Uncomfortably educational: Teaching & Technology

While those of us in higher education and student affairs may consider this generation of students to be “digital natives,” students are not always accustomed to using technology as the medium for course assignments. Last semester I experimented with tech-based assignments in both an undergraduate and graduate level student affairs course. Both of these were introductory courses to the field of student affairs work and are foundations for the profession. As such, I framed the coursework around how the student affairs profession uses the ACPA/NASPA professional competencies to define the broad professional knowledge, skills, and attitudes expected of higher education and student affairs professionals. New to the 2015 competencies is technology as one of the core areas, which offered a great opportunity to experiment with assignment designs. I changed two specific assignments in each class from the traditional essay designs to requiring students to use online based or software platforms to present their work. First was an individual podcast to describe each student’s own application of student affairs philosophies, values, and ethics as it all informed their professional or student leadership identities. The second assignment required student groups to create a narrated video covering assigned functional areas within student affairs. What I share here are three observations from these courses that I learned from the students and my reflections on how this change addressed the new technology competency area’s foundational outcomes.

Don’t procrastinate and be prepared

The graduate class presented their podcasts earlier in the semester, so they had to offer the undergrads advice. Much of the tips centered on the logistics of how to use a particular software or online platform. More interestingly though was the advice to prepare and start much earlier than you would with a traditional assignment. They implied there was an accepted culture of student procrastination that bumped up against a larger learning curve of having to use a new platform. Most students recommended writing out a script over adlibbing. As one first year MA student so perfectly stated, Make a script. Why? Because if you fumble over something, you can just delete what you did and start over. Scripts make it better for both the listener and the writer, it doesn't seem like you're struggling for the right words because you already have your ideas written down. While avoiding procrastination and being prepared isn’t directly mentioned in the competencies, what is within the foundational level of technology competency area is that practitioners should engage in personal and professional digital learning communities. And while the two classes were not engaging digitally with each other, they did have to engage to support peer to peer learning about technology.

It’s “uncomfortably educational”

As one undergraduate resident assistant astutely pointed out, the assignments were “uncomfortably educational” because she said her generation was not taught how to use technology for academic assignments. Even though, in each course I had built in time for more technologically experienced students to present software options to the classes, students had to go outside of their comfort zone and teach themselves technological components. As shown in this anonymous comment on the graduate course evaluation, I thoroughly enjoyed the technology component of this course. I think it is definitely something Dr. Yakaboski should continue in future teachings; however, I had to learn a lot about certain technical pieces outside of the classroom, from youtube and google searches. This uncomfortably educational concept fits well with the technology competency’s foundational outcomes where practitioners should be able to troubleshoot software challenges and to use tech based tools to communicate and to incorporate technology into their own practice.

Tech based assignments lack relational interaction

Perhaps my next observation is unique to students who self-select into student affairs work and courses. The students whom I would identify as more extroverted or relational did not care for the tech based assignments as much as the more introverted students. Largely these students wanted to be able to tailor their presentations to the audience’s body language or reactions. And they just wanted to have an audience as some remarked that they felt awkward “talking to their computers” without people there. A group of Master’s students fixed this issue by getting together at one of their apartments to record their podcasts separately but in front of each other. They also recorded all of them chanting a quote by African American activist, Assata Shakur, which was placed at the end of each of their podcasts. Not only did this make for a powerful listen, it also added relational interaction into what might have been a solo project otherwise. This group demonstrated technology competency foundational outcomes by being adaptable in the face of a challenge to use tech tools and by incorporating their own identities to present an authentic digital identity. In conclusion, for the most part, by the end of the semester students reflected on their tech based assignments positively in the sense they felt that they had grown their skills and might use some version of these tools in their student affairs practice. In the moment, not everyone appreciated the learning curve. But perhaps that’s typical of growing pains, especially when new professional competencies are introduced.

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Tamara Yakaboski, Ph.D., is an associate professor of higher education and student affairs leadership at the University of Northern Colorado. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education where she also was a student affairs administrator. She has teaching and research specialties in higher education organization and administration, international higher education, women’s issues and student affairs. She serves on NASPA's Tech KC as one of the faculty-in-residence.