Motivated to Learn

I am a geek and I have no fear when playing with new technology. Sometimes I get ahead of myself when trying to help others embrace a program or application because they do not feel like they can “be wrong” or that their actions might break the internet…seriously. I have led several workshops on a variety of topics and the common attitude is one of apprehension. Teachers are willing to learn novel ideas as long as the information is relevant to their goals both professionally and personally.

For instance, I had a group of about ten teachers and some office staff in training on Excel. The training was voluntary, but I still had participants that were not comfortable sending email attachments. I did not try to sustain their attention for more than three minutes at a time, because I knew that showing them the features were not as important as having them use the program and think of how to use it in the classroom. I gave them all some sample data to play with and acted more as a facilitator as I circulated the computer lab. Pretty soon, I could hear squeals of excitement (literally) from teachers as they discovered how Excel could make their work so much easier. Also, teaching technology conceptually helped them to understand which tool to select for which job, i.e. “Excel is not just for making class lists.”

Now, if I had sat them all in a conference room and read a presentation with screen shots, I do not think that I would have had the same outcome. Keller’s Model of Motivation is a good set of guidelines for helping learners adopt technology. I have used elements of the ARCS model without knowing that I was doing so! In reflection, it seems like common sense or good teaching practice that can sometimes be overlooked.
If you sustain the Attention of a learner by allowing them the opportunity to play with the tech more than you talk about it they will become more comfortable and less intimidated. Make the tech Relevant to their personal or professional goals by introducing tools that will make teaching easier. Explicitly demonstrate how the technology will help the learner achieve their goals.
Then, build the learner’s Confidence through small, achievable tasks, like adding color to a cell in Excel. Confidence can also be gained by having clear objectives about what the student should be able to do by the end of the training. Finally, in all of my training I have teachers do a follow up activity or visit their class to see how they are incorporating Excel into their class.
The Satisfaction component of Keller’s model seems elusive, but can be achieved through awarding points for professional development or as simple as a teacher saving time by using technology.

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Connectivism

To be honest, I had not really thought too deeply about how much technology, specifically the internet, has positively affected my life. I still have traditional networks for information, but computers have enabled me to learn about any topic that captures my attention. The way I used to learn before the internet was mainly through books and public television. Now, I use my critical thinking skills that I have developed throughout my life and various sources of credible information to construct knowledge. When I think about how my type of learning relates to connectivism I cannot help but draw a comparison to schema theory; in that I always accommodate new knowledge with something I have learned or makes sense to me. For instance, the other day I was reading about new research on the effects of observation and quantum behavior of particles and I had to use an analogy because the concept was new and complex. The conjecture was that a particle will behave differently if it is observed in the future—or the future influences the past. Aside from all of the jargon and mathematics, I read from a few more sources and likened this new information to having somebody from the future tell you that you are going to do something specific. Once you know your “destiny,” Your behavior changes. The very act of the new information (which rests on particles being able to travel in bidirectional timespace) changes one’s behavior: fascinating. Of course, this has only been observed on an atomic scale….but I digress.

The tool I most rely on is the internet, but I do not approach any information as fact unless it can be verified. I think this is an important consideration with connectivism, that teachers must monitor the sources of information to which their students have access until the students are able to discriminate between what is valid and what is purely conjecture. In addition to the internet, I tend to use books and journals for access to reliable information. No matter how geeky I get, it seems that the written word in a book or journal is nice to have as a reference just as much as having access to it on the net.

The Motivation to Collaborate

Do people want to interact as part of a group? On a fundamental level (at least in a historical sense) people have learned that cooperation is sometimes necessary in order to achieve certain goals. Once you define said goals I believe it is necessary to understand a person's motivations for helping a collective group; e.g. is there coercion? what is the value of the individual in the sociocultural view? does the individual have a choice?

Rheingold suggests that there are certain reasons why someone would help or share with others that generally involve some reward or benefit for the individual; I agree with this statement. Whether it be survival or the chance to accumulate more wealth, individuals will work together not through a biological drive, but as a measure to receive reward,achieve recognition, or to avoid punishment. I think that this is especially prevalent in the shrinking world that has been created by the internet--the individual is being lost in the collective that is the World Wide Web. I would argue that collaboration in the sense of Wikipedia is an attempt for some to share their knowledge, but for others it is an attempt to be heard or recognized. Collaboration does not always produce positive results and it is imperative that interactions within the educational setting are appropriately monitored to ensure that positive and productive progress is being made towards predefined goals.

