Module 5 Blog Posting
Motivation for using New Technologies
As the technology coordinator at my school, I have had many opportunities to encourage colleagues to try new technologies. Usually I am the first to have professional development on the new technology, but many of my colleagues seem to see them as something more to do to add to their work loads. Our school staff works in teams with career teachers, mentors and lead teachers. Part of the process requires that teachers share graded student work data, catagorize it and give prescriptions for improvement. It was my idea that the teachers do this on a collaborative wiki to give the team a means to collectively see the student work data, comment on it, and collaboratively categorize it and write targeted prescriptions for improvement. Initially, it seemed like a good idea. Everyone agreed in principle. Then the technology of uploading the documents, actually commenting, catagorizing and writing prescriptions became very difficult, I guess, because there arose many excuses for not doing it. What I thought would be a useful, time-saving process became overwhelming, a reason for avoidance, and fell completely flat. I heard everything from not having time to do it, to not understanding how to upload the document to the wiki, to having "different kids" to simply not wanting to do it.
If I were to use Keller's ARCS model to motivate my colleagues, my approach would have been different. According to Keller, getting the teachers' attention through media, or a question like "Wouldn't you like to be able to do this collaboratively while sitting in your own homes?" may have aroused their curiosity and garnered their enthusiam for working together without staying after school or coming early. Introducing the wiki by showing them a mock up or example would have been a novel way of getting their attention as well. Showing the team how collaborating on line would be relevant to achieving the goal and making the work load easier for everyone would be my next step. Since this would be an on-going process, using this method would insure that everyone completed the task on time and with a high degree of competence. When bringing the idea to the team, I did sense a lack of confidence in their abilities to learn the process and the sustainability of their interest because of their lack of skill. Giving the team professional development to the extent needed to give them the impetus to learn and become self-motivated to keep learning would be a true task. However, the satisfaction of achieving the goal of using on line collaboration to complete a team project is something I believe would build relationships and afford us all personal satisfaction. Motivating reluctant colleagues is something of an art as well as a science. Sustaining good relationships while pushing them toward something new and unfamiliar must be done with a bit of artistry, humor and skill.
References:
Driscoll, M.P.(2005) Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston:Pearson Education,Inc.
John Keller's Official ARCS Model. Retrieved May 10,2010 from http://www.arcsmodel.com/home.htm
Using John Keller's ARCS model to motivate online learners. Retrieved May 10.2010 from http://onlignment.com/2009/09/using-john-kellers-arcs-model-to-motivate-online-learners/
