Hey fellow followers of my adventures through Teaching in the Digital Age!
So a post here as a summary of these past few weeks, it’s been quite interesting. I have taken a dive into various forms of presenting and organising data all the while researching this whole Digital Age business and trying to fit it around what I hope will be a forever-exciting future in teaching. As I have previously gained a bachelor of Digital Media the tech side isn’t particularly challenging however the growth of this whole industry and it’s integration with modern day life will always astound me, video’s like this:
So a post here as a summary of these past few weeks, it’s been quite interesting. I have taken a dive into various forms of presenting and organising data all the while researching this whole Digital Age business and trying to fit it around what I hope will be a forever-exciting future in teaching. As I have previously gained a bachelor of Digital Media the tech side isn’t particularly challenging however the growth of this whole industry and it’s integration with modern day life will always astound me, video’s like this:
do play on my mind, as to just what the future will hold and the alarming rate at which it will be upon us.
It’s easy to get distracted with the technology itself: the all knowing smartphones, the light as air computers. Jenny Lane writes critically about Australia’s “Digital Education revolution” talking about the little evidence to show for the eight billion dollar investment into technology implemented through schools within Australia (2012). (See Jenny's great article Here!)
Or as Beetham, Helen, Sharpe and Rhona make note of in Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age (2013) Papyrus and paper, chalk and print, overhead projectors, even these basic technologies of were all innovations once. Yet, none of them changed the fundamental human capacity to learn, in purely cognitive terms. What modern technology has changed is the teaching in a society where the use of this technology is second nature. Where communication occurs through this technology, simultaneously across numerous platforms.
So, in order to be effective the digital technologies need to be fully integrated in all curriculum areas and students need to become confident users of 21st Century skills (ACER, White, 2013). This, as a future teacher, is my ultimate aim: to have my students confidently navigate their own way, forging their own path, through the 21st century. As the video points out and as is clearly occurring in the world today. We, as educators, are preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet, to solve problems we don’t even know. The challenge is armouring the kids with the right values, the core skills that become applicable in all warps of life. Knowing these skills and values ourselves is an on-going process. In Truth, Beauty and Goodness Reframed Howard Gardner (2011) analyses the postmodern paths that society has taken in these millennial times. He poses the question, “What sort of people do we want for our ideal society.” With regard to education this raises decisions about what people learn and how people go about learning it. Or, what do we want our students to learn and how do we teach it (White, 2013). How well our students can shape and mould the future depends very much on how well they can decode and integrate themselves within this technologically advanced present. We as educators need to be able to provide them with the right skillset and above all we need to be in a position to deliver the best quality education to suit this digital age.
Or as Beetham, Helen, Sharpe and Rhona make note of in Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age (2013) Papyrus and paper, chalk and print, overhead projectors, even these basic technologies of were all innovations once. Yet, none of them changed the fundamental human capacity to learn, in purely cognitive terms. What modern technology has changed is the teaching in a society where the use of this technology is second nature. Where communication occurs through this technology, simultaneously across numerous platforms.
So, in order to be effective the digital technologies need to be fully integrated in all curriculum areas and students need to become confident users of 21st Century skills (ACER, White, 2013). This, as a future teacher, is my ultimate aim: to have my students confidently navigate their own way, forging their own path, through the 21st century. As the video points out and as is clearly occurring in the world today. We, as educators, are preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet, to solve problems we don’t even know. The challenge is armouring the kids with the right values, the core skills that become applicable in all warps of life. Knowing these skills and values ourselves is an on-going process. In Truth, Beauty and Goodness Reframed Howard Gardner (2011) analyses the postmodern paths that society has taken in these millennial times. He poses the question, “What sort of people do we want for our ideal society.” With regard to education this raises decisions about what people learn and how people go about learning it. Or, what do we want our students to learn and how do we teach it (White, 2013). How well our students can shape and mould the future depends very much on how well they can decode and integrate themselves within this technologically advanced present. We as educators need to be able to provide them with the right skillset and above all we need to be in a position to deliver the best quality education to suit this digital age.