A Senior Faculty Member Approaches Technology by Denise Lindstrom

A Faculty Member Decides to Change

"The process of change for the teaching profession between 1990 and 2020 will be painful for most of the existing teaching force, however enterprise will be rewarded and leaders will emerge at all levels among teachers" (Hargraves 1997).

This case study relates the change process of successful senior faculty member in the Department of Education at a major mid-western university. Specifically, this faculty member learns how to create Power Point slide shows to replace overhead transparencies in his lectures. It needs to be noted that convincing senior faculty members to use newer technologies in their teaching practices can be especially difficult. In the first place, it is not required of them and in the second place; it is extremely time consuming. Teachers who decide to go through the painful process of change on their own initiative need to be commended. It demonstrates their commitment to life long learning not only to their peers, but just as importantly, to their students. This kind of modeling by teachers is just the sort of thing that needs to occur to allow successful and widespread integration of technology into education.

Faculty Profile

Geoff had been teaching in the Iowa State Special Education department since 1977. He received his doctorate at the University of Michigan after he spent seven years as a special education teacher in both the elementary and secondary grades. He began to use computers first as "decoration for his office" but then, like me, had learned to use them for word processing and e-mail.

Geoff learned to use his computer like most teachers, independently. He had made it a goal to learn one new thing everyday until he could use his computer to write and print documents. It took him three weeks to do this. Geoff had gone to two computer workshops provided by the technical support community at the university. He didn't find them helpful because he felt they were geared toward people who had more experience with computers than he had. They were either "over his head or didn't have anything to do with what he needed to know." Geoff decided that he wanted to learn PowerPoint because he had seen other colleagues around him use it and he felt it presented information more clearly and effectively. He also felt that it was what students expected these days.

Student Mentor Profile

I entered the mentoring program at Iowa State as a first semester graduate student in Curriculum and Instructional Technology. For the previous three years I had been a sixth grade teacher in Oakland, California and in the process had become intrigued with the use of computers in the classroom. My use of computers had been limited to basic word processing and e-mail but I had seen some of my colleagues begin to use computers for multi-media and Internet related activities with their students. Teachers using computers in this way were still very much in the minority, but it was easy to recognizing the positive and engaging impact this kind of teaching was having on students.

When an opportunity arose that allowed me to go to graduate school I knew immediately that I wanted to focus on Instructional Technology. Though my computer skills were limited, I was offered a teaching assistantship in an undergraduate course designed to teach prospective teachers how to integrate technology into the classroom effectively. Starting with my first day, my technology skills began to increase rapidly. I was immersed in an environment where everyone used computers as a tool for instruction and everyday tasks. When it was suggested that I might benefit by enrolling in the mentoring program, I was hesitant. I was convinced I had nothing to offer in the way of aiding in the development of anyone's technology skills. However, after the first class meeting I began to feel better about my abilities to serve as a mentor. It was stressed that we were not expected to act as experts but that the mentor-mentee relationship would be one of shared growth. It has been observed that "Prima Donnas and stars rarely make good mentors. They can be intimidating and off-putting. Knowledge and skill are less important than empathy and nurturing qualities."(Mckenzie, 1998) I had empathy, especially for anyone who felt that one wrong move with a computer and all your efforts could be instantaneously wiped out.

It wasn't as if the skill level of the mentors and mentees were not taken into consideration. The professor of the class had recruited the faculty members and had an idea of the computer skill or program which each of them wanted to work. The faculty members were then paired with the mentors who had at least some technology knowledge in the area they wished to pursue or were at least interested in gaining the same skill as the faculty member. So it seemed natural that I would be paired with Geoff. I had created and given my own first PowerPoint presentation just a week earlier and was eager to become more proficient with the program.

The PowerPoint Sessions

Geoff and I began our mentor-mentee relationship with much in common. We both had about the same level of experience with computers and we were both had a desire to become more technologically savvy in order to improve our teaching. I was still nervous about my lack of expertise in PowerPoint, but Geoff proved to be understanding and patient with the process. It was clear he understood the nature of the relationship.