Tools for collaboration can be used effectively to support Constructivist learning and situated cognition provided that the interactions between members are facilitated by a knowledgeable person to model behaviors for students. Wikispaces, Glogster, and Google Docs are widely available and free tools that encourage active learning through collaboration. Members of a class or team can use the medium to create and share knowledge to solve problems while also providing feedback to each other, which is especially useful for building a sense of community that is not limited by time or location. An important aspect of online collaboration is that all of the material is dynamic and users can share videos or digital recordings and see a record of their progress. The instructor in this environment challenges students by asking questions, encouraging peer interaction, and providing appropriate tools for students to incorporate into their projects. Tools are important, but no matter how intuitive the technology a model needs to be in place for students to observe and reflect upon to build meaningful connections to the information that has been presented.

Constructive Discourse and Learning Theories

Open and honest debate is essential to scholarly inquiry. Though at times I wonder how some theories have become so widespread, I realize that knowledge acquisition is viewed differently based on historical context and the value placed on the individual. While Kerr and Kapp’s views most closely match my own it does not make them any more or less correct than the views of Downes. Behaviorism is not dead; in fact many components are integrated into educational technology and serve as a valuable method of instruction for all levels of student ability. Cognitivism provides a different and divergent way of explaining how we learn, but does not completely account for more complex processes like language acquisition and biology. In isolation, theory no matter how comprehensive, only serves to exclude other empirically-based points of view and stalls open dialogue that is crucial for deepening our understanding.

Perspective is a funny thing. The value we place on the individual in a learning context influences how we view education. Behaviorism was an important first step in developing our understanding and we do not want to abandon parts of the theories, nor do we want to blindly adopt theories of cognition without the understanding that certain tasks are best accomplished through rote learning and reinforcement. As our knowledge base increases and technology improves to a degree that we can develop our understanding of the multifaceted and complex relationship of the learner to the environment, we can better explain certain aspects of learning; however, a unified theory of learning would have to be comprised of parts of all schools of thought.

Regardless of the theory each has a place in the classroom; tools in your arsenal.

What does learning look like to you?

Questions about how individuals learn best reflect the time in which they were first asked. As technology evolves into ways that more accurately reflect the complexities of the human mind, we are better able to comprehend what constitutes real "learning." Behaviorists are concerned with measurable changes consistent with reinforcement, while Cognitivists rely on structured learning environments with a strong emphasis on biological systems of memory and recall. The most accurate, at least in the current day, are the Constructivists who believe that the student is central to instruction and that learning is an active process that requires input and feedback to develop proficiency. The purpose of educational technology is to develop tools and strategies to put theory into practice in practical ways.

The best analogy that I can use for Theories of Learning is the story of the Six Blind Men and an Elephant. Depending on where each person stands in relation to the elephant is how they interpret what the animal looks like. While no one person is able to completely describe the elephant, each accurately describes what he "sees" based on his schema. Whether or not they are correct individually is moot--what matters is that together they form a more or less complete picture based on a frame of reference. In isolation learning theories do little more than attempt to explain a phenomenon; however, when used in conjunction with effective pedagogy and technology form the palette from which the teacher can create knowledge. In the future we may completely change how we view learning based on improved technology...and that is alright, because it is how we develop our understanding based on our collective accumulation of knowledge and research.

The Digital Divide

Living in a rural community provides many challenges as well as opportunities. In my county we have a high number of students with special needs (English language learners) and those who are economically disadvantaged. While there can be no strong argument against using technology, many of these students either do not have a computer at home or internet access. What use is having a vast number of resources on the internet if only half of our student population can access it from home? An informal survey of my students gave credence to the Digital Divide: out of my nearly seventy students, only about 20 had computers, while 10 had access to high speed internet. Conversely, each student in my class had either their own personal cell phone or had access to one in their home. Forget all of the high speed hardware heavy computers that are advertized, most users only need very basic devices to connect to the internet and perform every day productivity tasks. For our communities, and in a broader sense people who are disadvantaged throughout the world, our emphasis should be on providing access to mobile devices and wireless networks. I recently read about a program provided by UNESCO to bring literacy to women in Pakistan. The simplicity and low cost is what really struck me—a modest investment in a cell phone and SMS created an opportunity for a population that may not ever have the luxury of attending school.

As a current and future leader in educational technology, I can ensure equal access by making sound decisions about the types of technology we use in the classroom. Rather than purchase proprietary operating systems and expensive site licenses, we can opt for an open-source alternative. Grants may provide some resources, but must be approached cautiously as the long term cost may outweigh the short term benefits. Additionally, I can strongly advocate for the integration of mobile devices into our curriculum as both the functionality and price are ideal for students of all ages and grade levels. Part of this advocacy may include developing a curriculum for pilot program that uses mobile devices in a classroom setting.

The Digital Divide exists throughout the modern world and it is unrealistic to expect access to the internet and other resources will be equal; however, schools can make better use of their resources by developing technology plans that utilize the free open-source resources that are available and saving the bulk of their technology budgets to create programs to introduce mobile computing to students.