In her blog post, Anne-Marie Scott delves into the intricacies of establishing an effective learning technology landscape. She underscores the indispensable role of learning technology developers in navigating these challenges, making them feel valued and integral to the process.
Scott begins by highlighting the rapid evolution of educational technology and the increasing demand for personalized, flexible learning experiences. She highlights the need for the institution to adapt to these changes to meet diverse learner needs. She focuses on the pivotal role of learning technology developers in this adaptation process. These professionals are not merely technical support but integral to designing, implementing, and maintaining systems that enhance learning outcomes.
Scott identifies several key elements crucial for successful change implementation. She advocates for collaboration among educators, developers, and administrators to ensure that technological solutions align with pedagogical goals. Investing in ongoing training for staff to stay abreast of emerging technologies and pedagogical strategies is deemed essential. She emphasizes the importance of designing systems with the end-user in mind, ensuring accessibility and ease of use for students and educators.
Scott acknowledges several challenges in this effort due to limited budgets and staffing that can impede the development and implementation of new technologies. Faculty or administration may hesitate to adopt new systems due to comfort with existing methods or skepticism about technology’s efficacy. Ensuring new technologies seamlessly integrate with existing systems can be technically challenging.
Scott suggests allocating resources to areas with the highest impact on learning outcomes to overcome these barriers and implementing structured approaches to manage transitions. These include clear communication involving stakeholders in decision-making processes, such as regular meetings where all parties can voice their concerns and ideas, and the use of feedback mechanisms to ensure that everyone’s input is considered when making decisions about new technologies.
Scott identifies resistance to change as the main topic of this blog. Approaching this issue from a different angle involves considering the settings and lenses through which change is viewed. Understanding the specific environments in which learning occurs in traditional classrooms, online platforms, or hybrid models can customize strategies that address unique challenges in each setting.
Applying various perspectives, such as cultural, social, or psychological lenses, can provide deeper insights into the root causes of resistance. For instance, viewing resistance through a cultural lens might reveal organizational norms favouring traditional methods, while a psychological lens could uncover fears or anxieties about technology. By applying different lenses, institutions can develop more strategies that address the underlying causes of resistance, leading to more effective and sustainable implementation of learning technologies.
As an outsider looking into the complex formal education system, I find it a little overwhelming. Technology and education are complex issues on their own, then the areas where they intersect even more so. My experience is mainly within community education, where programs, learning materials and environments are generally created by subject matter experts on a shoestring budget. Being able to leverage the skills and knowledge of learning technology developers would be amazing, and no doubt increase program engagement, and learning outcomes. With resistance to change in education related to the implementation of technology, I’m curious if you feel that greater efforts at national and provincial levels could help to address some of the fear and anxiety that is being felt by individual faculty members or within individual school cultures.