Until recently, the use of technology to enhance teaching came from the innovation of a few professors who believed in and realized the potential of technology in the classroom. These early adopters paved the way for the introduction of technology into the classroom by developing innovative software for classroom use while also recogruzing the possibilities technology presented for enhancing higher education in general. Although the individual efforts of a few professors were important in b r i n p g technology to the classroom, the next step is to move these innovations to the institutional level in an organizational context.
A recent study conducted by Green shows that faculty use of technology is on the rise. His 1995 campus computing survey (1996a) revealed that 24 percent of classes were being held in computer-equipped classroom (up from 15.8 percent a year earlier). The survey also found that 20 percent of faculty were using electronic mail (up from 8 percent) in their courses. These data, according to Green, indicate that the use of technology in the classroom has shifted from "computer enthusiasts to professors in the mainstream who are interested in enhancing the quality of their teaching" (DeLoughry, 1996,
As encouraging as these figurts are, the increased use of technology by faculty members has occurred as a result of pressure from external forces such as students, as well as the public and private sectors of society rather than from a large-scale institutional commitment to aid faculty in using technology to enhance teactung. Electronic mail, multimedia, CD-ROMs, and the World Wide Web are common terms used by even the most technologically unsophisticated p. N O ) .