Educators are more than workers within educational systems; they are stewards of educational systems. They must analyze student performance data, identify patterns that inform targeted interventions and personalized learning plans, continuously develop the curriculum, set ambitious learning goals and use up-to-date pedagogical theory to adapt instructional strategies, act as advocates for educational policies that promote inclusivity and equity, and much more. Most educators deeply care about the learning and wellbeing of their students and colleagues. Given the chance, they will do whatever they can to make improvements to these ends. In this role as architects of change, educators deal with conflicting definitions of success, multiple stakeholders, complex causal relationships, ambiguous data, and intricate human factors. Amid all this, most educators and the educational systems around them are strained to the capacity of what their time, training, and budgets allow. The problem is not merely that they must perform demanding tasks, but more so that they must constantly implement improvements and interventions amid the complex challenges of the organizations in which they work. These challenges can be especially difficult in implementation of related education technology, which is continuously developing at sometimes rapid pace. Whether the context is an individual classroom, a school district, or a postsecondary institution, implementing beneficial human-technology partnerships requires attending to the needs and constraints of these classrooms, districts, institutions, and so forth as organizations and engaging in this work as a partnership with educators. This chapter lays out the principles and processes of developing successful educator-technology partnerships including key considerations for each step and an example protocol for engaging in this endeavor.
Professor at George Washington University
I am a Professor with Human-Technology Collaboration and Educational Technology programs at George Washington University in Washington DC. I have written 12 books and more than 100 articles, and I co-host of the Parsing Science podcast where scientists tell the stories behind their research. I am also the developer of the WeShareScience.com online platform for sharing research videos, and SciencePods.com where researchers can create free podcasts about their science. My research interests include human interactions with intelligent machines, needs, needs assessments, and instructional design.
Latest posts by Ryan Watkins (see all)
- Experimental Evidence That Conversational Artificial Intelligence Can Steer Consumer Behavior Without Detection - September 28, 2024
- Don’t be Fooled: The Misinformation Effect of Explanations in Human-AI Collaboration - September 20, 2024
- Implementing New Technology in Educational Systems - September 19, 2024