WEEK 3 (questions for discussion)

Questions

Today, I posted on Blackboard some questions to discuss in class. They came to my mind while I was reading chapter 4 and 5.
The questions may be silly but are important because they will give us some hints about the relationship with our mentees and other people in the department.

1. The learning and adoption of a technology tool may create frustration. How can we approach faculty if they feel things are not working out well for them?
2. Are the tech specialists at CTLT ready to provide us with tech support in the case we run into hardware/software difficulties? Who should we contact?
3. If we cannot reach the objective set, can we continue working with our mentees the following semester until the project is finally done? (or even like a follow-up?)
4. How to approach our mentees if they are not progressing? If we see them not taking time to do what they are supposed to.

WEEK 3 (mentoring lunch)

Lunch

Today mentors and mentees got together for lunch. All mentors and Dr. Nadolny brought food for the lunch, everything was very yummy!

We had the chance to meet other mentees and learn about their tech needs and interests. Every mentor introduced their mentee to the whole class and explained the project they will work on.

Something peculiar that happened today was that Dr. Value was sitting at the table with other professors and when the time for introductions came, Dr. Value moved and sat next to me!. That meant a great deal to me because it made feel that " we are a team" and we should be together. I really felt that connection with Dr. Value. At one point Dr. Value told me that I should call her by her first name. She is a professor and addressing her by her first name may take me a while.

I presented the ideas and plan we have. Now, it is time to work on it.

Were agreed to get together next week on Friday. Meanwhile, I am going to write down a clear description of the possible applications we can use for creating the website. I will email the information to Dr. Value to have a look and then decide which one would be better.

At lunch I also mentioned to Dr. Value that at the same time that we work on the website, we should also think about recording the lectures for the classes that Dr. Value teaches. I am glad that Dr. Value is ready to start work.

This is going to be a great experience for both of us.

WEEK 3 (mentoring primary ideas)

Plan

I know that Dr. Value and I need to start working on the SIG website plan. I believe it is necessary to:

• ·      define the purpose
• ·      identify audience
• ·      select features/elements
• ·      create a storyboard

Well, from that on we need to start working on the range of activities that will lead us to create the website.

•     select the tool
• ·      create layout
• ·      work on details (text, fonts, size, etc)
• ·      create first page
• ·      add resources
• ·      evaluate what has been done
• ·      construct other pages
• ·      evaluation
• ·      redesign
• ·      etc.

WEEK 2 (class discussion)

Ready for technology?

Back home, at the university I used to work I had seen faculty who feared technology as well as faculty (seniors) who were eager to use new software (PowerPoint, later Prezi) for giving a “nice touch” to their classes. I used to give workshops on the use of technology for faculty. However, the different levels of expertise my colleagues had made it difficult to tailor the workshops adequately. We did not have the sufficient support from administrators to provide more skill-oriented workshops either. It was a one workshop per semester plan.

Moreover, I used to teach my parents (sort of mentoring them) how to use powerpoint and email, how to troubleshoot computer difficulties (some), how to add word processing features, how to printer and scan the class material.  They were very motivated and it made a huge difference in their attitude towards technology. They even called me home to tell me in a very exciting way that they had accomplished a certain goal. They even taught me something new they had discovered!

I believe that as language learners do not speak up because they are afraid of making mistakes, some faculty are afraid of messing things up with technology. I strongly believe that the first step in the adoption of technology is to feel the desire to use it. Once we have that intrinsic motivation, fear can be little by little overcome.

One important aspect is that the technology adoption is a process and not a product. As a process it takes time, it may be longer for some as it may be shorter for others.  I consider that having to struggle with technology until we reach our objectives is more satisfactory and enriching than, let’s say, having someone else do it for us.

I liked Thompson idea of letting people feel that “call” for using technology. I think that people need first to be mentally ready if they want to adopt some technology for their work. We can not rush people into doing something WE want them to do, specially faculty who may not have been in contact with the technological world as often as kids are now. Faculty will decide when the time to adopt technology has come for them.

Patience, guidance, accompaniment, mutual support, and “we”-like* actions seem to be the key elements of a mentoring program.

*“we”-like actions: we struggle, we did this, we need to find a solution, we look at it together, we design, etc.

WEEK 2 (mentoring) Part II

I have sent an email to Dr. Value with a summary of the three priorities we discussed to check if everything is fine or if I had missed something.

Fortunately, Dr Value replied that everything is fine. Dr. Value also said that it will be good to work together and is looking forward to it.  

I have asked Dr, Nadonly about the first priority Dr. Value has, which is building up the SIG online community website. I thought it may be a problem because it is not a class project. However, Dr. Nadolny said that since it is a tech project, she will be ok with it. Yeah!!

