Technology?s role in education

By Jill N. Reich, PhD

Executive Director for Education

?In today?s higher education environment, either you stay ahead of technology or you get left behind.?

This line from an advertisement for an EDUCOM conference resonates in the hearts of educators?for some a sound of great enthusiasm; for others, one of resounding fear. In listening to this cacophony, what strikes me is that technology is often referred to as ?qua technology? rather than as a tool in the learning process. In this way, a particular type of technology answers a particular need?as in the idea popular among legislators that distance learning can reduce the number of faculty needed. In this way, it is no surprise that new technology offers tantalizing prospects for colleges and universities, which are under tremendous pressure to change and to do so in ways that will cut costs.

The second thing I notice in these discussions is that there is much confusion over just what is meant by technology as applied to education. With the help of Drs. Virginia Andreoli Mathie and Martha Ellis from APA?s Board of Education Affairs, we at APA?s Education Directorate are organizing our efforts in instructional technology into three areas: the multimedia classroom; communication technology such as the Internet; and distance-learning issues. Each area utilizes different forms of technology for different purposes. Moreover, once one begins to look beneath the surface of the general term ?technology,? it begins to take shape as a tool and to be more complex; the particulars begin to apply better to teaching and learning, and the fears of being usurped by ?technology? dissipate. Fundamentally there is a close fit between the structures and processes of technology and main structures and processes of traditional college/university education. The new technologies act as a powerful supplement to, and reinforcement of, forms of teaching and learning that faculty members and students for decades have found to be especially effective.

The benefits of technology

The multimedia classroom allows the instructor to utilize a rich set of course materials and to periodically and systematically test the students? understanding of the information presented. The Internet provides access to unlimited sources of information not conveniently obtainable through other means. And distance learning allows presentation of courses beyond the confines of one location.

But like any tool, these technologies have limitations. None works in every learning situation with every student, learning every kind of knowledge, skill and attitude that make up one?s education. Just now, for example, in the early phase of this shifting paradigm, we may overreach, we may lose our way, we may even step away from opportunities, slowing our progress toward the real potential. But change will come, and the new fit will be found. As others have pointed out, when the printing press came along hundreds of years ago, the role of professor changed because books became widely available. Rather than read aloud during classes, professors began to talk about the information students had read on their own time. So too, we will learn how best to utilize multimedia materials, Internet chat rooms and distance-learning modules. In so doing we?ll learn how these technologies can foster a learning environment appropriate to today?s?and tomorrow?s?needs.

Overcoming ?woes and fears?

But it will not happen overnight. We must learn how to match the particular technology tool to our teaching and learning needs. In so doing, we will go through our own version of our predecessors? woes and fears such as described in a 1795 German treatise on public health that warned that excessive reading induced ?a susceptibility to colds, headaches, weakening of the eyes and the like.? For which they prescribed ?fresh air, frequent walks and washing one?s face periodically in cold water.? It was feared that excessive reading could lead to a society of dysfunctional misfits who would disappear into library stacks for days on end, pursuing a subject from shelf to shelf, unable to discriminate among the different printed volumes.

Much as students and faculty members have learned to regard large libraries as a familiar, manageable and essential part of our lives, so too, we will gradually resolve most of our questions and anxieties about technology and its place in education. The world of learning will not become lost in cyberspace any more than it has drowned in books. But it?s up to us to ensure that these tools are used wisely in an educational system that has meaning for today?s and tomorrow?s world.