--- How to Make an Instructional Technologist - Johannes Cronje

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ARTICLES

Hi friends –

A warm hello again from Bangalore! An edited version of a piece I wrote on

Tamil Internet initiatives appears in this week's "Web Vision;" the full

version appears below. Comments, feedback, etc. most welcome as usual –

- madan

[Madanmohan Rao, Principal Consultant, Planetasia.com; Editor, Indialine -

www.indialine.com; Columnist, The Economic Times; Bangalore]

Indian Minister Announces $1.25 Million Initiative For Tamil Internet

The 75 million-strong Tamil speaking population worldwide has received a

boost in cyberspace thanks to a $1.25 million local language initiative

launched by the Tamil Nadu government to promote online content and

institutional backing.

The initiative, announced by Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi,

includes seed support for a state-level Tamil Internet Research Centre and a

World Tamil University.

The state government will also approach the International Unicode Consortium

for seeking membership and participation regarding inclusion of Tamil

encoding in Unicode, for platforms like Windows 2000.

Karunanidhi said the state government would work closely with the

governments and IT sectors of Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka on such

Tamil language initiatives; Tamil is an official language in these countries

as well. According to Manoj Annadurai, a speaker at the recent TamilNet '99

conference, less than two per cent of Tamil Nadu's population uses

computers, and most of this usage is in English.

The government's support for online initiatives and keyboard standardisation

drives in the local language is expected to be instrumental for tapping into

Tamil-speaking rural and home markets in India and the Tamil diaspora.

Numerous other initiatives for online Tamil publishing are expected to

coordinate their efforts with the Tamil Nadu government, said Naa

Govindasamy, a lecturer at the Nanyang Technological University in

Singapore, who has been working on a Tamil Unicode editor and multi-script

URL software.

Several semi-commercial efforts have thus far been launched to globally

coordinate Web publishing and online business among the Tamil population,

such as ChennaiOnline www.chennaionline.com, International Tamils

Motivational Movement www.intamm.com, TamilNet www.tamil.net and

TamilNation www.tamilnation.org.

Karunanidhi said the use of Tamil on the Internet is far greater than any

other Indian language. The first TamilNet conference was held in 1997 in

Singapore; the second one was held this month in Chennai, and decided on a

standardised Tamil keyboard based on the phonetic system as well as a base

character encoding scheme.

This initiative is accompanied by a major infrastructural drive to enable

widespread Internet access in Tamil Nadu via community centres and Internet

kiosks, with assistance from London-based World-Tel.

"A global Tamil village is in the making," said Ramasamy Chidambaram Pillay,

Minister for Education and Science, Mauritius.

Earlier, the Tamil Nadu government has announced that it would set up a

distance learning centre to teach Tamil in Mauritius through the Madras

University.

S. Thondaman, Sri Lanka's Minister of Livestock Development and Estate

Infrastructure, said that in three decades the global Tamil population would

reach 100 million.

"The challenge before the Tamil speaking community is to bring marvelous

innovations like the Internet accessible to a growing number of people," he

said.

Malaysian Public Works Minister Dato Seri S. Samy Vellu said Tamil is one of

the oldest classical languages in the world. Tamil software standards and

online education initiatives would help "create a competitive edge for

speakers of the Tamil language in the new digital economy."

TO CONTENTS

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How to Make an Instructional Technologist

Johannes Cronje

and some C@tts at the University of Pretoria

PREFACE

The idea for the title of this paper is derived from Lloyd Rieber's

contribution on "How I became and Instructional Technologist". Like Lloyd I

also traveled far and wide before entering the field, never as an

Instructional Technologist, but as the coordinator of a Masters' program in

computer-assisted education. What follows here then, is not theory, but a

reflection on six years of practice. So this paper will differ from the

"Academic" ones - in particular as it will show a great lack of references

to literature. Instead it will take the form of a case study and include

comments from recently manufactured instructional technologists. I am sure,

though, that, during the discussion which will follow, Tom Reeves, Lloyd

Rieber, Steve Tripp and others will probably supply us with ample references

either to back up or refute what I write. I am looking forward to that.