I am partially relieved form my preoccupation that if it didm´t work out, I will need to find someone else to work with and two weeks have already passed.

Now I am preoccupied because the website should be up by april 3rd, for the AERA Conference. Will we accomplished it? I don´t know. Time is what worries me specially if we plan to meet each other every two weeks. I think I will need to contact Dr. Value to let her know that the website is a good project and we need to start work right away.

I will start looking for and studying applications or tools that we can use to build the website up. I will guide Dr. Value very well through all the construction process. 

--

Nadia Jaramillo

WEEK 2 (reflections)

Ideas discussed in class this week were:

1) Mentors who already had met with their mentees explained about the ideas/projects. Some people work with their supervisors, some others were matched with faculty. Other mentors had scheduled meetings for next week.

2) There were also suggestions by Dr. Nadolny about:
*  how to approach ideas, and meeting times with mentees. Besides, it is important to set up a timeline for being able to work without difficulties.
* give confidence to some faculty so they can build up their confidence.

4) Dr. Nadolny also mentioned some constraints that may arise during the mentoring projects:
* some people pull out
* personality difficulties
* some may not even have an idea

If problems happen, there may be solutions.

5) It is important to help them integrate technology into their class. Asking questions about their classes, tools that they use now, what tools they would like to use, their blackboard courses.

6) Lunch for the meeting:
 People signed up for meal to bring for the meeting with mentees. The meeting will be in room N066 on Tuesday 28 Jan.

7) Discussion
History and challenges
* slow-moving for the university faculty in the use of technology
* technology is not only about faculty using technology but also infrastructure
* faculty from C&I. However now there are other people from other departments
* fear of implementing technology.
* Fig 1.1 CTLT has not changed a lot.
* Institutional challenges are important. University does not support faculty who want to use technology in teaching. Due to the load of teaching hours (10), some faculty do not devote time to technology but to research.
* There are other educational institutions which do not support the faculty.
* Education and companies have a different perspective and attitude towards faculty and employers learning new software.
* Sometimes technology in education is questioned.
* Zina talks about a software people needed to learn if they wanted to have/keep her job. Having other options is important because being forced to use a specific software may hinder productivity and creativity, and therefore
* there may be a time when technology becomes emotionally important, like the movie Her.
* technology is challenge because it needs to connect people, it is not only about products. Technology seems to have a sort of "relationship" with people.

8) Questions discussed:
how to approach professors:
* ask them about what they use, their experience, probing questions,
* technology skills survey that all could use (proposal). However, it may pose a problem, people will tend to rank themselves higher at the beginning than at the end. What would be helpful? It may be an idea to develop later on.
* some people will not do surveys.
* write down the questions, share with the group.

choice about tools:
* what faculty want to work on is ok.
* provide pros/cons of tools if asked for suggestions.

too many things/ too little time:
* individual mentoring plan: how to narrow down what they want to do.
* Dr. Naldonly: write down ideas, go over about them, the top ones, how long it will take,
* let them prioritize what they want to do.
* have a list of things to do. If the project finishes early, there may be other things to do.
* go over time limit, so the project does not extend longer than the semester.

trial-error procedure:
* use tools for classroom use: which one is more successful?. It seems to be a good strategy to select the most appropriate one.
* however, trying too many technology tools may be frustrating because students and professor will need to learn how the tools work. It would be better to focus on a couple of tools rather than a bunch of them. Group work will be a strategy in which each group will try out a tool and provide feedback.
* It is better to rationalize the usage of tools along the semester. Credit points should not be as many as in other assignments.
* students should be given instructions clearly at the beginning.

WEEK 2 (mentoring)

I had my first meeting with Dr. Value. Beforehand, I prepared some probing questions. I started with ice-breaker questions (so to speak) and then moved to more technical ones.

For example:
1) what class do you teach? How long have taught that class?
2) how may students do you have in your class?
3) how old are your students?
4) do you use blackboard? what do you use it for?
5) what kind of tools do you use inside blackboard?
6) what other tools are you interested in using? why?
7) where did you learn about those tools?
8) what do you think your students' reactions will be towards that specific tool?
9) and many other questions that develop from the questions above.

The meeting went really well. I feel it was a relaxing and fun meeting talking even about personal aspects (family, interests) and discussing issues with the use of technology.

Dr.Value explained and showed to me the personal and professional website that Dr. Value has. I could see that Dr. Value has a good knowledge of technology and is willing to try tools available out there to accomplish the objectives. However, Dr. Value made the comment about blackboard: "it's just awful".

I tried to approach Dr. Value in a more "collaborative way" to give confidence that the work can be done and that "we" will achieve something really interesting and useful, that "we" will work together to figure out how to do things. From time to time, I switched to "I" will be on your side helping "you" work on it, "I" will  provide the tech support "you" need to do it.

