Teaching by Example: A Case for Peer Workshops about Pedagogy and Technology

Many institutions and their information technology (IT) professionals expend significant time and resources encouraging faculty members to integrate targeted technologies into their pedagogies. To further some technology initiatives, IT professionals should consider working with department chairs and others to identify faculty members who can serve as technology liaisons to their home departments; these liaisons can encourage the integration of technology through workshops and other methods that target the pedagogical concerns of their specific fields. Because they understand the disciplinary norms and can speak to their colleagues about the concrete educational needs that technologies can help them meet, such technologically savvy instructors (hereafter referred to simply as faculty peers) may interest their colleagues in using technology. In return, IT can introduce the faculty peers, especially those who are new and untenured, to the range of technologies and resources supported on campus. Cultivating mutually beneficial relationships between IT and specific faculty peers can enhance the profiles of the latter on campus, while simultaneously demonstrating the usefulness of the technologies that the institution supports. In this article, I explain why faculty peers can be particularly effective at leading technology workshops, how they can efficiently develop workshop materials, and what incentives may motivate their service.