>From owner-trad-l@LISTSERV.VT.EDU Thu Feb 20 16:28:50 1997 Received: from listserv.vt.edu (listserv.vt.edu [128.173.4.9]) by listserv.vt.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id QAA27160; Thu, 20 Feb 1997 16:28:50 -0500 Received: from LISTSERV.VT.EDU by LISTSERV.VT.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8c) with spool id 502841 for TRAD-L@LISTSERV.VT.EDU; Thu, 20 Feb 1997 16:28:49 -0500 Received: from sable.cc.vt.edu (sable.cc.vt.edu [128.173.16.30]) by listserv.vt.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id QAA34322 for ; Thu, 20 Feb 1997 16:28:49 -0500 Received: from [128.173.119.106] (ctg.dos.vt.edu [128.173.119.106]) by sable.cc.vt.edu (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP id QAA30678 for ; Thu, 20 Feb 1997 16:28:47 -0500 (EST) X-Sender: ctg@mail.vt.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Message-Id: Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1997 16:27:21 -0500 Reply-To: "Cathryn T. Goree" Sender: trad-l Discussion List From: "Cathryn T. Goree" To: TRAD-L@LISTSERV.VT.EDU Here's a copy of what I handed out at today's meeting. Cathy ************************* It is important to question whether Virginia Tech proposes to improve efficiency or effectiveness through increased use of technology. These are two competing paradigms, which impel radically different choices for Virginia Tech in the coming decade. If the goal is greater efficiency, then technology may be used to improve record keeping or to expand the delivery of information to a larger population or to replace expensive hard-copy publishing of the catalog with lower cost on-line publication. In this paradigm, technology produces cost savings in the long run which more than repay the investment in hardware and software and technical support required to establish the system in the first place. Accepting this efficiency model implies a willingness to accept the restraints which efficiency imposes on the delivery of instruction. Lecture classes are more efficient than seminars in generating credit hours, but a different type of learning takes place in McBryde 100 than takes place in a small conference room. Building a new curriculum using high-tech delivery methods to increase efficiency is similar to building a campus full of large-scale lecture halls. One type of learning can take place there, but other kinds of learning - including development of critical thinking skills - typically cannot be developed in an efficiency-oriented environment. If the goal of this project is greater effectiveness, then technology may be used to create venues for personal interactions between students and faculty or to excite learners with cutting edge computer demonstrations in place of chalkboard diagrams or to create teleconferences of experts from various campuses. These are labor-intensive operations. Such activities afford students and faculty the opportunity to be experiential, reflective, personally interactive, and it is these types of activities which are most likely to create the conditions in which higher order learning can occur. The conversation about these issues has not yet become explicit. Those who believe in the efficiency model expect that the use of new technologies will produce cost savings or substantially greater outputs for little increase in cost. Those who adopt the effectiveness model expect that the university and the commonwealth will provide substantial new funding for labor-intensive, technology-based strategies before expecting increased effectiveness of instruction. Because these issues have not been explicitly addressed, it is possible, even likely, that resources for this transition will be provided at an efficiency-level, but expectations for outcomes will be set at an effectiveness-level. Astin's (1993) sophisticated nationwide study of the college experience showed that "the student's peer group is the single most potent source of influence on growth and development during the undergraduate years" (p. 398). Involvement with fellow students in study groups, out-of-class discussions, student organizations, recreational sports, and other activities was statistically significantly correlated with such academic outcomes as GPA, graduation with honors, overall academic development, knowledge of a field, analytical and problem-solving skills, critical thinking skills, cultural awareness, preparation for graduate and professional school, and general knowledge. Involvement with peers was also strongly correlated with leadership, growth in public speaking skills, and interpersonal skills. Second to the peer group, Astin's study identified faculty as the next most significant factor in student development during the undergraduate years. Astin found two key components of this faculty effect. The first was "student orientation" of the faculty as an institutional value -- that is, the degree to which faculty as a whole are perceived to be interested in students' academic and personal problems and accessible to students outside class. The second component of the faculty effect was the actual personal interactions between students and faculty, including hours per week