The Future of Education

Blog post #3

 What is the future of education about? What makes you believe so?

The future of education is about becoming an inclusive teacher that is able to differentiate learning to all our students in ways that makes the information relevant and challenging in how they develop their knowledge. The future involves the use of technology in creative ways to inspire deeper thoughts and reflection. Teaching requires a new definition of what knowledge is. Knowledge is now the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn material. Teachers are going through the change of lecturing in front of a class, to facilitating discussions that lead to knowledge instead. Teachers are facilitators of knowledge and in doing that they have to be providing ways of learning that are meeting the needs and accommodations for students. I believe that because students are now prosumers. They are constantly consuming and producing knowledge at the same time. Anytime they want to learn something they are one google search away from the answers, so our jobs are to encourage critical thinking that dives deeper into a google search and makes them ask more questions and construct their knowledge in truths in a way that encourages difficult conversations and productive discussions among classmates. Our students can not just consume knowledge, they need to create their knowledge.

How has your thinking been influenced by the resources we explored?

My thinking has been influenced by the resources we explored because it allowed me to challenge my own way of thinking and the usefulness of technology resources in the classroom. The idea that our students have access to all the information they want has made me really look into how I am going to engage my students in learning and adapt previous ways of delivering a lesson to new ways using technology. I like they use of videos kids can dive into on their own pace at home and how one can differentiate the learning for students using personalized videos. I like the idea of using short videos or 15 minute learning activities to engage the students and allow them to discover knowledge on their own and then share with the class what they have discovered. The idea of using collaborative note taking in class was a great tool that was shown to us as well.

I am starting to adapt my way of thinking to encourage discussions, collaborative work, and different ways to incorporate technology into my classroom. There have been many ah ha moments in this class and they have all lead to me thinking about how I am going to reach all my students needs and adaptations.