Digital smidgital I'm a pedagogue yo!

I do not know about you guys, but these last couple of weeks have been rough! Especially this one, where some of us had to face and engage with real children with real expectations, not to mention the fact that we had to know our stuff and perform in front of our peers (which to me was the much more daunting idea). Although it is exhausting learning to become a (hopefully awesome) teacher, it is also exhilarating and informative and awe-inspiring and humbling. What a responsibility we have! The idea of that enormous privilege has been slowly sinking in over the last few weeks and has me quite nervous.

It got me thinking about digital pedagogy and what it means to be a pedagogue. Can a teacher really be replaced by a computer? Sure he/she can, if said teacher is not invested in the learners, if he/she does not really want to be there, if he/she are able to totally separate their emotions and actions within a school environment and of course plain and simply when the teacher cannot teach the learners more than a computer can.  Should a teacher be replaced by a computer? That is the question to be asked. I do not have a lot of authority, but in my opinion the answer is a resounding no. 

As we have learned over the last weeks, there is so much more to teaching than simply standing in front of a classroom full of kids and pumping their brains full of what we/ the curriculum decide to be knowledge. We have a responsibility towards the learners in our classrooms to think about each child’s cultural capital and to not only encourage them to learn skills to equal the so called playing field, but also respect and protect what makes them unique and feel safe, to adapt and find new ways of engaging and supporting the learners. A computer cannot do this, neither can a plain old teacher, but a pedagogue, oh the pedagogue can.  A pedagogue is concerned with pedagogy and as Morris says: “Pedagogy has at its core timeliness, mindfulness, and improvisation. Pedagogy concerns itself with the instantaneous, momentary, vital exchange that takes place in order for learning to happen.”  

Just to make myself clear, I am in no way promoting teaching without the use of digital technology, as this is a useful tool and is part of being mindful of our environment and surely helps with improvisation, but in the end it cannot take the place of human interaction. So, go forth and be the best teacher you can be, learn and adapt constantly, be the pedagogue you want to see in the world.

Being naked is not much fun

To be quite honest, this whole idea of having a Twitter account and a blog is not something that I am a huge fan of. I have been steering clear of those particular social media traps purposely and very proudly saw myself as 'above' it and not being part of the sheep mentality.  Not to say that I am living in the dark ages completely, I have a Facebook account and I use Whatsapp on a daily basis. Facebook in particular has kept me occupied and distracted for at least 15% of my time over the last couple of years. Can you imagine how productive I would have been with a few extra social media platforms?! Even so, it cannot be denied that we live in a time where technology is ever increasing and is a part of all of our daily lives.

The question is, how do we use it to teach? Should we use it at all?

In a specific part of Paul Fyfe’s article, he talks about the concept of teaching naked where it is suggested that you as a teacher should get rid of things in your classroom like computers and projectors, that using technology like powerpoint slides might become boring to the students and that it may cause that no to very little learning takes place.  It got me thinking about the concept of being or feeling naked (in a purely technological sense) and whether or not that is a good thing. If you think about it, we as a generation use technology to “clothe” and/or protect ourselves. The brand of our tech is as important as the brand of our jeans or trainers. If you don’t have an I-phone you won’t fit in with a certain crowd. In terms of protection; I so often find myself using my phone and Facebook or Whatsapp to set up a barrier when I am feeling particularly vulnerable. I am sure we all use our tech to protect us from feeling lonely or scared or even just down sometimes. Take that away and we feel quite naked. But what are we missing out on while we stare at our screens? We are missing out on engaging with other people that are actually there, not in some cyberspace. And as we have learned these last couple of weeks, engaging with your learners are important! The question then becomes; is it possible for us as teachers to fully engage with our learners by teaching ‘naked’? 

The best solution I can see is to find a golden middle and use technology, because, let’s face it, it is part of life and can be a wonderful learning tool, but do so conscientiously. This is where my mind trails off to think about Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Emperor’s new clothes” and the fact that the emperor made a fool of himself parading naked in front of his villagers where no-one had the guts to tell him that he was naked.  I can only hope and pray that someone will have the guts to tell me when my ‘clothing’ starts to disappear and I become naked in a class where clothing is preferred and instrumental to the learning process.