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Empowering Student / Advisor Relationships Using Technology

Lindsay Crawford

University of Southern Maine

Advising

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My Educational Tech Journey

Just for a little bit of background on me and my experiences with advising and technology-- I “started out” in my Advising role by working with some tools and “played around” with technology (including more service-oriented things like implementing appointment booking software within our Advising office). And even prior to that, I had done work in my graduate assistantship at Merrimack College where I worked with our ADA Academic Coordinator on alternative textbooks as well as affordable/free “assistive-tech” related apps and computer programs and teaching students how to leverage those apps and programs to succeed. A couple of years ago, I decided I wanted to get more grounding in my practice with technology and I’ve learned so much in the ever-changing landscape that is education and technology. I started learning more intentionally about Technology and Teaching by taking a course through our Educational Technology graduate program at UMaine called “Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age.” The tools and frameworks I learned in this course, along with the assessment-based practice we use in our office, helped ground my use of technology as a learning tool in my relationships with students.

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Some questions to consider...

Why is the use of technology important to your practice in Advising?

What different tools are you currently using in your practice?

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Enter COVID-19 and Remote Advising

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George Steele’s

Intentional Use of Technology (2014)

The approach I’m presenting today is grounded in the framework developed by George Steele. While I’m focusing today on his “Intentional Use of Technology” framework, it’s important to note some of the work dedicated to reflecting on Best Practices is on NACADA’s Clearinghouse/ NACADA Today archives. I’ve included a link to the Clearinghouse for Advising and Technology resources in the handout for reference, but this field of study is ever-growing. As a research nerd myself, it was really difficult not to include EVERYTHING in this presentation, but there is great work being done in this arena both in Advising and Education in general.

Steele’s Intentional Use of Technology came out of a 25 year study of Technology in Advising and focuses on the intersection of Engagement, Learning, and Service in Advising as it relates to the technological tools we implement including (but not limited to) larger institutional tools such as degree auditing software, external-facing websites, Student Information systems as well as more direct communication tools like email, Learning Management systems, and more.

Steele’s model also notes the FERPA line and things we do that are public facing vs. private (internal to the institution). Any time we integrate technology into our practice, a Student’s Right to Privacy MUST be considered. There are many resources out there to help guide this including online resources like CommonSense.org and your internal IT/ Compliance departments.

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“...the model draws our attention to the fact technologies are tools designed to perform specific functions. The closer those functions align with our goals for advising, the more effective our delivery of advising becomes. Furthermore, better alignment between the function of technologies and our advising goals helps us produce more effective data for the evaluation of student learning and program assessment.”

G. Steele, 2014

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Pedagogy and Frameworks

(outside of Advising)

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ISTE Standards

Standards for Students

Empowered Learner

Digital Citizen

Knowledge Constructor

Innovative Designer

Computational Thinker

Creative Communicator

Global Collaborator

For Educators

Learner

Leader

Citizen

Collaborator

Designer

Facilitator

Analyst

👍

ISTE stands for International Society for Technology in Education. This international membership association focuses on educational technology and has built a framework for educators to create innovative learning environments in the digital age.

Many secondary school systems have officially adopted these standards and they provide a great intersection with OUR standards as advisors with educators and digital age learning. They lay out standards for multiple roles in education, but today I’m focusing on Students and Educators.

The very first standard listed for students is Empowered Learner. This standard is the one I think most resonates with the work we do as advisors. The Learning Outcomes for this standard include: that students can articulate and set personal learning goals as well as leverage technology to reflect on the learning process. It also talks through using technology to seek feedback and build networks. The other standards are great to consider as we continue to focus on advising as teaching, but we don’t necessarily need to address all of these. However, it does help inform us as practitioners in engaging students via technology from a pedagogical perspective.

As far as the Standards for Educators (or in this case, Advisors), we’re focusing today on being “Learners” and Collaborators” as we explore different technologies and set goals for ourselves in the process of working towards achieving these standards. But it’s important to keep the conversation going amongst your colleagues and share resources not only with your professional learning networks at your institution, but globally as well. That’s how we keep engaged with the content to better help our students navigate the digital world and engage with us.

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“The SAMR Model.” by Lefflerd is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

I know we’re all jazzed up from being Empowered by those ISTE Standards, but there’s more to learn! The SAMR model is a great tool to use as you’re reviewing your current practices or developing new ones. It is based on a spectrum between enhancing practices you currently do (for example, transitioning from a handwritten checksheet to a digital checksheet) and transforming them (for example, using Trello or an E-Portfolio to create an advising plan for students with outlined tasks and goals). Not everything has to be transformative (nor should it be) so again, don’t feel like you need to use technology for technology’s sake. The SAMR model aligns with Steele’s Intentional Use of Technology to encourage us to use what we already know and do that supports students and integrate technology in an intentional way (whether it be to enhance our practice or transform our practice-- we’re not starting from scratch!)

