My Utopia Classroom!

As "teachers-in the making", we have been warned against the bureaucracy that exist in the school environment.  This includes school hierarchies, exclusive school cultures, lack of time and the prescriptive CAPS-document that needs to be implemented.  I won’t have control over the aforementioned.  Still amidst all of this, I have a very real opportunity of teaching a hidden curriculum in what would be my classroom.  A hidden curriculum that refers to implicit aspects a teacher would like to teach learners and in a classroom where I would facilitate a learning process.  Both of which I have control over.  I realise that careful strategic planning is required for this implementation.  However, this blog entry allows me to pause for a brief moment, dream and thereby commence this strategic planning.        

 

The pastoral role of teachers asks of teachers to recognize and meet the holistic needs of learners.  Having mentioned this, it is not the sole responsibility of the teacher and for this reason I do think it is important to form partnerships with governmental departments, non-governmental organizations and community members.

 

My first objective would be to establish rapport with learners in my class.  Learners would experience this when the teacher model and behave in a manner that promotes a trusting relationship.  The teacher would be able to address some of these holistic needs but not all.  The teacher should refer appropriately to partners when requires.  For this reason, a teacher’s most important partnership is with the learners‘ parents.  Therefore, I would like to implement home visits to the learners’ parents.  Having trusting relationships with learners would assist me with identifying learning triggers and addressing learning needs.  I would like to make use of creative thinking and activities to engage learners.

 

I would be pro-active in creating a safe learning environment in order for learners to participate actively, be empowered and have agency.  The classroom culture will be characterised by fairness and equal opportunities.  In addition to this equitable practices will be implemented by attempting to “level the playing field” since learners have different contexts and capabilities.

 

All the aforementioned are noble ideas and requires a diligent teacher.  I don’t mind hard work but I do suspect that time would be my enemy since there are only a certain amount of hours in a school day and within these school hours CAPS would take preference.  Therefore, the question remains how will I merge these noble ideas with the realities in schools?  Time will tell and strategic planning will help…         

Appreciation for digital self-directed and distance learning!

Digital pedagogy contributes immensely to self-directed and distance learning.  Both of which are such a liberating idea and method of learning.  Usually the learners do not feel obligated to learn but learning is more of a voluntary process which happens naturally.  The aforementioned suggests a more enjoyable process.

Self-directed and distance learning, which we are familiar with, challenge the usual classroom learning in many ways.  These methods have an added benefit of learning at a convenience time for learners.  These flexible hours enable learners, who work full time, to learn and complete courses outside of working hours.  Generally learning takes place in different ways and in different spaces.  In addition to this, these learning methods are more likely to embrace creativity.

The merge of digital pedagogy with self-directed and distance learning leads to holistic integration of knowledge and by doing this, the learner’s learning experience is broadened.  By means of digital pedagogy, knowledge is transferred and linked to different learning areas more quickly. 

The traditional teacher-student engagement in a class room is also challenged by self-directed a distance learning.  Instead of a top-down teacher-student learning engagement, these methods require a more reciprocal and equal relationship between teacher and student.  The teacher and learner can learn from one another, which also broaden the learning experience.  Such a teacher-student relationship would best be initiated by the teacher, since teachers are seen as being in a position of power.  This learning environment calls for a teacher with exceptional qualities like being emotional intelligent, open-minded, non-judgemental, acceptant and self-confident.

Different people have different learning preferences.  In my opinion, it takes a highly, intrinsically motivated learner, to be successful at self-directed and distance learning since the learner needs to work independently.  Initially I assumed that self-directed and distance digital pedagogy learners are individualistic and probably lack social skills.  Contrary to popular belief, the “Independent Project (2011)” makes continuous use of teamwork as a method of learning and teamwork requires social skills to be effective.  Teamwork obligates learners to consider diverse opinions and aspects.  Therefore, effective teamwork broadens the learning experience.

Thus, digital self-directed and distant learning are favourable because of volunteering learning, flexibility in learning times and spaces, holistic integration of knowledge, reciprocal teacher-student learning relationships, embracing of different learning styles and teamwork.  In the light of all the aforementioned advantages of digital self-directed and distance pedagogy, pro-active attempts should be implemented to enhance availability and inclusivity for all.

   

 

Slowly but surely shifting towards social media in class rooms…

Social media is undoubtedly beneficial for various reasons.  It gives us access to more information that could help us to be knowledgeable.  Social media enables us to access this information very quickly.  Most importantly, we are able to engage with the greater world even though we exist in our own habitus.  I am not ignorant about the advantages of social media but we have to be mindful of the possible pitfalls when using social media as a teacher in a classroom.

Personal experiences have an influence on professional development.  Therefore, my prior personal experience with social media influence my inclination of the use of social media as a teacher in the classroom.  Unfortunately, family and friends of mine have been victims of identity fraud, whereby random people, living in other countries, withdrew money from their bank accounts.  Obviously these criminals were able to obtain their personal information by hacking into electronic devices and social media.  In addition to this, I made a personal decision to have minimal engagement with social media and therefore I am not informed about the usage of social media.  Therefore, I have to overcome my personal fears and lack of social media first if I consider social media in a classroom.

