I was just sitting there making my way through the Ontario Extend Teacher for Learning module, and lo and behold! I see a link that says “Take it to The Bank”. What’s this then? I put my take on the activity right there? Ok! This is my response!
Identify a concept that is often misunderstood in your discipline. Can you think of an analogy that can help make the concept make sense to students?
My discipline is educational technology so the first thing that comes to mind is more like a misconceived idea than a singular concept that is misunderstood. That idea is the pervasive thought that technology is progressing faster and faster than ever and that we MUST KEEP UP!
That’s just stress inducing. Let’s chill out. We’re still finding out wonderful, fun, cutting-edge uses of trailing-edge technologies. The Extend program itself is kind of doing that. We’re blogging and tweeting! That’s not new! But it can be so engaging and extending, so let’s start doing that afresh together, in the open.
Have a look at this talk by Audrey Watters from the Digital Pedagogy Lab in PEI from 2016 where she makes it clear that, no, technology is not advancing faster than ever and taking a step back and thinking about why were are using it is a pretty stellar idea.
The tortoise beats the hare, all the time. See it happen in real life.
p.s. is that a turtle, or a tortoise in the image above?
“IMG_20130616_132818_v2” flickr photo by Chasing Light Photography (Chris Martin) https://flickr.com/photos/14798455@N06/9066171055 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license
This is great! I definitely agree. Now, more than ever, we need to pause and think critically about how, when, and where we integrate technology into our teaching and learning.
Thanks, Terry!
Or if you’re not sure about a technology to use in your teaching, ask Giulia what she thinks and she will steer you in the right direction!