Autonomy, Motivation, and Simplification

In his Ted Talk, “The Puzzle of Motivation,” Daniel Pink discusses the the importance of intrinsic motivation over external rewards (Pink, 2009). Daniel Pink also mentioned a study involving the candle problem, where participants are asked to attach a candle to a wall in such a way that it will not drip wax everywhere. It turned out that intrinsic motivation and external reward played a role in how this problem was solved.

One thing that stood out to me during Pink’s talk was that “everyone is dealing with their own version of the candle problem” (Pink, 2009). This is uniquely true in education, where every teacher is trying to create a different learning experience for their students, and every teacher has their own set of rules and restrictions placed on them by their department. My job as a technology leader is to help instructors overcome their functional fixedness and find a solution to their specific problem. I am lucky that my supervisor allows me the autonomy in my role to assist people in a way that works best for the instructor and myself. 

Our College supports a long list of learning technologies that are free for instructors to use. Add on top of that the resources provided by their textbook publisher, and you’ve got a chaotic mess of technology piled up inside of an LMS that is paralyzing to both instructors and students. In chapter 10 of The Innovator’s Mindset, George Couros talks about how overwhelming it can be to be presented with too many choices or solutions for one problem (Couros, 2015, p. 155-156). It turns out that too many options can have a similar effect to the functional fixedness described in the candle problem. Rather than overwhelming instructors with lists of the latest and greatest apps and devices, we should instead focus on two or three things that can be mastered and used in the pursuit of innovation. Couros talked about the need to allow people the time to explore and create. These are things that I intend to keep in mind moving forward.

So how can I apply these lessons in my daily interactions with instructors? I think I first need to be more open-minded to new possibilities and I need to encourage that mindset in the people I work with. I also need to do my research before throwing a list of suggestions at a problem. It’s easy to google “Best video capture programs 2018” and send a blog link to someone that asks for advice. Taking the time to really explore and test new technologies and narrowing the list of options is more rewarding for everyone involved. It gives me the opportunity to master something new, and it gives the instructor I am working with a simpler set of possible solutions. 

I actually managed to do something like this for some Speech professors at my campus. They wanted to simplify the process of uploading videos into our LMS because students were having technical problems. I asked for a week to research some options and presented them with a list of reasonable solutions. We wound up with something that worked Well for the faculty and the students.

When I started this job, my predecessor told me that I needed to be a techno-therapist. My purpose on campus is to listen to an instructor’s candle problem, help them see possible solutions, and allay their technology-related anxieties. I think with Pink and Couros’s help, I might be able to do that.

References:

Couros, G. (2015). The innovators mindset: Empower learning, unleash talent, and lead a culture 

     of creativity. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting.

The puzzle of motivation | Dan Pink. (2009, August 25). Retrieved from 

     

     https://youtu.be/rrkrvAUbU9Y