Recent estimates indicate that colleges and universities invest billions of dollars per year for the acquisition of computer technology (Geoghegan, 1994). Instructional technology (IT) may support and increase the efficiency of the teaching-learning transaction or even modify educational processes, especially with regards to distance education and "anytime, anywhere" access (Daniel, 1997). Formal evidence linking this investment to higher productivity (Schwalbe, 1996) and changes and improvements in the teaching and learning process is accumulating (Kulik & Kulik, 1980, 1987; Ehrmann, 1995). New research approaches and methodologies are being developed to adequately study the unique issues involved in educational technology (Bull, et al, 1994). In some cases, integrating technology into the teaching-learning transaction has been found to transform the teacherís role from being the traditional "sage on the stage" to also being a "guide on the side", and student roles also change from being passive receivers of content to being more active participants and partners in the learning process (Alley, 1996; Repp, 1996; Roblyer, Edwards, & Havriluk, 1997). Increased access to and use of the Internet is making a unique contribution to the teaching and learning process (Shaw, 1994) and will be an important part of future strategies to provide services to increased number of students in very diverse locations (Daniel, 1997).

Although there is a growing number of faculty who are very enthusiastic about adopting technology because of the potential of newer tools for their students, there is still a large number of faculty who seem hesitant or reluctant to adopt technology for their teaching tasks. Explanations for limited adoption may be found in the many barriers that still constrain use by enthusiastic beginners; user friendliness is a seductive term which misrepresents current technological reality. While acknowledging improvements in current design, computers and peripherals are still not well-designed, fault-free, and easy to use. As such, the evaluation of the success of educational technology still seems to depend largely on how well "early adopters" make it work. Given the size of investment in instructional technology in higher education, the increased demand for distance education in the future, and the demonstrated effectiveness with some educational outcomes, it seemed reasonable to investigate why the integration of technology for teaching and learning is so appealing to some faculty, and not to others.

Table 1. Percent of Total Adoption of Software by Individual Faculty for Classroom Use

Table 2. Sources of Information EAs Ranked More Important than MS for Keeping Abreast of Changes and Innovations

A good number of Technology Integration Plans suggest that faculty need more workshops and courses in order to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to adopt technology. However, future plans for professional development should be informed by faculty memberís expressed preference to get help from colleagues and graduate students, and get one-on-one assistance, rather than attending a "one-shot" workshop. Combined with the preferences expressed in the first part, it appears that the most successful professional development would be to have just-in-time, one-on-one access to colleagues and experienced graduate students when one runs run into trouble experimenting and playing around with new technologies.

EAs tend to prefer certain methods more for learning about computers than MF. In terms of help or assistance with using computers, EAs ranked experienced graduate students as more important than MF. The EAsí self-confidence with the technology, and greater enjoyment figuring out how to use computers effectively for a variety of teaching situations, probably contributes to the value they place on graduate students who share this interest, speak their language, and may contribute to further building and extending their current knowledge and skills. This hypothesis finds further support in the higher importance that early adopters place on innovative graduate students for keeping abreast of changes/innovations in the area of computers.

EAs described their frustration with the annual review process and funding agencies that seem to undervalue their teaching and technology integration efforts. Further, for many EAs, who are working at the edge of their fields and developing new teaching and learning environments, it is disheartening to be evaluated by department heads and peers who may not share the same belief structure and often fail to understand the significance of and motivation for their work. EAs also describe frustration with the "insufficient evidence" argument put forth by peers who do not share their beliefs, or their familiarity with the literature, about the benefits of this type of research and teaching. Two EAs described the difficulty of doing experimental research on the benefits of technology integration with students because of equity concerns about the control group who does not get the technology intervention.

EAs offered some solutions for bridging the gap between themselves and MF. One faculty member described the potential trialability and reduced complexity benefits of giving each faculty member their own laptop computers, while another described a campus example where even gifts of computers did not encourage all faculty members to adopt technology. Another EA suggested providing training and support to increase the comfort level and how-to knowledge of other faculty so they can approach any piece of software and figure it out (i.e., perhaps to become more like an early adopter?). One individual called for increased standardization of hardware, software, and networking in order to make it very convenient for faculty and students to use the technology, and increase the amount of "just in time" training and support by building more critical mass technology skill and knowledge on campus. Another proposed solution from an EA was to give experienced faculty members course reductions so that they can invest time creating and developing technology-enhanced curricula that can be standardized throughout a department or faculty.

