UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I LIBRARY FACULTY MENTORING PROGRAM TO INCORPORATE NEW TECHNOLOGY INTO COLLEGE COURSES: STATEWIDE FINDINGS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DMSION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAW AI'I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUllffiMENTSFORTHEDEGREEOF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EDUCATION August 2008 By Rachel A. Boulay Dissertation Committee: Catherine Fulford, Chairperson Rhonda Black Robert Gibson CurtisHo Shuqiang Zhang ii We certify that we have read this dissertation and that, in our opinion, it is satisfactory in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education. DISSERTATION COMMITTEE iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the multiple institutions that participated in this study. Without the cooperation, hard work, and sharing attitudes of their faculty, this work would not have been possible. Further, a special Kiwi spent countless hours of effort on this project, and major thanks are long overdue. I would also like to honor my "mentors" whose sage advise guided me through this project and greatly enhanced my overall career development. I want my family to know how much I am blessed by their unwavering love and support. Their adoration of me and my efforts inspired me many a time. I also want to offer a special thanks to my colleague and dissertation partner, whose weekly support at the end propelled me to the finish line. 1'm looking forward to our exciting careers as they unfold before us. Saving the best for last, an important acknowledgement goes to my husband, who deserves an honorary PbD in patience, caring, and understanding for his unwavering support throughout the entire process. iv ABSTRACf This qualitative study explored 78 faculty who participated in a statewide initiative to incorporate technology into college courses. Participants taught at seven different institutions of higher education in the state of Hawaii. Participants were paired with a mentor who worked with them for one or two semesters to learn new technologies and integrate those technologies into their curricula. This study triangulated data from multiple methods and sources: 1) course products and instructional materials, 2) written narratives describing faculty's familiarity and use of technology in courses, and 3) site visits to institutions and discussions with participants. Further, the course products served as a measure of the participants' use of technology and were used to determine their level of technology use, based on the Concerns Based Adoption Model continuum (Hall & Hord, 1987). Fmdings suggest that a strong technology mentoring program (Chuang, Thompson, & Schmidt, 2(03) promoted substantial progress among study participants to model technology for students. Additionally, a strong proportion of faculty quickly incorporated technologies into courses and promoted student use of technology, in a short period of time, with the support of a technology mentor. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..••....•.............................................................. _........................................ IV LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... vm LIST OF FIGURES ................•. _................................................. _........................•..... X CIlAPI'ER I: INTRODUCTION ....•............................................... _ ..................•......• 1 PROBLEM ..................................................................................................................... 1 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM .................................................................................... 2 REsEARCII QuESTIONS ................................................................................................. 3 DEFiNITION OF TERMS .................................................................................................. 4 ORGANIZATION OF DISSERTATION ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 9 CIlAPI'ER ll: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................. 11 INCREMENTAL STAGES IDENTIFIED IN MODELS FOR INNOVATION AooPTION ••••••••••••••• 11 MENTORING: A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGy ........................................... 22 MENTORING IN HAwAll: TEcHNOLOGY MENTORING PROGRAM OVERVIEW ••••••••••••••••••• 38 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................. 46 CHAFI'ER m: METHOD ................. _..................................................................... 47 PARTICIPANTS ........................................................................................................... .47 PROCEDURES ............................................................................................................ .49 CONTEXTS FOR MENTORING & CAMPUS DESCRIPTIONS ................................................ 51 LEARNING COMMUNITY OF TECHNOLOGY MENTORS .................................................... 68 vi DATA COLLECTION .................................................................................................... 70 DATA ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................ 74 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................. 82 CllAP'fER IV: RESUL TS ........................................................................................... 83 QUESTION 1 RESULTS ................................................................................................. 83 QUESTIoN 2 RESULTS ................................................................................................. 89 QUESTION 3 RESULTS ................................................................................................. 99 QUESTION 4 RESULTS ............................................................................................... 107 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................... 111 CIIAPfER V: DISCUSSION ...................... _ ........................................................... 113 DISCUSSION QUESTION 1 RESULTS - INiTIAL TEcHNOLOGY LEVEL ............................. 113 DISCUSSION QUESTION 2 RESULTS - GENERAL GROWTH ........................................... 117 DISCUSSION QUESTION 3 RESULTS - STUDENTS USE OF TEcHNOLOGy ...................... 123 DISCUSSION QUESTION 4 RESULTS - TEcHNOLOGY STANDARDS ............................... 127 0TIiER REsEARCH FINDINGS .................................................................................... 132 IMPUCATIONS FOR PROGRAMMATIC IMPLEMENTATION .............................................. 137 RECOMMENDED TIPS FOR NEW PROGRAMS ................................................................ 142 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ..................................................................................... 146 FuRTIIER METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ......................................................... 148 FuTuRE DIRECTIONS FOR RESEARCH ......................................................................... 150 SUMMARy ............................................................................................................... 153 vii CHAFfER. VI: CONCLUSION .............................................................................. 155 SUMMARY OF FiNDINGS ........................................................................................... 157 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................... 158 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 160 APPENDIX A............................................................................................................ 172 APPENDIX B .................................................•......................•...••.•............................ 176 APPENDIX C ............................................................................................................ 184 APPENDIX D ............................................................................................................ 1811 APPENDIX. E ............................................................................................................ 194 viii LIST OF TABLES 1. Models of Change .......•.•......................•..........•..•...................... .•...•..• 13 2. Faculty mentored by subject taught .......................••.••.•.......................... 47 3. Technology faculty elected to learn .....•.•....•.•......................................... 49 4. Mentoring details for participants from CC 1 ..........................•.•..•.•..•.•....•. 53 5. Mentoring details for participants from CC2 ......•..•.•......................•.......... 55 6. Mentoring details for participants from CC3 ........................•.....•.............. 57 7. Mentoring details for participants from CC4 •.•.•...•.................................... 59 8. Mentoring details for participants from CC5 ............................................. 61 9. Mentoring details for participants from CC6 ............................................. 64 to. Mentoring details for participants from CC7 ............................................. 67 11. Number of technology projects prior to mentoring by rated level of technology use and campus ..............................................................................