21st century teaching - a shift in focus

Chances are that you remember your teacher as the person who stood at the front of the class, talking and writing things on the blackboard. When he or she wasn't talking, you were copying what was written on the board or diligently working your way through the grammar or math exercises in your book, by yourself. If you had a question, you raised your hand and waited for the teacher to help you out. There hardly was an alternative, was there?

Enter the 21st century classroom. Children are working in groups or teams, either reading in the library corner or working on one of the four classroom PC's, surfing the Internet and locating information. Two migrant children are using a computer to create a presentation in PowerPoint. They have accessed and collected information in their native language and are now translating it into English, in order to present if to the rest of the class at a later stage. The electronic whiteboard shows one of the teacher's favourite websites, a collection of realistic 3D animations showing the movement of plate tectonics, resulting in an earthquake. In the mean time the teacher uses his laptop to update his pupils' e-portfolios.

Back to the future. 21st century Germany. Berlin's schools receive pc's and printers from the Schulamt. They are working but not equipped with proper software. Licenses are too expensive, so the PC's can only be used for simple text applications such as Wordpad. The necessary licenses are bought after a few agonizing and frustration filled years, but by then nobody is available to install the software. Wireless applications are down half of the time and several PC's have stopped working entirely. Scanners and other equipment just disappear for lack of supervision. There is no budget for IT-maintenance. There are no teaching hours for IT-education. Electronic whiteboards are things that exist in a different reality, certainly not in this one. Teachers do not feel called upon, nor are they required to use IT in their lessons. They resort to good old reliable text books, pen and paper. Children sit and work by themselves and copy whatever the teacher writes down on the board. Sounds familiar?

WAKE-UP CALL
A Unesco report on ICTs in teacher education claims that 'with the emerging new technologies, the teaching profession is evolving from an emphasis on teacher-centred, lecture-based instruction, to student-centred, interactive learning environments.' Well, yes - it should be.

But new technologies require new teaching methods, different learning strategies. Teachers will have to become learners, life-long learners even, in order to keep up with the latest technologies and to use these in today's classrooms. If schools are properly equipped and maintained and if teachers are informed and IT-knowledgeable, we have come a lot closer to the 21st century classroom. But WHY should schools and teachers embrace and adapt current technologies?

ICT, therefore I AM.

It's a given; ICT tools have changed the world we live and work in. Schools need to prepare students for the e-world.

The teacher as e-gatekeeper?

7000 technical and scientific articles are published every DAY and the world's knowledge base doubles every 2-3 years (source: Unesco report). Teachers need to lead the way, become e-guides or rather gatekeepers. There is so much information that needs to be selected on reliability and usefulness, which is the task for the 21st century teacher. IT is a tough job - but someone's gotta do it.

Did you know?

Well, I knew we were living in exponential times.... that sites, applications and the poulation as a whole grow at a rate that is absolutely impressive, not to say scary. Today I saw a video that left me with an empty feeling. The world is so big, so much is going on; how do we keep track? Do we need a new internet, which is not so wide open as this one? But who do we want to keep track of it and do we really want to go back to gatekeepers and big brothers? I don't. But have a look at this video nonetheless...


Did You Know? from Amybeth on Vimeo.

The perfect eLearner

In 2002 Clive Shepherd wrote about the perfect eLearner. First of all, he said, you have to love learning. well...aren't we all supposed to be lifelong learners anyway nowadays? From Generation X, Y and Z to the Silver Surfers? Clive, perhaps you should reconsider seven years down the line; the perfect eLearner is a shElearner. I'll get back to that one, no worries. In the mean time, here's some reading, even if it is seven years old - it's interesting. http://www.fastrak-consulting.co.uk/tactix/features/elearner.htm#Profiling%20the%20perfect%20e-learner