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Inside Higher Ed released the 2016 Survey of Faculty Attitudes Toward Technology yesterday. Some don’t think tech’s helping much.
“Faculty members are still worried that online education can’t deliver outcomes equivalent to face-to-face instruction,” writes Carl Straumsheim. “They are split on whether investments in ed-tech have improved student outcomes.”
Some of the key findings from the survey include:
- Fewer faculty members and administrators this year said technology in the classroom has resulted in significantly improved student outcomes, and more of them are finding it difficult to justify investments in ed-tech.
- Both administrators and faculty members believe institutions are taking appropriate measures to protect personal information and intellectual property from cyber-attacks. Few believe those security steps infringe on their privacy.
- Most faculty members aren’t taking to social media to talk politics. In fact, most faculty members don’t even talk about their scholarship on social media.
I’m happy to see any report about less politics in social newsfeeds, and glad to see professors questioning technology in the classroom more intensely. Tech provides increasingly valuable teaching tools to professors, but it can’t replace the value of great teaching to students.