We were learning together and he did not expect me to know all the answers or hold his hand. We spent an average of one to two hours a week working together on PowerPoint. I think Geoff found me most useful because I provided him with a regular, set aside period of time that was dedicated to learning the new technology. I was also useful because I took it upon myself to find the answers to problems that we could not figure out together during our sessions. I did this by either reading the program manual, or, more often, tracking down a person who was more knowledgeable.
At our first meeting we set the goal to create a presentation for one of his lectures and to present it. In the beginning I felt that this goal would be accomplished in a month or so but I was wrong. This experience has impressed on me the incredible amount of time and energy it takes for a teacher to make a switch to a newer form of technology. Learning the software was only a piece of the challenge as we had to deal with numerous unexpected hardware issues and basic classroom organizational dilemmas.

One of the hardware issues was that in order to show a PowerPoint presentation in Geoff's lecture hall we needed to use a laptop. That led to the need for a zip drive to download the presentation created on his desktop computer and then to upload the presentation to the laptop. This led to the discovery that we needed special software that allowed the zip drive to function on Geoff's desktop computer. This discovery was made during a session in which we crashed his computer at least five times. Frustrated and frantic, we sought help from the Technical Support people downstairs in the College of Education who patiently showed us where to get and how to load the specific software needed. Through all this Geoff maintained the mindset that this was a learning experience for the both us, which helped alleviate my nervousness about my own technological shortcomings. And the positive side to all this was that it connected Geoff to more people who could help him with other technological problems as they arose.

Geoff had been using an overhead projector for years to deliver his lectures and had a manila folder full of overhead transparencies. Part of his normal preparations for lectures entailed shuffling through this folder of overheads to find the specific overheads needed for that day's lecture. While our initial goal was to create one slideshow for one lecture, it soon became our task to reorganize and transform all the overhead transparencies into digital slides and then create individual slideshows for the lectures. This task leads to our first organizational issue and once again proved to be more difficult than I had originally perceived. Geoff was not comfortable with predetermining how much material would be covered in a lecture. His style dictated that the amount of material covered was determined upon students' questions and interactions. So instead of organizing the slides into shows for each individual lecture we decided to organize them by topic, which gave Geoff the freedom he needed for his lectures.

After that decision was made, another frustration came to light. This was the realization that this task was not a matter of simple direct transfer of information from transparency to slide. By it's very nature a PowerPoint slide requires different size chunks of information and if we were going to go through all the effort of transferring the information, we might as well take PowerPoint to its full potential and add graphics and animation. After all, this is one of the important features that makes PowerPoint a more effective medium for the delivery of information. It has the ability to address visual and audio learning styles as well as capture the attention of today's digital age students.

After we had nailed down the basics of choosing background, templates, adding slides, editing slides, viewing slides, finding slide templates, explore the graphics library and preset animation we were ready to make slides. With all the options to consider the process was slowed down considerably. We only averaged about three slides a session. While the process was enjoyable Geoff had nearly one hundred overhead transparencies. I began to worry that he might be discouraged by the amount of time it was taking to create slides. Then came the day we discovered laser preset animation. The text came searing onto the screen a letter at a time with a sound that reminded us of Luke Skywalker's light saber bringing down his dark side enemies. This effect added to the slide addressing negative reinforcement convinced us that our efforts would be rewarded. Geoff looked at me, smiled, and said, "they'll remember this one".

Making a Decision to Continue the Mentoring Process

As the semester came to a close Geoff and I mastered the intricacies involved in making PowerPoint slides, organizing PowerPoint slides, and printing Power Point slides. But we have not met the original goal of actually presenting with PowerPoint slides. We had come such a long way and we were so close to meeting our goal that I had hope Geoff would want me to continue mentoring him next semester. As it turned out he had hoped I would be able to continue also. It was as if we were in the middle of a collaborative project that would suffer if one of the members chose not to continue. I knew exactly what Geoff needed in order to start off the next semester in order to have his lectures complete with PowerPoint slides.

