The title of this blog post caught my eye for obvious reasons…

http://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/why-tech-training-for-faculty-is-a-waste-of-time/ via onlinelearninginsights

The title drew me in and the post itself reminded me of the conversations we’ve had in meetings last week as well as a theme that has been coming up repeatedly for the past several weeks (or months). Technology of technology sake is not the answer, technology training needs to be accompanied by instruction that shows faculty how to incorporate tools to enhance learning.

The blog post is generally talking about institutional use of the LMS (Learning Management Systems such as Blackboard, Moodle, Desire2Learn etc.,) and the research used in the post rings true with our own use of our LMS. Our use of the LMS is mostly for administrative purposes such as posting notes, conducting assessments, submission of assignments etc., We need to focus more on the pedagogical purposes for using the LMS. Administrative use of the LMS is not wrong but we need to take our use of it further… as well as incorporate other technology and tools in more meaningful and purposeful ways.

I like that the shift in focus (in this post and in our conversations) is not on the how to use it, but the why to use it, and to take it further the why to use it in a much more deliberate and meaningful way…

Food for though for moving forward, especially as we evaluate and choose a new institutional LMS. I’ll finish off with this final quote from the post…

“Too often training is ineffective, is one-dimensional focusing on only one aspect, either technical or pedagogical skills. Both are need to support and develop faculty in becoming an instructor that is relevant and skilled in knowing when and how to use ed tech tools appropriately and effectively.”