What is the most important teaching technology for 2012 and beyond?
Filed under: customers, discussion point, social media
This is the first in a new weekly series called “discussion point”. The aim here is to invite conversation around a topic that interests us and one we think can be of benefit to the Telstra community.
With each question we will post an accompanying image which we hope will assist in the discussion. Come and join the conversation. Use the comments below to share your thoughts, and please don’t forget to share with your networks. Oh, and feel free to send us your ideas for a discussion point for consideration.
The most important teaching technology will be, as it has always been, the investment you make in the teachers themselves. For all the whiz-bang gadgets in the world we can equip students and teachers with, if our teachers are ill-equipped to teach the basic three Rs of reading, writing and arithmetic (technically though I think there should be a fourth R – reasoning, we need to teach our children to be inquisitive and teach them the importance of always wanting to learn more), then technological gizmos come to nothing.
I think that pretty much sums it up Gwynn!
Although the children of tomorrow (and for that matter, somewhat later today …) will have a lot more current information at their fingertips, without an inquiring mind, and a love of learning, the technology is just chips and circuit boards!
The answer to education excellence lies with the student. Good teaching is really only the starting point – the teacher really shows each learner the best way for that individual to engage with the subject. The rest is up to the individual learner. Learning (this is the critical aspect of education) involves the student practising their newly taught skill (it could be a language or a mathematical skill) over and over. This practise requires a large time investment on the part of the student. If the student isn’t prepared to practise their newly acquired skill for a number of hours a day, then that skill will wither and die, or at best, remain a stunted and underdeveloped skill.
Paul – I definitely agree that a student’s attitude towards learning is a key part of how they respond to receiving an education. In saying that, much of that attitude is taught through the influence of various “teachers” throughout their life, whether it’s parents, guardians, school teachers or other figures they learn from.