new approaches to learning technology

8/18/2019 New Approaches to Learning Technology

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

New Approaches to

Learning Technology A presentation for the

11th Annual Massachusetts Community College Conference onTeaching, Learning and Student Development

April 11, 2008

North Shore Community College

Dori Digenti

Director, Center for Teaching and LearningBerkshire Community College

ddigenti.wordpress.com


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Quick Facts – Berkshire CCFall 2007 FTE: 1343

F/T Faculty: 55 P/T Faculty: 140

New Center for Teaching andLearning

Two Title III grants: distance & onlineservices (coop GCC, 2003);developmental ed & prof dev (2006)

Main, South County, Downtown(2008) campuses


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Why Technology?Students want tech, according to ECAR*Study of (27,000 students/103

colleges/6% CC)Over 80% of students want moderate toextensive use of technology in classes

Students cite advantages:prompt feedback

better research

collaboration with classmates

control of course activities

improves learning

more engaged

*Educause Center of Applied Research


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Why Technology? Accommodates learning styles (if

used properly), UDL principlesSupports distance learners = greateraccess for working students, parents,

placebound studentsPossibility of more time on task;review

Prepares students for the workingworld


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Premise: Learning new technology

is a change process

Kurt Lewin

parent of group process & change

Unfreeze, change, refreezeMargaret Wheatley, Peter Senge, others

Living systems, systems dynamics,learning organizations

Feedback loops, adaptation, self-organizing

David Cooperrider

Appreciative Inquiry

strengths-based, root cause of success,

replicationEdgar Schein

Organizational culture

Artifacts, espoused values, coreassumptions

Learning Anxiety


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With Change comes…???

Resistance

DelayPLEs = perfectly logical excuses

Refusal

Say yes, mean no

Learn/use the absolute minimum

Go through the motions = “skimming”

Stay under the radar

Hunker down until the threat passes…


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Schein’s Learning AnxietyComes from having to unlearn; change a

habitFear of looking stupid, not fitting in with

group (either too behind OR too ahead)

Can result in loss of individual identitySurvival anxiety comes in to play

To deal with learning anxiety, some org’s

decide to raise survival anxiety levels(“new process starting Monday”)


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Schein’s Learning Anxiety

However, Schein advises it’s more

effective to lower the learning anxietythan to raise the survival anxiety

How?Helping people see the advantage of thenew learning, AND

Create a safe environment in whichlearning can take place


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Learning Anxiety as “Technostress”“A modern disease of adaptation caused by aninability to cope with the new computer

technologies in a healthy manner” (Brod,1984)Causes of technostressFear of breaking something

Rapid outdating of skills (Vista, Office 2007)

Incomprehensible error messages

Relying on technology that may not work

Loss of data

System inaccessible when needed

Bug-ridden upgrades

Time sinkOverwhelmed by number of new technologies


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A Sensitive Topic…

Minnesota college consortium study of 261

faculty members (2002) showed that:“Faculty age is significantly related to certainattitudes about and perceptions of educational

technology. Faculty members younger than 40appear to be more strongly attracted to the use

of educational technology, and faculty

members older than 40 appear to be more

concerned about the use of educationaltechnology and that its use be pedagogically

constructive”


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Learning Strategies

AT BCC, individualizing is key:

Layered learning: overview,example, appliedCybercafe, overview sessions

Teacher demonstrationsHands-on with course materials

Open labs, faculty mentors

“ Superstations” with manualsOnline tutorials


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First Things First…Do They

Understand Technology?


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Basic File Management SessionBasic Principle of File Management #1:

File management on a computer is akin tomanaging the papers in your office:


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Basic File Management SessionBasic Principle of File Management #2:

We mostly work with files. Files are what we save on our computers, whether they arePowerpoint, Word, Excel, or other. We create files or documents in applications, like

Word, etc. We organize files in folders, and folders are then saved on drives, for

example, your C: drive or hard drive, also known as storage devices. When we double-click a drive, we see a list of files and folders called a directory. Our list of drives, folders,and files is called the taxonomy. We are viewing our files and folders by using WindowsExplorer, which is for accessing your computer’s information. Internet Explorer is used

for accessing information on the web (you’d think they could have made this lessconfusing …).


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Basic File ManagementII. Views

Windows allows several views of your folders and files

Thumbnails: Big icons with bordersTiles: Large icons in list

Icons: Smaller icons in rowsList: List with very small iconsDetails: Folder/file name, size, type, date (very useful for searching, see Searching,below)


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BCC’s CyberCafe

Trade show atmosphereSafe to browse and ask questions

One-on-one consultations

Informal conversations

Faculty take “ hands-on” approach


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Faculty Peer DemonstrationsFaculty demonstrate how they have

used technology in their courses

Collegial, confidence-building

Opportunity to learn across disciplines

Classroom relevance

Repetition is good


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Hands-on with Course Materials

Next step is semi-tutorial = small class size

Work with learner’s own course materials

Customized to level of group

Challenge is cross-disciplinary language

Dept by dept is another strategy

Moves away from “skimming” approach


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Open Lab & Faculty MentorsTruly individualized instruction oncefoundation knowledge is established,

or for advanced usersKeep open lab going; takes a whilefor people to feel comfortable

Faculty mentors can be available inlab, or meet in offices

The most tech-savvy instructors may notbe the best mentors

“comrades-in-arms” approach

Relaxed, “user is in control”atmosphere is essential


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Self-Directed LearnersSet up faculty “superstations” with

basic and advanced softwarePlan for video, audio, scanning,

Acrobat, video editing, etc. support

Reference library of manuals for self-instruction/reference

Links for online tutorials


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Examples of Short Tutorials

Online tutorials

Smart Technologies two-minutetutorials

http://smarttech.com/trainingcenter/tutor

ials.asp#

Common Craft on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-

dnL00TdmLY


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So, Is It Working?Yes

Exponential increase in use of CMS (Sp 2004: 9 facultyto Fall 2006: 53 faculty)

Greater use of ppt, Web, smart classrooms (doc camera,Smartboards)Fall 2005: most commonly used applications were Email,Internet, WebCT, MS Word, and PowerPoint

Spring 2008: Flash drives, PowerPoint, Internet, Pdf

Regular workshop offerings with steady attendanceNoNon-adopters have not adopted!

“Skimming” still an accepted mode

Ways to turn no’s to yes’sMini-grants for adoption

Coming at technology from UDL, Learning Styles, Millenialapproaches

“Getting Results” new faculty training program


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ResourcesECAR report

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERS0706/ekf0706.pdf

Multi-College Faculty Survey: Experiences with EducationalTechnology at the University of Minnesota, April 2003http://dmc.umn.edu/surveys/faculty/faculty-survey-2002.pdf

Coutu, D. L.,The Anxiety of Learning (Interview of EdSchein). Harvard Business Review, March 2002

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?articleID=R0203H&ml_action=get-article&print=true

Hudiburg, Richard A., “Assessing and ManagingTechnostress,” 115th Annual Meeting of the AmericanLibrary Association, July 8, 1996, New York.

http://www2.una.edu/psychology/alatalk.htm

Brod, Craig. Technostress: the Human Cost of the ComputerRevolution, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1984.

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