How can we foster change in our work culture?

Overview

When involved in leadership around technology in education, inevitably we’re going to run into change management issues, something that can come up in any sort of leadership role, regardless of whether we’re focusing on technology or not. In this chapter we’ll be looking at how we can think about change in our work / learning context and what it might look like in terms of ensuring everyone understands and is kept up to date on any changes as they happen.

Learning Outcomes

• Consider how communication strategies involved in the implementation of technology affect a rollout. (e.g., maria vs the principal)
• Understand the basics of change / project management with documentation
• Identify interested parties that may also need to be aware of this change and how they may be informed or provide insights into it.

Why is this important?

While we could just choose a new technology and put it out in the world and simply hope that everyone already knows how to use it, and everyone wants to use it, implementations and changes to technology may not always go as smoothly as we like. This is why it’s important to think about the strategy for implementing or trying new technologies, not just with regards to the technologies themselves, but with how our peers and colleagues, and ultimately end users (learners / students) will adjust to the change as well.

Key Readings

Howard, S. K. & Mozejko, A. (2015). Teachers: technology, change and resistance. In M. Henderson & G. Romeo (Eds.), Teaching and Digital Technologies: Big Issues and Critical Questions (pp. 307-317). Port Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.. https://ro.uow.edu.au/sspapers/1830

Ertmer, P. A., & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. (2010). Teacher technology change: How knowledge, confidence, beliefs, and culture intersect. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 42(3), 255-284.

Phillips, R. (2007) Pedagogical, institutional and human factors influencing the widespread adoption of educational technology in higher education. In: EDUCAUSE 2007: The Best Thinking in Higher ED IT, 23 – 26 October 2007, Seattle, WA. Retrieved from https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/12209/

Acceptance and Resistance

When any change occurs, there are always some who have reasons for resisting this change, especially when it comes to the use of technology. Technology is still a weighted concept in the minds of many educators, and with good reason – on top of keeping up with curriculum and other changes in the field, instructors are also expected to now integrate technology in an effective manner, which is a skill in of itself. Learning and becoming confident with specific technologies or even types of technologies takes time and energy, and many instructors may not have time to devote to this.

In the late 80s and early 90s, Davis and his colleagues developed the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)(Davis, 1989; Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989; Vankatesh & Davis, 2000). This model comes from a more general management perspective (as opposed to an education-centric one) speaks to two concepts around why people may or may adopt the use of a technology:

1. Perceived usefulness of the technology, meaning how a new user might understand how useful or beneficial it is to their work.
2. Perceived ease of use, meaning how easy it is to pick up and use – related to training, support, and the innate design of the technology.

In 2000 Vankatesh and Davis expanded this model (referred to as TAM2) to include more nuance to the main two concepts mentioned above.

Many instructors may feel that their students may know more about technology than they do, which is entirely possible and more often, probable. For this reason some instructors may perceive their authority as an instructor will be diminished or that they will simply look ‘stupid’ in front of their students when they don’t know how to use the tech, or the tech doesn’t work as they intended – after all, there’s a very real different between understanding a technology, practicing with it at home and actually using it in the classroom.

Some questions to ask in terms of how to ‘sell’ your colleagues on changes in the workplace can include the following:

• How can the technology benefit them?
• What do they need to become confident in using this new technology?
• What supports will be provided to them, and how will these supports be communicated to everyone?
• What is the timeline for change?
• What are the expectations for the change?

With these considerations, and thinking about how people can be supported during a change, we can actively (not passively) respond to the needs of our colleagues as they learn new skills.

