Sorry about the lateness, I’m out of town and have very spotty connections. But, here is my overall take of the TELEs.
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Anchored Instruction and Jasper |
SKI and WISE |
LfU and MyWorld |
T-GEM and Chemland |
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Learning Approach |
Use meaningful approach towards learning by helping students make meaningful connections to difficult concepts. Scaffold students through difficult concepts, with the help of media. Student-Centered |
Inquiry based learning on web. Builds knowledge through student- centred lessons. Interactive learning Self-paced |
Learning for use, putting purpose for the learning by identifying the use of the content. To motivate learning by identifying the use of the content in real world situations Student-Centered |
TPCK lessons that Generate, Engage, Motivate Lesson taught with the aid of simulators to digitally enhance learning. Student-Centered Interactive Learning |
Synthesis
From the different TELEs, we looked at, there were a few things that seems to have made up the basic recipe for successful TELEs. This list includes educators’ need to focus on creating lessons that are student-centered, have the option to be self-paced and allows for active learning through interactive interactions with the content through a technological component. Another key component noticed in the different frameworks, was also the critical thinking component in the approaches. The frameworks recognize the importance of students being intrinsically motivated through their own curiosity and skills, which fuels the learning process for each student.
Technologies can help educators guide students in the right direction while not having to physically cater each lesson for each student. That said, I believe that technology can only enhance a lesson so much, but can not completely replace the teacher’s existence, and technologies will only enhance a lesson if it’s chosen correctly.
Your comment intrigued me when you mentioned, “That said, I believe that technology can only enhance a lesson so much, but can not completely replace the teacher’s existence….” I wanted to do some research on this and found a great article mentioning all the potential jobs that could be replaced by technology. Teachers are mentioned here, but I do believe what you said and that a human teacher could never be fully replaced by a robot or any kind of technology. I wonder what education will look like in 20 years from now? Will Moocs (Massive Open Online Courses) be the norm for higher education? What about elementary?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/09/robots-taking-white-collar-jobs
Wow, this certainly opens up quite the conversation! It does seem as though many human jobs are beginning to be replaced by technology, but I agree that there will always be a need for a human teacher when it comes to learning, even if the learning is not necessarily taking place in the classroom. I had an interesting conversation like this with my colleagues a number of years ago, and one of the main reasons for continuing to necessitate a human teacher over a machine was not the need to create active learning through content interactions, or to create student-centered approaches, but it was in fact the human interactions and connections that are essential to building new knowledge. As a student, having a human teacher (online or in the classroom) influences aspects such as motivation and knowing someone cares about you and your learning journey. So although some jobs may become lost to technology, teaching and learning will always need a person there, someone you can lean on.
Sorry. I just saw this posting. But I think you do bring up a good point. Japan started trying out Robot teachers in 2009, and different countries like China and Korea tested similar inventions too. But it appears to be too early to tell, if they can really replace the role of teachers completely. So your question makes me wonder as well.
Thanks for the link, it was an interesting read.
Wanyi