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Student Affairs
Daniel Salter Penn State University Editor Stuart
Brown |
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Fall 2000 • Vol. 1, No. 3 |
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A.W. (Tony) Bates |
Peggy Holzweiss Texas A&M University |
Bates, A. W. (1999). Managing technological change: Strategies for college and university leaders. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
This book is an incredible resource for those colleges and universities beginning to tackle the issue of incorporating technology into the daily business of education. Mr. Bates covers everything from the issues institutions need to address before creating policies and plans to reasons for resistance to change and how to combat that resistance. Even if you have already implemented some technology, this book can help you review your practices and find out if there is something you missed along the way.
Mr. Bates begins with a feature I wish every author would provide: an Executive Summary. Rather than merely giving you a list of chapters and letting you guess where you might find information, he briefly describes each section and highlights the specific information you will find. This is extremely helpful in the busy world of higher education.
If you are a school faced with arguing for technology integration, whether it is for updating the classrooms or creating distance learning programs, Chapter One lays out every argument for incorporating technology. You can literally take this chapter, condense the information to hit the highlights, then immediately go before a group of faculty members and argue your case. Mr. Bates convinced me with his clear and concise outline of the need for change, different rationales for technology, a description of all of the new technologies to consider, and how the technology can be used in the classroom. He even adds case studies of institutions who are practicing these techniques.
In the Chapters 2 and 3, he provides a thorough "How-To" plan, covering the importance of leadership, vision and strategic planning, using a task force for change, and highlights several approaches to introducing technology into teaching. Mr. Bates even goes so far to suggest ways to win people over to your way of thinking by providing common arguments against technology and methods you can implement to overcome those particular obstacles.
Chapters 4 and 5 provide a glimpse into the technology infrastructure. Mr. Bates highlights the basic needs of a technology plan and how it relates to areas outside of the physical components. After addressing infrastructure, he hits the major issue of student access and offers some examples of how different campuses handle this area of technology, from requiring all students to have computers to setting up multiple computer labs around campus. Of course, you cannot have a good technology plan without the faculty creating coursework which integrates with technology, so Mr. Bates also covers the issues specific to the faculty, from how the current higher education culture may produce resistance to change to advice on copyrighting digitally-created materials. The information found regarding faculty is a truly thorough look at the culture of faculty and how it relates to the technology issue.
Once you have addressed all of the philosophical and planning issues, you inevitably come to the financial questions. Mr. Bates has considerable advice in this area as well. In Chapter 6 he helps you calculate the technology costs by taking you through analysis of your situation, allocation of funds, assumptions, tracking, spending break down, out-sourcing services, and on. And when reality sets in on the expense of technology, Chapter 7 explores different ways to fund these new costs, including using outside grants, developing partnerships, and reallocating your budget. Benefits and drawbacks of each funding outlet are discussed.
The final three chapters cover implementation of your technology plan. Mr. Bates suggests a model organizational structure after he examines the different techniques that are already being tested. He covers bureaucracy issues you will have to address, ways to research and evaluate technology implementation, and continuing to meet the technology challenge.
This book is truly an outstanding resource for anyone who is being challenged with implementing new technology into the classroom. Mr. Bates has obviously taught many classes himself because he is a thorough and easy-to-understand instructor. You will be able to pick up this book and grasp all of the issues even if you have never owned a computer.