From time to time Dr. Value also told me: "well, you are the expert, I will always come to you, I trust you". It makes feel fine because I know we can work in a good and friendly manner. However, it also scares me because... I am the expert....(?). I need to learn a lot, and I am sure I will do in this class, and much more with the project for Dr. Value.

As our conversation was coming to an end (I sensed it) I tried to wrap up by retelling Dr. Value what ideas were discussed, the priority Dr. Value gave to each of them, the plan for next week (lunch on Tuesday), my to-do list.

Here I summarize the ideas discussed.

Dr. Value's priorities are:

1) build up a professional online community website for the SIG Leadership for Social Justice Group. Dr. Value would like to have it up by April 3rd (to be presented at the AERA conference)

Some ideas about the online community website:

* a repository of works/articles

* newsletter

* post

* webinar space

* collaborative space for scholars

2) Record lectures for classes 

Some ideas about the recording:

* students miss classes. Recorded lectures will keep them updated.

* future possibility of offering class in a blended/hybrid or online format.

3) Incorporate an online application to engage students in interactive discussions:

* have students share ideas 

* discussions online.

4) Improve blackboard

* links and organization of materials

* include audio (maybe video) lectures

I am not sure if the first option will be ok under our class goals. If it is, I am worried about time. (A possible mentor-mentee work schedule will be every two weeks)

Also, Dr. Value mentioned that the 2nd and 3rd options are something she might need to think about for a future plan. If the first option is not feasible, Dr. Value might participate again in the next CI 610 class when she might have decided to teach a blended or online course.  This makes feel worried because it seems that if we do not focus on priority 1, I may end up without someone to work with.

I need to check with Dr. Nadolny whether building the online community website is fine. 

WEEK 1 (mentoring)

Sunday, January 19h

I have contacted Dr. Value to set up a meeting next week to talk about her technological needs. I wait for her reply.

Also, I have read chapters 1-3 in our book and I feel I have some concerns prior starting this mentoring experience. I hope we can clarify some of these concerns next class.

1. How to approach the professor in terms of their technological abilities now. Should it be ok to ask about it, or to devise a needs analysis survey, or to do things as they come?
2. The choice about incorporating certain tool or application is on the mentee, what if they ask for our suggestion. Can we provide our own personal perspective about it. What if that is not ok with the professor?
3. I know quality is more important than quality, if the professor wants to do many things in such a short time, can we suggest to focus on what really is feasible?

Friday, January 17th

Today I have been assigned a professor to work with. To keep the identity of the professor confidential I will call the professor Dr. Value.

I will contact Dr. Value today to set up a meeting to talk about the technological support the  professor needs.

WEEK 1 (reflections)

FIRST DAY/ Class Overview: Thursday, January 16th, 2014

Introductions

Every student in the class introduce him/herself to the class. We also provided information about their research interets.


Program and Schedule Overview
Professor Naldony explained about the mechanics of the class, the readings, the discussions and the plan for the mentoring section.

Discussion

Students shared their experience with mentoring other people. Besides, we had the opportunity to clarify ideas about how the mentoring part was going to be carried out.

We also picked a day when we will lead a discussion on one of the chapters or articles.


Wrap-up

Once we had ideas clear and schedule of discussions organized we took a survey on mentoring styles. Each of us provided relevant information needed for the pairing step with a faculty professor.

CLASSES

SPRING 2014

This Spring I am taking three classes and one seminar. Although the workload is heavy and the assignments require a lot of time, quality and critical analysis, I think I will be fine. I am highly motivated and interested in take the most of every class this semester.

CI 610 Teachnology in Teacher Education

(Professor: Dr. Larysa Nadolny)

Overview

The main purpose of this class is to provide graduate students with knowledge and hands-on experience in using technology for teacher education. The class is structured in such a way that every graduate student will be supporting a faculty member who needs help in using technology for his or her clases. The format of the class is mentor/mentee work.

CI 504 Evaluating Digital Learning Environments

(Professor: Dr. Ana Paula Correia)

Overview

The main purpose of this class is to provide graduate students with knowledge and hands-on experience in evaluating digital learning environments. The format of the class is based on online discussions and projects.

CI 602 Educational Inquiry

(Professor: Dr. Isaac Gottesman)

Overview

The main purpose of this class is to provide graduate students with knowledge and foundational tools about getting engaged in educational research. The format of the class is based on faculty presentations and students discussion about the methodological issues encountered when conducting research. Students will also will develo academic writing skills along the course to be able to put together a rich critical analysis of research studies done in the area.

MY BLOG

This site will have information about my studies, research interests and projects for my classes in the Curriculum and Instruction PhD Program at Iowa State University.