Naked is the way to go

Technology, I feel, needs to be a part of education as it is a part of our daily lives and we use it all the time. Technology provides a visual stimulus for students and thus assists in their learning. However, there are many teachers that are just using the technological tools such as power point lectures with a whole bunch of bullet points that want to put all students to sleep and thus I feel we need to learn to teach naked.

Provide the students with information through notes, videos, podcast, online forums, skype sessions ect  that they can view before the lecture and then remove the computers and projectors and just have the room, the teacher and the students, let them interact, engage, ask questions, hold discussions and most importantly think critically. Flipped classrooms I feel are an excellent way of getting students involved, coming from a science background we never really had a flip classes and so this is all new to me, but I enjoy it, I find it a better way of learning. Through flip classrooms you hear different opinions, see situations from different perspectives and it opens your mind to topics and thoughts that you never even knew you had.

This teaches students to perform in class, and other environments, and not just be a vessel that passively absorbs information. “ you cannot even imagine the work you can do before you’ve invented or experienced the tools or social dynamic they enable”, this quote is what needs to be taught in schools, students need to fiddle and get their hands dirty, they need to get involved to learn.

We need to use technology in an engaging way and not as a tool that makes our lives easier as teachers, yes, power point is easy and reading off of them during a lecture is easy, but for the students it is not fun nor is it of any help to our understanding of the topic that is being taught. If we want student to learn engage with them and if we are going to use these fancy technologies, use them in a way that helps students learn and be a part of the issue. The gaol of the teacher is to be creative, unique and to bring the outside world into the classroom.

An important note: technology will always fail at some point, as a teacher always have a plan B and an even better teacher has a plan C.

“A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination and instill a love of learning”

-Brad Henry