I speak a lot on faculty and I.T.’s relationship with faculty. I do believe it is just that important. I have found 10 faculty members support is like 100 staff supporters. In this higher ed world of technology, change and continuous innovation/improvement, you need rally-rags waving.

Wanting to jump start faculty engagement but unsure how?

1. Identify your truly plugged-in and engaged faculty members – no more than 1-3.
I’ve often found them in ‘the sciences’ like math, computer, etc. but never underestimate the English department.

2. Find their non-techie creature comforts.
Like that faculty member that has taught for the past 10+ years solely in computer lab classrooms.

3.  Try to align a current goal or innovation that is the polar opposite of the faculty member’s creature comfort.
Example from scenario above might be the BYOD movement. After all, a computer-laden classroom can be quite the crutch.

4. Develop a collaborative project plan or pilot project with that faculty member.
Pilot project for fall. See if the faculty member will, as a trial, hold one or all of their classes in a non- computer lab classroom and require that they bring their own laptop/tablet. Have a couple laptops on hand for those that don’t have access to a device.

5. Share the results at the end of the pilot together. 
White paper it, submit it together for an upcoming conference or technology publication. Make sure your campus knows you are collaborating with faculty to better serve your students.

Oops. You just collaborated with faculty. On a pretty grand scale. And you furthered technology on your campus.

Think about the example above. You could easily have a ‘part deux’ pilot next academic year with a VDI experiment. Simply try the pilot on beefier-software-mandated classes!

Love to hear your experience with quick and easy campus collaborations involving technology.