The first recommendation is to focus on strategies for increasing the awareness and how-to knowledge about successful strategies for teaching and learning with technology. Mainstream faculty may be reluctant to make decisions about the use of technology in their teaching because they are unfamiliar with it, they may feel inadequate to assess the potential impact the technology will have on the teaching and learning environment, and they are not convinced it offers relative advantage over what they are doing now. Not every faculty member can or will become a technology expert. In order to increase the awareness and how-to knowledge of mainstream faculty, some method has to be found to share the experience, skills and knowledge of the early adopters, their "learned lessons", with the mainstream. Mainstream faculty need to understand what the technology can do, and be provided with evidence about the benefits, but they do not necessarily have to have procedural-knowledge about computers before evaluating the relative advantage of an innovation in their own teaching situation.

A second recommendation is to increase the observability and trialability of technology integration on campus. Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others (Rogers, 1995). Perhaps if early adopters modeled or demonstrated strategies for successful uses of technology one-on-one or with small groups of their mainstream peers then the gap between the convinced and unconvinced would begin to be addressed. The personal trying-out of an innovation is a way to give meaning to an innovation, to find out how it works under oneís own conditions, and tends to dispel uncertainty about the new idea. Early adopters can act as a kind of vicarious trial for mainstream faculty by modeling successful uses of technology for teaching and learning, and reducing uncertainty about this innovation.

A third recommendation is to help promote a culture of inquiry into teaching and learning with technology that begins with incremental steps rather than huge leaps into a maelstrom of options. A frequently mentioned incentive to further adoption of technology, "give me more time", and the highest rated barrier to integrating technology, "faculty lack time", may be related to the exponential rate with which new hardware and software tools are being developed. The steady rate with which new technologies become available leads to shorter and shorter innovation cycles, and therefore a continuous training and professional development requirement. This shortens the innovation-decision period, and when faced with the onslaught and never-ending cycle of new technologies, some faculty may just throw up their hands and give up, "I just cannot keep up." Mainstream faculty may regard the ever changing nature of technological tools and software as a chaotic stream that they do not wish to jump into for fear of drowning. Most early adopters admit that they still have a lot to learn, and often find themselves flying by the seat of their pants while trying unproved and innovative teaching methods. EAs who are interested in being role models have much to offer to the newer adopter who wants to just get started by helping to change the perception that technology adoption and integration for teaching comes easily to them, and instead starts with learning one thing well.

A fourth recommendation for early adopters who are excellent teachers is to conduct and widely disseminate applied educational research on the changing roles of teacher and student, and the shift from more behaviorist methods to more constructivist methods that have been facilitated by technology. An innovationís incompatibility with cultural values can block its adoption. Technology was originally designed for use in one culture, math and science, but it has now spread to a different culture, teaching and learning, with different cultural values. Excellence in teaching does not depend upon technology. Additional educational research is needed on the relationship between integrating technology and a shift from teacher-directed to more student-constructed learning environments in order to provide images of new pedagogical methods, and decrease uncertainty about these changes.

The second recommendation is based upon the need for a technological infrastructure (i.e., networks, hardware and software) to encourage adoption and integration. IT investments for teaching have to be closer to what is the state of the art in the world of work, as higher education prepares for the future. These ever-new investments cannot be left to uncoordinated departmental or individual initiatives, as they often exceed respective budgets (Bull, et al., 1994). Over 75% of respondents were dissatisfied with current campus investment in computer technology for teaching and learning. The most promising uses of technology for teaching and learning seem to be for communication, accessing and exchanging shared resources and information on-line, and faculty and student publishing on the web. Campus acquisition plans should direct resources to upgrading the infrastructure to accommodate more technology integration in all classrooms; adjustable lighting, adequate projection systems, and built-in network connectivity.

