Monday, December 25, 2017

Concluding 2017 with eLearning (1) Understanding Digital Learners (UDL) Part 1

eLearning (online course): Understanding Digital Learners (UDL) Part 1
This is a course that I signed up months ago. I've 'kept' it to the year-end to complete, partly because it was hard to find a good "one stretch" of time to sit through a few related modules at one go.

Some people might think that it's a 'waste' of time to sign up and attempt an online course on an area that one is similar with. However, I would think otherwise, because I believe that, no matter how familiar we are with any area, there's always some gems that we could draw out from it. (This was true when I attended some IT skills related workshop in the past). I guess, it's the mindset that we hold at the point of learning matters more.

Well, doing the course at this juncture of the year (a few days before the new academic year starts), it helps us to revisit some key ideas that we ought to keep in mind all the time in our professional practice.

I quite like this clip - that reminded us that teaching is a very unique profession, that could survive without being 'responsive' - it sounded more like can live like a frog in the well (without technology). Is it really true? Well, if we refer to content knowledge only, probably still a yes for now and the near future; however, let's revisit the primary purpose of schooling. Is it solely about content knowledge, or soft skills that are relevant to the demands of the current and future workforce (i.e. for survival)? Which type of skills is more enduring? Having a certificate that bears a stamp on "knowledge" - is that enough? Hm... Food for thought, isn't it?

If we are clear of the primary purpose of schooling (or education), then let's face the reality, live in reality, and prepare our students for the reality! That would require the teachers to better understand what's the reality in order to broaden and sharpen our repertoire of skills so that we are able to equip our learners with the necessary. 











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