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An Assessment Based Approach

NACADA’s CAS Standards
Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy
Developing Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)
Assessing effectiveness of technological practices in Advising

That being said, with new technologies emerging every day and as our networks have grown throughout this relatively remote time, it’s easy to get clogged up in the new ideas and practices that we are seeing from our peers and other offices. We can easily fall into this trap of trying everything out and “just going for it” and so it’s helpful to create Student Learning Outcomes when thinking about technology tools for use in Advising.

We know from NACADA’s CAS Standards that Assessment of Advising is important whether it’s a self-assessment or office-based assessment. Those familiar with Assessment in Advising and developing student learning outcomes are familiar with Bloom’s Taxonomy. Andrew Churches expanded Bloom’s Taxonomy with more verbs to help enable educators to define student learning outcomes in the digital age. Hence: Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy.

I’m going to go through developing your Assessment Map for the use of technology in your advising practice and I hope this approach will help as you more intentionally integrate some of these tools (or further inform the work you’re already doing!) It’s going to be a little bit of a “crash course,” so if you haven’t learned about Assessment in Advising, I highly recommend checking out NACADA’s resources and/or attending the preconference workshop on Assessment of Advising in a future conference if offered for more in depth practice! It’s a great way to learn step-by-step how to develop an assessment plan for continuous improvement/ growth in your advising office. As my boss, Dr. Beth Higgins, loves to say: “Gaps are Good!” If you’re already familiar with assessment, this will be a good review/ practice using it in the context of integrating technology.

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Developing SLOs

What do we want students to learn?

Example: As a result of evaluating their degree requirements through DegreeWorks, the Student will understand their path to graduation.

Let’s talk about Student Learning Outcomes. What do we want students to learn? What do we want them to know and do and value or appreciate from the Advising experience? To create a Student Learning Outcome, you can use Bloom’s Taxonomy to help identify the “action” - in this example, they will evaluate- and the activity associated (in this case, the Tech Tool/ Activity) and then identify the “Know/Do/Value” (their path to graduation). Pause the video here and use this example as a model to develop a student learning outcome surrounding one tool you’re already using in your advising practice. I’ve included a link to some of the action verbs for Bloom’s “Digital” Taxonomy in the supplemental handout to help if you’re having a case of “writer’s block!” Once you’ve written it down, continue the video!

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Applying SLOs to a Personal or Team Assessment Map

Benefits: Visual, Organized, Intentional

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It’s Your Turn!

Outcome What should be learned?	Platform/Opportunity What tool will be used to help facilitate the learning?	Timeline By when should the learning occur?	How-What? How will you know the learning is achieved? What evidence is needed?

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Tech Tool Examples

Collaborate: Wakelet, Padlet, Trello, Google Docs, Flipgrid, Pinterest�

Connect: Social Media, Zoom Video, Google Hangouts Meet, Remind�

Reflective Learning: Quizlet, Study Blue, Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics�

Create and Share: Powtoon, Screencast-O-Matic or Loom, Adobe Spark, Thinglink

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So what next?

Advising FlipGrid Community
Using Wakelet to collaborate on academic planning with students
Using Google Forms or Quiz function in your LMS for an Advising Scavenger Hunt

Other ideas? Tag #NACADAR1TECH or tag me @USMLindsayC on Twitter!

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References

Churches, A. (2008). Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy, 1–44. Retrieved from: http://burtonslifelearning.pbworks.com/f/BloomDigitalTaxonomy2001.pdf

Council for the Advancement of Standards. (2005). Academic Advising Programs: CAS Standards and Guidelines. Retrieved from http://standards.cas.edu/getpdf.cfm?PDF=E864D2C4-D655-8F74-2E647CDECD29B7D0

International Society for Technology in Education. (2000). ISTE Standards for Students. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education, retrieved from: https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students

Puentedura, R. R. (2013, May 29). SAMR: Moving from enhancement to transformation [Web log post].

Retrieved from http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/000095.html

Steele, G. (2014). Intentional use of technology for academic advising. NACADA Clearinghouse Resource Web Site:

http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Intentional-use-of-technology-for-academic-advising.aspx

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Thank You!

Contact:

lindsay.crawford@maine.edu

Twitter: @USMLindsayC