In an ideal world, I would make use of social media in the classroom, provided that it is inclusive.  A country, I like South Africa, has limited resources and therefore not all the learners might have access to an electronic device or internet.  Learners should have access to equal opportunities and if a social media activity is not inclusive of all learners in the class, it should not be considered.

In addition to this, all learners should have equal opportunities to participate in a classroom.  This is because learner participation in a classroom is more likely to lead to a change in behaviour.  Participation would cause learners to engage in agency, which will lead to the empowerment of learners.

Another determining factor of using social media in the classroom, would be learners’ emotional intelligence and their ability to self-regulate their behaviour.  It is difficult enough to teach learners emotional intelligence but social media poses an additional challenge because of less oversight and monitoring.

Regardless of whether or not social media is used in the classroom, it is important that learners are taught to be competent, well adapted and holistic citizens.  This might very well mean that learners initially have to be taught the basis and principles of competencies without social media.  This would be helpful for sustainability because learners should still be able to be functional in the absence of school media.     

Let’s play!

There are many aspects in the prescribed articles that resonate with me and that I could respond to like teachers having different capabilities, digital pedagogy is the use of electronic elements to enhance or to change the experience of education and that pedagogy is ”the place where philosophy and practise meet (aka ‘praxis’).”

 

However, now that I have at least showed Mr Knoetze that I read the articles, I would like to proceed by thinking about “digital pedagogy calls for screwing around more than it does systematic study” (@slamteacher) and that “pedagogy experiments relentlessly, honouring a learning that’s lifelong-transferences of skills to different settings” (@slamteacher).  In addition to this “pedagogy has its core timeliness, mindfulness and improvisation” (@jessifer) and Cathy Davidson, who wrote:” sustain innovation by finding the cheapest, fastest, least bureaucratic way to make ourselves perpetual learners.”  The possibility of the pedagogy, including digital pedagogy, as an art that requires creative thinking and therefore also time to play. 

 

To create is to “bring into existence “and in art all work is and in art all work is seen as new because it has been brought into existence.  Creative thinking is often a messy and “screwing around” process and as a result ideas are rejected.  Creativity needs time and it is something that needs to be cultivated and allowed to grow because creative thinking aims to bring a new innovation to an old idea, a new solution to a problem and a new way of doing something.

 

The playful nature of pedagogy is such a refreshing idea!  As a social worker, I know for a fact that different forms of play are used with great success in the healing journey of trauma survivors.  It is fun to play!  According to developmental psychology, it was our work to play during our early childhood.  More recently everyday my fellow PGCE student and I drive to Stellenbosch and we park the car next to a crèche.  Every morning we watch the pre-school children at crèche playing and just being happy, which makes me green of envy.  This leads me to wonder when did work and learning become effort instead of being fun?

 

In conclusion, if you want creative workers, give them enough time to play” (John Cleese, British comedian).  Therefore, students and lecturers even though PGCE is a fast-paced and compact course but let us not forget to have fun within the PGCE course…let’s play!  

 

 

Classroom "tools"!

Prior to the module digital pedagogy and the article, "Digital Pedagogy Unplugged", I was one of the persons who thought digital pedagogy is "just something that uses electronic tools or computers".  This thought scared me because I view myself as technologically challenged.  The idea that digital pedagogy includes both "digital and non-digital" is liberating to me and this makes me critical about tools or resources in a classroom.

Tools should be use to reinforce clarity and help the understanding process.  As 'teachers-in the-making', most of us feel more secure, better prepared and well-supported if we know we can use resources to help convey information.  However, tools in itself should not guide pedagogy but the use of any tool should be guided by aims and objectives in an attempt to reach outcomes that change learner behavior.

As teachers, our aims are set out in curricula, which are general statements of the overall direction of the course.  Curricula tell us what teachers intend to achieve but also what is specified for the whole course and individual parts.  In addition to this, learning objectives are precis descriptions of what learners should be capable of doing after a period of learning.  Therefore digital and non-digital tools should be use cautiously to reach planned aims and objectives.

The article, "Digital Pedagogy Unplugged" makes a strong case for the use of both digital and non-digital tools bu for me the most important tools are not mentioned in this article.  In a classroom, teachers and learners are your most important resources or tools.  A knowledgeable teacher, who creates a safe learning environment and break down the barriers of learning is the best tool in the classroom.  Learners need recognition and encouragement to be able to raise opinions, ask questions and interact at their own pace.  An interpersonal focus motivates learners.  Learners, on the other hand, are motivated by different learning triggers and have different learning styles.

In conclusion, digital pedagogy includes both digital and non-digital tools.  Tools should be use to reinforce planned aims, objectives and outcomes.  Teachers and learners are the most important tools. Teachers teach people first and then subject matter and digital tools are only an addition to this process.