The first idea came to my mind after watching the short show was that:"Can they speak for all the children or most of the children at least?"
Frankly speaking, it's quite a shock when we look at the faces of the children. They seem very disappointed, sad, and desperate to the current education. They keep saying:"Engage me; Create; To think & apply and We are digital learners." On the first sight, you may feel very frustrated as educators, who seem not providing qualified education in the digital era. While on the second thought, I personally doubt if the situation is that bad as shown on the video. How many kids are aware that they are DN and do they really know what they can do with digital technologies besides games? Maybe because it's based on American context, the kids there are really advanced with the demands of digital learning.
With the doubt, what we need to do is to evaluate the real situation and know exactly what our students need most. We cannot make everything in digital and present every class in digital means just because students want it in this way. Just as PowerPoint, which is a digital means of teaching but we cannot use it anytime anywhere. There is no doubt that with the development of technologies and the society, education should be improved accordingly. But still, technology is just a format or tool, the content is always most important. No matter what method you use, make yourselves understood and students benefit. At the same time, use digital technologies provided it's suitable to use them.
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ok...so the video may have been 'staged'...but nonetheless the message is quite clear....these kids want to be engaged, I think that's a real positive start to teaching and learning. Would you rather have difficult and unmotivated students? And like what we presented in class, perhaps it's just us teachers who need to look for ways and other ways to engage the students and like what you've said, it need not always be through the use of ICT in lessons :)
ReplyDeleteI agree that ICT is not the only way to engage our students' learning. It certainly has to be used where it adds value, rather than serving the purpose of a 'babysitter' to occupy their curriculum time.However, my experiences of teaching tells me that as DI, we need not learn to "speak a new language" in order to engage our students' learning.I've seen many skillful teachers who have motivated and advanced their students' learning without even using ICT...
ReplyDeleteI agree with comments by mydigitalspace on some teachers' ability to motivate and advance students' learning without the use of ICT. In fact, just knowing that their teachers are genuinely concerned about their learning and progress, and that their teachers believe in their abilities are enough for some students to motivate themselves to try harder. This is especially evident in weaker students.
ReplyDeleteHi HaoXin,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the context should always be accounted for . I also agree that teachers should use a variety of teaching methodologies and tools, not necessarily ICT or PowerPoint, to make the learning process engaging for DNs or non-DNs. However, as Ras and Suu pointed out, the message of the video is very clear: the success of the learning process largely depends on us, teachers. The content of the lesson is important but it is the teacher who plans and designs the lesson to make the delivery effective. And, of course, our execution of our lesson plan and our actual teaching (or facilitating) counts in the end.
Hi dear all, thank you very much for your comments. The idea I am trying to convey here is not to be panic when watching the video, but to think clearly and rationally what to do as educators.
ReplyDelete