{"id":344,"date":"2018-12-20T11:55:55","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T19:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0053\/?p=344"},"modified":"2018-12-20T12:58:26","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T20:58:26","slug":"the-push-and-pull-in-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0053\/the-push-and-pull-in-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"The push and pull in teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am an instructor and I have been aware of a disconnect between my teaching approaches and the online learning management system (LMS) I am provided with by my organization. Until I read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aupress.ca\/index.php\/books\/120233\">Dron (2014)<\/a>, I did not realize the tension I experience has to do with \u201cdisruptive \u00a0technologies\u201d (p. 245), namely the linear and inflexible environment of the LMS and the soft technologies, such as social media communication tools and the teaching approach I use with my students.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aupress.ca\/index.php\/books\/120233\">Dron (2014)<\/a> identifies behaviorist and cognitivist approaches in the early years of distance education as the reasons for the creation of the inflexible and somewhat linear distance learning designs, hard technologies. The tension I have experienced when I endeavour to create a social learning environment, is a feeling of constriction and limitation. I like to approach teaching with the lens of Vygotsky\u2019s sociocultural theory of cognitive development and I believe an increase in students\u2019 ability to interact with each other, share their formally or informally acquired knowledge, when co-constructing new knowledge, is an important aspect of social learning <a href=\"https:\/\/link-springer-com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca\/content\/pdf\/10.1007%2F978-3-642-31991-4_2.pdf\">(Goldman, Carroll, Kabayadondo, Cavagnaro, Royalty, Roth, \u00a0Kwek &amp; Kim, 2012)<\/a>. I foster this human connection and support interactive engagement of my students which has me continuously seeking opportunities to include social media tools on top of my LMS. Dron defines this process of using \u201cteacher-invented technologies\u201d (p.245) with a hard technology, a disruptive technology. This disruption, between what I am trying to create and the limitations of the organizational technology and the institutional policies, often challenge my pedagogical beliefs and create a frustration Dron explains so well when he states \u201c [the] process of change and learning defines all of our educational systems, albeit sometimes it seems as if the change happens in almost geological timescales\u201d (p. 261).<\/p>\n<p>I find I need to be mindful when introducing changes into LMS, so I do not create too great of a rift between the institutional systems and my teaching. I am curious if any other instructors are working within this push and pull of disruptive technologies?<\/p>\n<p>References<\/p>\n<p>Dron, J. (2014). Innovation and Change: Changing how we Change. In Zawacki-Richter, O. &amp; T. Anderson (Eds.), Online distance education: Towards a research agenda. Athabasca, AB: AU Press.<\/p>\n<p>Goldman, S. et.al. (2012).\u00a0Assessing d.learning: Capturing the journey of becoming a design thinker. In H. Plattner, C. Meinel &amp; L. Leifer (eds).\u00a0<i>Design thinking research: Understanding innovation<\/i>. (pp. 13-33). Berlin: Springer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am an instructor and I have been aware of a disconnect between my teaching approaches and the online learning management system (LMS) I am provided with by my organization. Until I read Dron (2014), I did not realize the tension I experience has to do with \u201cdisruptive \u00a0technologies\u201d (p. 245), namely the linear and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt524"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0053\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0053\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0053\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0053\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0053\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0053\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0053\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0053\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0053\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0053\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}