Gone are the days of chalk?...I think not...

"Smart" boards, the replacement for the traditonal black or green chalk boards, will change the way teachers teach. This new piece of technology has many advantages that come along with its sleek, elegant design. Teachers no longer have to get their hands dirty they can merely project whatever they want on the screen or use it as an extended userface of their computer so that the learners can see what the teacher wants to show them. The teacher can swipe and touch to click on the interactive white board and no longer needs to write everything out with chalk and manually erase it afterwards with a eraser which is usually a dusty business leaving not only your hands and clothes dirty but your sinus cavaties as well. The intreactive white board so much to offer although realistically its not all that great. The main advantage is that you do not end up full of chalk, its efficient and effective and it is a intreactive meduim for the classroom. 

However, the traditional chalk board still gets the same job done, the transparent projector and the slightly more evolved projector gets the same job done. So in a country where funding for education does not always go where it is intended, I would rather use the money for the interactive whiteboard, which is not cheap, towards something else like take the learners on an excursion to a museum perhaps. So all in all the interactive white board does have advantages however this is simply not realistic if you are going to be a teacher at a school that really needs your qualification instead of going overseas, because this country needs you, the interactive white board becomes a 'nice to have' rather than 'a must have'.

Involving in learners in their own learning, but to what extent...

So yes, we all want an exciting classroom and we want to be the cool teacher, have the class that the learners look forward too... This is all very good and well. We will try and and make our lessons fun and intriguing or perhaps in other ways create order in the classroom through conditioning our learners to think in a certain way when they enter your classroom. Just like the teacher did with the water bowls, asking the kids about their ideal classroom, writing their own words of expression on paper and using it in the next exercise. 

Now here is the thing...we can incorporate tools like that into our lessons or our ay of thinking, afterall it is important to be mindfull and as everyone has seen this past two weeks, being a teacher is no joke, or gap year... It is quite a serious decision one has to make, when you are going to be a teacher and I mean a teacher in the manner it is suppose to be. Not to just be another brick in the wall, rushing learners in and out of your classroom so that you can go home and continue with your life and get ypur paycheck at the end of the  month, teaching is going to be a demanding lifestyle. It will take a lot of YOUR time. Thus you have to be sure you are prepared for something like that. When I started this PGCE course that was a very real decision facing me and many others I am sure, do I deregister and go do my honeurs, or am I ready for this. I was unsure up and till the micro teaching. That was the final point were I realized I am in this for the long run. Also even if one starts out entheusiastic one will have to ensure you do not become numb as the years go on and think you know what you are doing, your classes are fine, that might be, but you have lossed the lot then. I wached many lessons of my fellow PGCE students and there wee some good lessons, however there is no such thing as the perfect lesson, there are always things one can improve on, so your lesson might be good, but do you want to be good or the best? Anyways back to bringing the kids into it...

This is innovative and so on, but to what extent do you include that in your classes, before it becomes a distraction from the work. Because at the end of the day you still have a program of work to adhere to. Moving in such fields verges on the art or perhaps cultural sides  of education and there might be a learner in your class who is a genius at maths or science or economics etc...and the information and quality of your education that you are giving the those learners are thus very important to them. I think doing such teaching through involving the learners is good, but only to a certain extent, the teacher will have to find that borderline for themselves....

Away with the teacher they said! It will be fun they said...

A school of the students, by the students, for the students- does seem like an interesting change of pace. Having learners develop an absolute knowledge on a specific topic, or perhaps in a certain field. This sounds like the best idea since someone put an engine on a bicycle. That means no math homework, if you are only interested in drama and arts, if you are interested in maths then unfortunately you will have maths homework, but hey that's what interests you! 

That is what is great about this idea, you can focus on a specific field and not become distracted with work that you are going to forget about within the very first holiday at the end of your matric year when you leave school and you will never use it ever again, unless you have to count sheep on a farm somewhere...then you might.

Now you might be thinking I probably hated maths at school, I didn't, I actually enjoy it, I am simply trying to say that today I have no use for maths, other than counting, using my tables and perhaps some basic princples. 

That is my point, you learn many things in school that you keep with you and many things that just get left behind, however I feel there is a foundation of basic knowledge that learners learn at school, being lead or inspired by a teacher, that points them in the right direction because they have experience, a child needs a pedagogue. Perhaps it is the parent, home schooling vibes, but the principle remains the same. Yes the internet has much to offer, so much knowledge a mere click away, however one day there might be a inappropriate link next to that very intellectual article, that for a adolescent with raging hormones might be a tad to inviting, can send them down the wrong path. Guidance is thus necessary, silly example, but the principle remains the same.

Perhaps relevant guidance then? In the specific field of interest? Someone with experience in the same field, to guide and teach you the ways of the force. Brilliant idea! But I cannot help but feel that it might be better left for an after school activity, just incase you find yourself in a situation where you need to count those sheep one day...

