Week 3 Post #1 A Portal to Media Literacy

Good Teaching Is Still Good Teaching

On the surface Dr. Wesh seems to offer all of these new ways of teaching but if you dig a little deeper his ideas for good teaching have been around for a while.  He is just looking at them through the “use of technology” lens. 

His first main point was significance.  Teachers need to make learning significant by showing students the big picture and creating a learning environment that values the learner.  The point he adds is to use the existing media environment. 

Vygotsky was published in the US in the 1960’s and has become a standard part of many teaching theory classes.  Vygotsky’s work focuses on learning being rooted in a person’s social context.  The most learning occurs when they are stretched just beyond what they already know and how it connects to them thereby making it significant.  Digital tools and accessing online networks allows students to have immediate feedback from many sources appropriate for various ages.

He also brought up the idea of questions being the catalyst for great learning.  Using questions to prompt learning has been around since Socrates.  Having someone ask just the right question at just the right time is powerful.

The challenge he presents to current teachers is to add technology in a meaningful way.  Leverage the powerful tools that allow us access to vast amounts of information and the tools that allow us to be part of creating and sharing information.  I like the ideas brought up in Scott McLeod’s blog that encourage teachers to embrace the tools our students are already using and teach them how to use them for learning.

This video reminded me of Sir Ken Robinson.  Every teacher should watch his videos.  His belief in being a passionate teacher who creates environments where children can flourish as learners is inspiring.  His belief is that this can be done when talented teachers pair up with the available technology.  Which brings me back to my title, Good Teaching is Still Good Teaching.  We need to use good teaching methods, love what we do, and love kids.  Technology hasn’t changed that part.  It is not a silver bullet that will fix everything.  It needs to be used well to achieve the things Dr. Wesh describes.