BACKGROUND

The Masters' degree in Computer-Assisted Education at the University of

Pretoria was instituted by Dr Renate Lippert, a University of Minnesota PhD,

in 1992. It was designed as a two nights a week course running for two

years, culminating in a mini-dissertation. The dissertation involved either

developing a piece of software, a series of lessons, or a critique of

existing material.

The curriculum for the coursework is available at

http://hagar.up.ac.za/catts/ole/Admin/medcaecurriculum.html

I took over from Renate in 1994. The format of the course was changed in

1995 to entail six block visits per year. A block consisted of four days.

Students belong to a class email listserver and to ITForum in order to keep

them in daily contact with the field - particularly since they are away for

periods between four and six weeks. A new intake to the two-year course is

taken every year. An intake has roughly 12 students, which means that at any

given time there are about 24 students enrolled. Students live

geographically dispersed in a radius of about 800 miles from Pretoria.

Students construct their own web-sites in response to tasks given. The home

page of the course is at

http://hagar.up.ac.za/catts/med.html

This site is mainly for use of the students, so, while you are welcome to

browse it, it is at your own risk. The information management, interface

etc, was organically grown and not "designed". Its purpose is for the

students to have a place to put their work, and for the lecturer to have a

place to tell them what to do.

So, do we manage to turn them into instructional technologists? And if we

do, how? When I started working on this paper I emailed 55 of the 120

graduates of the course and asked them the following:

a. Did we manage?

b. How did we manage?

c. What was it that made the course work for you?

d. What was it in the course that did NOT work for you?

e. What did the course eventually do for you?

Nine students responded and from their responses and my own reflection, the

following recipe evolved

THE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

1. THE RIGHT GOAL -- The outcome of our course is very clearly specified. We

want to produce consultants in the field of computer-assisted education. In

order to refine this goal, we have identified a number of role models. What

we are trying to "make" are variations of these:

a. Sylvia: Sylvia manages her own small software production company. She

produces tailor-made solutions ranging from traditional stand-alone CBT,

web-based intranet training, and Electronic Performance Support Systems.

What sets Sylvia's company apart is the strong theoretical foundation upon

which she builds her products.

b. Johan: Johan works for a large university and specializes in

Instructional Design. He produces information kiosks, multimedia CD roms to

support classroom instruction, web-based instruction sites. His strength

lies in his capacity for lean and elegant design.

c. Anne and Ilse: Anne and Ilse run a company that specializes in

implementing computers in schools. They take them through the entire process

from situation analysis, right through to implementation. This includes

curriculum development and staff training.

d. Annette: Annette runs a university-based further diploma in

computer-assisted education. She drew up the curriculum, designed the

materials, trained the presenters and is currently responsible for quality

assurance. She has about 150 students. They range from very sophisticated

teachers in very wealthy schools, to teachers in previously disadvantaged

communities, who have never worked on a computer before.

2. THE RIGHT OPERATING SYSTEM -- Since programs are dependent on operating

systems, this is of crucial importance. Until recently our team consisted of

four members with radically different approaches to teaching and learning –

as well as to the way in which students should be treated. The easiest way

to explain this is to use the metaphor of computer operating systems.

Annelise: Annelise works in DOS. She is stable, powerful, and reliable, but

not very user friendly. If she does not get exactly what she asked for, she

returns an error such as "Bad command or filename". She is able to process

with good speed and reasonable elegance, but prefers not to multi-task.

Knoetze: Knoetze works in UNIX. Powerful, versatile, able to do anything at

lightning speed, able to multitask, but seriously user-unfriendly and CASE

SENSITIVE.

Johannes: I work in Windows. Colorful, flamboyant, user friendly, able to

run any number of applications at the same time and likely to suffer from

memory overload, leading to a crash of the system and resultant loss of

data.

Cheryl: She works in Macintosh. Elegant, free of errors, well designed, but

very expensive and almost unobtainable in South Africa.

The advantage of having four very different individuals on the team meant

that students had to learn to analyze us as clients. I might want work

reflecting their creativity and their ability to generate diversity. Cheryl

might want to see evidence of elegance and leanness in design. A project

that would generate a distinction from me might return a C from Cheryl.

Patsy summarized this nicely in response to my question. "The key to success

lies not in the methodology/technology but in the creativity and flexibility

expressed by the instructors The role of diverse presenters with diverse

approaches helped giveinsight into the field."

