Gday all,

I have big plans. Huge Plans. Such big plans that I want to stop every teacher in the world and yell “WE ARE GOING ABOUT THIS THE WRONG WAY”! We need to take a look at our teaching pedagogy and rethink how we approach it now that we are in the 21st Century. I want to tell the worlds teachers that in their classrooms students aren’t learning the way they should be and that they need to focus on whats happening in the world rather than the four walls they call a learning environment!

But what is this going to achieve? If you are like me you would be offended that someone was saying that about your pedagogy!

So what am I going to do about it……..”The Ripple Effect!”

I am going to start doing a few things in my classes that I have researched that work and if teachers want to know about it they can read my journey through this blog. I have already updated my signature in my email to state my blog address and my Twitter username so that some may click on these to see what I have to say!

This idea of the ripple effect is not new in fact Jenny Luca posted a blog about it a while back and we have spoken together in email about trying to change the world one teacher at a time. She and I both know that you can lead a teacher to water but you cant make them drink unless they are thirsty! Its a shame though that some teachers out there are doing the same mundane tasks year after year getting pretty reasonable results but if they stepped away from these mundane tasks just on one occasion then maybe those results would be through the roof. The inevitable comment always rings out “looks great but only if I had the time”. MAKE THE TIME. You will reap the benefit of your efforts.

This blog post has been inspired by a few things that I have read or seen this week. One of them is on how much data we are generating through the use of social media and what we as teachers should do about it. Its called Infowhelm . The other is what we should do about it andits called 21st Century Pedagogy. It is an insight for teachers into the “Did you know 2.0“. We as teachers need to focus on the “How we learn” part of our subjects rather than “What we learn” so that students can adapt to the ever changing global community through the use of technology. Why? Because our students are adapting to the technology that surrounds them and we as teachers aren’t.  Those that can do this will “keep up” those that don’t I worry about.

I had a very interesting discussion with a group of my Year 10 digital media class after they have finished a project for me. I was talking to them about matrix learning and how they can self manage their time to complete set tasks. They said they were doing this in another subject and “noone” was doing the set tasks. WHY? They said it because there isnt any incentives. What sort of incentives do we need to learn? Or is the subject matter not suited to this type of pedagogy? I wonder. With this in mind I am asking them to help me develop a solution to this problem. They are the best advisors to help me. I wonder if other teachers have asked their students for feedback on how to deliver a subject better. I do it for every topic I facilitate. Some are very honest and constructive in their critisicm and it has helped me a lot.

I was also inspired to write this blog post this week because of this little gem which for me as a visual learner helped me to put into perspective how to justify Blooms Taxonomy using digital technology. My aim now is to try and use as many as I can in my teaching and assist others (that want assistance) to use them as well. It comes from iLearn Technology blog and it is well worth taking a good look at.

Big week this week! House nearly ready for sale and a father and son surf trip this weekend which is why I have blogged early. Hope it doesnt rain.

Thanks for reading

Andrew