Steven W. Gilbert
The gap is widening
between rising expectations about educational uses of information technology and
the too-limited resources available for supporting them at most colleges and
universities. Local and inter-institutional Virtual Teaching, Learning, and
Technology Centers-(V)TLTC™s-can offer more effective ways of organizing,
extending, and augmenting those resources. (V)TLTCs can offer services and
materials to help faculty members and academic support professionals keep up
with the changing options available for improving teaching and learning with
technology-and with changing needs, capabilities, and goals of learners and
teachers.
During past decades,
hundreds of colleges and universities have developed campus centers to support
faculty members' efforts to improve their own teaching and related scholarly
pursuits. In addition, operating quite separately from these centers and
from each other at most higher education institutions, are technology support
services, libraries, and other related professional support organizations-such
as instructional design, language labs, media services, and telecommunications
facilities.
In the late 1990s,
some institutions extended and changed this model. They established centers
located in or near their libraries that include staff and other resources from
the faculty development, library, and technology support organizations
together, perhaps with the hope of overcoming all-too-common patterns of
separation and turf-defense.
Local (V)TLTCs
Local (V)TLTCs focus
on improving teaching and learning with information technology. They provide training and consultation
services and related materials for faculty members (and, possibly, for staff,
administrators, and other support professionals).
A local (V)TLTC
should include these elements:
1. Collaborative projects and programs;
2. Combinations of media and structures
selected to meet the learning needs of faculty and other academic
professionals;
3. A
room where some representatives of some of the relevant support
services work together some of the time;
4. Online services and resources; and
5. Ongoing assessment.
A local (V)TLTC is
"virtual" in two ways: organizationally and technologically. Various academic support services
collaboratively develop and conduct projects and programs; however, most of
these services remain separated organizationally and geographically within the
institution. Information technology, especially the Web, is used to schedule,
coordinate, publicize, deliver, and revise faculty support services and related
resources available within the institution. Additional resources and services
from outside the institution may be made accessible through this same Web
site. However, to provide the most
effective professional education, local (V)TLTCs intentionally mix face-to-face
group workshops, individualized tutorials, telecommunications, and other
media. Finally, those who lead Local
(V)TLTCs should often assess the effectiveness of their own collaborative
programs -- with the goal of obtaining information that can help them make
better decisions about how to improve academic support services.
Local (V)TLTCs are
direct descendants of Teaching, Learning, and Technology Roundtables (TLTRs),
and extend their work. Whereas a TLTR
is a forum which provides advice and recommendations to institutional leaders, a
(V)TLTC is more operational. A college
or university without a currently active TLTR can still launch a Local (V)TLTC,
but the latter will need an advisory or governing board similar in composition
to a TLTR or one of its subgroups. The ongoing work of a Local (V)TLTC and a
TLTR can be complementary, and a Local (V)TLTC can be the means for
implementing some TLTR recommendations.
Inter-Institutional
(V)TLTCs
Most Local (V)TLTCs
do not have the adequate staff or resources to keep up with the rapidly growing
demand for integrating information technology into teaching and learning; nor
do the faculty and professional staff members on most campuses have the time
and resources for keeping up with the proliferation of new combinations of
pedagogy and technology. To meet these growing needs, inter-institutional
collaboration in support of the work of Local (V)TLTCs appears more attractive
and (with the support of new communications technologies) increasingly
feasible. Establishing a (V)TLTC -- for a group of institutions (consortium,
state system, etc.) can be another important step.
For additional
information about Local (V)TLTCs and TLTCs, contact vtltc@tltgroup.org
or browse www.tltgroup.org
and watch the AAHESGIT listserv for updates.