Page 18 - Educational Technology A Primer for the 21st Century

1.1 Introducing Educational Technology 5
emphasized herein. The reason for emphasizing attitudes and values is that they
play a critical role in motivation, and motivation is critical to success in nearly
every human endeavor and especially critical in the challenging domain of edu-
cational technology. The hope is that those who use this primer will develop an
attitude exemplified by this statement: “I know we can improve learning, instruction
and performance in this situation.”

1.1.2 Initial Motivation

Stories and other forms of narrative can be useful in providing context as well as
motivation. Here is a story that actually occurred.
This story involves a middle school student (Charlie) who was blind and par-
tially deaf from birth. Charlie wanted to learn to swim during his summer vacation.
A volunteer high school student lifeguard agreed to work with this student over a
two-month period, three days a week, an hour or two each day. The student life-
guard was told that Charlie probably never would learn to swim but just being in the
pool and doing something enjoyable would be good for him. The first week or two
served to confirm that advice. Charlie enjoyed being in the cool water on a hot
summer day and spent most of the time walking around in the shallow part of the
pool, occasionally dunking his head under water with the help of the lifeguard.
After two weeks of getting used to being in the water, Charlie asked in difficult
to understand broken words and gestures when he was going to learn to swim.
Charlie wanted to swim. The lifeguard then decided to take Charlie’s desire seri-
ously, in spite of the parents saying not to try something so difficult for Charlie. The
lessons started with kicking strokes with Charlie holding on to the edge of the pool
and the lifeguard holding Charlie in a horizontal position. The following week, this
was practiced in deeper water away from the edge of the pool. At the end of the first
month, Charlie had learned how to say afloat for a few minutes by kicking his legs
while in a vertical position in deeper water, with the lifeguard nearby to encourage
him. The adult supervisor of the swimming lessons was somewhat surprised at
Charlie’s progress and encouraged the lifeguard to continue.
To shorten the story, at the end of the second month, Charlie was able to swim,
somewhat awkwardly, from one side of the pool to the other—not the length of the
pool, just the width which was about 10 m. The last day involved the parents of the
children who had been taking swimming lessons. Charlie’s parents came and were
amazed to see him swim the width of the pool, which was something that no one
really thought he would be able to do. Sometimes, one can do more than is expected
by others. In this case, the local swimming community (including the lifeguard and
swimming supervisor) supported Charlie’s strong desire to learn to swim.
The point of this story is to emphasize the role that desire plays in achieving
outcomes. Desires need to be heard, accommodated, and supported to the extent
that is reasonable in a given situation. From the instructor’s perspective, the rele-
vant attitude was to help the learner, Charlie, achieve his goal. Teachers and trainers
can help learners develop an appropriate attitude—in this case, the desire to master