Teaching Philosophy
Philosophy #1: I'm a Guide, Not a Technology Tutor
① Cycle of Failure
Many students come to class with a mindset like the lady in the picture on the left. They think like "Show me all the useful technology tools that will help me become a great teacher, and teach me how to use them." Sooner or later, this attitude is going to be a big problem in the instructional technology course, so I make this point clear on the first day of class. I tell them:
"I am not here to spoon-feed you all the instructional technology knowledge and skills or do all the heavy lifting of learning for you." |
Then, I show slides similar to the pictures below (Figures 1 & 2) and tell them these exact words:
You won't truly get it until you figure it out yourself. Until you throw yourself in headfirst, fail, correct your course, and fail again (see Figure 1). Apparently, success can only be found at the end of a cycle of failure (see Figure 2).
Of course, some students, who are highly motivated to better themselves and learn at all times, will learn even without failures. Unfortunately, most of my peers in college and students I have taught did not get motivated enough to really learn until they failed. Here is an interesting experiment I did that demonstrate this motivational tendency (see Figure 3).
Students were given all the exam questions 10 weeks prior to the exam (①). The Q&A discussion forum was created for students to address any question that they may have, and the students were told to study the material and address any concepts and points that were not clear to them (②). The students were also told to aim for 100% and not to take the exam until they were 100% sure that all of their answers were correct (③). Students completed the exam (④). Typically, the majority of scores would fall in the 70% range, and that's when the students would begin to address their questions about the points that were not clear to them (⑤). Without making their exam details available to them, the students were given the second chance to retake the exam (⑥), and their average score improved from approximately 70% to over 98% (⑦). This says something about the necessity of small failures for motivation to learn.
② My Role
Then, what's the professor for? Inevitably... these are the exact words I tell them:
I'm here to give you the opportunity to fail. So, you will fail many times throughout the semester. But don't be discouraged. That's a natural part of learning. I designed the course so that these small failures won't hurt your grades, so be bold and stay foolish like Steve Jobs said in his famous Stanford speech.
When it comes to learning instructional technology skills, it's not enough to just memorize things. Here's what I tell my students:
You need to practice applying theories and principles to design and develop instructions, which is what this class is all about. If you want to just sit in the classroom and consume whatever I show you, then this class is not for you. I am not giving you fish. I'm teaching you how to fish fish.
This sounds like an old cliche in higher education. Students tend to see it as the general educational concept and often fail to see its connection with the instructional technology class. So, I put it in a context for them. Here's what I say:
Technology tools that work best for your fields and your own teaching styles and needs are most likely different from the technology tools that work best for me. Who's a math education major here? [Some students raise their hands. I turn to one of them.] Graphing applications may be very useful in your field, but in my field and what I teach, which is instructional technology, there's no use for them. And the same goes for you; I use a green screen to teach a topic in this class, but I don't think it will be useful in your math class. Think for a moment what technology tools and skills you will need to learn in your own field.
So, don't expect me to tell you what exact tools you need to learn and teach you how to use them. We meet once a week and we only meet 15 times in the semester. With 30 students in this class there's no way we have enough time to cover 100 different tools needed by all of you. I'll help you find the tools and even help you learn how to use them if necessary, but you need to own your learning. You are the primary person who needs to figure out what exact tools you need and how to use them.
In most of the projects and assignments, I will provide you with a set of tools you could use and I will even show you how some of them work, but you don't have to use them. You get to choose what tools you want to use.
Students will have to learn how the technology tools of their choice work. Then, the question is: How can I make sure that all 60 students I teach will get all the help they need to learn how the tools work? Here's just one of me and there are 60 of them. This leads to my technology learning policy.
③ Technology Learning Policy
This is where I explain how I will accomplish this daunting task of making sure that all the students will get all the help they need in order to learn how technology tools work. Here's what I tell them:
When you have a question about how to use a technology tool, do NOT come to me right away. I don't want you to get too used to the idea of always having me around to show you how a technology tool works because when this semester is over, you are on your own. What are you going to do then? You have to learn to learn how to use technology tools on your own,
Then, I show them the slide similar to the picture below (Figure 4) and explain how all the students will get all the technology help through this four-step process.
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④ ISTE Standard●S 1: Empowered Learner
This is also when I show a slide similar to the picture on the right (Figure 5) and talk about the ISTE Standards for Students 2016. The ISTE Standard●S 1 is to create empowered learners. I want my students to be empowered learners themselves before they try to help their students become ones.
This is also a way to cultivate a classroom culture of helping each other. I reward helping behaviors by awarding extra credit points.
Sometimes, students forget that I do this on purpose, and some students think that I was not helpful as they learned all the tech skills on their own and from peers. It, however, means that I succeeded in helping them become empowered learners.
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Philosophy #2: This Is Not a Computer Class
There is another good reason why I don't like to allocate the official class time for teaching how to use technology tools per se. Many students come to the first day of class expecting that I will be teaching them how to use various features of technology tools, but this is not a typical computer class like a class to teach Photoshop, MS Office, Mac & Windows, Adobe CS6, etc. Then, what kind of class is this? Here's what I tell them:
Here's just one of me and there are 30 of you. If I had to teach you how to use the tools every time you don't know how to use them, we wouldn't have any time left for anything else in this class. This is not a computer class. In fact, learning how most computer tools work is quite easy. You don't need a semester long class just for that. How many of you know how to use PowerPoint? [Most students raise their hands.] See? Learning how PowerPoint works is easy. Then, why are you here? Here's why.
Just because you know how to use PowerPoint, it doesn't mean you can use it effectively in ways that support students' learning. You are not here to learn just how to use computer tools per se. You are here to learn how to use computer tools effectively for teaching and learning, and that's what we are going to be spending most of our time in class tackling.
I structure the course around six of the seven ISTE Standards for Students 2016 (see Figure 6), meaning that students will be learning:
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On this website (under TEACHING > TEAC259 INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY) I have shared most of the lessons, assignments and projects included in the course. I hope you will find them interesting and that they will benefit you in some way.