The Beauty of Low Threshold Applications
Published first 2/12/2002 in Syllabus Magazine
By Steven W. Gilbert
There is a new imperative for many colleges
and universities to engage "almost all" of the faculty in
improving teaching and learning with information technology.
The strategies I described in a previous Syllabus column can
help, especially if they include the development of a
collection of low threshold applications, or "LTAs."
Recent experience suggests that a new,
larger group of mainstream faculty members is more likely to
be receptive to what they perceive as only a modest change
in their identity, role, or workload that might be imposed
by new teaching and learning applications. They tend to
resist workshops and risks associated with the most
obviously innovative educational uses of information
technology. They also resent—rightfully—the implication that
their work of past years or decades has been inadequate or
incompetent.
Many of them have much to offer and welcome
opportunities to contribute to the overall change
process—within reasonable limits. They are busy and do not
have a lot of extra time. Consequently, a new approach is
needed to meet the new needs of this different, much larger
faculty subgroup. And LTAs may be part of the solution.
Here are some characteristics of LTAs:
-
They have a low entry cost. That means
low hardware, software, technological infrastructure
entry cost and no major structural changes. LTAs are
characterized by technology that is already almost
ubiquitous, essential for the academic discipline,
and/or inexpensive. In other words, the technology
components of LTAs have low incremental costs for the
institution and for individual faculty members and
students who will be using them. Low incremental cost
can result from the institution or individual already
having invested in the necessary resources ("sunk
costs"), or from the technology components having low,
fully loaded, fully amortized costs.
-
LTAs are easy to learn, and based on
using technology applications and teaching/learning
techniques that are already known by or easy to learn
for both faculty and students.
-
LTAs are not intimidating. Faculty and
students do not perceive LTAs as requiring major
re-adjustments in their roles or in their lives. The
LTAs are based on technology applications and
teaching/learning techniques that do not intrude into
the classroom or disrupt the course. LTAs require
activities that already feel familiar within the usual
course work.
-
Teachers and learners believe that they
can rely on the technology underlying a particular LTA.
LTAs usually work as expected, especially when used
during classes that cannot easily be extended or
re-scheduled. But reliability depends as much on the
quality and robustness of the technology infrastructure
of the particular college or university as on the LTA
technology itself.
LTAs should be able to reflect observable
positive consequences; at least anecdotal testimony and the
judgment of colleagues should confirm desirable results from
similar efforts. At best, formal studies should show that
positive outcomes are associated with the activity. Stories
and evidence suggest that after a few years, the LTA is
likely to precipitate or at least contribute to desirable
changes in how teachers and learners think and act.
In developing collections of LTAs, we can
usefully organize them into three categories based on the
source of the technology applications:
-
Almost ubiquitous technology. These LTAs
take advantage of the concept of "sunk costs" by using
technology applications that are already almost
ubiquitously accessible within the institution.
-
Commercial products. These LTAs use
commercial technology applications that require little
incremental expenditure by the institution and little or
no additional training or support for faculty and
students.
-
Open source/open course resources. These
LTAs use items from Open Source-style collections of
instructional and professional development resources.
These collections should require little or no payment
from individual faculty members and should encourage
users to contribute to the development of the resources.
No individual faculty member can keep up
with the pace of new instructional and professional
development techniques. Nor can any one LTA individually
help "almost all of the faculty." While each faculty member
might be able to use an LTA to help some other faculty
members, collaborations among faculty leaders, faculty
development professionals, librarians, and technology
professionals are likely to reach further and more
effectively.
By collaborating, these different
professionals have a better chance of getting on top of the
chaos, of identifying more effective and useful resources,
and of developing more attractive and feasible programs for
the mainstream faculty members. It may be just the right
time to apply some of the "Open Course" principles,
practices, and tools to the improvement of teaching and
learning.
Watch
www.tltgroup.org/LTAs/tltccnLTApage.htm for more
information about how you can participate in these
collaborative efforts—both online and at selected events.
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