Teaching and Learning with Technology Task 1
Approaches to teaching and learning with technology
what others think!
Average opinions say that one of the most important characteristics of a good teacher is having expert skills, such as in communication in order pass knowledge to students and to support them to achieve their goals. Besides, learners tend to be more motivated when the teacher applies a variety of methods since students feel appreciated and socialised by group activities, etc.
The digital native debate:
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What do you think of Prensky’s idea of digital natives?
To some extent, I agree with Prensky’s idea of the digital natives. In terms of his statement that “the child is the heart of the matter” he has my consent because the students should literally be the focus of the teaching practice. The traditional way of learning we were taught back then predominantly meets with little response from the children and teenagers of the current century. However, the reverse also applies to a group of students who prefer paper and pen instead of iPad and Computer for studying.
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Do you consider yourself to be a digital native? What impact does this have on your teaching?
I am actually in between the both since I often use the internet for research, but I also like to go through literature in book-form. One the one hand, notes on the computer are normally more durable than on paper. On the other hand, to use a book or a sheet of paper gives its content a rather creative and personal touch. Consequently, my teaching is affected by the balance of tradition and modernity. To be precise, taking into account that today’s students’ time span they are capable to listen is pretty much limited to a maximum of seven minutes forces us teachers to blend in an increased amount of group work and interactions so that they connect and interact with each other. However, from my point of view, students lose interest in those activities and eventually in studying when they dominate. This might run the risk of not taking school work seriously, which may then lead to failure rather than success.
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How might the teaching that you have experienced in your education be appropriate or not appropriate for the students you will be teaching?
The way I was taught might in many ways be not appropriate for the prosperous students since technology moves extremely fast and thus, the students are always ahead of the teacher. What probably might be of avail are the methods and tools I have learned with the passage of time. Eventually, the aim is to prepare them for success.