Meaningful involvement of learners

Aaah… the fifth blog, I am so frustrated with all these unnecessary little things of PGCE; it is driving me crazy! This week has been one of thee most hectic weeks, and still, I’m unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Anyway moving on, this blog has got to do with effective pedagogy. 

The video by Shannon Foley, (Teaching the world) on YouTube (with a few spelling errors lol), basically focuses on pastoral care, effective teaching practices along with available resources that make up a good teacher. What I am able to understand and grasp from this video, is that teachers ought to be some kind of “super being”. I understand that there are many valid points being made in the video such as facilitating effective engagement with learners, nurturing their well-being and creating an open environment for communication of learners but in a way I feel that this expecting too much from the teacher and leaves almost no responsibility for the parent. I do understand that as a teacher one has to take on the role of the parent, but I mean, where does one draw the line? It’s not like the teacher gave birth to the child or something, (and I mean this in the least harshest way possible) but let’s be realistic here for a second. What they are basically saying in the video is that the teacher has to take full responsibility for the child, which in my opinion, is a bit ridiculous. It is a wild expectation. No teacher is going to honestly say that they love the children they teach, the same way or to the same extent as they would love their own kids. I know the video means well, But hey, that’s just my 2 cents on it. 

Riiiiiight …. 

Next up we have Mindfulness in the classroom, by Wills. This blog post is quite nice. I actually enjoyed the little story of how she got the students to stop causing a ruckus in her classroom by getting  them to be mindful. If I was her I would have probably lost my mind with all of that noise and not being able to deal with it. Her strategy was quite effective. I like the fact that she stopped blaming herself for what had being going on, but rather found an effective strategy to get the learners to take responsibility for their actions.  This goes to show that teachers always have to try to be one step (or even 20 more steps, for that matter) ahead of the learners. TouchÈ teacher Abby Wills…

Social Media in the Classroom

In the light of using social media as an educational advantage, I think it is quite creative and also in a way a little threatening to attendance of students in classroom. Okay, so let’s use Sunlearn as an example. In the case of a lecturer posting all the work that they have done in class such as slides and notes, as well as assignments that need to be handed in; students tend to feel that there is no need to attend these classes. I do not want to sound negative and say that technology (through digital pedagogy) is going to take over the teaching aspect and at the end of the day students would not require a teacher, but rather emphasize the manner in which it is used.

Looking at how I would try to make use of social media in my classroom, I would take into account the main aspect of not giving/ too much information on the topics that have been discussed in class, for example, Life Orientation and the topic teenage pregnancy. I would post the basic and essential parts of the lesson on social media, however, I would not make a post regarding an assignment or task that needs to be handed in. For that part of the lesson they would have to come to class in order to gain better understanding of what is required by the task.

I do agree with both blogs that social media can be seen as an advantageous tool when it comes to education in order to ease the way in which information is distributed rather than viewing it as a platform of distraction. But then again, how does one monitor what every student has to say on social media such as Facebook/twitter? If it is seen as tool that applies to the masses in the form of distributing information, then I think it is quite useful. However, there are students who sometimes post things on these social networking sites that can become controversial and end up causing havoc rather than focusing on what a specific lesson was about and drift of the topic.

Basically, the message that I am trying to get across, is that … I am not against social media in the classroom, neither am I a fanatic. I am merely pointing out aspects that need to be taken into account when using social media in the classroom. The control thereof becomes questionable. To what extent are you willing to allow social media to be used in your classroom? ….