Feb 293 min read

I am change & a sense of urgency

I watched two videos, The Power of Words and The Behavioral Science Guys and both were powerful in their message about the resistance to change. To often, people become complacent and even comfortable with the way things have always been done. Change requires effort and an open mind. It only takes one person to initiate the change for everyone else to notice the benefits. In the Power of Words video, it only took one passerby to notice the ineffectiveness of the blind man’s sign. There was nothing wrong with the sign, it was factual but that was all. The change the passerby made instilled the same message but added a little something extra. The new message now appealed to the emotional side as well as the factual side. It is too easy to impart messages using only the facts. In fact, when we are taught to write reports in school, we are told to write the facts first. I believe students (people in general) are afraid to write their opinions for fear of: getting it wrong; or even making a controversial statement that they will later have to defend. It’s easier to stick to the facts and be safe.

As we saw in both videos, words do make a difference. Discovering the right words and the right time for delivery in each situation is crucial to the success of the overall message. To influence people, lecturing them about the benefits of what you are introducing may not be the best tactic. In fact, the BS guys proved in their experiment that changing the delivery made a big difference to the success of the message. Keeping this experiment in mind, finding the right tactic to deliver the message of change I want to impart in my program is crucial to its overall success. In my literature review, I ran across a couple of labels that stuck with me: Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. I want to assume that my target audience are mostly Digital Immigrants. Digital Natives are people who have been exposed to technology their whole lives in one form or another. (Szabo & Kopinska, 2023, pg. 1) But Digital Immigrants who were not born into the technology world tend not to be as technology savvy and may even resist fully integrating technology into their classrooms. Clearly, Digital Immigrants should try to meet their students, Digital Natives, in the middle by attempting to appeal to their technology lifestyles.

The question is how to entice Digital Immigrant Educators to utilize the vast amounts of technology available into their classroom? The answer: Providing Educators with demonstrations that prove the effectiveness of a technological device. The demonstrations should be engaging and influential coupled with free trials. The demonstration should also include testimonials from teachers who can advocate for a blended learning classroom and specifically for an educational application that has shown to increase student involvement, and student comprehension. Additionally, the testimonials need to address the amount of work it takes for a educator to become proficient in the application as well as the ease of use.

Using a video platform to engage Educators is the best way to entice them to utilize technology in the classroom. Demonstrations and testimonials are the best way to introduce technology / an educational application into the classroom. Getting the Educators excited about teaching using new technology is the first hurdle and the second is actually getting them to launch the new program. “How to videos” and online chat groups are a great support to educators who are not technology savvy (Digital Immigrants). Messages like … “don’t get left behind” … “keep up with today’s changing world of education” and other similar messages can be embedded into the videos to create a sense of urgency in the educator and hopefully will prompt them to begin their own journey into a technology friendly / blended classroom.