“Push That Button and See What Happens”

Abstract

Library digital scholarship workshops are often focused on skill development, creating a highly hands-on and immersive learning environment. However, for the digital scholarship instructor, it is incredibly important to maintain an awareness of the affective dimensions of learning in this space where phenomena such as library anxiety, information overload, and anxiety about technological skills may combine. For students in course-integrated settings, this anxiety can be heightened by the stress of performing for a grade. This chapter will explore the idea of technology-related anxiety in digital scholarship instruction and offer some strategies for combating it. The first task of the chapter will be to define and situate technology anxiety. The authors will draw on the concepts of library anxiety and information overload, and will find parallels in discussions of the affective dimension of learning. Information literacy instructors have delved into these concepts, and aligning their instructional findings with those from digital scholarship instruction should be a productive dialogue between library subfields. This exploration of learner emotions will be mapped to the context of the digital scholarship workshop to draw out how technology anxiety manifests in teaching digital skills. Following the discussion of the concept of technology anxiety, the authors will explore methods of incorporating an awareness of affective learning into their workshops. Effective digital scholarship pedagogy – both in the classroom and in one-on-one settings – must engage with learner emotions, including those as diverse as excitement, anxiety, and curiosity. Some topics discussed in this chapter will include instructional strategies to reduce technology anxiety, designing activities that scaffold and promote learner engagement, and building in opportunities for productive failure in order to create a generative learning space for workshop participants.