Learning and Teaching in Practice/Trends in education



This is based on his presentation at the Learning Without Frontiers conference. He says, "the purpose of education is to help people learn for themselves"..." do you train for passing tests, or do you train for creative inquiry?"
 * Noam Chomsky speaking on the Purpose of Education:

It is a wise and philosophical assessment of the state of education today. He advocates for "a lively cultural educational system, which is geared towards encouraging creative exploration, independence of thought, willingness to cross frontiers, to challenge accepted beliefs…. If you don’t have that, you’re not going to get the technology that could lead to economic gains.” See if you agree with his views. Is technology for learning really like a hammer?

Teachers, to be effective, need to stay informed about the trends, in both pedagogy and technology, and be confident about trying new approaches. A good place to start exploring current trends is by viewing the presentation: Navigating Digital landscapes by Grainne Conole, who visited Otago Polytechnic in October 2013.
 * What do we mean by trends?:

Technologies such as mobile devices, ePortfolios, and social media (Web 2.0 tools and approaches) (e.g., blogs, twitter, wikis and media sharing sites) are now relatively familiar, and are being used more and more. The Horizon report (2014) underpins this topic so please use this resource as the starting point for your explorations.

For this topic you are asked to design a learning activity using a ‘trend’ technology. Since this is a huge area, some resources are suggested, but you need only focus on one specific area in your explorations. For example, mobile devices, or ePortfolios or social media. The technology you choose may be something from the Horizon report, or the other types mentioned here.