20: Breaking Down Barriers to the Use of Technology for Teaching in Higher Education

This chapter examines themost common technologies usedforteaching oncollege campuses and the mostcommon barriers toadvanced uses of technology tools. Survey results consistently show thatthemajor barriers toincorporating technology into higher education are lack offaculty time, faculty doubts about therelevancy oftechnology todisciplinary learning, andinadequate technical supportfor facultyprojects and technology uses. This chapter, then, proposes several approaches developed and assessed by the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University ofMichigan forremoving those barriers to technology uses in higher education. Although providingflexible technology training schedules andformats helps address theproblem of time, offering training that combines pedagogy and technology skills clarifies the link between technology and disciplinary knowledge acquisition. Finally, thecollaborative approach to technology support enables faculty toenjoy continuous and coordinated technology support for their projects and technology uses in theclassroom. This chapter also provides recommendations forsupporting faculty in using technology to improve their teaching andstudent learning.