3. THE RIGHT STUDENTS -- There seems to be a direct correlation between

students' determination to be allowed onto the course and their achievement.

Those who have to travel far seem to do better than those who are close by.

Those who had to fight to get in because they did not quite meet the entry

requirements seemed to do much better than we had expected. I try and select

students for what they have to offer. They are going to work in groups and

they will have to contribute to the group effort. Students are selected for

their technological skills, their academic skills or even their

interpersonal skills.

4. THE RIGHT PERIPHERALS -- Students are requested to subscribe to two

listservers. ITForum and the alumni association, C@TTS (The

Computer-Assisted Teaching and Training Society of the University of

Pretoria). ITForum gives them a depth of insight into the field, and C@TTS

lets them know their place in the country. The alumni serve as quality

assurers and possible employers. We rely heavily on them to help create new

instructional technologist. Another very important peripheral is the support

system of the students.

Pam lists the following:

"Having a good support system at the university in the form of the library

with whom one could work via email. Being able to communicate with fellow

students via email. Meeting other like-minded positive students, of a

similar age or background. "

5. THE RIGHT ATTITUDE -- What always amazes me about the course is the

amount of growth shown by students. This is directly related to the fact

that they get thrown in at the deep end and are expected to help each other

to swim. We expect two things: The ability to take responsibility for

themselves and the ability to take responsibility for their class mates.

Students who do best AFTER the course (I like measuring the success of the

course not in the pass rate, but in the rate of students who improved their

positions after completing the course) all have one thing in common - the

attitude with which they come onto the course. They have already decided

that they see a future for themselves in computer-assisted education. They

already have clear goals in that respect. They see the course as their

passport to those goals, and they see their lecturers as the ones who will

help them get those passports. We are not experienced, as traditional

lecturers often are, as barriers to the obtaining of the degree.

METHOD

1. MIX ALL THE INGREDIENTS TOGETHER -- The course functions very strongly on

the basis of co-operative learning (Johnson & Johnson, 1991). Students are

assigned to co-operative learning groups that are designed around a mutual

goal, individual responsibility and positive interdependence. The

composition of the groups varies with the nature of the task and we try to

make new groups for every activity so that every student will eventually be

in a group with every other student. We try to limit group size to three.

This results in a very strong group cohesion and the building of trust

within the larger group. Because the groups are re-composed often, it tends

to prevent the forming of cliques.

Likewise the lecturers are grouped together. We usually assign one lecturer

to a specific module, depending on interest and speciality, but sometimes

two instructors will co-teach a module. What also works well is

interspersing lecturers of different temperaments so that students can meet

different styles and to prevent their getting frustrated with any one

particular lecturer.

2. PUT UNDER PRESSURE -- We have found that, the more we expect from

students, the better they perform. Students who for some reason have been

exempted from pressure (i.e. by having a deadline extended) tend to expect

such lenience more often, with a resultant drop in the standard of their

work. The course is highly demanding, yet there have never been complaints

of too much work.

This is borne out by Linda's response to my question: "What was it that made

the course work for you?"

"The constructivist approach - Somehow this course got me to become

self-motivated. I wanted to learn more; I got excited about the prospect of

mastering the challenges that was thrown our way. I think that you

challenged us beyond the levels of comfort. Also the amount of work expected

of us, together with the variety in terms of assignments, kept the pressure

on and the interest going. I am by no choice of my own a procrastinator -

the more I have to do, the better I function. This course managed to

accomplish more than I ever thought possible (whilst still having another

life at home, and yet another one at work!)"

Much of the pressure comes from giving students tasks to perform which

involves consulting the literature, identifying a problem, designing a

solution to that problem, implementing it and reporting on what they had

learnt.

