I guess much of my educational philosophy was initially formed, like many, within the primary and secondary schooling system. Experiences here that still rest with me are both good and bad, from having a blackboard duster being thrown at me in year 1 for gluing my cut out triangle onto my sheet crocked! To having a number of inspirational and motivational secondary teachers that have thankfully formed the larger part of my experiences. Tertiary educational experiences were also far removed from my year 1 experience in that I was lucky to have a range of wonderful supportive lecturers from CQUni on hand -many of which I have remained close friends with throughout the rest of my learning journey. What I have gained from these experiences over the years as both a tertiary student and now an educator have aided me in providing a balanced view of student experiences and the ability to see points of view from many angles. Something I say to many students when providing assistance throughout their courses is..'if it were me..I'd be looking to do this in this particular way'..
The 21st Century Pedagogy You-tube click was interesting. However questions need to be addressed here in that do 'new' teachers have this "new DNA for the 21st Century"? Are school educators - the primary discussion within the presentation - co-constructors of knowledge? In many circumstances I think not in all reality. Incorporating ICT;s into the classroom school systems particularly primary school settings does not reflect any really "DNA" pedagogical changes mentally in many educators or offer evidence that teachers in such settings are actually providing 'new' ways of doing things. Often, I see very few changes in teaching styles, what I do see in new equipment to deliver the same methods of educating.
Education Today and Tomorrow You tube was a fabulous presentation and I very much enjoyed viewing the clip. However, as tertiary educators we do need to be mindful of audience in that not all students that we interact with are products of the 'technological age' and that many are mature age technophobes and need to be dragged kicking and screaming into many technological medium.
A Vision of student today. I am a big fan of students being part of their own learning community whereby they are active participants in establishing, creating and building on and within their own learning environment and overall learning experience. The WIST program has a Facebook study group which plays a huge role in both students e-learning experiences along with 'informal' motivational assistance. While this style of forum was initially discouraged by colleagues - I went ahead anyway on the requests of students and it has been overwhelming supported by student and now colleagues!
So, to close are we really creating something new..or simply modifying the old via new technologies?
