digital pedagogy, online teaching and the pedagogue

After reading the articles by @slamteacher and @jessifer I have also come to realize that digital pedagogy is not just online teaching, since digital pedagogy is a direction towards education that is not necessarily predicated on the use of digital tools. Online teaching in its essence is teaching via the use of a computer and the internet. Without these digital tools, online teaching cannot take place. But coming back to the matter of why every teacher is not a pedagogue. The term pedagogue at its core means “to lead a child”. And to lead a child does not mean just providing them with all the answers before a test, any person with knowledge, who can guide a child/ learner to obtain certain skills (life skills) can be considered a pedagogue. The child needs to be stimulated and guided through the process of learning to obtain knowledge, they should also be given an opportunity to figure things out on their own.

Digital pedagogy surpasses the limits of online teaching, it allows for combining different methods of teaching. The use of the internet, books, slideshows or even role playing can be used in digital pedagogy, there are also many more creative ways of teaching that can be incorporated.

Digital pedagogy breaks down the traditional paradigm of teaching. Interaction does not solely take place between teachers and students, students can also interact with each other, exchanging their knowledge and different perceptions.

As @jessifer states, within the paradigm of digital pedagogy we get to rethink the power relations between students and teachers. I feel that learning will also be made less of a burden, since in the context of digital pedagogy it is disguised in the process of communication with others, for example, Blogging about your perceptions on a certain topic and then reading other responses to it.

In essence digital pedagogy is not online teaching, it is so much more, because it entails the use of any tools to aid individuals in obtaining information. And being a pedagogue does not mean you have to be a teacher by profession, learners, students or ordinary individuals can assume the role of a pedagogue.

Fyfe...

Fyfe…

 

 

After reading Fyfe’s article I decided to be as direct and honest as I possibly can… I loathed the piece on Digital Pedagogy and its surrounding debates. Most people I know, myself included, don’t have the time or resources to help visionaries combat the actual frightening revelation of students losing their creative thought process. Technology and Microsoft based tools are very much a part of society and a loss of creativity is the last thing I care about.

Let me put it this way, because I am starting to feel irritated. Technology simplifies life; I do not see why major companies should re-utilize their program tools, just because of a few people who think outside the box and demand that our digital humanities program become less technological. However, I do also agree with Mr Fyfe, that too many slide shows wreck the brain. But there is nothing we can do about the one-way method of digital pedagogy. In my opinion the very few lecturers that are trying to defy, the digital pedagogy are far and few in between, the monstrous educational system which employed them.

 Too many students have adapted to the technological aspect of everyday education.  Technology offers us a safer way of storing information, and a way of combining work, relationships or friendships through social media projects. These technologies have been etched into the brains of the modern day student, take this away from us now and our worlds would come crashing down like a word document that’s “ not responding “. There’s no task manager for real life when our worlds crash, change is a part of life and people adapt. People need to get with the program or literally be left behind; society and technology will always be entwined.