People are people

As a person who rarely plans, outside of my lesson planning, I totally struggle to imagine where I will be in 5 years time. So trying to imagine what teaching will look like in 5, 10, 15 years makes me a little bit freaked out! So, as is my norm in hours of need, I turned to the web. It made for very interesting reading.Firstly I was interested in this article. I know it is “old” by internet standards however these are comments that I have heard over and over again. The move from learning in school to life long-learners, although this is something I think many of us already do, albeit often informally. This method of learning is still not looked upon as a valid learning path, the schooling we undertake at school and Higher Education is the “real” learning, whilst the learning we can be engaged with through other channels can still be seen as of less worth.  Steve Hargadon also wrote:

“...the character traits of self-learning, self-motivation, and self-determination--in a world of increasing choices and niches--will become key end-goals for mentors working with learners. I think we are hearing from business leaders that these are some of the character traits and learning skills that they value most highly.”

OK so this seems to be a common theme. Increase pupils independence in learning, to increase their prospects outside of school. Essentially this is what connectivism has been discussing. Give pupils the tools to develop their own connective network as “learning occurs through connections within networks” Through this experience they will develop the self-learning skills discussed by Steve Hargadon. As this is an empowering process I would assume that it would lead to both self motivation and self determination.  The 2010 CIS Report looked at business needs compared to school output they found many gaps in the traditional methods of education and although I do not think we should only be preparing pupils for business, (it is good to learn just for the sake of knowledge) it was interesting to read that they saw a more interconnected world and saw traditional education as missing the opportunities in this world.I then moved onto another interesting article that discussed the “new teacher”. Michael Godsey takes a look at the development of teaching and sees the teacher being replaced by a facilitator whose role is to ensure that all the online courses are working and accessible. The removal of all traditional elements of teaching as we know, instead we will be teaching in the virtual world!So now over to me -  what do I now think? I think I tread a middle path. I have been told that teaching will change due to technology for the past 15 years and have seen very little change in actual teaching - yes the tools have changed but the teaching remains the same. Is this OK? No I don’t think so. I think change is good and as a professional we should be reflective and adaptive; be more connective! Working together is not new, but being able to work globally is relatively new and I think this has huge potential and benefits for both staff and pupil development.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyA7uGkZlY8Do I see future schools using only online courses with no physical teacher pupil interaction - for me no (although financially I can see why many countries may go for this!). I think this would be a step too far. I know myself that online formal learning is my least favourite method of learning. I love it for swift tutorials but not for the complex stuff! I need to interact face-to-face with a person. This is how I learn and I do not believe I am the only one.For example I have been trying to develop my Java coding skills and have followed self taught courses. When I failed to grasp concepts (which happened a lot!) I needed to discuss them with my colleagues - as I needed human contact. The computer screen (even with video communication) was not enough to either motivate me or to teach me. It can’t be just me -can it? After all we are humans and humans are social animals most of us need human contact!