Comments on: Integrating teaching into technology http://robwall.ca/2009/12/15/integrating-teaching-into-technology/ Visitivity in the possimpible Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:52:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Rob Wall http://robwall.ca/2009/12/15/integrating-teaching-into-technology/#comment-548 Rob Wall Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:40:59 +0000 http://robwall.ca/?p=578#comment-548 Donna, it is my sincere hope that schools and school systems can make the paradigm change. I think there have been some positive revisions in curriculum in Saskatchewan that indicate movement in that direction (and I'm looking forward to those changes filtering through to the sciences). I think the real paradigm shift will happen not when curriculum change but when pedagogy changes, and I believe that re-examining the way schools manage and allocate the time, spatial and teacher resources will go a long way to supporting that. Tony, I think some of your ideas need to be asked in a K-12 context. You are looking at changes in the management and control over the same time, spatial and teaching resources that schools need to examine. I agree about the importance of teacher student contact, but I think we can improve the nature of that contact, especially in high schools. Incidentally, I'm not sure if you've looked at Sam Postlethwait's Audio Tutorial instructional system developed in the late 60s. Some of his techniques might be well suited to your goals. His original paper is online at http://jas.fass.org/cgi/reprint/27/4/938.pdf Donna, it is my sincere hope that schools and school systems can make the paradigm change. I think there have been some positive revisions in curriculum in Saskatchewan that indicate movement in that direction (and I’m looking forward to those changes filtering through to the sciences). I think the real paradigm shift will happen not when curriculum change but when pedagogy changes, and I believe that re-examining the way schools manage and allocate the time, spatial and teacher resources will go a long way to supporting that.

Tony, I think some of your ideas need to be asked in a K-12 context. You are looking at changes in the management and control over the same time, spatial and teaching resources that schools need to examine. I agree about the importance of teacher student contact, but I think we can improve the nature of that contact, especially in high schools.

Incidentally, I’m not sure if you’ve looked at Sam Postlethwait’s Audio Tutorial instructional system developed in the late 60s. Some of his techniques might be well suited to your goals. His original paper is online at http://jas.fass.org/cgi/reprint/27/4/938.pdf

]]> By: Tony Bates http://robwall.ca/2009/12/15/integrating-teaching-into-technology/#comment-547 Tony Bates Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:02:29 +0000 http://robwall.ca/?p=578#comment-547 Hi, Rob Many thanks for your thoughtful comments. I don't want to see the face-to-face classroom disappear, especially in the k-12 sector. My comments are addressed mainly to the post-secondary sector, where students often have to sit in lecture classes of 200 students or more. What I'd like to see is the re-design of these classes so that instead of spending 39 hours a semester lecturing, a professor could meet at least once a semester with small groups of 25 students for an in-depth discussion, based on work already done online by the students. The lecture stuff would be done instead through a structured and designed set of online readings or activities. In other words, I'd like instructors to re-design courses from scratch, thinking through what absolutely needs to be done face-to-face and doing the rest online or digitally. However, especially in k-12, substantial personal contact with the teacher must remain for most students, as much for social and personal as for academic reasons, Best regards Tony Bates Hi, Rob

Many thanks for your thoughtful comments.

I don’t want to see the face-to-face classroom disappear, especially in the k-12 sector. My comments are addressed mainly to the post-secondary sector, where students often have to sit in lecture classes of 200 students or more.

What I’d like to see is the re-design of these classes so that instead of spending 39 hours a semester lecturing, a professor could meet at least once a semester with small groups of 25 students for an in-depth discussion, based on work already done online by the students. The lecture stuff would be done instead through a structured and designed set of online readings or activities.

In other words, I’d like instructors to re-design courses from scratch, thinking through what absolutely needs to be done face-to-face and doing the rest online or digitally. However, especially in k-12, substantial personal contact with the teacher must remain for most students, as much for social and personal as for academic reasons,

Best regards

Tony Bates

]]> By: Donna DesRoches http://robwall.ca/2009/12/15/integrating-teaching-into-technology/#comment-546 Donna DesRoches Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:00:10 +0000 http://robwall.ca/?p=578#comment-546 Rob, I have been doing much thinking along these lines myself. Recently I came upon this report from Sharon Friesen at the Galileo Network, "What did you do in School Today. Teaching Effectiveness: A Framework and a Rubric" in which she says, "Over the past 20 years we have learned that this model of learning is fundamentally flawed. If schools are to continue to exist in a knowledge society, they have to change. These changes, “do not represent the usual process of adding to and improving existing ideas: rather they represent a paradigm shift – a radical break with the past that requires us to stop and completely rethink much of what we do”. Is one ever ready for a complete paradigm shift? If not, can change ever really occur? I wonder? The short PDF is a good read - http://www.cea-ace.ca/media/en/WDYDIST_Teaching_EN.pdf Rob, I have been doing much thinking along these lines myself. Recently I came upon this report from Sharon Friesen at the Galileo Network, “What did you do in School Today. Teaching Effectiveness: A Framework and a Rubric” in which she says, “Over the past 20 years we have learned that this model of learning is fundamentally flawed. If schools are to continue to exist in a knowledge society, they have to change. These changes, “do not represent the usual process of adding to and improving existing ideas: rather they represent a paradigm shift – a radical break with the past that requires us to stop and completely rethink much of what we do”. Is one ever ready for a complete paradigm shift? If not, can change ever really occur? I wonder? The short PDF is a good read – http://www.cea-ace.ca/media/en/WDYDIST_Teaching_EN.pdf

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