Social media integrated in the classroom

The idea of social media in the classroom integrated with teaching sends chills down many educators' spines, however should one even consider it? Well, that is the question. We have been discussing and readinng about digital pedagogy and where digital techhnology comes into play.

We are in a world where technology is developing at an alarming pace, I mean a few years ago the Nokia 3310 was the phone to have, today you have a computer in a comfortable size that fits into your hands. This has made social media an even more popular trend. People are socialising online through twitter, facebook, blogs etc. This is where the issues arise when the integration of social media and the classroom take place. The obvious and number one issue is that learners will get distracted with socializing online instead of paying attention to the lessson. However as it has been pointed out, there is a difference between socialising in a group activity and socialising outside the classroom. Thus when one brings social media into the classroom, one should plan ahead of the possible affects that will follow. Such as tweeting or getting a certain app to remind students about homework, one must be sure that it is one way commmunication from teaccher to learners only. Thus social media can be used as a tool, which learners will already know and be comfartable with and will make work or doing a certain assignment more interesting.

Certain social media platforms could be used for certain assignments or tasks.  Twitter could be used for feedback on a certain topic and allow learners to engage in a different manner as opposed to in class. Blogging might be a good way to discuss ideas for essay topics in history class for example. To give learners the chance to read other learners' ideas that can help them shape their own ideas and possibly provide them with different perspectives. Social media can thus be a great tool, which simply has to be implemented correctly.

Teacher and Pedagogue, two terms for the same thing, no?

In ancient Greece a pedagogue was infact a teacher of a young boy, he accompanied him to during the day, to school and on the way home. The pedagogue would be employed by the father of the household thus education in the ancient world was only for the rich elite of society. Today there are many teachers and many schools, and one teacher is teaching a whole class of around 30 learners and not just focussing on one learner or perhaps a handfull of learners, perhaps there are still cases of such, but mostly the latter is the case today.

So thus the notion of digital pedagogy as simple method of shifting teaching on the black board to teaching on the digital device, or even worse, the internet... However as has been stated this is wrong. Today pedagogy refers more to the method of teaching in the environment in which learning is taking place as opposed so simply referring to a teacher, being a teacher does not make you a padagogue by nature. Teaching is different in the sense tht well, teaching...is teaching. Pedagogy is more the focus of the learning itself, how learning is taking place, what kind of learning. It focusses on the love or nature of learning, for the sake of learning itself so to speak, or if you will, the art of learning. So yes, digital pedagogy does refer to changing teaching techniques through using digital devices along with the dreaded internet, however it means so much more than that. It does not simply refer to teaching online, lecturing from afar on a projector with slides, although that does increase efficiency and makes paperwork much less, saving the environment and all that, but even that computer is made of something that had to be dug up somewhere in our natural world of trees etc, but I digress. Pedagogy means to achieve more than just teaching like a robot that is pre-programmed to a certain curriculum. Digital pedagogy simply means to utilize technology to our advantage to enhance teaching methods and thus enhance the learning or nature of learning taking place. Because anyone can look at the content of a slide and go and regurgitate it somewhere relevant, not everyone can be inspired on a topic and go investigate further and learn in the sense of the longterm, really coming to grips with a certain topic and not just keep it in short term memory.

Digital Pedagogy- Unplugged

Digital what?... Is the thought that went through my mind, as well as many others I am sure. However the name states quite clearly, it is digital padagogy, thus changing the way we teach with the use of digintal technology. However when I read the term 'unplugged' I was thinking, " well, digital pedagogy without the digital is just plain pedagogy", kind of refuting its very own means to an end, which is making use of the digital to change the more traditional methods of teaching.
However reading further into the article it becomes clear that digital pedagogy does not strictly adhere to its first name, being digital. It refers to various ways through which teaching and learning can occur. Thus digital pedagogy-unplugged, started making sense, that teaching digital yet not in the electronic sense, allows for different ways of learning and getting more directly involved with work rather then just soaking up boring information, such as the 'search engine' exercise used in the article for Pride & Prejudice and even the colourfull post-it notes that was placed almost everywhere in class  on that one very confusing day. However this is one of many ways, such as the ' flipped classroom' where the learners ask the questions on the prevalent content.
Thus providing different ways of engaging with  the content directly and thus learning in a unique manner. Digital technology can provide various advantages for teaching and learning in the classroom and even out of the classroom. There are however those that are sceptical about digitising education as it removes the social engagement involved with the more 'naked teaching' route. The internet can be used as a great tool of knowledge or of resources, in class, however with so much information readily available it could also pose as a great disraction for developing and lurking minds and could thus disrupt a lesson or the knowledge actually being conveyed in the lesson by the teqcher or activity. The internet will make it easy to stray...