Not long ago, I was commenting with a fellow teacher how we had studied and trained ourselves for our profession in a world that no longer exists. And we were not really talking about it nostalgically, not at all. Learning actual things, that sound knowledge that serves to hypothesize or reason, has always entailed an effort for me. We were focusing on the new ways of managing and transmitting content, the technological revolution that has created a generational gap larger than any other seen in the history of education.
It would be truly narrow-minded on my behalf, not to assume the benefits of some of the technological tools at our disposal as teachers today. But it is true too that there are many digital rascals taking these tools as a means of watching the time go past rather than achieving the learning objectives set by the curriculum. That is the reason why I am always interested in sharing technical knowledge with my colleagues.
In any case, these are my reactions to my students’ proposals. I am delighted to share them with you:
- Can I take a photo of the whiteboard? Well, I don’t mind at all but remember… that is something to learn. If you store it in your phone, most probably will remain there till doomsday.
- Can you send us a video with your lessons? No, not really. I’m not going to lend you my image for free so that you play it fast-forwardly… I will explain things live. Your education should be the most important thing in your lives and I must make sure you understand what I am trying to explain.
- Can you send us a pdf? Definitely not… You will definitely not read it because you have plenty of amusing things to do with your phone 🙂
- Shall we make a blog, wiki, instagram…? Definitely we will. I will use any base to handle my contents, always under the cover of the presentation-practice-production progression. If you are to find the topic and the content attractive, let us go ahead. I am with you.
All in all, we will survive by making our product attractive to customers… it is the only way to survive.
