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  • 2010 Wish List

    By Joshua Kim December 17, 2009 9:51 pm EST

    1. Learning technology coheres into an academic discipline: offers courses, has a theoretical foundation, conducts research, peer review, and a shared identity.

    2. Innovation in teaching methods becomes a major factor in tenure and promotion.

    3. Increased movement of campus resources toward learning technology.

    4. Normative that learning technology professionals design and teach or co-teach courses (as part of regular compensation).

    5. Erosion of distinction between on-ground, hybrid and online learning (best method for each purpose).

    6. Diffusion of pedagogical discussions and training in graduate school and faculty development efforts.

    7. A team approach to course design and running becomes standard.

    8. Distinction between learning technology and library professionals erodes.

    9. Participation in social media in the learning technology conversation becomes normative and expected.

    10. Open courses and shared teaching materials becomes standard operating procedure.

    11. Evidence based decision making in learning technology becomes standard.

    What would you add (or dispute) to a wish list for professionals in learning technology?

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Comments on 2010 Wish List

  • Addition
  • Posted by Jeanne Phoenix Laurel , Assoc. Prof. and Chair of English at Niagara University on December 18, 2009 at 8:00am EST

  • Prompt responses by IT to faculty about learning technology. I've asked one pretty basic question three separate times over the course of the last semester, and still haven't heard a peep from IT.

  • Tapping the untapped
  • Posted by Kuniko Yamada McVey , Librarian at Harvard-Yenching Library on December 18, 2009 at 11:15am EST

  • Thank you for clarifying what we better focus in the crowded learning tech environment. I agree all 11 points. From a traditional collection development librarian's perspective, I see lots of resources in all medium are still untapped, and/or potentially useful in different ways from the conventional use in the past. I am thrilled when I imagine how these once static resources could be animated by utilizing IT. So my wish list #1 2010 is to work with both the faculty members and learning tech specialsts to bring our collection exciting and useful.

  • Posted by Linda on December 19, 2009 at 12:00pm EST

  • I'd like to see administrators held accountable for reliable, viable evaluation processes of faculty by peers and students. I've had evaluations by "superiors" that were polar opposites of student and peer evaluations. (BTW, I was the ONLY faculty ever to receive peer evaluations!) My "superior" couldn't get anything but glowing evaluations out of my peers and students, yet she was allowed to wreak havoc with my "official" evaluations. The evaluation process by students was a joke, unless there was something "superiors" could use againt faculty. I had to require, in my syllabus, that student evaluations of faculty be done prior to taking finals. Then we had some real data to work with! (Grievance procedures are a one-way ticket out the front door, unless you're union.)

  • Clarification
  • Posted by Chris Clark at U of Notre Dame on December 20, 2009 at 8:00pm EST

  • "Innovation in teaching methods becomes a major factor in tenure and promotion" - I'd rather say "Faculty are encouraged to try something new occasionally, even if it fails" combined with "Demonstrated concern about effective teaching becomes a major factor in tenure and promotion." Not all new ideas are good. If you're going to innovate, figure out some way to measure its impact on learning; practice the <a href="http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/scholarship-teaching-learning">scholarship of teaching and learning</a>.

  • Academic Discipline
  • Posted by Susan on December 21, 2009 at 3:00pm EST

  • I suspect that the hundreds of faculty members currently teaching in graduate programs of educational technology (or instructional technology, etc.) would find it amusing that you'd like there to be an academic discipline in educational technology. Yes, there is an academic discipline, yes there is a theoretical foundation, yes, there is research, etc., etc., etc. Good job "researching" the field. Duh.

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