1. Developing
Faculty Enthusiasm
for Technology
ERIC M. LARSON / 2014 MINIT SYMPOSIUM / JULY 10, 2014 / UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

2. Cultivating
Faculty Enthusiasm
for Technology
ERIC M. LARSON / 2014 MINIT SYMPOSIUM / JULY 10, 2014 / UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

3. Praying for
Faculty Enthusiasm
for Technology
ERIC M. LARSON / 2014 MINIT SYMPOSIUM / JULY 10, 2014 / UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

4. Finding meaning in life while working in
an environment that appears to lack
Faculty Enthusiasm
for Technology
ERIC M. LARSON / 2014 MINIT SYMPOSIUM / JULY 10, 2014 / UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

5. Restraining
Faculty Enthusiasm
for Technology
ERIC M. LARSON / 2014 MINIT SYMPOSIUM / JULY 10, 2014 / UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

6. Reining in
Faculty Enthusiasm
for Technology
ERIC M. LARSON / 2014 MINIT SYMPOSIUM / JULY 10, 2014 / UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

7. Controlling
Faculty Enthusiasm
for Technology
ERIC M. LARSON / 2014 MINIT SYMPOSIUM / JULY 10, 2014 / UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

8. Managing
Faculty Enthusiasm
for Technology
ERIC M. LARSON / 2014 MINIT SYMPOSIUM / JULY 10, 2014 / UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

9. Faculty Enthusiasm
for Technology
ERIC M. LARSON / 2014 MINIT SYMPOSIUM / JULY 10, 2014 / UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

10. Goal / Outcome for this session
 Practical tips
 “We did training sessions on _____ !”
 “We gave away free _____ !”
 Philosophical stances
 “We partnered with _____ ”
 “We encouraged them to think about _____ ”

11. Two questions…
BECAUSE WE CAN LOOK AT THIS IN TWO WAYS

12. “
”
How do we
promote technology?
This is the easy question. “Did you know that technology can help you?” “No, I did not! Tell me more!”

13. “
”
How do we promote someone’s
intrinsic motivation to more deeply
engage in a community or activity
that they already profess to value?
That’s a much harder question.

14. Faculty as (a) People vs.
Faculty as Persons
 (archaic grammatical distinction, irrelevant nowadays)
 For our purposes… are we talking about “faculty” as a broad
category? Or are we talking about individual faculty
members?
 Answer: Yes.
 Faculty are individuals…
and, we need to be able to generalize.

15. Your hands-on task for today…
 Grab your index card!
 Grab a pen!
 On one side, write what you do.
 (“I _______.”)
 On the other side, write what your faculty do.
 (“My faculty ________”)

16. Eric’s Personal Issue
I love my wife.
I hate that she describes me as
“a computer guy”
But if not that… what am I?
(And, what are our faculty?)

17. “The Identity Question”
IF YOU HAVEN’T GUESSED ALREADY, THIS IS GOING TO BE A BIG THEME

18. Question: What do you do?
Hint: Look at your index card.

19. What does Eric do?
 I support learning.
 I explore solutions.
 I explain reality.
 I battle entropy.
 I empower faculty.
 This last point is loaded with meaning

20. What do our faculty do?
Teach
Research
What else?

21. Who are our faculty?
“Personal Brand”
“Identity”
? ? ?

22. “
”
Does Mike Rowe know what
accomplishment looks like?
There’s a sense of accomplishment in “Dirty Jobs”

23. Q: How do we measure
accomplishment?

24. How do we measure accomplishment?
 Is this a “tenure, promotion, etc.” question?
 Is this a “metrics” question?
 Navigate the differences between “Today, I got that septic
tank pumped out” and “Today, I wisely and skillfully used
technology to support the Academy”

25. Burnout warning:
You distain “WIIFM”

26. “What’s In It For Me (or Them)?”
Does it have value?
Then articulate that value!
Does it lack value?
Then why are you making your faculty do it?

27. “If there’s no benefit to it,
then it’s not a mandate.
It’s not a vision.
It’s a hobby.”
~ ERIC M. LARSON, 2014

28. “I Tried It and It Didn’t Work!”
Someone sought me out recently to say that she’d tried
something I had recommended and it didn’t work. “You need to
stop recommending that to people,” she told me. “How many
times did you try it?” I asked. “Once…
…and the students hated it,” she responded.
~ Dr. Maryellen Weimer
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/tried-didnt-work/

29. Closing thematic bow…

30. Closing thematic bow…
 “Faculty Enthusiasm for Technology” can’t and shouldn’t
come from/for/within the technology itself.
 Technology is a tool that can help us, and our faculty, to
grow into a role/identity/”brand”/purpose.
 So… what do you think?

31. Discussion