2.            Determining Forces

California Community Colleges will continue to face limited funding in conjunction with increasing pressure to expand educational services.  Technology promises to help optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of instruction and student services.  However, effective use of technology will require proper planning and creative rethinking of some aspects of higher education.

Technology-based teaching, training, and other services offer colleges the opportunity to respond to diverse student needs by creatively rethinking traditional delivery systems.  Instructors who choose to do so will be able to teach in new ways, creating interactive, individualized learning experiences for their students.  Ultimately, all educational services will be unconstrained by time and place.

In an increasingly more complex world, the availability of accurate and timely information is crucial to sound decision-making.  Organizations outside the academic environment are already providing direct electronic access to information, functions, and services.  Students will expect colleges to provide easy access to information resources such as e-mail, the Internet, and library resources, as well as electronic linkages to faculty and staff.  Students will require such resources to make informed decisions as they pursue their educational and career goals.

Information and technology already permeate American society, and have become major sources of global economic and social power.  Technological literacy has become as essential as reading and mathematics to constructive citizenship in the 21st Century.  Colleges must do their part to ensure that their students function well in that environment.

Students are arriving at colleges with greater technological sophistication, often exceeding that of their teachers.  Whatever their level of mastery, students will benefit from examples of college personnel who use technology wisely.  Therefore, colleges must strive to increase the technological literacy of their faculty on a continuing basis.  In addition, effective utilization of technology on campuses requires constantly upgrading the knowledge and skills of faculty, staff and administration.

Community colleges have thrived in part because of their personal attention and relative convenience to their customers–the students.  However, privately financed companies are beginning to take advantage of new technologies to customize their offerings and make them even more convenient by eliminating time and location restrictions in their delivery (e.g. via the Internet).  If community colleges are to remain competitive, they must use instructional technologies proactively.