Rethinking Pedagogy for the Digital Age

Changing Paradigms in Education

Let's begin by defining "to teach".

www.oxforddictionaries.com provide the following definitions:

1.  impart knowledge to or instruct someone how to do something.

2.  give information about or instruction in (a subject or skill).

Oh dear!  If this is the definition, then we're all potentially redundant!  A teacher cannot be a source of knowledge and instruction - everything anyone needs to know (and more) is available on the Internet.  I fully accept that our roles need to change.  Teaching needs to respond to the new needs of the millennial generation, who are growing up in a digital world.  This is why I have begun my journey to see how new technologies can be incorporated into my practice in ways that ADD VALUE to the learning experience.

My inspiration

This talk by Sir Ken Robinson started to get me thinking about the way we educate.  This was my starting point, and the reason I have embarked on my techno-journey.

Making Changes

Dinosaur No More

I've been teaching ELT since 2002 and over the years have accumulated a significant amount of paper:

My groaning resource shelf!

Does my ELT resource shelf need to go?  These resources have been collected over 12 years and I'm questioning whether they continue to have any relevance in the digital world.  Getting rid of these is going to be hard - they've served me well over the years.  When I was a CELTA trainee I was shown how to use photos and pictures to elicit response and bring out language and I would spend hours browsing magazines to pull out suitable images.  Thankfully, I've been able to ditch all of these dog-eared pictures, thanks to the vast image bank on the Internet.  It's so easy to find stimulating visual resources that also fit into the Equality & Diversity agenda.
The question is....
...will the digital tools and resources that we are about to be introduced to enable me to replace these old resources?  It will be nice to clear the shelf and get rid of clutter, but can all of these be replaced in a way that ADDS VALUE to my lessons?  My techno-sceptic self thinks not.