Good or bad there is an inevitability that technology will and indeed has changed the way in which we teach and more importantly learn. In the 1960’s Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “The medium is the message” (McLuhan: 2001), certainly technology has to be seen as a central driver in the changes that are occurring now throughout education, the past twenty or so years have changed the Educational Landscape for better or worse, but certainly forever, the message embedded in the medium is fundamental, use of technology is here to stay.
In a video (Pay Attention: 2007) on Teacher Tube http://tiny.cc/2VdKE listing statistical evidence on what an average American student might look like today and the ways in which they learn, the term ‘Digital Natives’ was used (Pensky: 2001). Although it might be argued that America is ahead in terms of the ‘Digital Native’ profile, certainly students today in the UK are situated on the same shifting ground. Activities in the classroom are changing to satisfy the demands of these ‘digital natives’ and the cultural millieu in which they are learning is fundamentally different. In another YouTube video http://tiny.cc/XfbHg Mike Wesch (2007), a Media Anthropologist succinctly shows what is happening in the classroom with the help of 200 students at Kansas State University. Although the blackboard might remain, the Overhead Projector Screen now drops in front of it, showing video content, powerpoints and/or other digital media.
Engaging these ‘digital natives’ requires a shift in the locus of control, one where the student is at the centre “and the role of the tutor as a guide or mentor rather than as a teacher” (Smyth.K and Mainka.C: 2006:10). ‘We’ need to learn about the ‘active learner’ (Laurillard: 2005), this ‘Digital Native’, so that we can collapse the distance between teacher and taught. Through the exploration of the forms of technology that these Digital Natives use in the everyday, and through its inclusion in practice, technology and its use in education may provide an answer to the reality of a rapidly expanding sector (Becta: 2008). Technology needs to serve the Learning Experience and the Learner, and not be used just for the sake of it.
Reading:
BECTA (2008) Harnessing technology. Next generation learning 2008-14.
Laurillard.D in Ashwin, P. (2006). Changing higher education. The development of learning and teaching. Chapter 6: Elearning in higher education.
McLuhan M ( 2001) Understanding Media, Routledge
Penskey (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, from On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5.)
Smyth K & Mainka C (2006) Pedagogy and learning technology: a practical guide. Unit 1 Section 5: Why is educational technology important? (pp 9-12).
Media Links:
Wesch. M (2007) http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o&feature=user YouTube
Pay Attention (2007) http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=40c570a322f1b0b65909&page=1&viewtype=&category=tr TeacherTube
used tiny URL within the discussion.
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