Wow

Having spent a short time looking at learning theories and pedagogy within the limited scope of the GDLT coursework, we are now delving into the information and communication technologies themselves a little more.  It seems that many of my fellow learners haven't spent a lot of time with digital images or podcasts or videos and are as unfamiliar with them as they are with placing hyperlinks in online documents.  Much as some cohorts were uncomfortable or inexperienced with blogging or had trouble getting their head around the idea of wikis, there was also a sizeable percentage that had a fair amount of experience in these technologies.  I wait to see what my fellow students come up with, but one thing is for sure, the best, most fun, original ideas are not necessarily likely to come from those of us who think we know a fair bit about computers and the web.  It is perhaps these fresh, uncluttered minds that may come up with the most amazing ideas.

My difficulty is not learning how to edit images or make and publish a video, nor create a blog, wiki or website.  I'm not struggling with the technical knowledge.  My difficulty is thinking of why I should create them, how they are going to help my pupils learn, rather than simply entertain them.  I'm pretty confident that I can teach them the functions of ICTs, how to become computer literate, how to use ICTs to inquire, to create and communicate, but I just don't have too many novel and wonderful ideas as to how to develop my own ICTs to teach them content in an integrated way.

The pedagogical aim of using ICTs is not to entertain, but to educate.  A technology should not just be added on to a subject as a whim, just so the teacher can say "Hey, I'm down with the kids with this internety-thingy", but should be an integral and enhancing part of the learning process.  As the course notes suggest "there is absolutely no pedagogy in uploading a 20 question worksheet for students to complete".

Hmmm, agreed.  But...  Has anyone heard of the Khan Academy?  This might get you thinking.  Ok, so nothing fantastically novel about having a video on YouTube showing how to do a maths calculation (although maybe six years ago it was).  What about setting your pupils the homework of watching instructional lectures as their homework, then having them come into the class to do the actual work in class rather than at home?  No more talk and chalk from the teachers, only coaching; helping learners with specific problems they encounter as they do their work?  Better still, what about peer-to-peer learning by having those pupils that get it help those who don't?  Think of the amount of quality teacher time that could be saved and applied to coaching, rather than teaching in a one-sixe and one-speed fits all manner?  Rather than looking at student to teacher ratios, how about looking at student to quality teacher time ratios?  How about flipping the classroom on its head?  Wow.

Click to view Salman Khan's TED talk podcast on iTunes, or here to watch the video through the TED website, or easiest still, just click on play below ;o)