“Those who can not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
George Santayana
Robert Reiser (2001b) makes a similar claim to the above quote in the realm of education,
In the field of instructional design and technology, those whose work
is influenced by the lessons learned from the history of media and
the history of instructional design will be well positioned to have a
positive influence on future developments within the field. (p. 64)
After reading Reisers (2001) two articles and Martin Weller’s (2018) history of the past 20 years of Educational Technology, I resonated with what a responsibility we have as educators to understand from where our profession originates. In this day and age technology is advancing at a rapid rate and this is very evident in the field of education. We have come a long way from the days of single room schools with blackboards and slates at every desk. Even so, I have to wonder if it has changed all that much? Perhaps we have replaced the chalkboard with a whiteboard and a slate with a smartphone, but I wonder if we are swapping out a different form of the same tool? Reisler (2001b, p. 64) makes the argument that if we are to use technology in education, we are to find where it will be useful and use the attributes that it may provide that face to face instruction may not.
As I read through these three papers, I was naturally drawn to some of the lessons from the past while finding myself not necessarily connecting with others. A lesson I connected with was where Moore (1989) describes three types of interactions between all the parties involved in an educational activity (As cited by Reiser, 2001a, pg. 61):
1- Between the learners and the content
2- Between the learners and the instructor
3- Between the learners themselves
It made me consider my teaching style. While I teach, I make sure that I keep my lectures to no more than 15 minutes. I make a concerted effort to get to know my students, I ask questions, I tell stories, I listen to theirs. I am mainly covering the first two points addressed by Moore. An area that needs work is facilitating an environment where the students can interact amongst themselves. A time that they can mix with the topics and each other. In the few instances where I allow these moments to happen the class comes alive. I began to think about how I could cultivate this using technology as well.
The past couple of weeks I have set up a WhatsApp group for my class and asked that they join as I would use that as my primary method of communicating with the course. I also told them that any questions that they may have after class hours could be posted in the group and I would address them later in the evening. What has been happening has been very encouraging. Everyone in the class joined the group and not only that they are asking questions. The most exciting part is that they are helping each other out before I ever get a chance to jump in. While messaging in school may get a bad rap I am seeing that used correctly it can be a powerful tool for engagement.
An area I didn’t connect with was brought up by Weller (2018), the learning management system (LMS). The institute I teach at adopted an LMS a few years ago. It has its issues and its benefits, and for the most part, I would count myself a fan. I, however, am among the few. There was relatively little education provided to us on how to use this new tool. Those of us that enjoy technology took it as an opportunity to learn a new system, those that do not embrace such things refuse to use it. I understand their issues as the LMS’s that I have worked with are not that intuitive or user-friendly and ours is no exception. This seems to be a common issue in the educational industry. I was listening to a podcast today from the training, learning, and development community (click here for a link to the show) that was discussing the future of ed-tech, and the issue of the LMS was brought up. It was mentioned that there are LMS’s being designed (and some redesigned) to resemble a user interface similar to Linked-in or other social media sites. This would no doubt allow those who may be confused by the interface to take a second look at adopting the platform, yet I wonder if there would still be those that resist?
While I sometimes wish that my colleagues would embrace my passion for educational tech, I respect why they may be wary of it. As Weller pointed out in his article, there have been many instances where technology has come and gone. Not everything sticks, but it is all a movement in the right direction.
References
Reiser, R. A. (2001a). A history of instructional design and technology: Part I: A history of instructional media. Educational Technology Research and Development, 49(1), 53–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02504506
Reiser, R. A. (2001b). A history of instructional design and technology: Part II: A history of instructional design. Educational Technology Research and Development, 49(2), 57–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02504928
Weller, M. (2018). Twenty Years of Edtech. Educause Review, 53(4). Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/7/twenty-years-of-edtech
September 14, 2018 at 3:59 pm
Hi Chad,
Great post! Thank you for sharing your experience with incorporating WhatsApp as a tool to engage the students. I know that a lot of educators have a challenge with technology and do not easily embrace it. I found an article that may be of interest, “Teacher Pedagogical Beliefs: The Final Frontier in Our Quest for Technology Integration?” by Peggy Ertmer. Ertmer (2005) recommends the following considerations when trying to incorporate technology:
• Ongoing public conversations explaining teachers’, administrators’, parents’ pedagogical beliefs, and including how technology can support these beliefs.
• Small communities of practice where teachers collaborate and explore new teaching methods, tools, and beliefs, and support each other.
• Opportunities to observe classroom practices, including technology uses, that are supported by different pedagogical beliefs.
• Gradually introduce technology tools that support teachers’ current practices and expand to those that support higher level goals.
• Ongoing support as teachers develop confidence and competence with the technological tools and new instructional strategies.
Now, we just need to ensure that there is time and money to achieve.
Cheers!
Reference:
Ertmer, P. (2005). Teacher pedagogical beliefs: The final frontier in our quest for technology integration? Educational Technology Research and Development, 53(4), 25-39. doi:10.1007/BF02504683
September 15, 2018 at 7:13 pm
Great post Chad!
