Back in July 2007 while working on the delivery of a staff training workshop at Reid Hall (Columbia University campus in Paris), Bill Koulopoulos, Stéphane Charitos (Columbia University Language Resource Center, NYC) and myself started to think about obstacles met when a unit or an institution is developing online teaching resources. Last term, I was also able to attend LSE information systems course IS470 and it helped me a lot to understand technology within organisations.
Here is the abstract of the presentation Bill and I will do at the LLAS conference on 8/9th July, York University (UK):
Despite the bright promise of technology in language education and the ubiquitous presence of computers in institutions of higher education, pedagogically sound integration of technology in language teaching remains limited to “e-learning champions” and a few dedicated staff in many universities in UK and elsewhere.
This paper identifies four key elements for the adoption of intelligent, high-quality use of technology in the language classroom:
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Leadership, funding and organizational support provided by senior management
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Working practices based on collaborative activities and sustained by a Continual and Professional Development programme (CPD)
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User friendly IT tools such as VLE, E-repositories…
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Learning technologists offering essential technical and pedagogical support
This approach is based in part on a management model called the Resource Based View of the Firm (RBVF) as defined by Ciborra (1998).
