21st Century Educator

Many would remember the conversation that started some time ago about the nature of truth, right and wrong. Graham Wegner has continued the conversation here and on his blog – teaching generation Z. Well I wanted to search this a bit further…. I raised the challenge on Graham’s blog for us all to start drawing some conclusions on this journey of conversation (not that I want it to end). So I thought I would take up my own challenge and draw some conclusions here….

1) In a diverse world, of opinion and views we must be sensitive to the experiences of others which without a doubt will impact how they conduct their personal and professional life. Teaching is a personal profession – you bring a part of who you are (which is formed by experience) to your classroom and to the world of your students. This is a quite a daunting thought…. “You mean to tell me that I may be responsible for how this kid turns out?” Obviously they do have parents and other influences in their life, but it is important to remember that the teacher is often a strong influence in a student’s life.
2) If point 2 is correct, understanding my world view and how I see what is right and wrong is of upmost importance as it suddenly effects more than me.
3) While this conversation started from a question of teaching students right and wrong in a digital world – it has suddenly become much bigger than that part of a students life. Perhaps the issues surrounding becoming a responsible digital citizen are not too different to those of becoming a responsible citizen of the real world?

Just 3 conclusions I have drawn from the conversation. There are probably many more but that is enough thinking from me this afternoon (long day). The last thought I will leave with…. What hope do we have of having students act responsibly in a digital world if we create a reality at school that focuses solely on the consequences? It is easy to get away with doing the wrong thing online, so if there are no consequences….. well you see where I am going.

Actually I am going to let that go for now…. A discussion on consequentialism another day perhaps? 

I often take time out to listen to a number of tech podcasts. In the past I have been disappointed by the thoughts of industry leaders in relation to education. However, this morning I had a listen to the latest episode of This Week in Media. The guys on this show had a great conversation about the need for the next educational revolution…. While it is great to have educators proclaiming the need for changes, I think the cause gets much stronger when industry experts are calling for the same things. Normally this show is quite a techy type show but this episode is very relavent to us educators….

You can check it out here….

The concept of learning to learn comes up during the conversation…. Something that is so important for this generation of students. Unfortunately, I see a school system that is teaching them to just want to receive…. There is not enough encouraging of exploration and lessons of learning from failure. This is a great conversation and something that I think could continue in our little edtech blog world. Enjoy….

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Oh my this is going to be quite interesting…. A complete education conference hosted in second life. Free registration for everyone open to anyone. Check out the link and let me know what you think - Once I work out the time for us Aussies I will post more.

Wow it has been a long time between podcasts…. However, I have got some great content for today…. I was recently disappointed to miss out on Jimmy Wales tour here in Australia. I found a recording of Jimmy’s presentation in Sydney which was broadcasted on national radio here in Australia. Thanks to the folk at educationau who always put on fascinating events for the education world here in Australia.

So sit back and enjoy episode 24!! More to come soon - I hope!!

Download Podcast here

I am trying to generation some information to help me build a case for 1 to 1 learning in a high school digital media class. The options are going for an entire lab of gear or minimising the lab gear to allow for all students to have their own laptops (probably Macbook Pros). Thoughts and links to research would be much appreciated… As I gather more I will post a page (perhaps a wiki) to list all the research that I have collated (with the help of everyone else of course).

Thanking you in advance….