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Still in relative infancy, on-campus technology has begun to alter
both the way students learn and, in some instances, what they learn.
Computer graphics has transformed commercial design and has radically
changed classroom curriculum. Anyone who saw the movie Forrest Gump
probably remembers actor Tom Hanks talking to President John F. Kennedy
through a mix of old and new footage that made it impossible to distinguish
real from unreal. Such technique is commonplace in TCNJ’s Department
of Art, where Philip Sanders, associate professor of art, reports
students create both illustration and photography digitally. “It’s possible now for a photojournalist in the field to digitize conventional photography and send it back over the wire or submit it on disk,” he says. “What students are taught today would have been totally unrecognizable 10 years ago.” He adds that young people graduating from college with these new techniques command entry-level incomes equally unimaginable just a short time ago. “There is no one else out there doing what they are learning to do,” he says. “The computer has been seen by many as a tool for use in logical work. Not anymore. The sophistication of hardware and software has become so exact that we can now get close to the controlled accident that happens with art—something that looks much like watercolor on a textured surface, for instance.” Talk about the link between technology and higher education invariably leads to a discussion of distance learning—hailed by some as the wave of the future. For financially strapped community colleges and those in outlying areas, a credit course that can be taken by a student on a home computer is certainly making education accessible to a new population of students. But at TCNJ, the application of distance learning takes on a different complexion. Ball sees its potential in traditional settings where students come to class and are offered expanded opportunities.  “In a recent class on The History of Political Thought, we partnered with a class at the University of Texas,” he says. “Students had the same course material and benefited by joint discussion online.” It’s difficult to find a classroom in which the Web is not companion to study, at least functionally, if not through more creative application. In an estimated 100 schools across the country, a computer is required for matriculation. Making the list of the country’s 100 most wired colleges has become a competitive sport among some administrations. Yet, while the computer has become an intellectual resource for most, there are problems, including fallout from the too-much-too-soon syndrome and the need for faculty training in making the best technological choices within a curriculum. A 1999 study at the University of California Los Angeles, among 34,000 faculty members in 378 colleges, revealed that, while nine in 10 said student use of computers enhanced learning, only 35 percent used the Internet to conduct research and 38 percent used technology to create class presentations. Lynn Braender, assistant professor of information systems management, believes there may be a slow learning curve for academic faculty members who haven’t been given an opportunity to upgrade skills. “Historically, academia has not invested resources to retrain faculty in adding technology to course material,” she says. “Until recently, there hasn’t been the competitive need to keep up with technology used in business. That’s changing, though, with the introduction of online courses. It’s becoming imperative for colleges to recognize and support the role of technology in the classroom.” This surely reflects some of the challenges in the expansion of Web technology on campus in that success is dependent on its effective use. Ball gives the example that, when a teacher prepares a detailed presentation online, it’s perhaps more difficult to break out of a preconceived notion than it might be through a traditional presentation. “I try not to be trapped by my material,” he says. “If the students want to dwell on a specific point, the presentation should be flexible enough to allow that. It sometimes takes trial and error to achieve.” Robert C. Cole, professor of English and director of the department’s journalism program, has another perspective on the need for faculty training. “Several years ago, when we first talked of integrating technology and journalism study, experts told us it would require a full semester of teaching the technology itself,” Cole reports.  That
has changed, he says, as students and faculty have become computer
savvy. Nevertheless, the computer has introduced a whole new way of
teaching research and instructors must be sensitive to the nuances.
Exciting as it is, it demands what Cole refers to as teaching students
how to “separate the wheat from the chaff.” “We worked on a Trenton redevelopment story here in class and students went to the Internet for their research,” he says. “One student came up with pretty dramatic results. When I questioned the source, he told me it came from the Web—in other words, he assumed it was valid because he found it on the Internet. I’m not overlooking the fact that there have always been reporters who assumed anything they found in print was true. The challenge in using the Web is that there is so much more out there than one is likely to find in print.” Cole and others conclude that professors have to learn and then teach students how to become rapid scanners, refining crude searches that may deliver thousands of hits. |
