We recently watched a video featuring Howard Gardner, psychologist at Harvard, regarding what he calls "Digital Youth". Dr. Gardner is the creator of the multiple intelligences we studied during the TESL class. He is well regarded in his field.
During the video, Dr. Gardner talked about one of his recent project called "The Good Play Project". This project deals with ethical issues in regards to youths when using the Internet. According to Dr. Gardner, a disappointing number of young boys and girls do not know what it is to be ethical. The word itself seems to have an obscure definition.
In the course of his project, Dr. Gardner and his team defined the following:
- identity
- privacy
- ownership
- trustworthiness
- credibility
- sense of community
The amount of information available on the web is huge and endless. It is easy to access and it can be obtained from anyone on the planet. Dr. Gardner states that "digital communication is unknown in size and duration".
This presents many new challenges previous generations were not faced with. One of the challenges is coaching the students to synthesize and analyse the information they access. Helping youngsters develop critical judgment will be highly important. The role of teachers is gradually changing and evolving.
According to Dr. Gardner, teachers will be regarded more as coaches and role models as the didactic aspects of teaching will no longer be required. I'm not sure to what extent I agree with this. However, I certainly do agree that teachers will be called upon to help students identify credible information and coach them in terms of ethical behaviour on the web.
To access Dr. Gardner's interview, follow this link: http://youtu.be/izRRmW5KKLY
I have to say that I totally agree with you in regards that the role of the teacher is still to teach. It is true that with new technology, we often provide guidance more than teaching but we have to remember that kids love when there is a structured environment in their classroom. This is why I think that the role of the teacher will never completely disappear. Also, kids have to know that there is someone in charge, just like what they will have to face in real-life when they will get jobs.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Allison when she says: "teachers will be regarded more as coaches and role models as the didactic aspects of teaching will no longer be required. I'm not sure to what extent I agree with this." I think that teachers are already huge role models with students and even though the didactic part will no longer be part of the teacher's routine, they will have to design all the techno stuff to use in classes. So at the end, it's almost the same thing!
ReplyDelete