Friday, 3 April 2009

A Learning Theory for 21st Century Students


The latest Innovate magazine has an article on a learning theory for the 21st century. Interesting reading and very relevant to my own journey of wanting to know what will work in an online environment to ensure quality teaching and learning happens. The difficult part is bridging the gap between theory and practice (praxis), and this is what I, and a group of colleagues, are wanting to do. Hopefully the outcome will be a set of guidelines which teachers can use to help them provide quality on-line learning experiences for their students.

Wednesday, 1 April 2009

ePedagogy or simply a 21st century pedagogy

Well, haven't blogged for ages, but things have been so hectic - no excuse I suppose.
ePedagogy or simply 21st century pedagogy. Well it's a no brainer as far as I am concerned - it's 21st century pedagogy, because it's not about the technology, it's about learning. We coined the idea of an "e" in front of anything to do with computing and learning, as if it was something separate to "normal" learning. For us digital immigrants, I suppose it was, but for digital natives, using technology to learn is normal. Not using technology, or using technology in a way that is "so yesterday", is what students see as not normal. Don't get me wrong, students do not expect to have technology as part of every learning experience, but they do expect it to form part of how they go about learning. My question is how do teachers use technology to construct learning experiences that are engaging, challenging, collaborative, flexible and anytime, anywhere? How do teachers link formal and informal learning experiences to provide truly context driven learning? How do we connect with and co-construct our learning while at the same time meeting the rigours of national assessment? How do we educate our parents that learning is not about getting credits, but that getting credits is a result of learning?

So many questions.