Links
- Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)
- "an international, educational and professional not-for profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the knowledge, theory, and quality of learning and teaching at all levels with information technology"
- Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)
- "...to provide international leadership by promoting scholarship and best practices in the creation, use, and management of technologies for effective teaching and learning in a wide range of settings"
- Educause
- "a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology"
- International Society for Technology in Education
- "Providing leadership and service to improve teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in education."
IT Philosophy
- Who are the stakeholders in decisions about instructional technology? They include faculty, students, ITS, the institution itself and its accrediting agencies.
- What issues inform IT decisions? Different stakeholders have differing concerns. Faculty are concerned with pedagogical effectiveness, stability, and the learning curve; students with reliability, utility and breadth of applicability. Institutional concerns include cost, expectations of prospective students and program certification requirements. ITS must consider existing technology infrastructure, interoperability, ease of implementation and maintenance.
- Where should IT be implemented? Traditionally IT solutions have been used in classrooms, libraries, labs, student housing and faculty offices. The trend toward ubiquitous networking means that services can now be made available anywhere, rather than tied to a particular location or artifact.
- Why adopt a particular instructional technology? Most reasons for adopting a particular technology fall under one of two categories: (1) it facilitates something you already do, or (2) it enables you to adopt an effective practice that would be impossible otherwise.
- How can new technologies be introduced most effectively? Often educators will trust fellow-educators more than technologists; consequently the most successful path of introducing new technologies will rely on peer relationships among the faculty.
