Day 1: Technology Revolution

The 1st Wave: Generation Z

The Generation Z slideshow has altered my preconceptions of the students I will come to teach. I have interacted with many teenagers from the Generation Z category and have even taken multiple classes in my first professional practice. Previously I had the notion that Generation Z relied far too heavily on technology and deemed it a bad habit. I thought that it would make them lazy and offer far too many shortcuts. The slideshow, however, made me realise the importance of integrating and utilizing e-learning at its maximum capacity. By using technology as a tool and establishing it within my classroom pedagogy I will be able to offer a learning experience that each student can relate to on their own level.


The 2nd Wave: Big Thinkers

The key ideas I pulled from Big Thinkers are as follows:

• Do not allow your students to grow bored
  (Have surprises within the classroom)
• Create a safe environment
  (Emotionally and mentally)
•  Teach students tools to use in the real world, alongside facts
  (Analytical, long-term planning, problem solving)
• Video games, in this day and age, can be used as an example within one's pedagogy
  (Use the basic idea of starting at a 'base' level and building upwards to find each child's academic capabilities in order to help them grow)

All of these key ideas relate directly to my pedagogy and how I want my students to learn. Personally, I find the above ideas particularly important in order to keep the attention span of Generation Z. English and History are two subjects in which literature has always been traditional in the sense that it was a printed text. In the 21st century, however, literature encompasses a far wider variety of texts and offers new ways in which to develop one's teaching style. By wielding technology in a positive way - making e-learning activities interactive or combining the two - one can create an environment in which students are always surprised. The implications this would have for my classroom, however, may not always be 'safe'. Generation Z are supposedly better team players than their predecessors, but bullying - unfortunately - is still present within the schoolyard. If not monitored, technology within the classroom can cause negative situations. It may also, as discussed in the following section, hinder originality.   

The 3rd Wave: TED (Creativity in the 21st Century)

"Because [education] it's one of those things that goes deep with people, am I right? Like religion, and money, and other things." 

- Sir Ken Robinson on TEDTalks.

Personally, Robinson's TEDTalk was the presentation which spoke the loudest to me. His case that we are educated out of creativity is one aspect that I do not want to take place within my pedagogy. The 21st century is a place of many wonders and yet it is dreadfully stuck in the past. This was not apparent to me until Robinson introduced the facts: every education system on earth has the same academic hierarchy - Math and Languages on top, with the Arts at the bottom. This affects students' learning as the system previously told children that their interests in anything creative will amount to no job.

Technology, and digital literacy, has changed this.

The benefits of using ICT in classrooms reflects upon the shortcomings of traditional classrooms and pedagogy's at the same time. The 21st century has seen the creation of thousands of new jobs which previously did not exist. By e-learning becoming the pedagogy itself, teachers are able to offer students a glimpse at what digital literacy can offer them. Jobs in Digital Media and Graphic Design now rely upon creative and original students, which traditional pedagogies and curriculum attempted to squash. As a teacher, our job is to help students' make something of their creativity.