Bloggers L&M: Combined Blog Post
Humanity is moving into a largely ICTs-driven era (Information Communication Technology), and as huge advances in this sector are made, education is necessarily reshaped under its influence. The classroom, both within the South African and the global context, have been irrevocably changed. Throughout the Digital Pedagogies course and the preceding blog articles, aspects of this change have been explored - both for the possibilities it presents, as well as the challenges it faces within the South African context. The effort of this piece will be to synthesize what has been discussed so far into a cohesive analysis of the potential for the implementation of digital pedagogies within our current education environment.
New roles/duties of teachers: Rapid advances have been made within the realm of ICTs, a fact which has influenced how we live our daily lives. The radical availability of information and communication through the rising technological interface necessitates a proficiency in digital and media literacy, which involve the skills necessary to participate, and use technologies ethically and responsibly. Within this context, the teacher now has the new duty of guiding learners through the necessary skills to use ICT effectively and safely.
Effective pedagogy & lesson planning: The recognition of the learner as a complex individual and the active engagement of the learner’s context-informed subjectivity is a large element of inclusive practice within the classroom, and therefore needs to be a foundational element that informs our pedagogies. The effective pedagogy is one that takes the learner and their learning process into consideration when teaching – actively involved learners are able to engage with and learn from the taught content. Incorporating ICTs as part of your lesson plan and your pedagogy creates an ideal platform to actively engage with increasingly technology-oriented learners inside and outside of the classroom, and it makes their learning experience more flexible, mobile and accessible. This is not a hard and fast rule, however – for some learners, the incorporation of technology can be disruptive. Counteracting this is part of the reason for the need for effective lesson planning. Lesson planning helps teachers achieve their role in the classroom, which is to help learners apply the concepts which they are taught. It also helps teachers to manage their classroom better and keep learners focused throughout the lesson.
ICTs as a teaching & learning aid: ICTs are increasingly regarded as a valuable teaching aid which can contribute to making lessons and difficult content more interesting and accessible. Its values have been list as, among others, providing access to information, helping engage learners with the content, acting as a communicative equaliser (through anonymous and standardised posting and access), and making sharing and working together easier when face-to-face working time is no longer required. It can help with lesson planning, logistics management, and serve as stimuli to help learners visualise, organise and apply concepts. The current generation of learners is increasingly technologically-oriented, having been surrounded by technology in most spheres of life. They are a generation that wants to see, do and experience, instead of just being passive listeners. The integration of ICTs within the classroom and learning environment allows for increasingly engaging and personalised learning, thus having learners accept more responsibility for their learning and allow them to be agents of their own knowledge.
The Use of Social Media: Social media is seen as one of the most effective tools for communication amongst learners. For this reason it can be seen as a potentially valuable resource that could make the classroom more engaging, relevant and culturally diverse. The interactive and communicative nature of social media allows learners to form natural communities where questions can be asked and answered within a communal digital space. This adds a social aspect to the learning taking place, an aspect that researchers are increasingly lauding as contributing to effective learning. Through this medium, learners’ interests and lived realities are brought closer to the teaching space, and vice versa – this naturally and positively disrupts learners’ study experience. The use of social media is also a potential contributor enabling teachers establish a channel of open communication with their learners, thus creating space for comfortable interactions where learners are able to voice concerns and potential challenges to their learning.
Challenges to the implementation of ICTs: However ideal the integration of ICTs as teaching/learning aides may be, there are certain considerations that must be made, specifically within the South African context that results in successful integration not always being possible. One of these considerations in South Africa is the large lack of access to ICTs sources – the lingering inequalities within South African society that result in a large population of working class citizens without the monetary means to access to ICT devices. Schools that service this population are also largely unable to facilitate ICTs integration as it requires a substantial capital output to obtain the required hardware. Another consideration linked to the lack of access is the level of exposure and training teachers have received toward the effect use of ICTs. Many teachers have not had this exposure and training, resulting in an ineffective use of the technology that could be a hindrance to the learners’ appreciation and understanding of ICTs as a resource.
