As a technologist, specifically a learning technologist, I like to strip everything down to its simplest form so in the case of pedagogy I like to think of it as the science behind teaching, how teachers teach and how learners learn. My students are users of the learning technologies we support.
I believe in treating people fairly so I strive to make sure each of my students feel welcome and that their needs and help requests are important. When you cannot find a way to use the technologies available to you in the way you want or things just are not going right with technology it can feel like the world is breaking and the universe is against you! When the users of the systems I support finally come to me for help they are often frustrated and in a panicked state. I find putting myself in their shoes enables me to see the situation from their perspective and seeing the situation from their perspective helps me quickly come up with a plan to teach them how to resolve their own problem. When answering support requests, facilitating workshops and/or making classroom visits I make every effort to model good ethical practices, come from a place of kindness and compassion, and to create meaningful learning experiences.
Ethics and Learning Technologies
From my experience, it is not enough to simply talk about ethical best practices regarding learning technologies rather I find I must model the same behaviours I recommend. I believe in Open Pedagogy. Open Pedagogy can include creating, adapting or updating Open Educational Resources (OER). I believe it is important to recognize the power of the internet and how it has widely opened doorways to information, knowledge and educational resources. I am fortunate to work in a department that supports an open education infrastructure. We are able to offer faculty, staff and students easy access to Moodle, WordPress, Mattermost, and SPLOT!
I recognize that using technology to create digital artifacts takes time and resources therefore I aim to create and share persistent and reusable artifacts. I believe modeling good practice re: persistent resources demonstrates the possibilities of open pedagogy, creates authentic learning environments, and is sustainable. If I did not model the practice I recommend I would not be able to share the resources I develop and I would not be able to encourage the faculty, staff and students I work with to do the same. This is important because a key component of my team’s work is prioritizing access and equity in post-secondary education, and open resources are a key component in keeping costs down for students. This isn’t just about things like open textbooks – though we support them! – but also about ensuring that students aren’t paying extra for services like homework systems or classroom engagement tools. We support faculty finding open-source alternatives to these tools that protect student data and are free for use.
Kindness and Compassion
I find it is easy to make assumptions about people’s prior knowledge regarding technology, especially the learning technologies we support daily. I remind myself regularly not to make these assumptions as most people do not work with our learning technologies everyday as I do and most people do not share the same background knowledge with these technologies that I do. Often when people are struggling with technology they are in a panicked state, they are trying to facilitate an online exam, they are trying to share promised course materials, they are trying to connect with students virtually or they are trying to calculate final grades. In the case of students, they may be trying to meet a deadline for an assessment item or they may be trying to remote into a virtual classroom. In any case, making assumptions about the skills they already have only leads to further frustration. When people seem panicked and/or frustrated I do my best to make contact with the person either online or by telephone so I can listen, so I can be in their moment during our encounter. On more than one occasion I found the person had very few computer skills and they had never used our learning management system. When this happens I see an opportunity to take a step back to ask questions so we can formulate a plan of action together. In these cases, people seemed so pleased that they were learning new skills and they showed much gratitude towards the time we spent together.
Based on my experiences of working with people and technology, it is important to meet people where they are at so we can move forward together. Once I understand the skill levels of the person or group of people I am working with I cannot only teach how to use our learning technologies, I can also share ideas and stories of why they might want to use and learn the technologies available to them. I find teaching with kindness and compassion enhances positivity towards our learning technologies. When people move their technical skills even just one notch further their future with learning technologies becomes brighter.
Creating Meaningful Learning Experiences
Learning technologies are made to help facilitate teaching and learning, but it takes human intervention to make these technologies meaningful. Anyone can read tech specs and user documentation to better understand how to use technology but this documentation does not cover how to support students on their own learning journeys nor does the documentation cover how to use it to create meaningful, authentic learning experiences. I feel the best way for me to create authentic learning experiences for my students is to facilitate hands-on workshops as they provide a safe space to learn a new skill with a familiar technology and/or to learn a new skill with a new technology. I encourage participants to use a sandbox so they can play carefree and feel like a kid in a playground again. From my experience, playing at work triggers creativity and innovation and playing with others at work encourages teamwork. I have found when people are working hands on together creative thinking emerges and ideas are born.
Hands-on workshops also provide online spaces that simulate our current e-learning environment. Simulated environments serve as a bridge between learning tech and implementing tech. My students are able to practice actions and responses before going live with their students. I am able to duplicate current online environments which creates a familiar space for play, creativity, making mistakes and being messy.
I love technology and I wholeheartedly enjoy using it to transform teaching and learning.