Annette+McNamara

//Why Bother?// project My version of our question: How does meeting individually with faculty re: their teaching affect technology integration and paradigm shift in course design/pedagogy ? FRAME As one person involved in the area of instructional technology in the School of Education, I imagine that people have created a persona for me in which I represent more the technology applications, and less the practice of teaching. I imagine that sometimes they see me coming and think // She's going to ask me to use Elluminate Live. // Or, S // he's going to ask me to use Blackboard for electronic assignment submission //. Or, // I just don't have time to even think about technology right now. // And, in my mind, they walk the other way.

Needless to say, there are challenges-- many changes, scant resources, and other (varying) priorities. Meaningful conversations about technology integration don't seem pressing. So, what to do? How to move forward? I had been offering/facilitating a regular schedule of conversations, workshops, meetings, drop-in sessions, all related to teaching and learning with technology. But no one came. So I needed to re-think.

RE-FRAME I re-visited some possible goals:
 * To start a conversation about teaching in general, to get an idea of what faculty are already doing. What are their objectives, how are they assessing, and what are some typical learning activities.
 * To introduce (or re-introduce) the ideas of // Connect-Collaborate-Create. // Centering a conversation about teaching around these general ideas, rather than (for example) // How Are You Using Blackboard. //
 * To identify where faculty might already have goals toward more efficiency, more collaboration, more authenticity.
 * To encourage faculty to think about how technology tools could help do (and teach) what they're already doing (and teaching).

PLAN So I decided to meet with faculty, individually. We go through the following questions, talk a little about standards (ISTE NETS, program standards, quality standards), and try to set a goal or two. CONVERSATIONS Throughout the conversations, faculty have identified many things they're already doing, and many they'd already been planning to work on. We talk about how they could extend or enrich the learning with technology. The focus is not on the technology itself, but on making the learner deeper, more contextual, and authentic through principles of connected learning.
 * What are you currently teaching?
 * What are some typical learning objectives, assessments, learning activities?
 * We discuss the general principles of CONNECTED LEARNING (CONNECT - COLLABORATE - CREATE).
 * How do you (or could you) ask students to CONNECT - COLLABORATE - CREATE (publish).
 * Is there anything you would like to do more effienciently, collaborative, anything students have a hard time understanding, anything you'd like to do more authentically.

FUTURE (Why Bother?) Feedback to the individual meetings has been positive. Faculty are saying that they appreciate the time to talk about their teaching, and that the conversations have encouraged them to begin to re-think some of what they're doing, to try a new lens, look at technology integration in a more. . . .integrated, connected way. Some say that connected learning is philosophically how they've wanted to teach, but haven't had time to actually move in that direction. A few have stopped me in the hall to share assignments they are received recently in which the students have incorporated technology and the ideas of //Connect, Collaborate, Create.// Faculty seem excited.

Continuing a forward movement will be the real test of: Why Bother?