Module 5 - New Technologies "A Motivational Design"

I am familiar with an organization that underwent renovations. Prior to the renovations, the only visible signs of technology were a few random Macintosh PCs. The current administrator came to the organization with a vision to motivate teachers in order to implement change into a community where change had not been evident in decades. The mentality of the staff reflected technology innovations were never required or warranted in order to maintain a satisfactory rating within the district. Although based on a new classroom assessment tool, the organization is lacking proficiency to integrate technology into their classroom curriculum and it change would become inevitable. 

No longer surviving in historical traditions, their non-acceptance of technology would have a long-term effect on the organization's mission statement, “Providing academic excellence for all students.” The majority of instructors fail to effectively integrate technology as mandated by the state standards and newly created classroom assessment tool  (Clark, 2010). During an interview, the administrator identified the area of biggest concern among this assessment tool was teachers demonstrating knowledge of resources and technology.

Teachers were surveyed to gain insight towards the hesitation with technology. Based on the results, the common factors were identified as: a lack of hardware resources, maintaining the equipment already in possession, and providing adequate professional technology training. Less than 2% of the educators freely elect to participate in district technology training. Teachers collaborately agreed that trainings were pointless due to the event the resources must become available, properly maintained, and adequate training must be provided in order to demonstrate an understanding of resources.

 According to the Keller's ARCS model (as cited in Driscoll, 2005) there are four conditions to motivate learners. Attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction are essential in effectively meeting the motivational needs of organizations. Integrating interactive whiteboards during staff meetings and school advisory councils will serve to arouse a sense of mystery and trigger an attitude of inquiry (p. 334). Integrating technology is applicable to meet the instructional discipline relating to the demonstration of knowledge of the technology resources. In addition, techonology will provide opportunities to differentiate classroom instruction to meet the learning challenges of all students. To establish confidence for the organizational staff, it will become necessary to provide on site professional development training, as well as an ongoing support and accountability system. Building a support system will function to ensure the successful and effective integration of technology creating the confidence required by each member to make a successful transition (p. 336).

Lastly, grade level teams will be encouraged and supported to integrate one new feature of the interactive board during the next staff meetings. Allowing others to celebrate their learning development will assist in generating satisfaction (p. 339).

References

Clark, T. (2010). Florida standards: Florida Department of Education Retrieved from:              http://etc.usf.edu/flstandards/index.html

Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson

Education.