Activity three: critical incident using Hagarty three-step reflective framework
1.1 The experience: this week I am describing a critical incident involving a technological hitch. I take three tutorials a week for the first year Applied Psychology class where we discuss the on-line learning material and explore some of the learning concepts in greater depth. We had completed the discussion part of the tutorial and I was loading up the DVD that showed footage of some of the experiments used to demonstrate Piaget’s theory of child development. I had viewed the disc before coming to work that morning and had make extensive notes and a set of visual learning questions based on its content, so I was all fired up and ready to go!
However, the disc was slow to load but eventually started to play. It ran for a couple of minutes and then kept freezing.
1.2 The decisions I reloaded the DVD and started the process again but it still did not work properly. The students at this stage were chatting and getting restless and I felt embarrassed and powerless. I asked if any student in the class could assist. A student came to the front and tried to get the DVD to play but it still did not work.
Disappointed, I then changed tack and tried a second DVD that broadly related to the topic. This played and we were able to see some examples. I made notes on the board as the DVD played. We discussed the DVD content, highlighting examples from the alternate DVD.
What did I do? I kept calm and worked through a trouble shooting process. I then asked for help.
What knowledge helped me? From past experience with using equipment in different teaching venues, I had learned that you should always bring a back up resource or activity!
How did I react? I think I kept calm, talking through the procedure with the class. I made light of the hitch and used humour. Nonetheless technological failure always makes you feel stupid and vulnerable.
What helped me? The fact that I knew I had back up DVD. If that didn’t work I had a supporting role play organised.
Who were the people involved and what did they do? The incident happened in a class of 31 first year students. They sat patiently then started to chatter. One person came to the front when I asked for help.
Step 2
Why the decisions and actions?
I acted using my knowledge from other similar situations. I asked fo r help because I believed someone would be able to assist me.
Why the reactions?
Why did the event occur? Not sure. I blamed the computer. However, I have since learned that I should have used the DVD player underneath the desk, rather than the computer. Therefore it was my lack of knowledge that caused the problem.
Is there anything I could have done differently? Yes, looked for a proper DVD player although the disc had played on my computer earlier that day.
Why did others who were involved act as they did? They probably felt sorry for me and wanted to help out.
How did my assumptions, values and beliefs influence me? I assumed that students would help out based on previous experience.
What theoretical knowledge helped your response to the event? That we are all learners together and the group has a shared knowledge. Others in the group have greater technology know how that me! Synergy is achieved through the power of the group.
Step 3. What did I learn and why?
The event reinforced by belief that others will help you out if you ask them to. It also reinforced my teaching practice that it is always wise to have a back-up activity planned.
How will I use this experience?
This experience has already taught me to never assume that something will work. It has reminded me that I should always check my equipment out in the room where I will be using it before the scheduled tutorial time. It has reinforced that I need to plan to use technology as a part of my teaching and have a reacted actitivy to reinforce learning.
The experience has also reinforce my belief in human nature that people will help you if you ask them to. The teacher’s role is to facilitate learning which is a two-way process. The experience suggests to me that I need some training!
Liz this is a superb piece of reflective writing. You also demonstrate how to use the steps of the Hegarty framework, and there was a lot of valuable learning by all accounts.
ReplyDeleteIn the first step, you write: "Why did others who were involved act as they did? They probably felt sorry for me and wanted to help out." In this situation, it was fairly straight forward, but imagine if the class went from "restless" to aggressive or walked out. It sounds like you had sufficient back up plans to deal with any eventualities. The students probably got no inkling of your embarrassment which is how it should be.
From a critically reflective perspective, do you think the support provided to new staff is adequate for using technologies in the classroom? Perhaps this is another factor which could be explored. Great work.