Small group reflection for teaching pre-service teachers?

[veecam]

I think that teaching pre-service teachers is a massive responsibility for those who in turn will be educators for our children, and thus may have an influence on their futures. I think that most often we find great resistance to TEL from teachers and educators. My big question for #ocTEL is really related to this topic. I want to find out how we can possibly help people recognize that TEL is a completely different approach to living and learning as opposed to the way they were taught. I believe TEL is a way of life, that needs to arise from a shift in mindsets. I would love to hear your views about this and how you would address this challenge.

[cbokhove]

I think that coining TEL as ‘something completely different’ is the problem. When we see TEL as ‘a tool’ then it’s much less threatening.

[veecam]

I do not really agree with the definition of TEL as a tool. I think that perceiving it as a tool almost forcibly makes us refer back to “training” in the use of TEL. I don’t believe people can be “trained” in TEL. Tools become obsolete so quickly. TEL is a way of learning, and to my mind, as an educator, TEL is more about the learning, than it is about the technology per se.

[cbokhove]

OK, I formulated that very badly. I mean ‘tool’ in the Vygotskyan sense. We develop ‘relationships’ with the tools in the world we utilize. My main point is that, in my opinion,  it’s not ‘something completely different’ but a case of learning how to utilize all these different kinds of tools. I’m also thinking about how you motivate people; often suggesting that some people are ‘up there’ and up-to-date because they adopt TEL works negatively. I particularly don’t like the qualification ‘a way of life’ if by that you mean a conscious choice to use technology in your learning. If you mean this as ‘society has evolved and more and more people are using technology’, yes then I do agree.

[veecam]

Yes that’s exactly it… you have hit the mark by mentioning the way people are using technologies. You see I believe that society has really evolved and that many people in society have embraced the technologies and they are conforming to Web2.0 ideals, that is more people have become more active online, by contributing and making their voice heard. What I however tend to point out, is that the same people, who somehow tend to make their voice heard online, in their everyday lives, also tend to push out technology when learning. Why is it that when I speak to my teachers, it transpires that when it comes to learning, they don’t think they can learn much from a blog or from Twitter or from Facebook and that learning for them happens in a traditional classroom, listening to a teacher or a lecturer from the podium?

[manuel_area]

Hello

I teach pre-sercive teachers of primary in educational technology. My students are regular users of social networks and mobile phones, but they still have a vision of education based on the textbook and a reception learning methodology. I am struck by the contradiction between the important role technology plays in their daily lives, but the lack of it in learning. I teach through a virtual classroom Moodle and other Web 2.0 resources and many of them find it difficult to follow the course through technology. They want more traditional face-to-face classes…

[Rika]

Hi, thanks for starting and engaging in this forum about pre-service education.  I think there are somethings about pre-service education that is similar to most other humanities type HE programs, and others that are unique because the vocation for which the pre-service teachers are preparing is this interesting mix of ‘future yet present’.  In other words, their own students will be engaging with technologies in ways that even the youngest of pre-service teachers have not experienced.

so, I think a key ingredient in this type of HE learning is the capacity to engage critical thinking skills as something of an art form.  The amount of information available and the ways in which it can be accessed and changed is uncontrollable.  Teachers are often the type of people who lean towards being controllers.  So, in some ways, the plethora of knowledge available is particularly disconcerting to this type of professional.  So, therefore we see schools developing platforms and rules that attempt to control student access and engagement.

i think it is important to help pre-service teachers to become more flexible in their approach to teaching and learning and become more intuitive in their choice of technologies.  Healthier questions  for us as teacher educators to pose are those that challenge the pre-service teacher’s capacity for wisdom rather than knowledge and skills.  How do my children learn best? What do they already know and can I work to augment that? How can I engage the children’s own passions to further their learning?   Are there things they don’t get but ‘should’?  Does it really matter if they don’t finish that piece?  Does the prepared curriculum make sense? Do the children understand the nuances in what they are reading or listening to? … And so on …

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