Educational Technology Facilitator
Grant MacEwan University

Reflection

This artefact is a thesis proposal that seeks to measure post-secondary instructors' social problem solving dimensions and to answer the question: "can the social problem solving dimensions be used as valid predictors of post-secondary instructors' level of acceptance and adaptation towards educational technology integration?"

Ultimately, I chose not to pursue the thesis route because I had planned on using MacEwan instructors as my potential research participants but that plan was not met with institutional support.  However, I enjoyed the process of researching and formulating a research question that is deeply related to my professional and personal interests. As an educator for the past 15 years, and being responsible for assisting post-secondary instructors in integrating educational technology into their classrooms, I have come to wonder, “why do some post-secondary instructors believe they have the ability to solve technological challenges whiles the others feel incapable (5.1)?”

Through my observation, the "tech-savvy" instructors tend to have a positive view on their troubleshooting skills when facing technological roadblocks and therefore become early adopters of educational technology integration.  The “tech-challenged” instructors, on the other hand, tend to resist technological changes in the workplace.   Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to see if there is a correlation between one’s ability to solve technological challenges and their level of acceptance and adoption of educational technology (5.2).

The literature review phase of this project was the most challenging experience I have ever encountered in my graduate school career.  At first, I had a difficult time translating my research question into meaningful search terms when looking for literature in academic journal databases.  With the assistance of my thesis supervisor, I came across a Social Problem Solving Inventory that measures how individuals cope with and solve problems in their everyday lives (5.3).  I then realized, with our dependency on technology, solving technological issues is now part of our day-to-day problem-solving activities.  This further refined my research question: "can social problem solving dimensions be used as valid predictors of post-secondary instructors' level of acceptance and adaptation towards integrating educational technology (5.5)?" I further proposed to not only measure post-secondary instructors’ social problem solving dimension through the use of the Social Problem Solving Inventory but also measure their attitude towards integrating educational technology into their teaching and learning activities, to see if there is any correlation between the two measurements (5.6).

One thing I regret, in the process of developing this research proposal, was that I didn’t explore using qualitative research methods more throughly.  Mathematics and statistics are easier subjects for me and therefore, I always gravitate towards employing quantitative research methods.  Looking back, perhaps a qualitative research design would have been better suited for measuring post-secondary instructors’ attitude towards integrating educational technology in their classrooms (5.9).

To summarize, developing a research proposal and conducting a literature review might seem to be a daunting task at first but in the end, I can actually say I found the experience, as a whole, very rewarding because it directly relates to my professional career, and the findings can have real-life implications.  Looking back, I also wonder if I did not approach the right individual in my institution to drum up more support to carry out the study; for example, I could have partnered with a faculty member and leveraged their research standing to my advantage.