Utilizing Technology in Tutoring

Greetings, my name is Mario Richards, and I received my Bachelor's degree in English Literature at Westfield State University in Massachusetts. I am currently working on my Master's in Curriculum and Instruction, with a focus on English Education. Presently for work, I serve as an Area Coordinator at a private university in Connecticut. After working in the Division of Student Affairs for the past three years, I decided to switch divisions and work in Academic Affairs. I began working in Academic Affairs as a professional tutor for four years at multiple universities. I tutored subjects from the Humanities, but my main focus was Literature courses. I enjoyed working as a tutor and found passion in supporting students. My current goal is to work in Academic Support at the collegiate level as the Director of Tutoring. 

One element that I will incorporate in my future role as a Director of Tutoring is Data Analysis. For example, I will collect data from student feedback and use it to improve the intentionality and efficiency of tutoring sessions. One way of doing this is using a survey app like Google Forms that students would complete before meeting with their tutor. This survey will ask about each student's individualized needs regarding learning accessibility, learning styles, retention style, etc. After receiving this data, I will provide it to the tutor to ensure that they tailor their tutoring techniques to meet the diverse learning needs of each student. This approach reflects Connecticut's ISTE standard 2.7 section B, which focuses on the "Use [of] technology to design and implement a variety of formative and summative assessments that accommodate learner needs, provide timely feedback to students and inform instruction" (Society for Technology and Education, 2023). Although technology is a valuable asset in helping educators provide accessibility in their pedagogical approach, it is vital to use it in a meticulous manner. Your teaching goals should align with the use of the technology. Without doing this, the impact will render ineffective. Liz Kolb, assistant professor of Education Technology at the University of Michigan, highlights this in her book, "Learning First, Technology Second: The Educator's Guide to Designing Authentic Lessons" stating:

I learned that teachers need a framework for integrating technology into lessons based on the science of learning practices rather than a framework that focuses solely on the technology tools themselves. Many educational technology frameworks consider the tool first, before the learning outcome. For example, a technology tool that is being used in a unique and creative way (such as students creating a podcast about metamorphosis instead of writing a paper about metamorphosis) has often been considered the gold standard for effective technology use. However, if students are more focused on the podcasting pieces and not on metamorphosis, the content learning could easily get lost in the excitement of making a podcast. Thus, a framework that considers the learning goal and how the technology tools are adding value to that learning goal seemed to be needed. (p. 16)

As Kolb highlighted in the above example, if the technology is not used intentionally, it can backfire and defeat the original purpose of incorporating the tool. It is important to keep the learning outcome in mind when incorporating the tool, and I will use this approach holistically when using the data that I receive from tutoring. 

References 

Kolb L. (2017). Learning first technology second: the educator's guide to designing authentic lessons (First). International Society for Technology in Education.

ISTE Standards: Educators. (2023). Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards-for-teachers