A typical task would be: "Design a spreadsheet that will measure the extent

to which any learning experience was designed according to behavioral and

constructivist principles, and plot the result on a matrix. Work through the

programs Active stats and Statistics for the terrified. Measure both

programs against your spreadsheet. Compare the results of the two

evaluations in an essay of 1000 words. "

In order to do this task, students have to get to grips with the literature

involving both behaviorism and constructivism. Moreover, because of the

task, they are to do so without prejudice to either of the two. Bettie's

spreadsheet can be viewed at:

http://hagar.up.ac.za/catts/learner/bettieb/98lro880/principles.xls

and the essay at

http://hagar.up.ac.za/catts/learner/bettieb/98lro880/statsbb.doc

It is important, however, not just to have pressure. The pressure needs to

be perceived to lead in some direction. The "Story" of the Masters in

Computer-assisted education is as follows:

Module One: Evaluation of software and its effect on learning. The rationale

for beginning with this module is that many students have never seen

educational software. This way they are quickly exposed to a selection of

good and bad software, while they are also introduced to the process of

evaluation research.

Module Two: Learning theory. If you have to look at the effect of software

on learning, you need to know how people learn from a behaviorist and

constructivist point of view.

Module Three: Teaching theory: If you know how people learn, you need to

know how to make that learning happen individually and co-operatively.

Module Four: Drills, tutorials, simulations, and games, word processors,

spreadsheets, databases, graphics and presentation packages. - The tools of

the trade.

Module Five: Design and development. The second year has optional courses

for specialization. (See the link to the curriculum above)

3. ALLOW TO SIMMER -- Co-operative work, supported by a listserver, leads to

a very close relationship between students and their instructor,

particularly since the instructor is part of the list and reads every

message. The temptation is there for the instructor to answer every query.

Moreover, the pressure often causes small explosions in the group. It is

amazing how well the group is able to sort out its differences without

lecturer intervention. As Barry puts it:

"We managed because we had to and wanted to. One of the big factors towards

success was the fact that we competed and worked together and although this

might seem contradictory it worked as we knew that we had collaborate as

there was so much to do and too little time to do it in, much of which you

experience in real life. The other thing was that most people came to the

course because they wanted to and were therefore overly enthusiastic and I

had the feeling that some that exuberance at being able to do something new

and exciting kept us going."

A further advantage of holding back is that it allows students to develop

their own opinions. Barry again.

"For the first time at university I had a voice, I could contribute, I could

think about new things, I made new things, I found out about new things and

finally I was able to change my whole career."

4. STIR REGULARLY -- In order for students to develop into consultants it is

necessary to force them to take issue with various aspects. This we tried

with various exciting debates. Notably a debate in which we invited some

members of ITForum to participate. We ran a listserver-based debate on the

Clark's (1994) position that "Media will never influence learning" The

complete debate is available on

http://hagar.up.ac.za/rbo/construct/media.html

5. TURN THE WHOLE THING OVER -- The project-based nature of the course means

that the students are really the ones who produce knowledge, not the

instructors. This worked best in an instance where a student wanted to know

where he could find a "Who's who" of Instructional technology. I asked on

various bulletin boards and ITForum and found that none existed. Two months

later I instructed the student, together with two others, to construct one.

The result is at

http://hagar.up.ac.za/catts/learner/m1g1/whointro.html

Patsy concurs with that as follows:

"The processes that students experience in becoming IT's needs to be

grounded in the actuality of using the tools and materials of IT. Viau(1994)

contends in relation to this type of learning, that this active, hands-on

approach results in an educational experience that is coherent in its

context and results in usable and valuable products. (Am concluding here

that an IT professional is one product of such a process.)"

6. ADD SUGAR TO TASTE -- From time to time students come up with work

greatly in excess of what was expected. We try not only to give credit to

such students, but also to ensure that the credit goes beyond the local

sphere. When Johan, Ari and Barry constructed the "Who's who of

instructional technology" we published its existence far and wide. It has

since been selected as 1998 INTRO awards winner and a Links2go Educational

Technology Key Resource.

7. COOL DOWN RAPIDLY -- As you will see from the comments of the students,

they tend to be very enthusiastic about their achievements. By the end of

the second semester this develops into an attitude of self-righteousness and

such pride that they believe that they are the only ones who know anything

about the field. Then they start writing messages to ITForum belittling the

attempts of anyone else. It then becomes necessary to sit them down and

explain that we are all looking for some bit of truth, and that there is no

such thing as completely right. Dolf refers to this as a "Good balance

between kiss & whip from lecturer group".

