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“Why
Bother?”
Workshop & Small Group Activities
PDF
Version - Suitable for Printing, Duplicating, Distributing
for a Local "Why
Bother?" Workshop
Goal
Enable participants to:
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Launch
or accelerate their own individual efforts to improve teaching and
learning with information technology.
-
Identify
and commit to specific next steps.
-
Identify
additional resources they need and who might be able to provide those
resources and help them succeed.
-
Establish
a working partnership with one or two colleagues.
-
Begin
a proposal addressed to the president or Chief Academic Officer for
approval/support.
And/or:
Enable a team from a single institution to launch or
accelerate a program to encourage and support the efforts of individual faculty
members to improve teaching and learning with information technology.
Note: This task is
intended for adaptation to workshops of different compositions and
purposes. It can be used for a group
consisting entirely of faculty from one institution, but it is more likely to
be effective for:
1. Many people from
one institution – including both faculty and other academic support
professionals such as librarians, faculty development professionals, technology
professionals, and academic administrators.
2. Teams from many
institutions – with each team including both faculty and other academic support
professionals such as librarians, faculty development professionals, technology
professionals, and academic administrators.
I. INSTITUTIONAL PREPARATION
[OPTIONAL BUT RECOMMENDED; #1 is especially important!
This information can provide a useful context for individual
and team planning – and enable participants to develop projects and proposals
more likely to be well-received by presidents and/or CAOs.]
To be completed by the person in charge of this workshop if
the workshop is for only one institution;
or by each institutional contact person if the workshop includes teams
from more than one institution.
Institution:
Institutional Contact Person:
Title:
Email: Phone:
Date:
Summarize answers to the following questions and make
that information available to participants from the same institution before the
workshop begins.
1. President/CAO
Goals or Mission
What are the goals or mission for increasing and
improving the educational uses of information technology supported by your
President and/or CAO? [We urge you
to refer to available documents, such as your institution’s mission statement,
accreditation preparation documents, etc..]
Why? How fast? How wide?
How deep? How expensive?
In other words, what are the main goals? How rapidly should you move? How many faculty members and others should
be involved? How much change in
teaching/learning should be achieved?
How much money should be spent (re-allocation of internal funds vs.
increasing external funding)? Are you
hoping for a few big initiatives or many small steps – or some combination?
2. Related
Professional Development Activities, Infrastructure
Describe some of the most significant recent professional
development activities intended to help faculty, staff, and/or administrators
contribute to the improvement of teaching and learning with information
technology. How many participated
(including adjunct faculty)? What was
accomplished?
Describe the current state of professional support and
technological infrastructure with respect to improving teaching and learning
with information technology. List only
a few noteworthy items – those widely recognized as useful and those widely
experienced as frustrating.
3. Roundtable
Activities
Describe the group at your institution that is most like a
TLT Roundtable (includes representatives of diverse groups – faculty, library,
technology, faculty development, etc.; focus on teaching, learning, and
technology; advisory to high-ranking
person(s); provides guidance for
professional development programs;
etc.). How often does it
meet? In what ways have participants in
this workshop been involved with this group? To what extent is this group aware of the goals and expectations
of workshop participants?
4. Studies
Describe any surveys
or other inquiries you have conducted to gather baseline data on how technology
use might be contributing to the quality of teaching and learning (or to
address other significant questions related to educational mission of the
institution). If you haven’t yet begun
such a study, provide a question that you would like to answer or a decision
that could be made more effectively through developing and conducting a study.
II. INDIVIDUAL PREPARATION
[IF
PARTICIPANTS HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO SOME PREPARATORY WORK, THEY CAN READ,
THINK, AND WRITE SOME NOTES IN RESPONSE TO ITEMS C. & D. BELOW. Otherwise, they can do so during the workshop/session.]
A. Intended
Outcomes
Establish a common pool of purposes as a basis for
committing time and other resources to new projects to improve teaching and
learning with information technology.
Help individual participants begin to select practical, useful projects.
B. Read “Why
Bother?”
