I enjoyed a very interesting and stimulating day at Colchester Institute yesterday, where I gave two workshops for staff entitled: Communities, spaces and pedagogies for the digital age. Above is the slide set I used during the presentations. In both workshops we enjoyed some lively discussion, and hopefully, many were left thinking deeply about how they currently 'do education', and what the possible transformations might be. I have said this before, but I re-emphasised it yesterday, that it is not the technology that inspires or even transforms education - it is the teacher. Let me explain - using a chisel or a paintbrush is not in itself inspirational or transformational. It is the skilled hands of the sculptor or the painter that changes a lump of stone or a bare wall into the work of art. Computers, social media, any web tools we get our hands on, can only be used in this way if the practitioner has a creative vision.
We discussed whether all students have access to the tools. They don't. But the institution does, and it depends on institutional policies whether these opportunities are rolled out fully to all learners. We talked about time and resource constraints - and clearly all schools and colleges are labouring under the cuts, but it has always been thus. We explored the notion of changing pedagogies - now here is an area that is particularly contentious. Do we need to change our teaching approaches to meet the needs of learners in the digital age? Well, I believe we do, but I'm not taking everyone with me on this, and nor do I expect to. All I can do is give examples from my own professional practice (both as a teacher and as a learner) and show people that I can make a success of it. If I can, then maybe they can too. My Personal Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter is growing daily, as I connect with more and more people who have something valuable and interesting to say. It is this kind of dynamic, open networking that is transforming my own practice. Not the tools - the people who are behind them. Thank you to all the staff and particularly Jane Davis, for organising such a great event and for being perfect hosts for me yesterday. Now the @timbuckteeth roadshow rolls onward, tomorrow to Budapest, Hungary from where I will report on the EDEN Research workshop on Open Educational Resources.
Communities, spaces and pedagogies for the digital age by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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