Posted 6:45 PM by Steve
Plus ça Change...

Maybe it's the weather (hey, who doesn't love to look out the window in May and see white)... The material that seemed to draw me towards it as I was preparing this week's "column" all focused on the concept of change and the incredible fight or flight reaction that this seems to inspire in people. And the reality of it all is that change is very scary. We all have habits and routines that are comfortable because they work for us and, in general, just plain work. These have evolved over a considerable period of time, and when we are asked to change, strong emotions suddenly well up. Faced with this situation, you are likely to hear anything from "When will I have time to do this stuff?" to "Wait till I tell my union representative about this!"

Last fall, I worked on my first M. Ed. course, which focused on educational reform. In the course text, author Benjamin Levin (yes, as in our Deputy Minister of Education) commented on organizational change when he wrote "It might well be argued that school systems have focused very heavily on exploitation (of existing knowledge), and that relatively few resources have been devoted to finding new ways to education people." (Reforming Education, p. 30) When I brought this up in the class discussion board, most comments ranged from stating that there was just no time alloted for this to defensive positions that detailed how methodologies have changed over the decades.

Advocating change for change's sake is both costly and foolish. However, it is just as foolish to ignore change that is necessary in order to maintain effectiveness; we cannot deny that our students change, just as our world does. Fortunately, the range of available resources and the options for how we incorporate and apply them also changes and expands. Perhaps the most valuable tool we can bring to the table during these times of change is reflection - examining how our manners of teaching are meeting the needs of our students, identifying those areas in which it is not achieving the ends that we desire, and then bravely seeking out the methods and tools that will allow us to help our learners gain the knowledge and experiences they require to succeed. Here are several articles that examine change in education and training. Happy reading!

Many Students' Favorite Professors Shun Distance Education

Quote: "Are the professors who are the most beloved and respected for their teaching the ones who are participating in distance-education programs, especially online? What do their opinions mean for the future of distance education? And can technology convey the qualities that make a professor the heart and soul of a campus?"

Comment: Hmmm...so many questions. This article has already raised the hackles of many online proponents. It is interesting to note that the professors quoted in this article have been teaching for decades - the "youngest" has been lecturing for 30 years. Is it a surprise that they are uncomfortable with changing to an online format? It certainly doesn't surprise me. One of them gets his wife to deal with any technological issues he encounters; is this an ideal and willing candidate to experiment with technology? While many of these very talented teachers may consider online learning a "fad", the article does admit that online courses are becoming more like the traditional classroom experience and that instructors are also able to become "great" in an online format.

Change Comes Hard

Quote: "For as long as I can remember, I have heard teachers at all levels complain about students who have poor attitudes toward learning. The roles are now reversed. It's time for teachers and professors to stop complaining about having to learn a new way to teach."

Comment: In the face of change, do we look at ways to address the demands of change, or do we expend our energy trying to prove that change is unnecessary? This is a short, yet powerful editorial! Ceraulo draws a very compelling comparison between adoption of e-learning in education with the adoption of the PC in the computer industry of the 1970s. She also stresses the importance of institutions investing in the creation of quality online course offerings that are not cookie cutter products which can easily be cloned by other schools.

Overcoming the Comfort Zone Syndrome or Teaching an Old Dog a New Trick

Quote: "...holding on to the fantasy that software is the answer to all our problems flies in the face of what anyone who has worked in the online collaboration world for more than two weeks knows to be the truth. The trust is that the biggest barrier to overcome is people's (especially adults') natural resistance to change - the kind of change that requires people to overcome old attitudes and work habits and embrace new ways of doing things."

Comment: When it comes to dealing with change, you generally hear a lot of discussion centering around the fact that change is hard to deal with, but not a lot of talk about how to actually impliment change successfully. The best that I could find in the reams of material scattered on and around my desk was this article. Yes, it comes from a corporation (so they tout their skills and abilities in order to convince you to buy) and yes, it focuses on online collaboration specifically. However, if you look past these two points it has enough interesting ideas about how people avoid (and ultimately eliminate) change to their normal behaviour, as well as some strategies that people have used to ease change into the daily routine to make it a worthwhile read. If anyone has any links to other such documents, please e-mail them to me and I will happily focus a future segment of "From Steve's Head" to strategies to help deal successfully with change.

The Social Life of Paper

Quote: "Whenever a plane takes off, the basic data about the flight - the type of plane, the radar I.D. number, the requested altitude, the destination - are printed out on a stiff piece of paper, perhaps one and a half by six and a half inches, known as a flight strip. And as the plane passes through each sector of the airspace the controller jots down, using a kind of shorthand, everything new that is happening to the plane - its speed, say, and where it's heading, clearances from ground control, holding instructions, comments on the pilot. It's a method that dates back to the days before radar, and it drives critics of the air-traffic-control system crazy. Why, in this day and age, are planes being handled like breakfast orders in a roadside diner?"

Comment: I like the way Malcolm Gladwell cobbles together a broad cross-section of seemingly unrelated ideas. While this article seems to contradict the whole tone of this week's thoughts, I think it helps to bring an important perspective to it. Despite the efficiencies offered by technology, paper still has a very important role to play in our everyday lives. Far too often in e-learning circles the focus is on the "e", leaving the learning aspect to become an after thought. Regardless of whether we are thinking blackboard (as in chalk) or discussion board (as in digital), the focus should still very much be on the learning that is to occur as opposed to the medium that is to be used. The medium is the enabler, but we must put time and thought into what it is that we are hoping to enable. Achieving this balance will help to produce courses (both traditional and online) that are effective because they have been created to address a specific need, not to use a specific technology