[See: http://www.tltgroup.org/gilbert/WhyBotherLINK.htm]
C. Add any
categories that should not have been omitted;
i.e., additional reasons why -- in spite of many difficult obstacles --
institutions and individuals should make increasing commitments to improving
teaching and learning with technology.
D. Preparation for
Small Group Discussion
i. On one side of a 3X5 card, write your name, institution, and
answers to B above.
ii. Select only one of the following 4 options
to think about and work on for the remainder of this activity.
iii. On the same 3X5 card, write a very brief
description of the technology application you have selected and some of the
“Why Bother?” categories it demonstrates or addresses. [If you have some extra time, think about
next steps you might take with respect to this application, obstacles you
anticipate, resources you might need, and a partner with whom you would like to
work.]
CHOOSE AND DO ONLY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR:
1. Current Application/Approach
[For Faculty; Ongoing Activity]
Identify an application of information technology (and the
teaching/learning approach involved in its use) that you have already begun to
integrate successfully into your own teaching.
Describe this application and how it demonstrates one of the “Why
Bother?” categories. Try to include something
about the issues or topics covered, ways in which teaching and learning are
being done, and something about the intended results. How does this use of technology and this teaching/learning
approach enable different students to learn in different ways – even a little
-- in this course? How does this use of
technology and this teaching/learning approach build on one of your own special
interests or abilities? In what ways
would you like to improve your use of this application – based on what you have
already learned from your experience with it?
2. Bottleneck:
Future Application/Approach
[For Faculty; New Activity]
Select and describe an issue or topic (or “instructional
bottleneck”) in a course you will be teaching this coming academic year. Explain how you hope to be able to use
information technology (and a related teaching/learning approach) to help
improve teaching and learning with this issue/topic to achieve some of the
benefits listed in the “Why Bother?” paper.
How will this use of technology and this teaching/learning approach
enable different students to learn in different ways – even a little -- in this
course? How will this use of technology
and this teaching/learning approach build on one of your own special interests
or abilities?
3. Current Support Activity:
[For Academic Support Professionals or
Administrators]
Identify an activity in your own work that already
successfully supports some effort to use information technology to improve
teaching and learning. Describe how
this activity fits with one or more of the “Why Bother?” categories. Try to include something about the ways in
which teaching and learning are being improved by your activity and something
about your intended results. How does
this activity build on one of your own special interests or abilities? In what ways would you like to improve
this activity – based on what you have already learned from your experience
with it?
4. Future Support Activity
[For Academic Support Professionals or
Administrators]
Identify a new activity in your own work that could support
some effort to use information technology to improve teaching and
learning. Describe how this activity
fits with one or more of the “Why Bother?” categories. Try to include something about the ways in
which teaching and learning might be improved by your activity and something
about your intended results. How will
this activity build on one of your own special interests or abilities?
III. IN SMALL GROUPS – FIRST ROUND
A. Intended
Outcomes
Begin to design projects and identify specific next
steps. Prepare to write related
proposals to the president or Chief Academic Officer.
Individuals
Each individual participant begins to design a modest
project and produces a schedule of next steps for it that will contribute to
improving teaching and learning with information technology. For faculty members, the project should
focus within one course. For academic
support professionals, the project should focus on helping a small number of
faculty members who share a common interest or need (or a larger number of
faculty members who share a very small need).
In each case, participants should favor projects that benefit from a
collaborative effort of at least one faculty leader, librarian, faculty
development professional and technology professional from that
institution.
AND/OR
Institutional Teams
Each institutional team produces a schedule of next steps
for at least one [probably professional development] project that depends on a
collaborative effort of at least one faculty leader, librarian, faculty
development professional and technology professional from that
institution. This project should:
-
respect
and build on recent professional development activities at your institution;
-
get
the support of the nearest approximation of the local TLT Roundtable for
acquiring resources and scheduling events; and
-
include
a Flashlight-style study to obtain feedback to help guide some decisions
about a sequence of activities.