students spend talking with faculty members, being a guest in a professor's home, having a class paper critiqued by an instructor, assisting faculty in teaching a course, and working on a professor's research project. Astin found statistically significant positive correlations with outcomes such as completion of the bachelor's degree, graduation with honors, critical thinking ability, analytical and problem-solving skills, public speaking ability, preparation for graduate or professional school, scholarship, leadership, and overall satisfaction with the college experience. [I THINK THAT A VIRGINIA TECH STUDY ALSO IDENTIFIED STUDENT-FACULTY INTERACTION AS A POSITIVE FACTOR IN RETENTION, BUT I CAN'T FIND THE REPORT JUST NOW. SOMEONE AT IR IS LOOKING INTO THIS AND I SHOULD HAVE AN ANSWER BY NEXT WEEK WHEN GERRY RETURNS TO TOWN.] Among the factors documented by Astin to have much smaller effects on student outcomes was "hours per week spent using a personal computer." This factor was associated with "positive effects on most academic outcomes and on most areas of student satisfaction" (Astin, 1993, p. 376). However, the coefficients were much smaller than for hours per week spent studying or doing homework. Astin's study argues powerfully for a model of undergraduate education which is highly interactive, both within the classroom and without. This study also strongly supports Virginia Tech's value of "education of the whole person." These data would suggest that information technologies will enhance student learning only to the extent that they are used to increase personal interaction between students and other students or between students and faculty (the effectiveness model). On the other hand, if Virginia Tech uses technologies principally to dilute the labor-intensive personal contact between faculty and students or among students themselves (the efficiency model), these data suggest that Virginia Tech would give away the most potent factors to influence student learning. Astin, A. W. (1993). What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. RECOMMENDATION: Virginia Tech should adopt a model of technology aided instruction which enhances personal interaction between students and faculty and between students and other students. RECOMMENDATION: Virginia Tech should evaluate the transformation to new technologies against the goal of enhanced student learning, rather than against a goal of cost savings. [END OF PART I] --------------------------------- [PART II] Given the ethical injunction to "first, do no harm," any transformation of the educational process at Virginia Tech requires a careful and honest look at the potential negative consequences of that shift, along with the commitment to ameliorate any unintended negative consequences. While some of the positive effects of increased computer use have been documented, virtually no systematic evidence has been collected at Virginia Tech or elsewhere concerning the potential negative effects of increased computer use. Indeed, this lack of evidence may flow from the inherent bias against collecting such data at institutions which have made a substantial financial and reputational investment in new technologies. Some anecdotal evidence, however, suggests the need for on-going evaluation. There has been a sharp increase in reports of computer misuse, both at Virginia Tech and nationally. Like grafitti, computer postings seem anonymous (though in fact they can usually be traced). This perceived anonymity enhances people's willingness to make statements which are otherwise viewed as socially unacceptable ( Kiesler & Sproull, 1986; Waterton & Duffy, 1984).Thus, students who might not make a harassing or threatening statement in person sometimes feel free to express such views by e-mail. Since Virginia Tech established a reporting mechanism for computer misuse cases in 1996, there have been ____ reports of alleged misuse, including several cases which raise the issue of hostile environment on the basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation.[I'LL HAVE TO GET THE MISSING STATISTIC ON MONDAY.] There have also been reports, from Virginia Tech and elsewhere, of students who become "computer-addicted." While it is not clear how many students this problem might affect, there is evidence from Virginia Tech that at least some students are negatively impacted in this way. Kiesler, S., & Sproull, L. S. (1986). Response effects in the electronic survey. Public Opinion Quarterly, 50, 402-413. Waterton, J. J., & Duffy, J. C. (1984). A comparison of computer interviewing techniques and traditional methods in the collection of self-reported alcohol consumption data in a field survey. International Statistical Review, 52, 173-182. RECOMMENDATION: Virginia Tech should begin systematic evaluation of negative impacts of increased use of technology by students, and should provide resources to address any negative effects that are identified. ############################################################################## Cathryn T. Goree Phone: 540-231-3787 Dean of Students FAX: 540-231-4035 Virginia Tech TDD: 540-231-8718 107 Brodie Hall Blacksburg, VA 24061-0255