Technology Barriers and Enablers

Greetings! The diagram below depicts my experience as an undergraduate student, when many of my fellow Recording Arts classmates and I wanted to learn an alternate recording and composition software, Logic Pro. All music students shared a production lab that had open, convenient hours with the same software accessible to all users. The Recording Arts students were taught to utilize 2 applications, Protools and Digital Performer. The Composition students were taught to use Logic (in the same lab). Our faculty did not use Logic, but we still wanted to learn it because some professional studios used this platform.

The situation presented what Ertmer would identify as a First Order barrier, which means the barrier was primarily external to the instructor. The barrier specifically was:  lack of resources. The department faculty did not have the training or the time in the curriculum to implement this additional instruction. The pre-existing enabler to the integration was that the software access was readily open to all students already! Building from this enabler, I took my position as Chair of the Audio Engineering Society, which is aimed at fostering audio education opportunities, to coordinate a "Logic User's Group" in the lab. This was facilitated and motivated further by the enthusiasm of the participants (students and faculty). Finally, support from a Composition Faculty member enabled a teacher for the group, and the integration of the software instruction began!

In the picture below, the arrows guide you from the integration problem, to the barrier, through the three key enablers, and finally to the solution. Without participant motivation and support, the group could not have flourished and the integration would have failed. However, their enthusiasm maintained high attendance and cooperative learning.