The third recommendation for institutions is to find ways to reward that which they purport to value. Administration must recognize that in order to drive change they will have to be aware of the culture they promote, and emphasize excellent teaching in their technology integration plans. In order to realize the benefits and value of investing in technology, a universityís culture should explicitly and intentionally promote instructional technology as a way to fundamentally rethink teaching and learning, and as a way to question and explore new approaches to writing, communication, and research. Promoting technology for technology sake is a recipe for failure.

A fourth recommendation is to create a different support infrastructure for mainstream faculty that leverages the expertise of the early adopters. It appears that system-wide changes will be needed in the reward system and training for faculty members in order to encourage broader diffusion of instructional technology in the mainstream. Further, a different support infrastructure is clearly needed for MF than that which sufficed for EAs. Proportionally more support and training services will be needed for the 80% or so of faculty members who are mainstream users of technology. Recognizing that mainstream faculty have different characteristics, and therefore needs, does not suggest that there is no role for early adopters in developing long-term plans for campus-wide adoption. Quite the opposite. Early adopters have discovered and overcome many barriers in their attempt to integrate this innovation, and have developed and contributed to a collective knowledge base concerning instructional technology. Change agencies must capitalize on this valuable human resource that exists on campus.

The fifth recommendation is find ways to include both EAs and MF in campus-wide decisions about integrating technology. Results in this study demonstrated that early adopting and mainstream faculty have strong and varied opinions about the changes to classrooms, incentives, barriers, and methods for evaluating integration. The views, beliefs, suggested solutions, and opinions of both advocates and critics should be elicited and included in the development of campus-wide technology integration plans. Communication strategies should be employed in order to move discussions about integrating technology beyond the early adopters and perceived "techno-cliques", and into the mainstream by promoting interaction and collaboration among and between faculties and departments. Groups that include their diverse members in decision making tend to be more inclusive and reflective of peopleís interests and needs, which in turn makes the change process more successful and less traumatic (Wilson, 1998). One method that has proved to be effective in getting cross-campus faculty members to communicate and work with diverse individuals in other departments and institutions has been to link project funding to the interdisciplinary nature of the investigation; for example, more governmental agencies are making it a qualifying criteria that more than one institution or faculty is involved in a funded project.

The sixth recommendation for institutions, faculties, and departments is to resist being autocratic in drafting plans for bridging the gap between early adopters and mainstream faculty. Change is hard work. While the administration may find it more expedient to lay down the law and declare that everyone will use computers, this strategy is likely to yield bitter fruit (Wilson, 1998). Faculty may become cynical, feel abused, and not listened to. Taking the major portion of the responsibility for instructional decisions out of the hands of faculty is a serious step. Faculty will, in turn, seek to undermine the technology agenda through passive resistance, disengagement, and covert sabotage, which means more work in the long run for an authoritarian solution. A more difficult and time consuming, but potentially more effective, strategy would be to elicit and include both EAs and MF in technology discussions, plans for acquisitions, and decisions about implementation. Administrative proclamations, press releases, pressure from software companies, and other forms of covert harassment will not train and support faculty members in their integration efforts, nor will these win faculty support for an agenda that they do not support.

A seventh recommendation for institutions is to put mechanisms in place that allow for cyclical and iterative development and assessment of technology in teaching and learning. Tolerance has to be build into the system for time lags, unexpected barriers, and longer innovation-decision periods. Technology integration constitutes a major change in peopleís lives. Such change does not happen quickly or easily. Even in the best of circumstances, teachers and students need high levels of support, training, and access to technology. While technology can open up new possibilities in teaching and learning environments, care should be taken to make sure that the technology fits the core values and goals of higher education, and not the other way around.

A final recommendation for institutions is to resist re-inventing the wheel. A number of system-wide initiatives have been implemented at various higher education institutions (see Burg & Thomas, 1998, Communications of the ACM special issue on campus-wide computing) which provide models for encouraging wider diffusion of technology for teaching and learning, and bridging the gap between early adopter success and more mainstream adoption.

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