To make the best use of
most of these resources, colleges and universities can participate in the TLT
Group’s Collaborative Change Network or Flashlight Network. See:
http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/rpackages.html; and
http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/fsubscription.htmlAn organization like a local TLT Roundtable can be
especially effective in developing and guiding the implementation of a
Portfolio of Strategies. On campuses where there is a major commitment to
engaging and serving almost all the faculty in using information technology to
improve teaching and learning, Low Threshold Applications and Activities as a
key element of the “Wide/Shallow” professional development program can be
especially cost-effective. The
Flashlight program provides an approach and tools well-suited to designing
studies and collecting the kind of information that can be the foundation for
evaluating progress and revising programs within this framework.
TLTR
An
organization like a local TLT Roundtable (TLTR) can be especially effective in developing and
guiding the implementation of a Portfolio of Strategies.
An institution's Teaching, Learning, and Technology RoundtableTLTR (TLTR) is a
uniquely diverse group -
representing all those who can and
should work together to improve teaching and learning with information
technology. Through regular focused
meetings, a TLTR can help its institution make better-informed decisions,
sustain collaborative change, and develop better strategies for using
technology to improve teaching and learning.
Roundtables can reduce the confusion, frustration, unrealistic
expectations, and wasteful duplication of effort that often accompanies the
explosive array of opportunities offered by educational technology. TLT Roundtables work best when they are
advisory to one or more “sponsors” – usually the Chief Academic Officer and/or
other top-ranking administrators – who actively and publicly support their work,
listen to their suggestions, and
implement some of their recommendations.
Low Threshold
Activities (LTA’s)TAs
Most
“pioneer” or “early adopter” faculty members enjoy the challenge of learning
how to use new technology options – for some, the more challenging the
better!
However, on many campuses, “early majority” or
“mainstream” faculty are now receptive to improving their own teaching and
their students’ learning with technology.
Most members of this much larger group are already busy with other goals
– they do not see technology as a major interest nor do they see themselves as
having much extra time for new challenges in this area. What can other professionals do to help
them? What options are available for helping themselves? Part of
the answer lies in Low Threshold (easy to learn, use, adapt; low incremental cost) Applications and
Activities (LTAs). LTAs are
combinations of technology and teaching/learning approach.
At
institutions where there is a major
commitment to engaging and serving almost all the faculty in using information
technology to improve teaching and learning, Low Threshold Applications and
Activities should be a key element of the “Wide/Shallow” professional
development program.
Flashlight
The Flashlight program provides a relatively ‘low threshold’ approach and tools for assessment; they make it easier to design studies and collect the kinds of
information that can be the foundation for evaluating progress and revising programs
within this framework.
Most “pioneer” or “early adopter” faculty members
enjoy the challenge of learning how to use new technology options – for some,
the more challenging the better!
However, on many campuses, “early majority” or “mainstream” faculty are
now receptive to improving their own teaching and their students’ learning with
technology. Most members of this much
larger group are already busy with other goals – they do not see technology as
a major interest nor do they see themselves as having much extra time for new
challenges in this area. What can other
professionals do to help them? What options are available for helping
themselves? Part of the answer lies in Low Threshold (easy to learn, use,
adapt; low incremental cost) Applications
and Activities (LTAs). LTAs are
combinations of technology and teaching/learning approach.
Flashlight
Any
evaluation that seeks to relate technology investment to educational outcomes
must first describe how the technology
was really usedstudents, faculty and others actually used the
opportunities that the technology made possible. This attention
to what people actually do with technology applies
to two important levels of assessment:
1.institutional studies
that look for patterns of technology use across the curriculum and
1.studies within courses
where faculty gather information that they can use in improving those
individual courses.
The Flashlight approach helps faculty and other
academic support professionals learn how each type of data can be used to
improve teaching. Many of the
Flashlight evaluation tools are available to ITAP
institutions and can be especially valuable in gaining the most
from investments of institutional money
and individuals’ time.