Charles Moran calls attention to the costs of technology in our courses - and in institutions of higher learning in general:
Computer technologies help us achieve WAC's goals for student literacy, but they also work against these goals. Here I'm altering/expanding Mike's question a bit - focusing not on problematic uses, but suggesting that WAC should not embrace emerging technologies without, as Cindy Selfe suggests in the subtitle of her new book, 'paying attention' (Selfe 1999). For this moment, I want to pay attention to the costs of technology to colleges/universities, and consider the ways in which these institutions attempt to recover the costs. What are the costs of these new technologies? Where do colleges/universities find the money to pay for these technologies? And what are the implications for WAC of the ways in which institutions do recover the costs of technology?
Charles identifies some of these costs as increased tuition, reduced tenure-track lines, increased reliance on non-tenure-track faculty, and increased class size. Are there other costs we should consider as well? In what ways, if any, are these costs offset by the use of technology to support WAC/CAC? To what extent should we limit or modify our use of technology to mitigate these costs?
– Mike Palmquist
Mike.Palmquist@ColoState.edu