{"id":9338,"date":"2012-03-12T09:36:57","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T13:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=9338"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:28:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:28:24","slug":"unlocking-the-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2012\/unlocking-the-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlocking the Secret"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Unlocking the Secret\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

By Patrick Lyons<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may be familiar with Rhonda Byrne\u2019s bestselling self-help book and film \u201cThe Secret\u201d. In her book, she tries to convey that an individual\u2019s success is built on the idea of thinking positively and optimistically. I don\u2019t really want to discuss Byrne\u2019s book or argue for or against her ideas of how to be successful; rather I\u2019d like to introduce you to a different kind of Secret. The Secret of how to be successful in using educational technologies effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Educational technologies can be amazing tools to use in and outside of the classroom to engage learners, to create deeper and more meaningful learning and to create opportunities for greater efficiencies in instruction and learning. Unfortunately and much more frequently than we would like, educational technologies don\u2019t accomplish this and cause distraction, frustration, become underutilized, and ultimately, abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is this case? And what can we do to be successful? I believe that there are four Secrets that need to be applied in order to create an environment conducive for educational technology success. These are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1)     Easy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2)     Purpose<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3)     Integrate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4)     Participate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me explain each of the four Secrets. The first Secret is that the technology needs to be Easy. Not only has to be easy for you to use, but also easy for your students. If the technology is something that you or your students will struggle with, it likely means that you will abandon it or your students will choose not to participate as it is too difficult to use, get access to or understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second Secret, Purpose, means having a clear sense of why you are using a tool. Is it to engage learners?  To check understanding? To display information more clearly? To create a learning community? If you don\u2019t have a purpose for using a tool, you will want to reconsider using it as the effort required will likely not provide any benefit to you or your students\u2019 learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Integrate, the third Secret. Educational technologies should not just be a separate piece of your class. Research indicates that if an educational technology forms a key part a teaching and learning strategy, and are used to directly support instructional and learning objectives, that student learning outcomes are significantly improved; the full potential of educational technologies is realized. As an example of integration, think about you might be able to bring discussion board comments or questions into your face-to-face class. Or how you might use student technology, like laptops\/smartphones  to advance a classroom activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally the fourth and final Secret, Participate. You must showcase the value of the tool by participating in its use in the class (or outside of class). Learners often don\u2019t see the value of participating in an activity unless that they are explicitly shown the value and see a leader using it. Consider the use of a class wiki or a discussion board. If the instructor never posts, comments or is seen using the tool, what kind of message is being sent to learners?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By applying and thinking about these four Secrets: 1) Easy, 2) Purpose, 3) Integrate, and 4) Participate, you will have a much greater chance of success of achieving the many benefits that educational technologies can and do bring to teaching and learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Patrick Lyons You may be familiar with Rhonda Byrne\u2019s bestselling self-help book and film \u201cThe Secret\u201d. In her book, she tries to convey that an individual\u2019s success is built on the idea of thinking positively and optimistically. I don\u2019t really want to discuss Byrne\u2019s book or argue for or against her ideas of how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42976,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9338\/revisions\/42976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}