9. REMOVE IMPURITIES -- The lecturer is not the only one who cracks the

whip, though, students can be harsh in their criticism. It is important to

take note of these when one designs for the next year. Here is what they say

they did not like:

Maybe this is the most important part of this article. Throwing students

into the deep end can be highly traumatic as Pam points out: " The Authoring

session did not work because I did not have enough skills, at that time, for

what was required. Most stressful." Linda concurs: "My limited experience

with technology held me back at first. Not only did I have to complete the

tasks and projects, but I also needed to learn how to use the applications.

With the bulk of my experience in the field of education, I had only limited

knowledge of word processing when I enrolled for the course. I desperately

needed a bridging course to bring me on par with the rest of the

'technoboffs' in the class."

Linda adds a caution about co-operative learning: "I learnt a lot from

working in groups - mainly incidental learning - but I hated having to

depend on others to produce their best. I hated having to negotiate

everything. I hated working together with a self-proclaimed behaviorist on a

constructivist assignment! I hated not being able to do everything exactly

as I wanted".

Jill agrees: " being sometimes put by default into groups with students who

did not pull their weight, thus detracting from the efforts and results of

all of us".

In spite of this, Barry calls for more peer contact: "I would have liked

more contact as I liked the face-to-face contact because of my verbal

learning style and the fact that the discussions and group work served as

catalysts for new ideas .

8. GARNISH AND SERVE -- In South Africa the fields of Instructional Design

and Instructional Technology are relatively unknown. Not many Universities

take it seriously, and it is usually found as a sub-section of something

else. So, when you have made your Instructional Technologist, it is also

your job to make her attractive. We try to attend just about every training

and educational conference in the county to speak about what we are doing.

Fortunately a number of alumni are involved in the Bureaus for Academic

Development at Universities and Colleges and they have also taken up the

challenge of publicizing their skills and the skills of their fellow alumni

far and wide. This has led to a country-wide network of alumni who create

work for each other - and who constantly refer new students. Thus, if one

wants to measure the success of one's training at the highest level as

Kirkpatrick (1979) suggests, one needs to measure the impact of the course

on its participants and their environment, rather than just look at the

number of graduates, or even just at their response to the course. This is

why I asked the question "What did the course do for you?". To which some

responses were:

Patsy: " I consider that the grads of the course can take their place in the

IT field with confidence locally and internationally".

Barry's case brings a further problem: " I would also suggest that the

dissertation be started almost immediately as I never got time to complete

it - I got a new job before the end of the course and never had enough time

after that."

Jill shows that we achieved exactly the outcome we were looking for:

"Lifelong friends, associates and contacts. A source of advice, help and

cooperation. Confidence to attempt the design and development of training

material in fields in which I first have to master the content...Sufficient

contacts in the real world of business, in order to establish my own

business, which I would never otherwise have attempted. "

So much for the garnish. The SERVE part, is the service provided by the

lecturer. The students do it for their careers. The lecturer does it for the

money. It is our JOB to make them instructional technologists, so while one

is tempted to consider oneself the supervisor of the students, the success

of the product ultimately depends on how well you were able to serve the

needs of the Instructional Technologists in the making.

CONCLUSION

This then, a perspective from the southern tip of Africa. I offer it as a

case study. Much of it will sound familiar to you. Other aspects may make

you angry. Please let us hear of your successes and lessons learnt as you go

about making instructional technologists - or as you suffer while becoming

one.

REFERENCES

Clark, R.E. 1994. Media Will Never Influence Learning Educational Technology

Research and Development, (42)2, 21-30

Johnson, D.W. & Johnson, R.T. 1991. Learning Together and Alone. New Jersey:

Prentice Hall.

Kirkpatrick, D.L. 1979. Techniques for evaluating training programs.

Training and development journal. (June 1979): 178 - 192.

Viau, E.A. (1994). The mind as channel: A paradigm for the information age.

Educational Technology Review. Fall/Winter, 5-10.

TO CONTENTS

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Telematics for African Development Consortium

P.O. Box 31822

Braamfontein

2017

Johannesburg

South Africa

Tel: +27 +11 403-2813

Fax: +27 +11 403-2814

neilshel@icon.co.za

www.saide.org.za

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