• Life 2.0 - Our Objective

    The use of technology to instill motivation and promote collaboration in educational settings is a natural extension of traditional educational settings.  Individuals already have an inner desire to gain knowledge.  Social settings give understanding to history and culture.  The natural augmentation of these feelings with technology can instill greater intrinsic motivation and easier social interaction.   We will learn how to use technology to collaborate and motivate students.  

    GoSoapBox.com - Our Activities

    1. Create your account - video
      1. Go to www.gosoapbox.com
      2. Create an account with a password and your email address
      3. Verify your address by replying to the GoSoapBox email
    2. Sign in by going to app.gosoapbox.com - video
      1. GoSoapBox allows for 30 users at a time
      2. To get started, create an event
    3. When an event is created, a unique code is also generated.  This code is used by your students. - video
    4. The student login page has a confusion barometer. - video
    5. Discussions - video
      1. Click create
      2. Name the discussion
      3. Students can discuss and teachers can reply
    6. Polls - video
      1. Click create
      2. Name the poll
      3. Make choices and upload images (optional)
    7. Quizzes - video
      1. Click create
      2. Decide either multiple choice or short answer
    8. Advanced options - video
      1. Social Q & A
      2. Instant Polling
      3. Exporting and Copying
      4. Adding Moderators 
     

    What Is Motivation?

       - a need, a drive, self-actualization 

    Motivation can be sparked by the idea that people need something.  Maslow believed that these unmet needs are in a specific order.  The hierarchy of needs that Maslow developed defined a system of psychological growth that happen in an array of needs that begin with the basics and progress to self-actualization (Sengupta, 2011).  Similar to Maslow, McGregor believed that self-actualization is the highest form of motivation.  Self-direction, self-control, and maturity drive motivation (Pardee, 1990), and only intrinsic factors can truly control motivation.  David McClelland qualifies motivation by comparing a person’s motivation to status in a workplace.  Risk-taking behavior was studied to determine what level of motivation can be perceived by different individuals.  McClelland’s theory categorizes individuals in certain ways: people who display high achievement typically set medium to high levels of difficulty within themselves for a sense of accomplishment; extremely powerful people push the threshold of risk for publicly known accomplishment; individuals who avoid public competition take lower risks (McClelland and Watson, 1973).  

    Motivation is a unique inner need to move forward somehow.  The process to become self-actualized, or to reach one’s full potential, drives people to achieve.  Intrinsic motivation can be a strong force for people to become self-actualized.  Individuals who are in a position to motivate people should create situations where people become intrinsically motivated. 

     
    What Is Collaboration?
       - communication, inquiry, interaction 

    Collaboration is an individual phenomena of interactions with others.  This exploration of communication builds an understanding of the environment.  Lev Vygotesky believed that children learn about culture and the environment through communicative interactions with others (Tudge and Hogan, 1997).  When people inquire about their culture, they are using social situations to unravel information.  In a constructivist view of collaboration study, Susan Pass (2007) compared Vygotesky’s inquiry of social history to Piaget’s inquiry method.  Piaget believed that collaboration was a result of embedded human inquiry in each individual.  The actions of this inquiry built an understanding of the environment (Pass, 2007).  Both Piaget and Vygotesky understood that collaboration is necessary for cognitive development.   

     
    Integrating Technology Into Motivation and Collaboration

    Technology and motivation seem to go hand-in-hand.  Parents, teachers, schools, health systems, and retail stores are all seeing an infusion of technology.  In our personal lives, many of us cannot go a day without some sort of technology.  The motivation, maybe due to the newness, is there.  The trick will be to gauge the type and the amount of usage of these technologies.  In a study of motivation in sports, Graham, Bray, and Martin-Ginis (2014) determined that the initial onset of motivation positively encourages individuals to perform, but too much could possible negatively effect self-control.  A technology model that promotes motivation needs to be able to gauge the amount of intrinsic motivation that will develop in individuals that use the system.  

    When it comes to technology and collaboration, many people communicate daily on social media sites.  Individuals who want to integrate a technology-based collaboration system into education should understand that collaboration stems from a need to understand culture and the environment.  This natural inquiry should flow from verbal communications to electronic communications.  In a 2013 study, Kyounghye and You-Kyung determined that voluntary teacher online collaboration can happen in many ways including: storytelling, materials sharing, quick facts, support, and training.  Studies like this show that a voluntary system of collaboration can yield greater results.  

    What does a technological system that infuses collaboration and motivation look like? This type of system should include a way to instill intrinsic motivation and voluntary collaboration that does not follow a strict schedule.  Any timeline restrictions could possibly change the type of motivation or lessen the desire to understand culture.  This technological system capitalizes on societies’ need for social interaction and interest in communicating through technology.  The easier the system is to use, the deeper it will integrate into educational systems.  Using a system like this can easily augment a traditional classroom setting and provide meaning enrichment and continued learning beyond the class itself.  A system that has parts that are voluntary and sparks interest in it users will have higher usage and a more seamless integration into life.  The interface needs to be inviting, the navigation should be intuitive; and the system should be rooted in the psychological framework of collaboration and motivational theories.  

     

    References

    Cerasoli, C. P., Nicklin, J. M., & Ford, M. T. (2014). Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Incentives Jointly Predict Performance: A 40-Year Meta-Analysis. Psychological Bulletin, doi:10.1037/a0035661


    César, M., & Santos, N. (2006). From exclusion to inclusion: Collaborative work contributions to more inclusive learning settings. European Journal Of Psychology Of Education - EJPE (Instituto Superior De Psicologia Aplicada), 21(3), 333-346.


    Graham, J. D., Bray, S. R., & Martin-Ginis, K.A. (2014). “Pay the piper”: It helps initially, but motivation takes a toll on self-control. Psychology Of Sport & Exercise, 15(1), 89-96. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.09.007


    Kyounghye, S., & You-Kyung, H. (2013). Online teacher collaboration: A case study of voluntary collaboration in a teacher-created online community. KEDI Journal Of Educational Policy, 10(2), 221-242.


    McClelland, D. C., & Watson Jr., R. I. (1973). Power motivation and risk-taking behavior. Journal Of Personality, 41(1), 121. doi:10.1111/1467-6494.ep8969262


    Pardee, R. L. (1990). Motivation Theories of Maslow, Herzberg, McGregor & McClelland. A Literature Review of Selected Theories Dealing with Job Satisfaction and Motivation.

    Pass, S. (2007). When constructivists Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky were pedagogical collaborators: A viewpoint from a study of their communications. Journal Of Constructivist Psychology, 20(3), 277-282. doi:10.1080/10720530701347944


    Sengupta S. Growth in Human Motivation: Beyond Maslow. Indian Journal Of Industrial Relations [serial online]. July 2011;47(1):102-116. Available from: Business Source Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 3, 2014.


    Tudge, J., & Hogan, D. (1997). Collaboration from a Vygotskian Perspective.

     

     
Last Modified on March 11, 2014