Consequently, many benefits of the technology on actual teaching and learning processes have been incidental. Emphasis has often been on the technology itself rather than on the teaching and learning activities. The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Roundtable initiative was designed to reverse this approach. Roundtables do not ask what kinds of technology are available and then find teaching and learning tasks for those things to perform. Rather, they ask what the faculty wants to accomplish or the students need to learn and then try to seek technology to help fulfill those goals.
Roundtables also try to help facilitate changes in instruction that use technology.
There is now no university-wide organizational mechanism for planning, coordinating, and evaluating technology as it applies to teaching and learning. The American Association for Higher Education's Teaching, Learning, and Technology initiative advocates involving a broad spectrum of campus resources for achieving these goals. Initially, the steering committee will include a chair and assistant chair, both of whom will be faculty members. The chairperson will be responsible for convening the steering committee, delegating responsibility to others to organize and hold particular activities, generally overseeing the activities of the roundtable, and acting as a liaison between the roundtable and the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs. The assistant chair will be a faculty member with experience in and awareness of a variety of technologies and how they may be used to enhance teaching and learning.