I thought your comments about LMS were really interesting. My institution has had a LMS for almost 20 years and it is the backbone of our educational technology structure. That being said, I wonder, if we had implemented a LMS later, if we would still see the same value. When we first introduced a LMS, creating a personal website was beyond the skill level of most, and there weren’t a lot of interactive tools available outside of an LMS. Now there are so many ways to create similar structures and similar learning opportunities.
September 16, 2018 at 12:40 pm
Hi Jessica
I like the idea of having an area to curate all the information for the students and the LMS we use is all in all a great tool. There is a bit of a learning curve to it but once you get the hang of it, its not too bad. My number one issue with it is once the students are done with the course they lose access to all the information. I am trying to figure out a way to be able to allow them to have access to all the resources after they have finished the course or graduated from the program.
September 15, 2018 at 8:35 pm
Hi Chad, you really got me thinking when you shared your recent experience of setting up a What’sApp message group for your students. I think I may have to steal that idea from you. I find Moodle always a bit clunky for giving students timely feedback. It also reminded me about something I read in Weller’s article “ More problematic, the LMS has become the only route for delivering e-learning in many institutions, with the consequent loss of expertise and innovation.” I think I agree with him, as I experience this complacency about innovation at my institution. Why would you need WhatsApp if you have Moodle with its forums and messages and Quickmail? Thank you for reminding us to keep pushing outside the given parameters when it makes pedagogical sense. On a side note, have you ever tried VoiceThread to get your online students interacting online? I use it all the time and I enjoy seeing the interaction among students right in my lecture.
September 16, 2018 at 12:33 pm
Hi Anita. Go ahead and steal away! I am also using slack groups in a night class I teach. I find there is a bit more of a learning curve but all in all they seem to use it well. I agree with the constrictions of the LMS. Another issue that I have with the LMS is that when the course is done, the students lose access to all the information. I am trying to figure out a system that I can use that will be easy to share information on after the course is complete. The big issue is we are mandated to use our LMS so I don’t want to have to post all that information twice.
September 16, 2018 at 1:53 pm
Chad, I enjoyed your perspective on using your institution’s Learning Management System (LMS). My post (Carson, 2018) discussed this topic from a support representative of using an LMS. At my institution, I find that it often comes down to a workload issue for our full-time and part-time faculty. Our department has support staff available to provide training to our faculty on using the LMS; however, we are often providing into-level training and not discussing innovative approaches that can be used. I believe this could be because by part-time faculty have other full-time jobs and full-time faculty have several competing priorities. Our training sessions for advanced tools are often only attended by one-to-two people and available documentation for the tools is not downloaded a significant amount of times. From a faculty members perspective, can you think of additional approaches that could be used to provide more in-depth training?
References
Carson, B. (2018) Reviewing and reflecting on the field of Instructional Design and Technology. Retrieved from https://malat-webspace.royalroads.ca/rru0065/reviewing-and-reflecting-on-the-field-of-instructional-design-and-technology/.
September 16, 2018 at 4:02 pm
Hey Brandon
From my own perspective (and a lot of talk with co workers) short instructional videos would be a great first start. Having instructional walkthroughs of how to navigate through each part of the LMS as well as how to use the tools available within it would be extremely useful, especially to those who are not so tech saavy. Have you given it any thought as well?
September 16, 2018 at 5:33 pm
Hi Chad, I am curious about your choice to use WhatsApp as a method of communication with your students. I usually use Basecamp because of the privacy concerns of WhatsApp using phone numbers for communication. I have used Basecamp in the past, as students do not need to give their personal information to anyone. I am wondering if any of your students (or yourself) expressed concern about sharing their phone number with the class? – Tanya
September 17, 2018 at 2:26 pm
I am so glad you brought this up, as for institutions there are many rules, how we can use students’ info. We are not even allowed to use their preferred email address, only there school email address. I am using Slack for class communication, but I would never consider pressuring any of my students to sign up for social media networks or apps… (WhatsApp is owned by Facebook).
September 16, 2018 at 7:51 pm
Great post, Chad! I liked A lesson I liked Moore’s (1989) three types of interactions between all the parties involved in an educational activity. It complements well Gagne’s nine levels of instruction (http://check-n-click.com/pin-up-resource-gagnes-nine-events/). In this theory, Gagne identified the mental conditions for learning which are based on the information processing model of the mental events that occur when adults are presented with various stimuli. Therefore, they correlate to and address the conditions of learning.
September 16, 2018 at 7:53 pm
Great post, Chad! I liked Moore’s (1989) three types of interactions between all the parties involved in an educational activity. It complements well Gagne’s nine levels of instruction (http://check-n-click.com/pin-up-resource-gagnes-nine-events/). In this theory, Gagne identified the mental conditions for learning which are based on the information processing model of the mental events that occur when adults are presented with various stimuli. Therefore, they correlate to and address the conditions of learning.