As educators, we incorporate countless sources of information into our instruction and make myriad choices about instruction.
Some of the sources of information we sift through each day in creating a coherent lesson include curricular goals, current news in our discipline, student and class dynamics including language proficiency and learning styles, and even the time of day or energy level when the students walk into the room.
Some of the choices we face daily include when to provide direct instruction and let students learn through exploration, when to encourage or rein in discussion that may meander interestingly off course, when to assess with "points" and when to take the pressure off, when to have student in groups and when they should work alone, when to bouy up students and when to have them take responsibility for themselves, and of most relevance here, when to incorporate the varied technologies at our disposal.
These choices read like Ecclesiastes - to everything there is a season. No one choice is right for all situations. A good educator must make judicious use of all this information and make effective, balanced, and compassionate choices that will help students learn content, become more self-sufficient learners, nurture their inherent interest, and also (I feel) make them more caring, competent citizens.
What CoETaIL has offered me is the chance to explore emerging technologies in a deliberate fashion and to improve lessons that are already good, even great, but which can now have a new enriching dimension that was not easily available when I started teaching 10 years ago. As a particular example, I am interested in students abilities to continue their discussion and explorations with each other outside of the class setting. Online communication among classmates offers many advantages, especially for reaching students uncomfortable with public speaking, or asking questions with everyone's attention on them, or who need longer to process and come up with good questions than they have during face-to-face classroom time, or who develop a sense of confidence from helping their peers; the list goes on.
I say adding ideas from CoETaIL to my teaching is like adding another spice to the pot. This is a better analogy than, let's say, adding another tool to the toolbox, because I can do more than simply solve one problem or complete a specific type of task. Incorporating new types of imagery, new methods of communication, new avenues of expression add richness and depth to the diverse and already-established methods of instruction. A teacher's bag of tricks is more than the sum of its parts; just as the flavour of a dish is more than the sum of its spices.
Love the analogy Patience! So perfect, because you can mix and blend the spices together with other new ones or with spices you've used for years.
ReplyDeleteI too love the analogy that spicing our teaching up with visuals can enhance the learning environment....this post helped me also think about my own past thinking 'before' smartboards and computers in the classrooms. I think i still enhanced learning with visuals--that is just good teaching, but the visuals were limited in a sense--i relied more on 'drawings' and on 'cuttings' from magazines and such (lots of work then, lots of work now)...these days, it is easier to access and to add the visual spices into our teaching...click, click.
ReplyDeleteDeep...very deep... We spice up our students lives? Education is the spice of life?
ReplyDeleteA great teacher knows the perfect combination of methods for every student and topic. Just like a great chef knows the right combination of spices that go perfectly with each ingredient.