Report: 6 Technology Barriers in Education
Technological illiteracy and lack of supports for faculty members are critical problems facing colleges and universities. But they're solvable. Unfortunately, according to a new report released this week, much more difficult challenges loom for education.
The report, the NMC Horizon Report: 2014 Higher Education Edition identifies major trends in education technology, significant barriers facing ed tech and technological trends that will help shape teaching and learning in the near future. Horizon Reports are released annually by the New Media Consortium and the Educause Learning Initiative.
The NMC Horizon Report: 2014 Higher Education Edition identified six critical obstacles higher education faces in the context of technology, in particular barriers that could hinder technology adoption in the coming years. Researchers categorized the problems by the ease with which the might be solved, from solvable to difficult to downright "wicked."
Solvable Challenges
The two most significant solvable challenges identified in this year's report are the low digital fluency of faculty and inadequate rewards for teaching.
The problem of faculty technological literacy (or lack thereof) is compounded, according to the researchers, by insufficient — or, at best, inconsistent — professional development.
"Faculty training still does not acknowledge the fact that digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession," according to the Horizon Report. "Despite the widespread agreement on the importance of digital media literacy, training in the supporting skills and techniques is rare in teacher education and non-existent in the preparation of faculty. As lecturers and professors begin to realize that they are limiting their students by not helping them to develop and use digital media literacy skills across the curriculum, the lack of formal training is being offset through professional development or informal learning, but we are far from seeing digital media literacy as a norm. This challenge is exacerbated by the fact that digital literacy is less about tools and more about thinking, and thus skills and standards based on tools and platforms have proven to be somewhat ephemeral."
The researchers also cited the relative lack of rewards for teaching as a challenge, albeit a solvable one, as research is ranked as a higher priority than teaching by universities.
"Adjunct professors and students feel the brunt of this challenge, as teaching-only contracts are underrated and underpaid, and learners must accept the outdated teaching styles of the university's primary researchers. To balance competing priorities, larger universities are experimenting with alternating heavy and light teaching loads throughout the school year, and hiring more adjunct professors."
The report cited several steps that should be taken (or in some cases are being taken) to alleviate the problem and change the culture:
- Governments need to "develop strategies that are informed by current research, with the ultimate goal of fostering an academic culture that financially rewards the quality of interaction in its classrooms";
- Doctoral and graduate students can be required to undergo training to make a greater impact on students;
- Professors can participate in pre-service and in-service training; and
- Universities must alleviate the competitive, research-driven pressures on faculty by reevaluating their missions "so as to uphold excellence in teaching as a core tenet, which will transform the rigid process of gaining tenure."