Game changers: developing graduate faculty for a technology-rich  (Page 2/14)

Authors' Acknowlegement

Game changing in higher education

The pedagogical game is changing in institutions of higher education in Westernized countries. As teaching faculty in educational leadership, we can feel the ground dramatically shifting and buckling underneath us. The traditional model most of us have experienced was a regimen of courses delivered face-to-face (f2f) over an entire semester and held in a physical building space, such as a lecture hall or conference room. This model of education is quickly becoming anachronistic. The infusion of new instructional delivery technologies and online/virtual configurations for enhanced classroom practice and student satisfaction are game-changing catalysts. A new era of technology learning and proficiency in higher education has been ushered in: “Based on the rising pressure for schools of education to offer distance education and hybrid courses online, with funding clearly focused in that arena, technology adaptations for professors are inevitable” (English, Papa, Mullen,&Creighton, in press). Teachers in universities and schools are expected to adapt, innovate, and “model the integration of social learning technologies” in interactive learning environments (English et al., in press). For many of us in higher education, this is a newly established norm for sound pedagogical practice, program relevance in a rapidly changing, globalized society and shrinking economy, and the reality of personal and institutional survival.

The use of technology has been identified as a crucial pedagogical competency for teaching in doctoral leadership programs. This competency has been described as a process whereby “meaningful, blended learning experiences” are created “using the variety of delivery modes available such that each mode is used according to the strengths of the media and the nature of the learning activity” (Hyatt&Williams, 2010, p. 60). While endeavoring to maintain academic rigor in the online learning environment, we are being greatly challenged by an insidious appetite for “fast-food” education, which controls program content and delivery (Ritzer, 2004). Ritzer argues that the capitalist model has fundamentally changed the purpose of education by overvaluing extrinsic rewards, subsequently lowering academic standards. Applied-knowledge disciplines like educational leadership and teacher education that prepare future leaders, teachers, and other practitioners have seen “the game” change, with mounting competition from less qualified providers. Some established preparation programs have turned into fast-moving, online diploma mills, believing that they will otherwise be put out of business.