How Teacher Motivations Shape Digital Learning

How Teacher
Motivations Shape
Digital Learning
Renee Hobbs
Professor, Harrington School of Communication and Media
Director, Media Education Lab
University of Rhode Island USA
Email: hobbs@uri.edu
TWITTER: @reneehobbs
@reneehobbs #gaetc15

www.mediaeducationlab.com

SAVE THE DATE!
Summer Institute in Digital Literacy
July 23 – 29, 2016
Providence URI Campus

Graduate Certificate in Digital Literacy – Univ Rhode Island

PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING
What really motivates teachers to care about digital
learning
How teacher motivations shape their instructional
practices – with examples
Why respect for diverse educator motivations can
advance the effectiveness of professional development
and district-level collaboration in digital learning
Goals for Today’s Session

SKILLS & ABILITIES
➢ Knowledge about the Computer & Internet
➢ Digital Skills
LITERACY
➢ Online Reading & New Literacies
➢ Media Production / Youth Media
➢ Coding / Programming
TEACHING WITH
➢ Technology Integration
➢ Digital Learning
➢ Blended Learning
➢ Connected Learning
TEACHING ABOUT
➢ Information Literacy
➢ Media Literacy
➢ Internet Safety & Digital Citizenship
What Digital Learning Flavors have You Tasted?

PRINT Books, newspapers & magazines
VISUAL Images, videos, movies & TV shows
SOUND Audio, radio & recorded music
DIGITAL Videogames, apps, social media, Internet
LOVE IT HATE IT

LOVE HATE
PRINT VISUAL SOUND DIGITAL
How do your attitudes about media, technology and popular
culture shape your work with children and youth?

Teacher motivations shape the choices they make in
instructional practices that support digital learning

Motivations
for Using Media & Technology
in Education
12

www.powerfulvoicesforkids.com

TRENDSETTER
You’re tuned into pop culture and curious about kid
culture. Maybe your own most-loved popular culture isn’t
too far removed from that of your students. You are
inquisitive about the trends and hot topics that make up a
crucial component of the fabric of your students’ everyday
lives. You want school culture to meet kids where they live
with the popular culture they know and love.
TECHIE
You’re the educator who loves tablets, apps, programs,
plug-ins, widgets, websites, and other types of
educational technology because you have a passionate
curiosity about new tools. You see much potential to
engage students with the technology tools they love
and use in their everyday lives.

DEMYSTIFIER
As a teacher, you “pull back the curtain” to help
students see how various forms of information and
knowledge are constructed. You emphasize the
practice of critical thinking, helping students ask
good “how” and “why” questions.
WATCHDOG
You are a natural critical thinker, aware of how economic
systems and institutions influence our everyday lives,
particularly through the media we use. You want your
students and your peers to be more mindful of the ways
that things are bought and sold. Who owns and controls
the media content that we see, hear, read, and play with?
You feel responsible for giving your students a “wake-up
call” about the economic and institutional inner-workings of
the technology and the world that surrounds them.

TASTEMAKER
You want to broaden your students’ horizons.
You want them to have exposure to the kinds
of media experiences that put them in touch
with historical, aesthetic, and critical
appreciation. You know that a key component
of students’ future interactions will require
them to draw from a variety of cultural
sources both classical and popular.
ACTIVIST
As an educator, you want to make society more just
and equitable by promoting democratic participation.
You use media in the classroom as a catalyst for
students to understand how they might have a voice in
improving the quality of life in their communities and
in the world.

ALT
You are an inventive, perhaps “DIY,” teacher. You’re always
ready to challenge students with alternative ways of finding,
using, thinking about, and making media in the classroom.
Whether you use open source programs on school computers,
encourage students to start alternative clubs or magazines, or
introduce students to media that’s “off the beaten path” of
mainstream and mass media, you are likely a key proponent
of broadening students’ understanding of the many different
ways that people can communicate in the world.
MOTIVATOR
You are an inspiration, a catalyst for your students’ creative
energy. Students who have never felt comfortable speaking up
in class, participating in activities, or contributing to class
dialogue find it easier to speak their mind when you’re leading
the classroom. You see your role as helping students be the
best they can be.

PROFESSIONAL
You have high standards for your students’ work, and you may
be seen as the go-to media professional in your school. You
know how to push your students to understand and emulate
the professional conventions that is important to being taken
seriously in the world of media creation. To help students enter
the real world of media creation, you bring other authors,
professionals, and media-makers into your classroom to enrich
the learning experience.
SPIRIT GUIDE
You are a listener. You have a dedication to the social and
emotional well-being of your students, and want to make sure
that everything you do in the classroom connects to their
immediate needs to understand themselves and their lives.
Students likely find you trustworthy, and may even confide in you
in ways that they do not for other teachers. You know media is
just one facet of student life, and you want to engage with it to
help them through the highs and lows of life in all of its challenges
and opportunities.

TEACHER 2.0
You understand that participation in digital media and learning
cultures requires flexibility to new formats, modes of
expression, and participation in and out of school. You use
online or interactive versions of classic literature to explore
meaning behind texts. Teacher 2.0 teachers always trying new
things in the classroom and finding new ways to connect
learning to children’s culture.
PROFESSOR
You balance your interest in media and technology with a clear
connection to academic standards. You want to be sure that
media and technology are not used in the classroom for their
own sake, but to gain content knowledge. Multimedia
presentations, engaging websites, and educational technology
serve the purpose of helping you deliver the core content and
skills students need to master.

Pair-Share:
What’s Your
Digital Learning
Horoscope? @reneehobbs #gaetc15

Attention to teacher motivations
can help educators, technology
specialists and school librarians
better collaborate with teachers
to support student learning

Research on Teacher Motivations for Digital
Learning in Turkey
Turkey has embarked on one of
the world’s largest educational
technology projects by putting
interactive whiteboards and
tablets in thousands of
classrooms but without
providing consistent levels of
teacher training.

Model x2 = 72.46 p= .000x2 = 1501.90; df=33; p=.000
Source: Hobbs, R. & Tuzel, S. (2015) Teacher Motivations for Digital and Media Literacy: An Examination of Turkish Educators. British Journal of
Educational Technology.
205 39.3
78 15 219 30.2
182 25.1
80 11.5
328 47

Instructional Practices are
Associated with Teacher Motivations
Find, comprehend and
interpret content
Gain knowledge
and information
Examine the quality of
educational resources
Share ideas through
dialogue & discussion
Create, build or
make something
Reflect on expected and
unanticipated consequences
Develop and implement a
plan of action
Critically analyze how
messages are constructed

Reflection on one’s own motivations
may increase metacognition about instructional practices

Collaborative reflection may promote respect
and cultivate shared values

Respect for teacher motivations may help expand the
diversity and range of instructional practices and tools

Sensitivity to teacher motivations may contribute to the
design of PD with greater impact

People with creative freedom and
professional autonomy bring passion and
integrity to their work and life

People with creative freedom and
professional autonomy bring passion and
integrity to their work and life
Educators
V

SAVE THE DATE!
Summer Institute in Digital Literacy
July 23 – 29, 2016
Providence URI Campus

Renee Hobbs
Professor
Director, Media Education Lab
Harrington School of Communication & Media
University of Rhode Island USA
Email: hobbs@uri.edu
TWITTER: @reneehobbs
WEB: www.mediaeducationlab.com

How Teacher Motivations Shape Digital Learning

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