William Wendt is an 84-year-old professor who defies the stereotypes that older faculty members resist technology in the classroom. He prefers texting on his iPhone 6 to sending email, and he teaches almost exclusively online or hybrid courses.
Mr. Wendt is an adjunct instructor of economics at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, where he has taught for the last 10 years.
He says he became fascinated with technology early in his career. His first job out of college, after graduating from the University of Miami with a degree in business administration, was at the Southern Railway, where he was hired as a programmer for one of the first IBM computers sold to industry. He later returned to academe to earn a master’s degree in economics, and got his first teaching gig as a full-time economics professor at American University in the 1960s.
Mr. Wendt spent a large part of his career in business and real estate before returning to teaching, in 2001. He eventually landed at Pembroke. Along his winding path, he has always had one consistency: a passion for technology.
The Chronicle recently caught up with him to ask about how he has seen classroom technology evolve over the years and how he sees the future of higher ed. The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Q. What did using technology in the classroom look like when you started out as a full-time professor, back in the ’60s and ’70s?
A. Archaic. In 1955, my first job was with Southern Railway. They ordered the second mainframe computer sold by IBM to industry. They were very forward and very with it. I became a programmer, and there were no higher languages then, just machine language. I was intrigued by computers, but I didn’t want to be a programmer all my life.
As far as teaching, the universities didn’t really start to get into it until the mid-’70s or late ’70s. The thing that sparked that was a learning-management system. Originally, Blackboard was not hard to learn, and even if I taught a class in the classroom, I still had all the assignments on Blackboard. I required students to take their tests on Blackboard.
Q. Tell me about how you use technology in your teaching.
A. Of course I use PowerPoint slides or I use video. When I create a course, I create it in the LMS. You can embed video there. This is a digital world, so everything is on Blackboard or Moodle. Students have video to watch; they have the textbook to read; they have PowerPoint slides and recently, in an online course, I did voice-overs to the PowerPoint slides.
Q. You started teaching online courses in 2003. Was it difficult to transition to that type of teaching?
A. For me, it was no transition. It was not difficult. You have to go with the modern world, and things change. I tell my students: This is the digital world that you’re living in, and you’re used to it, so get used to digital books and digital courses. I took a course that was offered on Coursera. It was, I think, “World History,” one of the basic courses. I completed it, and I got a grade. It was 65, but that was passing, and that was good enough.
My opinion is that I think online courses are going to become more and more of a thing because these kids are working one or two jobs, going to school, and they don’t have time to take advantage of the college for four years. If their parents have the money and they can do it, it’s a terrific experience. Many of them do not have that opportunity.
Q. What advice do you have for older professors to adapt new technology in their classrooms?
A. It’s hard if they have not been exposed at all to computers, and if they don’t believe in it. I can tell you, down at UNC-Pembroke, we won’t mention names, but there are many professors who are 40 years old who want to teach the old way. They want to lecture, which today’s students can’t stand.
The world of education has to change, in my opinion. You can understand why because their jobs are at stake. But if they don’t get with the program, then they’re going to be retired early, and their jobs are going to be at stake anyway. UNC-Pembroke offered some short classes on technology in the classroom at the beginning of a semester. I attended some of those, and I learned some tricks. I think that’s the way it has to be done.
Q. Is it difficult at times to keep up with how technology is evolving?
A. No, but I was known for the use of technology in my teaching. I was not a full-time professor. I was just an adjunct, but at times, I taught four courses in a semester. Online is a lot of work. It’s not hard to learn it, but you have to be machine-oriented or computer-oriented. I have had that since 1955 — all my life.
Q. Do you use social media in the classroom?
A. I haven’t done that, primarily because I felt that my students were not up to that. I have a Twitter account. I have a Facebook account. I don’t use it very often, but I do have it. I want to incorporate more of that as the students are ready for it.
Q. How do you foresee technology shaping higher education in the future?
A. Costs are going to drive it. If I had my life to do over, I would become a president of a university and really restructure it, in terms of shifting to online or a hybrid. You would have a very small contingent of traditional students because it’s a part of the university system. But I think online is going to become more dominant in 10 or 15 years.
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