For many years, college teachers have basically taught the way they had been taught themselves. Change in teaching has been incremental at best. Now teachers are being called upon to use new technologies in unprecedented ways. Relatively few instructors at the college level have taken courses in pedagogy, and most of them have taught themselves how to use technology. The success of these efforts will require that all of us share what we are learning, and also that we all become more aware that the students are not merely the recipients of the new methods, but also important evaluators of how successful the methods may be.
Technology offers no universal solution every teacher can adopt.
Just as students have different learning styles, instructors have different teaching styles. Each of us must find the technology that best supports the way that we teach. In some cases, the best solution may still be blackboard and chalk. Many teachers will find, however, that new technologies, including the combination of multimedia and cooperative learning, open new possibilities for the educational process. We must all recognize that these new tools require us to rethink our approach to the educational process.