Reaching The PowerPoint Goal

This semester not only entailed that I continue to work with Geoff to create slide shows, I also accompanied him to his lectures to help set up the laptop and help with other technical difficulties involved with the projector, the laptop computer and the PowerPoint program.

In anticipation of starting the new semester with PowerPoint supported lectures, I had ordered a remote mouse for Geoff's use. Geoff had been concerned about getting trapped behind the computer in order to advance the PowerPoint slides as needed. The remote gave him the freedom necessary to interact with his students and still run the slideshow.

In the beginning I took responsibility for transferring the slideshows from the desktop computer to the laptop computer and setting up the laptop in the lecture hall and making sure the projector was running properly. After Geoff became comfortable with running the PowerPoint slideshow, I gradually showed him how to do all those things.

For a while I arranged for a fellow T.A. to go with Geoff to his lectures if for some reason I couldn't make it. Even though I felt he was capable of performing the whole task on his own, he expressed a considerable amount of anxiety at the thought of it. After about eight weeks there came a time where it wasn't possible for either I or someone else to accompany him to his lecture. He was going to have to do it alone. The day before we went through the process to make sure he was ready. I think I was as nervous as he was. I didn't want him to experience failure or become so frustrated with the technology that he would choose to give it up. When I heard he had gotten applause from the students after the lecture I felt overjoyed. We had accomplished our goal. Geoff's first successful solo PowerPoint presentation concluded my first successful technology mentoring experience.

Geoff's Perspective

I am a professor special education and have been a faculty member for more than twenty years. The opportunity of having a graduate student in instructional technology mentor me in the use of Power Point was immediately appealing. I teach an introductory course each semester with an enrollment of about 200. I have always relied on overhead slides for supplementing my lectures. For several years, I have been interested in developing skills to use Power Point to improve the quality and aesthetic appeal of my classroom presentations.

I have been accessing the Internet and e-mail on a regular basis since about 1993. My learning experiences were slow, tedious and frustrating. I learned that I am a fairly concrete learner of technology, and I need "hands on" kind of assistance. I did not benefit from two short on-campus courses designed to help novices. Rather, I learned to use e-mail and the Internet by learning one skill a day from a colleague. Within, three weeks, I developed some very limited functional computer skills. The prospect of having a mentor provide instruction in my office, on my computer, is exactly what I needed to sharpen my technology skills and learn Power Point. Further, the thought of having a mentor to call on for problem solving has increased my comfort level in learning to use Power Point.

My mentor and I usually meet on a prearranged twice-weekly basis in my office. Each session lasts about an hour. This has been happening for more than six months. My initial goal of receiving mentoring was to become adept at preparing and presenting Power Point slides. I am on the way to my goal, but I am still very dependent on my mentor for problem solving and learning new techniques to implement Power Point.

My experiences in learning Power Point have been very positive and reinforcing. There have been periods of frustration, but these are short term and usually resolved after consultation from my mentor. I view the mentoring relationship as a learning experience for both of us, and do not expect "magical" progress.
The first few mentoring sessions involved familiarizing me with the virtues and attributes of Power Point and some of the logistical basics necessary to setup Power Point slides. My mentor prepared "how to" listings of Power Point basics including creating a new slide show, adding clip art and preset animation. The listings are similar to recipes with specific steps. I have the steps taped on a bookshelf adjacent to my computer. These step-by-step listings, however, have not replaced my need for "hands on" assistance.

Over the ensuing months, I have converted old overhead slides to new Power Point slides and have created new slides from new material for the course. For a number of weeks, I required the presence of my mentor to prepare either type of Power Point slide. This meant that my mentor spend many hours sitting along side my desk and watching me prepare new slides and occasionally answering a question or redirecting me in order to problem solve. At the time, I perceived this experience to be arduous and boring for my mentor. Then slowly, I began to attain the skills necessary to prepare Power Point slides independently. A full fall semester, 16 weeks, was used for me to develop "entry level" skill necessary to begin to make Power Point presentations, on a regular basis in spring semester.

