The importance of a positive learning environment.

Teaching is more than just relaying information to your learners, it is also based on  two-way communication between you and your learners. To be successful in the teaching process you need to create a positive learning environment for your learners. There are various ways to creating such an environment, I'm just going to mention three ways.

1. Know your learners by name, this enables you as a teacher to address your learners directly during the lesson. Knowing your learners by name makes the learning process more personalised. This is important because it creates a feeling of importance and beloning among your learners.
2. Greet your learners and start a conversation with them, it is important to remember that your learners also have a life outside of school. Before you start your lesson greet your learners and strike up a conversation with them, that's not related to the topic. This five minute conversation with your learners creates a positive environment where they will feel at ease and comfortable to partake in your classroom.   
3. Teaching is a two-way communication process, teaching as I mentioned don't consist only of you (the teacher) relaying information to your learners while they just listen and take notes. Your learners need to actively partake in the learning process. You can accomplish this through class discussions, groupwork, asking questions and so forth. 

Meaningful learner involvement in the learning process will make your lessons successful. It is important to create an environment where your learners feel that they feel part of their learning growth. This will also mean that your lessons will be led by your learners, making them the priority as it should be.  

Technology Is Your Friend

I remember the days when teachers will catch you with your phone and then confiscate it for a few days, and the learner will panic and quickly take out his or her sim-card and memory card…. That were the days where technology in classrooms were frowned upon, today it’s an integral part of our everyday learning and communication, so why not use it to you and your learners benefit? As an impending teacher of History, Afrikaans and Life Orientation I would like to make use of social media in my classroom and as a form of communication with my learners and their parents.

Since social media forms part of our everyday life it is important to teach your leaners how to use it to their benefit, it is one of those necessary skills that will never got to waste. There are various platforms you as a teacher can use that does not form part of popular social media like Fakebook, Fake Tweet, Edublogs, Kidblog, and Edmodo. I would implement some of these platforms in my classroom, to create a new way for my learners to communicate with one another on the subject matter. They can also use it as a feedback platform on lessons, furthermore I would like to use the platform like Edublogs as an online assessment opportunity where learners can post their essays or assignments. If my learners find something new or interesting surrounding one of my subjects I would like them to post it online for the class, it’s a new way for informative learning and encourages learners to explore the subject matter on their own.   

To further enhance communication and learning, I would create private Facebook and Twitter accounts where my learners and their parents are able to communicate with me and other learners on topics surrounding the subject matter. In this case learners are able to ask question if they struggle with homework or assignments. Parents are also able to see how their children are faring in the particular subject and are able to communicate with me, since most parents don’t always have time for a face-to-face meeting.  

This is only a few possibilities of how social media can be used to enrich the learning experience of learners.



The Quest to Decipher Digital Pedagogy Returns.

“Digital pedagogy is not a dancing monkey. It won’t do tricks on command. It won’t come obediently when called. Nobody can show us how to do it or make it happen like magic on our computer screens. There isn’t a 90-minute how-to webinar, and we can’t outsource it.”

Jesse Stommel

For me this quote out of Jesse Stommel’s article is a perfect example of what digital pedagogy is not and what it should be and therefore it is a great starting point for this blog. Now before I continue I would just like to inform my readers (that is not part of the PGCE group) on the two articles which this blogpost is based on. I would also like to encourage you to go read it, it is definitely worth it. The two articles are as follow:

1. “Decoding Digital Pedagogy, Pt. 1: Beyond the LMS” by Sean Michael Morris
2. “Decoding Digital Pedagogy, Pt. 2: (Un)Mapping the Terrain.” By Jesse Stommel

In the article by Morris he mentions that not everyone can be classified as a digital pedagogue and I totally agree with him. Just because you use technology as a tool for teaching doesn’t mean you are a digital pedagogue. Instead digital pedagogy is like a growing organism, it grows and develops as it is used. It changes as the environment in which it is used changes. The most important thing to remember when it comes to digital pedagogy is that it is not only a way of teaching, but it’s a platform for interactive communication and critical thinking. Digital pedagogy is something innovative, it’s there to inspire us to find new and creative ways to teach and communicate with others. Digital pedagogy isn’t there to dictate how we teach people. This is something that both Stommel and Morris points out throughout their articles. Therefore, digital pedagogy is something that develops with our teaching methods. It is different for everyone; it forms part of our unique teaching identity.

Another aspect I want to slightly touch on is the Learning Management System (LMS) that Morris mentions in his article. LMS is a software application developed for electronic educational courses or training programs that focuses on administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and delivery. With other words it’s a structure for online teaching. Morris makes the argument that LMS was a mistake, because it was prematurely released to the world who was just getting to know the Internet. I have to agree with his argument, it was something we had to introduce to the world gradually, but it happened and now we should focus on how we can improve this structure to include the full extent of the internet and use it to create innovative and unique learning environments.  The whole point of digital pedagogy is to improve and make new application like the LMS that supports the changing environment of teaching and communication.     

Digital Pedagogy Everywhere

When you first hear the term Digital Pedagogy, your first reaction is like should I have brought a dictionary along… But in actual fact it is not that hard to understand it’s something we all engage with every day.

The article Digital Pedagogy Unplugged really gives you a different perspective of what digital pedagogy can entail (the use of technology or other tools as a method of teaching). The most important aspect of this article for me is the fact that digital pedagogy is not limited to electronic devices. This article reviews different methods in which non-digital pedagogy can be used as a method of learning and that it can be just as effective as digital pedagogy. The use of non-digital pedagogy can help learners attain skills previously lost through digital pedagogy. Since we live in a world overrun by technology we tend to get numb from all the information or the way in which we receive the information. The use of non-digital pedagogy as a method of learning brings back the aspect of enforcing attention to a text or lesson.  This does not necessarily mean that you must only rely on either digital or non-digital technologies, instead the best method is to use a combination of the two. The use of both enhances the learning process of the learner. This article opens up the perspective of how you can use all types of technology effectively in a teaching environment, no matter where you are.

Ps. It’s not only about the technology, it’s how you implement it that will make the difference.