To start with, I will try to answer a question about Professor Fuller's Lecture on Humanity .
Q1 : Why does Professor Fuller say (almost as a joke) that education is ‘a dying art’?
When Professor Fuller refers about education as a " dying art " is when he compares it with the Paideia in old Greek or the paedeuctics . When we talk about this term in education is to refer to the act of pedagogy, sort of upbringing of ideal citizens; meaning education is not only teaching new contents , information but also teaching values and attitudes; to form individuals intellectually, morally and physically prepared to interact in a society, be members of a society, contribute to the society.
In terms of education, some of us are still using this approach, but definitely other factors are taking the lead. If we discuss the MOOC experience from that point of view, I would say that as we have seen, e-learning is using tools which keep some " real human" interaction to make it meaningful to the student, one of this ways is by using video in their lectures. EDCMOOC is doing it, actually today we had our second hangout.
Well, when I was watching I was wondering about what was missing to be 100% engaged, because I have to admit that despite the fact I was paying attention, I found myself checking FB's updates, and reading my e-mail, as they were only acting as " talking heads" , I didn't have to keep looking at all times. Well, I guess it was that,something else needs to be added to the video, charts, like when they were showing the stats of the survey :
, something else more than the Professor's " talking heads". We have a program where I work, all Professors that are not teachers by profession, they have to take this Pedagogy for Higher Education, where the curriculum is focused on giving them the basics on pedagogy such as , how to teach, how to evaluate, how to plan, and how to communicate. I know that we are discussing here online teaching, but I think we should keep that mind, especially when it comes to " communication " , because here is when we have to make the difference : are we really reaching our audience ? Remember that " language " and its forms of expressions are varied, and here it comes the use of the new technologies, we have to make it effective, creative to grasp student's attention. We, teachers can not become unnecessary, we must be present, guiding, giving feedback , reassuring, showing the students the different choices and make them to decide.
Therefore , the challenge of education in the future and currently I would say , is to reach our students, know them, know their reality, plan according to that, and when we do, keep in mind the type of methodology we are going to use, keep education " human" .
Here is a link to my Flick assignment in case you'd like to see it, comment and eventually fav if you like it :
Flickr assignment
No comments:
Post a Comment