More generally, institutional teams will develop the basis
(past successes, anticipated obstacles, resources needed, possible studies,
possible “TLT Coaching Partnerships”) and plans for their own specific next
steps. Teams will plan effective
linkages among faculty leaders, librarians, faculty development professionals,
and technology professionals, et al. –
focused on specific next steps for each individual participant. It will be especially useful for teams to
identify concerns shared by all team members – concerns that have implications
for institutional policies, procedures, and infrastructure (especially support
resources needed). These concerns might
become messages appropriate to deliver to the local TLT Roundtable and then to
the President or Chief Academic Officer of the institution.
B. Form Small
Groups
One or two institutional teams per group.
If time permits, collect the 3x5 cards and use them
during a break to match institutional teams in ways likely to encourage
individuals to work together after this event – because of their geography,
common interest in specific technology applications, and/or “Why Bother?”
categories.
C. Develop
Individual and/or Institutional Team Schedules for Specific Next Steps
Individuals
Discuss your answers to Part II. C and D above. [Begin to
use the Individual Worksheet – attached.]
Help each other by asking questions and making suggestions for improving
plans or for taking next steps. As you
describe to each other various technology applications and teaching/learning
approaches you have selected, try to work together to help each participant
develop a personal schedule of very specific next steps. Each participant’s first steps should be
quite modest – very likely to be accomplished successfully and on schedule. [Later steps might be more challenging and
uncertain.]
Discuss related past successes and anticipated
obstacles. Discuss ways of applying
specific support processes and practices that have already been successful at
your own institution. Help each other
identify any support resources that will be needed and where/how they might be
obtained. What kinds of easy-to-observe
or easy-to-collect evidence would confirm that your steps are succeeding? [What questions or “triads” could be the
basis for developing a Flashlight study?]
Institutional Teams
Use the Institutional Team Project Worksheet (attached)
to develop a schedule of next steps for at least one project that depends on a
collaborative effort of at least one faculty leader, the librarian, and the
technology professional from your institution.
Try to indicate how this project will obtain and benefit from the
advice or support of your local TLT Roundtable or equivalent. Try to indicate how you will develop and use
a Flashlight study to obtain useful feedback to help guide decisions about the
further development of this project.
Try to indicate the ways in which this project includes some of the
ideas or structures or materials from recently successful professional
development programs at your institution.
IV. IN SMALL GROUPS – SECOND ROUND
A. Intended
Outcomes
Plan how members of your small group can continue working
together (and, possibly, with others).
Begin work on project proposals to the president or Chief Academic
Officer. Prepare reports for the
closing session.
B. How to
Continue Working Together
Discuss how you might continue working together after this
workshop/session. What kinds of
guidelines, schedules, external reminders,
or communications vehicles would be especially likely to enable you to
serve effectively as “coaches” for each other? For colleagues who are not
present? How can the workshop leaders
and/or consultants support your
collaborative efforts?
C. Specific
Partnerships
Can you identify specific partners – forming groups of 2 or
3 from among those present? (Or forming groups of 2 or 3 that also include some
people who are well known to the participants, but who are not present at this
event.)
D. Project
Proposals
Write a brief (1-3 pages) proposal to your president and/or Chief
Academic Officer about the individual or Institutional Team Project that you
have been working on for this activity.
You might include these elements:
·
Accomplishments.
Related things you have already accomplished.
·
Additional Needs and Goals.
Relate these to what you learned about the goals and mission for improving
educational uses of information technology supported by your President and/or
CAO.
·
Obstacles.
Anticipated or current obstacles.
What’s getting in your way?
·
Resources Needed.
What additional resources does your project need? What are you requesting from the president and/or CAO? Are you being realistic?
·
Resources Available.
Which people within your institution -- in addition to your team members -- can
provide some of the help or other resources you need?
E. Reports
Prepare to report a summary of your plans during the closing
session of this workshop. Also consider
how (campus or regional meeting?
telecommunications?) you might
provide a progress report to your colleagues from this workshop in a few weeks
or months.
