Yesterday afternoon I attended a discussion on Faculty Technology Adoption and Innovation here at UNC-CH. Just as a background, this comes out of the Educause report of the Top Teaching and Learning Challenges of 2009 .  This is the fourth one on the list. I thought I would pass on what we had discussed and what I had (re)learned.

A lot of what was talked about are things that are very familiar to discussions we have been having for years surrounding the adoption of technology in education. I came away with this one overarching main point:

Any technology our clients will adopt (especially on a wide scale) needs to solve a problem/need.

This needs to be the main point of all technology that we, as instructional technologists, introduce. It has a much better chance of being adopted on a larger scale if we can show how it fills a need, or solves a problem. Too often I find myself getting excited about the technology and all the little things it can do, when in reality, most teachers/staff could care less that it can do [blank] “just like in real life.”

The time factor also plays a role in their decisions to invest in the new technology. There is a hypothetical line that every faculty member has for how much time they are willing to take when learning a new technology that is directly tied to how vaulable the solution to their problem is. If there is zero need, or problem, then the time commitment will be zero as well. On the other hand, if it is a problem that comes up time and time again, and they actually have a little bit of time to invest in learning and exploring, then they will be more willing to try new things.

We all know how technology can really augment the classroom and help folks do their jobs better, but I think sometimes we lose sight of the goal and purpose of the work we are doing and get caught up in the “coolness” of the technology.

I know… not new, but I think it does well to think about that every once in a while. I am going to structure my training classes, and articles around the need that the technology is addressing.

With all this in mind, “What is the biggest teaching challenge you face right now?”  Can technology help with this challenge?  Maybe, maybe not.  As you meet formally, and informally with people I would encourage you to ask that question to see what you get from folks. I think that can really be a window into what we might do to help them all out.

Thoughts? Please share,