U. of Washington Tries a Soft Sell to Woo Professors to Technology A program called UWired is winning converts among the 'wary adopters' on the faculty By JEFFREY R. YOUNG Seattle Here's a riddle that's become all too familiar to college administrators who are sinking millions into computer equipment: How do you get professors to use the technology in class? A technology-training group at the University of Washington says it has an answer: Improve your attitude. In its workshops and one-on-one training sessions, the group says it focuses on helping professors become comfortable with technology and fit it into their teaching styles. And in some cases, leaders of the training sessions tell professors not to use technology at all, unless it will help explain the material they are presenting. Technology is just a tool, the session leaders say, like a pen. UWired, as the group is called, offers faculty members its services both on line and in a computer laboratory for professors who want help with technology. The lab is located on the second floor of the main undergraduate library. Professors are invited to drop in at any time of day to meet with a consultant for one-on-one help with software or teaching strategies. The consultants -- most of them undergraduate or graduate students at the university -- also teach occasional workshops for professors on specific topics. UWired's leaders avoid hiring computer-science majors as consultants, says Mark Donovan, the group's acting director. They look instead for technology-savvy students in other fields, such as geography and library science. "We aggressively seek out non-technical people who are comfortable with technology," he says. And the consultants are taught not to use terms like "F.T.P." That stands for File-Transfer Protocol, which sounds complicated, although it's really just a way to move files from a professor's hard drive to a Web site. UWired's approach is that professors can learn the few easy steps it takes to move their files without ever having to hear the protocol's formal name. Some professors say UWired's attitude has made the difference. "I would never have come this far if I hadn't had friendly, easy-going, socially skilled people lead me," says Debbie Ward, an associate professor of psychosocial and community health. "They had a non-patriarchal attitude. They didn't make fun of us for not understanding the technology. They didn't talk jargon right away." Ms. Ward says the center helped her create Web pages for her classes. But while she knows how to add material to the pages on her own, she still doesn't know, or care, how the technology works. "I still lack a basic grasp of either a computer or cyberspace," she says, sitting at the computer in her office here. "And I think that's just the way its going to be for me." Naturally, some professors on every campus are interested in learning all the ins and outs of computer programs and always want to be on the leading edge. Those professors, often referred to as "early adopters," are in the minority, however. UWired's leaders say that most professors fall into a group they call "wary adopters" -- they're willing to learn some new tricks, but only if the training improves their courses and doesn't take too long. The standard strategy for colleges eager to encourage the spread of technology is to support the early adopters and hope that their examples will inspire others -- a Johnny Appleseed approach. And that's what UWired tried first. In 1995, the group started an "innovative courses" program that gave equipment and technical support to a few professors who wanted to use computers and the Internet in their courses. Although the individual courses went well, the strategy didn't lead to a campus-wide revolution in teaching methods. In fact, it might have had the opposite effect, according to UWired's leaders. "In an unexpected way, the innovative-courses program actually may have erected a barrier to change," say Mr. Donovan and UWired's associate director, Scott Macklin, in a paper presented at last year's CAUSE conference on academic technology (http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/cnc9846/cnc9846.html). "Often, it seemed, other faculty looked skeptically on the achievements of the participants and shrugged off their success by saying, 'Of course you did all that neat stuff ... look at all the time you invested and all the support you received.'" So last year, UWired killed the innovative-courses program and began to focus on helping professors who were less technologically savvy -- those "wary adopters." The training group designed a set of instructional manuals and strategy guides -- as well as a few basic Web tools and templates -- to serve as starting points for professors who wanted to dip their toes into cyberspace. UWired calls its set of tools and guides Catalyst (http://depts.washington.edu/catalyst/home.html). A professor who wants to set up a chat room for his course, for instance, might start by consulting the Catalyst "method guide" on encouraging discussion. That document outlines the possible benefits of on-line discussions, and gives users a choice of two ways to run an on-line chat -- through either an e-mail list or a Web page. For each method, the Catalyst site points to a "quick guide" that explains options for setting up a discussion. Each quick guide is divided into smaller sections that explain the many skills needed to run a chat. Along the way, the guides spell out the pros and cons of each method, and offer helpful hints. One of the suggested ways to run a Web-based discussion, in fact, is with a tool created by the UWired team, called the Peer Review System. The system makes it easy for professors to add documents to a Web page in a way that allows students to post comments by filling out an on-line form. UWired consultants refer professors to the Catalyst guides often during training sessions. In one session on a recent Monday afternoon, Ganesh Basdeo spends an hour and a half in the UWired lab, known as the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. Mr. Basdeo, a lecturer in Spanish and Portuguese at the university, sits at a computer station listening attentively to a UWired consultant and scribbling notes in a steno pad. "I need help," he quips, showing a reporter several pages of notes he has taken about how to use a Web-page-editing program. "There are so many little things that you need to know when you're doing this." This semester, Mr. Basdeo has created Web pages for four intermediate Spanish courses he teaches (http://courses.washington.edu/dibas/). So far, the pages offer grammar reviews and links to sites about Spanish literature and culture. Before making up the pages, he says, he attended a UWired workshop. He then started making his course Web site on his own, referring occasionally to the Catalyst guides. He still had some questions, however, so he came to the lab for one-on-one help. He says he plans to work on his Web page again over the weekend, and will possibly return to the lab for more help the next week. He's also planning to get his wife's help. "The technology just kills me," he says. "I just don't have the time to master it." Even so, he says the results are worth the effort. "My students were much more interested [in the Web site] than listening to me, I feel pretty sure," he says. "We need to get skilled in" the technology, he adds. "If we're not, we're going to be way behind." Sometimes, however, UWired consultants advise professors to stick to their chalk and transparencies. "Faculty will come in almost feeling obligated to incorporate technology," says Jaime Diaz, a professor of psychology who is on the UWired steering committee and is familiar with questions the consultants face. "They say, 'I need to build a Web site,'" but when asked what they plan to do with the site, they don't know, he says. "Teachers don't have to animate everything if they don't think it's going to work," he says, referring to glitzy graphics that are seen on some Web pages. "It's just a tool," he adds, holding up a ball-point pen. "It's what you add to your arsenal of tools to teach." The question professors should be asking, he says, is: "What can advance my pedagogical goals?" The UWired staff still hasn't completely given up on the Johnny Appleseed strategy. In hopes of encouraging others to give it a try, the Catalyst Web page offers half a dozen articles about professors who have successfully used technology in their courses. UWired is also taking more-active steps to encourage the use of technology on the campus. UWired leaders meet regularly with various campus groups, and they hope to work with heads of academic departments to help develop technology strategies that are custom-made for each discipline. UWired has also formed partnerships with many campus groups, such as the university libraries. Despite UWired's efforts, most courses at the university still don't have Web sites. According to a recent survey by the university's libraries, about 31 per cent of the professors have put course materials on line, and another 23 per cent said they were interested in doing so. But Mr. Donovan says that not every course needs a Web page. After all, as the UWired consultants say, technology is just a tool -- like a pen -- that should be used when it's called for, not because it's there. For them, it's an attitude that's working. http://chronicle.com Section: Information Technology Page: A23