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Back in the mid 1990’s when email listservs were the cutting edge technology and Netscape dominated the web browser market, I was convinced that these new tools would change how we learn both as individuals and as social networks. So I went back to school to pursue a Master’s degree in Educational Technology to learn how, as an educator and system’s change agent, I could leverage technology in my professional life. Now, over a decade later with the staggering advancements in technology, I feel like my masters program was akin to studying the use of slide projectors and rotary dial phones. However, although technology has changed, the basic learning theories that underpin the use of technology have not. What I learned at San Diego State University has not changed. Technology can magnify learning opportunities but the act of learning depends upon content and methodology. Despite all the advances in technology, learning still depends on content, facilitation and process. So considering content and methodology, how can technology can be used to enhance facilitation? I would like to suggest four important technology frameworks that I believe enhance the practice of facilitation.
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Use of Technology in Assessment - Back in the day when email discussion group were still fairly new, I was managing a national project and needed to gather some formative research for the design of a website that we were planning on building. At the time, I was on an email discussion group of likely users of the website so colleague and I decided to conduct a series of email focus groups by email. The qualitative results were so productive, that we detailed the focus-group methodology in an article that appeared in the journal Performance Improvement. Since that time, I have used technology to conduct other focus groups with similar positive results. With the advent stable “webinar” technologies, the opportunity for collecting qualitative information has expanded even more. In addition, Internet technology can also enhance the collection of more quantitative data as part of the assessment process through the use of any one of the many online survey tools readily available for nominal costs. Collectively, these tools contribute to the front-end process and assessments often associated with facilitation. The advantages that technology brings to the assessment phase are that technology: a) can contribute to effective preplanning, b) can increases time efficiency by allowing for asynchronous work to occur, and c) can also be used as a way to increase social distance for the processing of issues that might be controversial or confrontational.
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Use of Shared Technology Workspace – A second way that technology can be used to enhance the facilitation process is by using a shared technology workspace. Online collaboration tools are truly coming of age. A Google search for “hosted collaboration software” or “hosted wiki software” will give a startling array of companies offering low or no-cost online collaborative environments. For any facilitation process that extends over time or has a written end product, utilizing a collaborative workspace is an essential facilitation tool. I once was involved in an advisory workgroup that dragged on and on over the course of a year. Often email attachments were unable to be opened, versions of documents were lost and team members missed important communications. I am convinced that if the paid facilitators understood and used technology as a productivity tool that the arduous and ultimately ineffective process would have been shortened by months and would have had more positive outcomes. But the key is not to simply use a collaborative workspace but to understand the careful planning and active management associated with the use of the collaborative environment. The advantages that technology brings to an extended facilitated process are that technology: a) can better coordinate tasks, activities and communication between meetings, b) can help ensure document version control and real time editing, and c) create knowledge libraries to preserve institutional knowledge.
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Use of Technology in Meetings – While I am not a huge fan to technology-based facilitated meetings, technology can enhance the meeting facilitation process. For example, many teams take real time minutes on laptop that can be reviewed, edited and published at the end of a meeting. Extending this concept, Open Space Technology Conferences, depend on technology to create complex deliverables (like a strategic plan or policy paper) in real time. Smart boards and videoconferencing equipment are other applications of technology to enhance the facilitation process. Even at the lowest end of the technology spectrum, I am no in the habit of using a digital camera to take pictures of dry erase board drawing and notes, before erasing them, and in some cases even taking pictures of chart paper notes as well. Digitizing paper allows for easy storage and retrieval. The advantages that technology brings to meetings are twofold in that technology: a) can enhance the communication process during meetings, and b) can shorten the distance between meeting content and subsequent summaries and deliverables.
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Use of Technology in the Feedback Loop – The final use of technology as an enhancement to the facilitation process is to use technology to close the feedback loop and evaluate the process. Elsewhere I have written more extensively on this topic, but akin to assessment, technology-based surveys and post assessments can be effective in evaluating facilitated processes.
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As a facilitator, I almost always use technology to enhance the facilitation process. Technology is a critical and important tool to help groups and teams achieve greater performance. While having studied the use of technology to improve performance may help me use technology effectively. I don’t believe it is an unfair advantage. I am convinced that the accessibility of online technology tools places within the reach of any team tools that can enhance the delivery of content and methodology.
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