Daniel W. Surry

Strategies for motivating higher education faculty to use technology

This paper describes a framework that higher education administrators can use to increase the utilization of technology on their campuses. The framework is designed to increase technology usage in higher education by increasing the motivation of individual faculty members to use technology. The paper begins by describing how college administrators have come to view technology as a necessary tool for addressing many of the problems in higher education. The authors then describe a number of categories of technological innovations that can be used in higher education, including both ‘product’ technologies, such as computer-assisted instruction and ‘idea’ technologies, such as constructivism. The authors conclude by discussing strategies that can be used to increase faculty motivation to use technology. These strategies are based on Keller’s (1983) ARCS Model and are divided into attention gaining strategies, relevance strategies, confidence building strategies, and satisfaction strategies.

Development of implementation profile instrument

Recently, however, researchers have begun to focus on the implementation phase of the ADDIE model (Surry and Ely, 2001). One of the most interesting ideas that has come out of this research is Ely’s (1990, 1999) eight conditions of implementation. Research has shown that there are eight conditions that facilitate the implementation of an innovation. These conditions are: dissatisfaction with the status quo; knowledge and skills; time; resources; rewards and incentives; participation; leadership; and commitment. The goal of our research is to develop an instrument that will determine an individual’s ‘implementation profile’—how important each of the conditions is to their decision to implement an innovation. This work might ultimately lead to the development of implementation plans tailored to the profile of an organization’s personnel.

Technology as a Tool for Diversity Leadership: Implementation and Future Implications

Although diversity and leadership are not new concepts, the changing of populations, advances in technology, and development of theoretical perspectives have led to the emergence of diversity leadership as an important field of study. As technology continues to bring people together, it aids in the organizational approach of embracing uniqueness and finding innovative ways to reach higher levels of performance.