Results

Methodology
This survey
Limitations/Challenges
See the Survey

Courses & Workshops
Nature of Training
Faculty & Graduate Students
Assessment

Conclusion
Further Study
Appendix A
Works Cited

Nature of Training

Similar to the kinds of workshops offered and required, the nature of technology training centers around the use of digital products like LCD projectors, various types of computers with numerous kinds of operating systems, software packages like Adobe, Macromedia, Microsoft, etc. It also centers on development of web pages for courses, administrative offices, scholarly projects, and so forth. As indicated in Table 2, forty percent of those responding indicated that their technology training involved a combination of training that included learning how to use LCD projectors, zip drives, Blackboard, blogs, webpage building tools, email, and/or word processing software. In addition, graduate students learned to help undergraduates use computers. Fourteen percent indicated that their program offered no technology training at all. One percent, or one respondent, said that his/her program trains graduate students to use hardware like LCD projectors and zip drives. Twenty-three percent of respondents said that their program trains graduate students to use Blackboard, blogs, webpage building tools, email, and/or word processing software. Twenty-one percent marked other and explained the nature of their technology training in the text-boxes provided.

TABLE 2

What is the Nature of Technology Training in your Program?

The nature of technology training is reflected in the nature of programmatic workshops and courses. Most training is centered on the practical use of particular digital technologies. For example, one respondent says:

Although the university has Blackboard we do not advocate our instructors use it when creating course web pages. Instead we teach HTML and Dreamweaver so instructors will be more prepared to teach those in their courses.

This response indicates that not only is the nature of technology training centered around learning a particular tool or program, but also that teachers may then teach these practical skills to their undergraduate students. Another response further indicated the nature of technology training for graduate students.

We do all of a and b and we teach students multiple platforms - unix windows mac; graphics editing programs web programs - everything in the macromedia suite adobe photoshop and premiere for video editing scanning and more.

In summary, the quantitative data here suggests that not many programs "require courses and workshops," but an overwhelming majority of responses indicated that programs do, indeed, at least "offer" graduate students the opportunity to attend workshops and courses that do focus on teaching with technology. The overall nature of this training, as much as the data has pointed out, is carried out through the offered and required workshops and courses, and also tends to focus on the practical use of a particular digital tool like hardware associated with desktop computers or the use of a software package (Macromedia, Microsoft, Adobe). In other words, the kind of training being offered and required serves a specific practical purpose. However, very little attention is paid to the theoretical aspects of using computers to teach writing. None of the responses to the survey alluded to any theoretical training in the workshops or required courses.  While the questions here do not explicitly ask for explanations of theoretical training, I suspected that some responses from the text boxes may ask, respond, or elaborate on this sort of training.  Even more important, however, is how faculty and graduate students feel about the technology training they do or do not receive. In addition, it is important to explore the type of assessment programs have of technology training.

Faculty & Graduate Students>>