For nearly four weeks, my mentor accompanied me to class on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, in addition to the usual mentoring in my office for two hours per week. My most frustrating moments occurred when my mentor and I had difficulty activating Power Point in the presence of 200 students. This happened in two class sessions as I recall. After that initial "bumpy" start, the two of us successfully provided Power Point Presentations to class.
Then one afternoon my mentor informed me of a previous commitment and that I would be doing "Power Point" alone at the next class meeting. This prospect raised considerable anxieties, but "nothing bad happened." Whew! In fact, the class applauded when I appeared without the mentor and successfully showed the first Power Point slide. This was a time of celebration for me and I immediately told my mentor. Clearly, the two of us deserved the applause. After this solo experience, my mentor began providing on site assistance on a rather intermittent basis leading to my independence. There is a campus phone in the lecture hall, and I have occasionally used it in desperation to call my mentor, i.e., when I had difficulty turning on the support mechanism for the screen.

Conclusion

After reading Geoff's perspective on the mentoring experience he had with me, I am convinced in the theory that "there's great emotional support that comes from a live body who uses clear and non technical language and who has the social skills to make teachers feel good about their forays into this new strange land."(Technology Briefs, 1995) I'm using the phrase "this new strange land" to mean "technology integration into education." In a study conducted by Sean Joseph Smith and Blanche O'Bannon the working assumption is made that graduate students regardless of their technology expertise could offer support. This study involved using graduate students with little experience using PowerPoint to become mentors for faculty members in much the same way I had been for Geoff. Some findings in their study show how a person with the lack of technical expertise can still provide support in a technology-learning situation. Faculty members that participated in this mentoring program reported that having "someone meet with them on a weekly basis" and "the ability to practice on an on-going basis" along with the overall feeling that "the environment that the special education mentors created was no threatening. Instead of being considered the technology expert, many members commented on how they explored the complexities of the software together. They appreciated that the students were learning themselves and felt that they understood their inexperience with the Power Point application."(Smith & O'Bannon, 1999) These factors combined seem to outweigh the lack of technical expertise by the mentors and it even appears that the lack of technical expertise worked in their favor.

Geoff has expressed much interest in integrating technology into his teaching further by developing a web page for his course and possibly using an on-line classroom for some activities for his students. I think that Geoff's continued interest in learning technology is due to the positive learning environment that mentoring can create. Not only does it humanize technology, it provides learners with the situational learning experiences that create the greatest amount of relevancy for learners. As the mentor, it was often unsettling and stressful to have no idea what the day's meeting with Geoff might bring. There was little I could do to prepare for our time together. Our agenda was created as new challenges arose in order to meet our technology goal.

Epilogue

Geoff and I still continue our mentor/mentee relationship even though he has been paired with a new mentor for the Fall semester. He was given the use of a new laptop computer to use for his lectures and he needed some help to get use to it. I gave him a refresher session in loading the PowerPoint presentations onto the new computer. Geoff followed up on his interest in using the on-line classroom Blackboard.com. He is using it to communicate with his students using the e-mail features and to post his course procedures, expectations and class schedule electronically instead of using handouts. I helped him learn how to use these features and continue to support him when in runs into trouble using Blackboard.com. He is comfortable in letting me know when he needs help and I look forward to seeing him and being involved with his continued progress in using new technologies in his teaching.

References:

1. Hargraves, D. (1997). A Road to the Learning Society. School Leadership and Management. 17, (1). p.20.
2. Mckensie, J. 1998. Creating Learning Cultures with Just-in-Time Support. Staff Professional Development & Adult Learning for School Education Teachers [Online] http://staffdevelop.org/adult.html
3. Smith, J.,O'Bannon B. Faculty Members Infusing Technology Across Teacher Education: A Mentorship Model. TESE, Volume 22, No.2, 1999.
4. Technology Briefs. 1995. Technology: The Training of Staff. [Online] http://www.nea.org/cet/briefs/11.html