| Universities and private corporations
provide grants to encourage expansion of technology in education.
Recently, more classes use websites that include discussion boards,
email, posting of course materials, required assignments and other
activities that promote more effective learning.
Professors are encouraged to have more integration between new equipment
innovations and education through monetary incentives. The Office
of Instructional Development provides grants to innovation and experimentation
in curriculum. Technology grants are distributed to teachers who
prove that the use of equipment would enhance learning. Not only
do professors receive grants in order to have more advanced curriculum,
UCLA receives technology grants to conduct research including the
effects of technology on society. Growth in technology in education
leads to more globalism by sharing of information through the internet.
This new knowledge has a paradoxical effect on education. Through
technology like email and online courses, these inventions encourage
distance education yet students may
feel closer to their professors therefore making the class more
intimate.
In order for teachers to integrate technology
with their curriculum, universities offer grants to instructors.
A major resource for instructors is the Office
of Instructional Departmental at UCLA provides two kinds of
grants Instructional Improvement Grants that support major faculty,
department, and college initiated projects. The other types are
Mini-grants that support small scale projects. The website states
that these grants are very competitive because grants range from
$750 to $300,000. These grants may seem like a great way to enhance
learning but it leads to professors compromising their curriculum
in order to receive money. In order to receive funding, instructors
must meet a certain criteria and present their cases to why they
should receive funding. Some of the requirements include: addressing
the issues of class size, help meet the
need of fulfilling new standards of the university or within the
department, and the plan is cost-effective. Courses that have the
highest priority are those that require graduate and undergraduate
research assistance. By placing research first, the university reveals
that research is of higher importance than teaching. When UCLA prides
itself as being a research institution, then teaching is not a priority.
Not only are there grants that are incentives
to incorporate technology with education, there are even grants
to train instructors to keep up with technology. These programs
are not only for professors, but for teaching assistants as well.
For example, the Office of Instructional Development (OID) holds
conferences and technology seminars to show instructors what their
colleagues are doing in their classrooms involving technology. The
goals of these conferences are to teach new techniques using electronics
in order to make teaching easier and enhance their technological
skills. OID also offers teaching assistants training to use appropriate
technology with the respective curriculum. The website
states, “Good teaching does not always need to include
technology, but it often does.” This phrase shows how technology
is increasingly important in education. Not only does technology
enhance learning, it is becoming more of a requirement in order
to have a respectable lesson plan.
The
Office of Contract and Grant Administration (OCGA) also provides
research funding to UCLA faculty. This office provides information
about different funding opportunities through the government, private
organizations and on campus funding. The OCGA provides information
from government organizations like National Science Foundation,
Illinois Researcher Information Service (IRIS), and the National
Institute of Health. These institutions are available resources
that allow available resources that potential candidate to search
funding opportunities on their own or the OCGA could customize the
search for faculty.
Not only does the university give funding to
more progressive education, coalitions and groups were created to
help identify the issues on technology. Therefore, a whole new bureaucracy
is established to classify and deal with these issues. One portion
of the OCGA includes the Office of the Academic Senate. This committee
administers travel, funding and intercampus exchange of faculty.
Another division within the Academic Senate is the Chancellors Committee
on Instructional Improvement Programs (CCIIP) that administers funds
directly to undergraduate courses. Another example of bureaucracy
is the UCLA
Campus Computing Cooperative (CCC). The CCC determines standards
for what type of technology is suitable for an academic department.
The CCC also provides models to determine human resources, service
terms as well as funding for technology in courses. A third example
of groups evolving from the need to define technological issues
is S.P.I.D.E.R.:
Shared Pedagogical Initiative, a Database of Educational Resources
for the UC Community. This organization develops instructional materials
that are available online. These groups are funded by the course
departments to hold faculty workshops and create websites that enhance
courses.
In order to conduct research and keep up with
hi-tech advances in education, the university must analyze the cost
expenditures to support information technology (IT). According the
UCLA
Jog Report of 2000-2001, IT exceeded $175 million. In order
to meet this need, UCLA also receives technology grants from external
sources. These grants that go towards research are a major source
of university funding. Private corporations
including Hewlett-Packard use funding to promote their products
in the classroom. Hewlett-Packard
provided $3.3 million dollars to 20 universities for projectors,
networks, wireless technology, handheld PCs, and other electronics.
$200,000 went to the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and
Applied Science. Outside grants also come from private institutions
that request the university to conduct research whether to inquiry
about a sociological phenomenon or to prove their stance on issues
or further their agenda. The
National Endowment of the Arts donated $100,000 to create the
UCLA HyperMedia Studio for the testing of software for interactive
experiences with art exhibitions. These are just examples of how
grants are used for technology but not education.
Technology has impacted every aspect in life,
especially through the internet. Over the past couple of years,
in education there has been an increasing dependency on email, class
websites, and computers for research. Funds provided to the university
are under the guise of promoting education but in reality either
there to do further research, endorse new technology or companies,
and force teachers to conform by keeping up with new innovations.
These finances lead to teachers being forced to use these instruments
and at the same time lose control of the classroom. Instructors
being required to follow the wave by placing their materials online
on class websites calls into question academic freedom. Also, when
internal or external organizations give money to the university
it is not really for the students but for the sake of research.
Grants are given to teachers and academic departments if they are
able to prove that funds could help the university run more efficiently
instead of proving technology could create a more effective pedagogy.
Additional Links
Center for Digital Education. News: UCLA Releases
First Findings of World Internet Project. 14 Jan. 2004. 20 Feb.
2004. <http://www.centerdigitaled.com/converge/?pg=magstory&id=85067>.
Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers To Use Technology
Grants. 20 Feb. 2004. <http://www.teachinginterchange.org/downloads/PT3_CCSESA_Proposal_only.pdf>.
UCLA Center for Communications Policy. Internet
Project. 20 Feb. 2004. <http://www.ccp.ucla.edu/pages/InternetStudy.asp>.
Gerdes, Geoffrey and Cameron, Trudy. “Implementing
UCLA's Instructional Enhancement Initiative: Experiences in the
Department of Economics”. UCLA Department of Economics. 20
Feb. 2004. <http://econtools.com/jevons/cai/>.
Ross, Daniel. Technology and Education. June.
2003. 20 Feb. 2004. <http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~danross/effects.htm>.
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