Communication & Diffusion

We’ve already talked about how communication can be used in a technology implementation or roll out, but we also should be considering what information should be shared and the different perspectives that information should be shared from. Diffusion Innovation Theory (Rogers, 1962; 1996) is also something to consider as it relates to communication. In Roger’s work, diffusion is all about how certain channels of communication can gain critical mass, social capital and other factors can help to spread messages throughout a population in sometimes non-direct ways. This applies to adoption of innovation or the use of products too, so we cannot assume that all communication is simply provided unidirectionally from the originator to the individual, but it can also spread by word-of-mouth, social and professional networks, and many other social means (we’ll have a look at Roger’s theory in the next chapter). By purposefully planning a communication strategy, we can control (to some degree) how messages are received and shared, which can have an affect on the success of any project.

Let’s consider two different perspectives. As leaders of a change in technology in an educational setting, considering these two perspectives can help us think about what colleagues in different roles might need to know and when. If you don’t work in schools, feel free to apply different titles to the below roles (e.g., leader / manager, and instructor / trainer). Additionally, we should also consider how the implementation of a technology is being managed. In some cases a project manager may be in charge of everything related to the rollout, but in others, other leaders may be enlisted to support certain facets of the rollout such as technical or support / professional learning aspects.

Based on differing roles within an organization the information shared, how it is shared and when it is shared will differ. Do you agree with the different approaches taken above? What would you change about it to make it more effective?

Change Management

Change Management, often related to the practice of Project Management is all about…you guessed it – managing change within an organisation. One should be aware that change management is a field of practice that primarily focuses on the private sector, so many of the resources that are out there might need to be adapted to educational contexts. The video below (narrated by a text to speech software) does give a good intro change management, albeit from a corporate perspective.

Other videos that help to explain can be found here:

• Change Management Process by Professor Edward J. March (Dartmouth University, USA)
• What is Change Management (Training Video)

Visualising Change

One useful tool for visualising change is the Gantt Chart. Developed in 1917 by Henry Gantt, it is essentially a horizontal bar chart with tasks down the Y axis and time on the X Axis, showing all the tasks that need to be completed throughout the project. Check out the video below on how Gantt charts work. To create a Gantt chart, there are many free tools out there – you can even use shading tools in Excel or another spreadsheet app to create one.

Another tool you can use is a flow chart or mindmap. These can be digitally created using a tool like Miro, drawn in Word or Excel, or just made on paper.

Models of change Management

There is decades of research and insight into the process of change management, with many practitioners an scholars proposing many different models and approaches for how to manage change.

One such model developed by Dr. John Kotter in the mid-1990s offers eight stages to go through for planning and implementing change. Check out his website for more details.

1. Create a sense of urgency
2. Build a guiding coalition
3. Form a strategic vision and initiatives
4. Enlist a volunteer army
5. Enable action by removing barriers
6. Generate short-term wins
7. Sustain acceleration
8. Institute change

Collaboration and Coordination

When working to implement new technologies in an educational setting, we will always need to work with others to make this happen. Part of this work means identifying all interested parties, who may be able to constructively contribute to this effort through their expertise.

Information Technology

Colleagues who work in I.T. will always be invaluable in any implementation of learning technology as they are familiar with the technical infrastructure and how technology works in our institution, either at individual sites or distributed across multiple sites (e.g., state-level or city). For this reason, IT staff can help with the technical aspects of the implementation, as well as the timeframes and requirements for the project, considering security, bandwidth, and other needs.

Data Governance

As educational data, such as data related to the use and frequency of use of technologies by students becomes more commonplace (see Assessment, Evaluation & Learning Analytics for more), staff who work on Data Governance Policy and Practice are very important. Data Governance refers to the practices surrounding how educational data is managed, stored, accessed and analysed, which ties into practices around student privacy and ethics in the use of their data. Usually people who work in this space don’t do this full time, but come from other areas to serve on Data Governance committees and groups, and may come from Teaching and Learning, IT, or other areas. As the use of educational data and learning analytics is a relatively new area, colleagues who work in this area may not exist in certain contexts, or may be rare.

