From chalkboard to PowerPoint to the Web: a continuum of technology

Abstract

Historically, the chalkboard has been the medium of choice for delivery of classroom instruction. With the advent of the PC and audiovisual equipment, many teachers began using PowerPoint to deliver lectures. Now, however, technology-savvy students expect teachers to use the Web to deliver course materials and faculty are under increasing pressure from both students and administrators to Web-enable their courses. This work discusses how to help faculty become more proficient with media and technology in the classroom. In particular, we focus on our experiences with faculty in the School of Engineering at Mercer University. For the past three years, our faculty development center has been assisting faculty in learning how to use instructional technology. However, apart from the early adopters, faculty resistance was high due to lack of time, skill, motivation, or equipment. Recently, however, we have seen a dramatic increase in web-enabled courses and use of technology in the classroom. We discuss factors we think contributed to this increase, including the development of individual home page templates and training in a user-friendly Web editor, Macromedia Contribute.