Special Issue
New Technological Advances
Applied to Management Education
Although new technologies have always been part of management education,
recent times have witnessed a rapid acceleration in both the
emergence of new technologies and the experimentation and use of them in
the management classroom. For example, faster processors, higher bandwidth
speeds, quicker downloads, improved graphics and cheaper screens
make computers a platform able to handle streaming video and audio in real
time, and Web sites like iTunes U, YouTube, and Academic Earth have
become shared global repositories of video-based teaching materials.
Virtual worlds like Second Life are challenging our notion of a teaching
environment. Wiki, blog and web-conferencing applications, and social
networking sites like Twitter, Linked In, and Facebook can be used to
encourage group-based learning. New media players (e.g., MP3 players,
Kindles, and various other e-book formats) are changing the platforms
through which we deliver materials. Mobile technologies (PDAs, mobile
phones, etc.) may provide alternative distribution models for distance learning.
In the physical classroom, clickers allow instant feedback from students.
And these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to recent
technological advancements.
In this special issue of the Journal of Management Education, we want
to explore how new technologies might be, and are being, applied in management
education. We invite conceptual, empirical, and practice-based
articles that explore how and why these new technologies can change the
way we teach-and how students learn-as well as explain why they might
be worth considering, or not. We welcome submissions that critically assess
the impact of these technological advances in management education and
submissions that evaluate the effectiveness of particular innovations.
Given the possible breadth, we want to limit submissions to those that
consider the application of new technologies to management education settings
and the development of undergraduate, graduate (including doctoral),
and executive students. Possible research questions to be addressed include,
but are not limited to, the following:
• What is the role of today's emerging technologies in management
education? How should educators conceptualize this role? As a tool,
course platform, teaching substitute, learning environment, assessment
device, or something else?
• When should new technologies be introduced into the management
classroom? When should they not?
• For a given new technology or tool (e.g., wikis, blogs, Twitter, Second
Life, clickers, etc), describe an innovative use in the management
education classroom. How has it changed how you teach, or how students
learn? What do students think about the innovation? How do you
know it has made an improvement? What advice would you give other
educators considering this technology?
• What criteria should management educators use to assess whether a
new technological advance improves teaching and learning?
• Are there learning curves in using and optimizing the use of a new
technological advance? To what extent does the introduction of new
technologies require the diversion of teaching time to instructing students
how to use them? What is the cost/benefit analysis?
• How are technological advances changing our notions of time and
space in regards to the management education classroom? What
opportunities and challenges does this change represent?
• Do certain technologies appeal more to specific categories of students,
or particular course objectives? Are they more effective with specific
categories of students, or particular course objectives?
• Laptops, cell phones, and other emerging technologies have also created
challenges and distractions in the management classroom.
Describe innovative approaches to mitigate the negative impact of new
technologies on learning. What specifically did you do, and how did
you measure improvement? What advice would you give other educators
considering a similar approach?
• Does the adoption of new technologies produce inequalities and disadvantages
in the management classroom, e.g., in terms of quality and
access to equipment? How can these challenges be overcome?
• How is the role of the management educator evolving as today's
emerging technologies (especially social-network and student-tostudent–
based technologies) are integrated into the classroom?
• Where are these new technologies taking us as management educators?
How will these new technologies alter the appearance and form
of the 2020 management classroom? How will we teach differently,
and how will students learn differently?
The deadline for submissions of papers is January 29, 2011. Information
on manuscript formatting and submission can be found at http://www.sagepub.
com/journalsProdManSub.nav?prodId=Journal200931.
Submissions should be original, not published in any other source, and no
more than 25 pages long, including references, figures, and appendices. Please
use American Psychological Association (APA) format. Submit electronic
submissions, Word or RTF files only, to http://services.bepress.com/cgi/
submit.cgi?context=jme. Under submission type, select Special Issue:
Technology. Prospective authors as well as potential reviewers are encouraged
to contact either of the two guest editors.
Jon Billsberry
Coventry University
j.billsberry@coventry.ac.uk
Keith Rollag
Babson College
krollag@babson.edu