V-A. INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET
[For TLT
Group’s “Why Bother?” Activity]
Name: Date:
Institution:
Application(s) of information technology:
“Why Bother?” categories addressed:
Issues or topics covered:
Teaching/Learning approach(es) used:
Intended teaching/learning results:
How different students will be enabled to learn in
different ways:
Related previous success(es):
Related special interests or abilities of project
leader(s):
Goals for implementing or improving this project:
Anticipated obstacles:
Resources needed:
Evaluation/Assessment Topic/Question/”Triad”:
Schedule
Of Next Steps (First few should be very modest):
Possible partners:
V-B. INSTITUTIONAL TEAM PROJECT WORKSHEET
[For TLT
Group’s “Why Bother?” Activity]
Institution: Date:
Team Contact Person:
Name: Title:
Email: Phone:
Team Members
Name: Title:
Name: Title:
Name: Title:
Name: Title:
Name: Title:
Descriptive Name for Team Project:
Application(s) of information technology used:
“Why Bother?” categories addressed:
“Content” (Issues or topics covered):
Teaching/Learning approach(es) used:
Intended teaching/learning results:
How different students will be enabled to learn in
different ways:
Related previous success(es):
Related special interests or abilities of project
leader(s) and other team members:
Goals for implementing or improving this project:
Anticipated obstacles:
Additional resources needed:
Evaluation/Assessment Topic/Question/”Triad”:
Schedule
Of Next Steps (First few should be very modest):
1. Action:
Intended Completion Date: Person
Primarily Responsible:
2. Action:
Intended Completion Date: Person
Primarily Responsible:
3. Action:
Intended Completion Date: Person
Primarily Responsible:
4. Action:
Intended Completion Date: Person
Primarily Responsible:
Possible partners (other individuals who might be
encouraged to join the project):
VI. FOLLOW-UP, EXTENDING THIS WORK
SEE WWW.TLTGROUP.ORG
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT MOST OF THE TOPICS BELOW.
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TLT
Coaching Partnerships: Develop
guidelines, schedules, external reminders, or communications vehicles that enable those who
participated in this event to establish new “TLT Coaching Partnerships”
with individuals who were NOT present.
A “TLT Coaching Partnership” is a pair of people who help each
other take one step at a time to improve teaching and learning with
technology. The top priority for a
TLT Coaching Partnership is the pair’s comfort and willingness to work
together. Sharing some common
instructional goals is also helpful (e.g., interests in using the same
technology applications or teaching/learning approaches, teaching similar
courses, etc.).
o
Outreach: Ask each participant to identify one
person (not present at this event) who is highly likely to become an effective
TLT Coaching Partner. Ask each
participant to contact this person and invite him/her to form a Coaching
Partnership.
o
Alternative Outreach: Develop guidelines, schedules, external reminders, or communications vehicles that enable those
who participated in very small groups to continue serving effectively as
“coaches” for each other.
o
Support: Develop a structure to encourage and support the progress of
TLT Coaching Partnerships. Identify
objectives, topics, or tasks in which several TLT Coaching Partnerships share
an interest. Develop mechanisms for
helping Partners to establish and maintain progress on a schedule of
incremental steps.
o
Curriculum & Workshops: Develop a “curriculum” of supportive
activities to help the Partnerships.
Build on what you can learn about local faculty development program
activities – workshops, tutorials, online services, etc. – at your own institution and at similar
institutions.
o
TLT Fire Circles for TLT Roundtable: Develop an ongoing process – a series of
meetings – in which faculty members and others describe to each other recent
individual efforts that are achieving some of the benefits listed in your own
“Why Bother?” document. Ideally,
participants describe the accomplishments of others – and when appropriate,
publicly thank them for their accomplishments.
[This could be a regular activity of a local TLT Roundtable or similar
group. For an explanation of the “Fire
Circle” idea, see:
<http://www.tltgroup.org/gilbert/FireCircles9-7-01.htm>]
o
Evaluation/Assessment [Flashlight Program]: Provide training and support to enable
participating faculty members and other academic support professionals to
design and conduct studies to collect information that can help make decisions
about how to improve current efforts and modify plans for succeeding steps and
projects.
What else?
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