I think the Technological Adoption Model should be adopted in my school. This is because we do not have a strong school culture in respect of distinct vision and mission. Our main objective is to enhance the teaching and learning effectiveness of students by using ICT. The principals and head of division are considered as main change agent. Our teachers are only seen as the producer of good use of ICT-based learning resources, like implementation of “Blackboard” in enhancing teaching and learning effectiveness.
When the Blackboard was launched, most teachers showed resistance to this change as they didn’t think they have yet possessed enough technical competencies to master the Blackboard. Teachers only used it as a kind of class notes and assignments posting. The other features of learning were to be ignored in general, like discussion forum with students, quizzes setting and assessment. Only very few teachers are able to “fully” utilize the functions of Blackboard. In order to encourage teachers to use, the principals had organized relevant trainings and experience sharing sessions for system skills development.
However, I think the staff development alone is not enough for the change. To put ICT into practice, I think we need policies which can tell about the meaning of change. This thing should be well reflected in our mission statement. Unfortunately, we do not have such documents in our school. Or else, the principals’s leadership could play a crucial role in the change, e.g. Principals may take lead of using discussion forum for communications with teachers. On the other hand, I don’t see teachers could show their commitment to the use of Blackboard in the meantime. Certainly, positive reinforcement should be considered, e.g. showing recognition to those teachers who had done a good job by inviting them in the experience sharing. But I think another important stakeholder - students should also be considered in this change. We have to think about the ways to encourage students to use Blackboard so as to facilitate their learning. In return, the benefit is to push teachers to use Blackboard to get back to students.
Diffusion of Innovations Model:
Hi Alvis:
回覆刪除We have a similar situation in my university (HKBU), where we use Moodle. Although the responsible offices have worked very hard to make sure there is a Moodle site for every single course, most professors simply use it as a place to upload their lecture PPTs. Little use is made of discussion forums, wikis, etc.
At HKBU some steps are being taken to encourage the use of more advanced features, such as the provision of workshops and seminars on e-learning by our Centre for Holistic Teaching and Learning. However, uptake still seems to be slow, and I agree with your assertion that staff development alone is not enough. Perhaps firm policy guidance from opinion leaders might also be the way forward at HKBU.
Cheers,
Chris