Student Support

Our colleagues who support students in any aspects of their studies should definitely be involved. Depending on our context, student support may take many different forms, but may include the following areas:

• Enrolment and Degree Planning Support
• Technology Support (usually linked with IT)
• Access and Inclusion support
• Health and Wellbeing support

Teaching and Learning

On the teaching and learning side of things, there are teachers and instructional / learning designers who are invaluable in the process of fostering change. These colleagues (we may even fall into this category as those leading the change itself) are typically the ‘end users’ of the technology, meaning they’ll use it every day. For this reason, they can provide a wealth of knowledge about their existing strategies and practices with regards to how any new technology can be folded into their workflows. Most importantly, they can share their perception of whether a change in technology is needed at all. Sometimes a need for change is driven by the market, or pressure from vendors to do so, so getting feedback in terms of what is useful and the needs that these folks have will be invaluable.

For example, we can ask if the technology we are thinking of implementing would even be valuable to them, or how they might use it or how it might improve their practice.

External Vendors

Most new technologies in educational settings are not built by programmers in-house, but are sourced from vendors that we usually need to engage with ourselves, for example Google, Microsoft, etc. These vendors can typically work with our IT staff and even other parties to ensure the implementation goes well and smoothly. Many vendors have dedicated staff who work on this side of things, as its in their best interests to deliver both a good product and a good experience for their users (teachers and learners).

Copyright, Privacy and Ethics

Related to Data Governance staff, sometimes there may be an individual or individuals you work with whose sole job is to look after these issues, but this will depend on where you work. These folks are always good to collaborate with, as they can give you a broad idea of what implications when thinking about implementing new technologies. though they may not have specific guidance with regards to the tool you’ve chosen, they usually know lots about government requirements and specific obligations our organisation might have with regards to being copyright compliant, protecting privacy and operating with an ethical framework when using specific tools.

Revisiting different perspectives

If we consider how Firaz or Maria can contribute to change and implementation of a new technology, take a look at the cards below. Does this align with our workplace / learning context? What would you add?

Reflecting on Change

One part of the process that is important to consider is reflecting on how our implementation project is going. By reflecting on how the process is going (as it’s in progress) can help us to be agile and respond to the needs of all parties as we go. We may, for example, learn of needs we never considered at the outset of a project, or may need to respond to updated support needs we weren’t aware of. Additionally, reflecting on our implementation once the it is ‘done and dusted’ can also help us to understand what went well and what might need to be improved for the next change we work on. Also, feel free to revisit the concept of Sustaining the technology from Implementing Technology in Practice.

Key Take-Aways

• Communication Strategies are important to consider when implementing a new technology for teaching and learning or administrative purposes.
• Considering change management processes and models can support how the change will happen at an organisational level.
• Involving key parties in the implementation of any change in educational technology can ensure that the rollout can happen with more buy-in and fewer hiccups

Revisit Guiding Questions

Consider all the different parties that you may need to work with to implement your chosen technology. How would we go about working with these parties to ensure the change goes smoothly, on time and what process would we follow when working with them?

References

By, R. T. (2005). Organisational change management: A critical review. Journal of change management, 5(4), 369-380.

Davis, F.D., 1989. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information
technology. MIS Quarterly 13 (3), 319–339.

Davis, F.F., Bagozzi, R.P., Warshaw, P.R., 1989. User acceptance of computer technology: a comparison
of two theoretical models. Management Science 35 (8), 982–1003

Kanter, R. M., Stein, B. A. and Jick, T. D. (1992) The Challenge of Organizational Change (New York: The Free Press).

Kotter, J. P. (1996) Leading Change (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press).

Luecke, R. (2003) Managing Change and Transition (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press).

Porter, E. (2006) Planning in (post)colonial settings: challenges for theory and practice. Planning Theory and Practice, 7 (4). pp. 383-396. ISSN 1464-9357

Rogers, Everett M. (1996). Diffusion of Innovations, 4th edition. New York: Free Press.

Venkatesh, V., & Davis, F. D. (2000). A theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: Four longitudinal field studies. Management science, 46(2), 186-204.