7 Be Positive
If you’re having a frustrating experience with implementing your educational technology — especially if you were not involved in the decision-making process — it can be incredibly tempting to share those feelings with students. This is an incredibly fine line, because you absolutely do want to acknowledge any challenges that you are all facing. Glossing over them completely would be a mistake.
Unfortunately, as the instructor, it’s very easy for the expression of your frustrations to serve as a catalyst for students to become entrenched in a negative attitude toward the tool or to put in less effort on associated assignments than they might have otherwise. As a result, it’s best to be as positive about the experience as you can to give your students the best possible opportunity to learn. Modeling a proactive and positive response to the inevitable problems that come with digital tools is likely to create a better long-term experience (and therefore better learning) for everyone involved.