farther from my research proposal than ever

Earlier today I types this letter to myself unsure of where to put it (if any place at all). I only chose to share the first section in our discussion forums but will post the whole letter here.

I was attempting to untangle some of what brought me to the U of C. I see that I am farther from my proposal than I was a month ago and I guess that is ok. What Dr. Jacobsen said today as she differentiated research methods helps me see that I have some tough decisions to make betwen focusing on utilization OR managment.

My earlier letter to self:

When asked what i'm researching "Effectively Mobilize ed media” is easy to say.. to people who don’t ask for more information; no follow-up questions please;)

The challenges I see with of this roll-off-the tongue summary are varied based on my experiences over the past two years. On one side there are only certain types of media that learners will proactively seek out when trying to augment lecture and text. The access points to distribute these particular types of media are abundant so which ones are the easiest for both learners to get to (device independent with little to no training) and for Faculty to upload to (device independent with little to no training). Faculty need to be able to develop the media (the types that learners value) with ease for these types (and their distribution methods) to be institutionalized.

Sitting on the side of the above is to do outreach so that faculty 1) know what the learners will value and this will, hopefully, motivate them to produce this type of media seeing that their time and effort will be well spent and 2) are provided the tools and support services that will allow this process to become institutionalized.

With all of the above said the challenge (in attempting to do all of this in the past) has been that once you have institutionalized the process and the tools based on student value… the frustration I have found and am desperate to correct in an effective way… is to stop faculty from making assumptions. No laughing please.

Faculty make assumptions about the level of support provided by their institution. They receive support from peers and from within their program/school but I have found that regardless of the amount or quality of support provided at the institution level, when asked if they are provided support by their institution they state that little to none exists. They are unaware of not only what technologies have been institutionalized but that there is mentoring/training/self support etc at the ready (hen done correctly). This is an issue of, as I say, making assumptions and not taking the next step (validate or dispelling assumptions). It is good to share your experiences with your peers and to ask for assistance from your program/department but, at times, this does not serve to move faculty along their learning curve. In fact, at times, it only ends with frustration or ineffective use of technology. So if we as technologists cannot expect faculty to be proactive and motivated to find and utilize the services provided by their institution what methods can we as technologists effectively employ to push everything out to them in a way that will not desensitize them to outreach?

Getting faculty to validate assumptions about technology use and support stands in the way of institutionalizing educational technology. My interest is in educational technology; my experience is that human nature is getting me frustrated. I can build the best system and best practices with the best interest of learners in mind but a large portion of faculty don’t know it exists since they just never took the most important next steps.

Step one: open institute website

Step two: click curser in search field

Step three: type technology/term into search field

Step four: click enter

Faculty are not the only ones that get frustrated with technology (or lack of use in this case;). Faculty don’t want to use technology just for technology sake since it consumes time and may never be appreciated by their learners or effect the outcomes of the course in a meaningful way. I feel for them but I can’t institutionalize technology without them."