Tonto and technology

Innovation in teaching, which has traditonally been associated with more fringe areas of the university -- such as the distance education units or specialist R&D educational technology units -- is now coming from the 'core.' Original and exciting technology-based materials (are being) initiated and developed by faculty themselves, through what I call the Lone Ranger and Tonto approach: the professor with their trusty computer-skilled graduate student, who does the HTML mark-up and scanning. However, on most Canadian university campuses, amateurism rules in the design and production of educational multimedia. A feature of many Lone Ranger projects is that technology applications end up as a costly supplement to conventional teaching, merely increasing the students' (and faculty) workload, and the institution's overall unit costs, because teaching with new technologies is rarely accompanied by the substitution of multimedia for face-to-face teaching. For the extra cost of using technology to be justified, it needs to be accompanied by the reorganization of the teaching process, moving away from fixed, scheduled group instruction to more flexible and individualized modes of learning. Another common problem with the Lone Ranger approach is that often there is never a final product that can be used on a regular basis in a teaching context. This is because the project drags on, being constantly upgraded or improved, or has to be redesigned as a result of inappropriate technology decisions in the early stages of development. Often the graphics and the interface are poor, compared with commercial games with which students are familiar, and the potential for high quality learner interaction with the multimedia materials is often missed. Products when finished have limited applicability because they are not of high enough standard in terms of graphics and interface, or sufficient in volume, to become a commercial product.