Aiya101

I was recently in a conversation about how best to ease techno-skeptic instructors into using technology for teaching and learning.

Thus far my strategy has been:

1. Explain why using technology for learning isn’t new
2. Tell them why they should care
3. Talk about pedagogical theories
4. Introduce some technologies
5. Demonstrate how people are using specific types of technologies for teaching
6. Show feedback and statistics about the usefulness of the technology in the classroom

Let me elaborate:

1. Explain why technology for teaching and learning isn’t new.
   Once upon a time when people still thought the world was flat, paper was quite the technology. Later, so were printing presses, whiteboards, email, etc. Using technology for teaching isn’t new, its just that now we’re using a different technology.
2. Tell them why they should care.
   People like to be entertained and we all know that lecturing, usually, isn’t that much of a thrill–especially when it competes with World of Warcraft, Adult Swim, and friends’ blogs. And when all the information you have coming is personalized, how does a one-size-fit-all lecture jive with a student’s lifestyle? It doesn’t. Millennials are different types of learners than the instructors were. They interact with information differently and use different conduits for socializing. Their attention spans are shorter, visual mediums are their primary contact with information, and they quickly pick up new ways to interact with each other.

   What I love about instructors is that they really DO want to reach their students. So helping them understand how their students are different from them can give them the tools they need to adjust their presentation to their audience.

3. Talk about pedagogical theories.
   Gosh, those instructors love research - and rightly so - many of them are researchers. The neat thing for instructional designers is that there are many researchers looking at how people learn and how society is impacting learning styles. Constructivism is the new black - and it really does work. So if you want your students constructing knowledge, why not let them use the tools they’re already using to construct their social and information experience on the Web and in media (as millennials tend to do naturally) in the classroom too?
4. Introduce some technologies.
   Being able to talk about technologies in the context of good pedagogy immediately take the focus away from the whiz-bang gadget-y complexity of technology and brings it back to the technology simply as a tool to help one accomplish something. This is where you get to show off how the new technologies can help improve the efficiency or efficacy of instruction (or, in the best possible cases, both efficiency and efficacy) with brief descriptions of what they do to let students interact with one another and the course content. I haven’t yet met an instructor who wasn’t intrigued by the concept of accomplishing the same (or better) learning results with less personal effort.
5. Demonstrate how people are using specific technologies for teaching.
   Me do! Me do! Two-year-olds aren’t shy about wanting to try out the things they see other people doing. As adults, we may be more articulate and reserved, but for many people, the tendency is still there. Showing a sleek combination of Web 2.0 technologies integrated into different types of courses at one’s own institution and other institutions can drum up interest in trying the tools out. And, if a little healthy competition enters the mix, all the better. What I’m interested in here is motivating people to try something new!
6. Show feedback and statistics about the usefulness of the technology in the classroom.
   The scientific method as a paradigm for research is still going strong. Until someone shows vetted proof of success in using technologies as a part of the instructional toolkit, many people won’t buy into the ideas. That’s why journals such as The American Journal of Distance Education and Innovate Journal of Online Education exist. They are one source for “proof” of technology improving learning outcomes and satisfaction. Another effective way to demonstrate usefulness is to have qualitative feedback from instructors and students who have experience instruction both with and without the learning technologies.

I think that for the most part this strategy is effective. I’ve found that instructors at universities really value research…and their own time (who doesn’t?). However, a colleague of mine made a good point the other day:

Focusing on the concept of “millennials” being different may put off some instructors.

Huh? Well, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that pointing out the differences between instructors and students isn’t the best way to persuade instructors to want to adapt to them. Mostly, that makes the students seem like foreigners. In reality there are still many similarities between millennials and instructors, even though the research primarily investigates the differences. People are social critters that want to interact with others who share similar interests; they naturally want to build knowledge about the things that interest them. Instructors and students alike seek to participate in communities of practice. They just might be participating in slightly different ways.

So now, while I still may talk about the characteristics of millennials that make them different types of learners than the instructors may be used to, I’ll also talk about how these learners are still seeking the same types of things in their interactions with the world. Hopefully I’ll get a few more of the skeptics to enthusiastically dip their toes into the digital waters.

Do you have a different strategy for persuading instructors to try out technology as a teaching tool? What do you think about classifying the students as something “different” from the instructors?