{"id":337,"date":"2010-03-25T14:00:27","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.weblearning.co.za\/blog\/?p=337"},"modified":"2010-03-25T14:00:27","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T12:00:27","slug":"a_connected_educator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/a_connected_educator\/","title":{"rendered":"Recipe for a connected educator"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Give your teacher a computer, preferably a cheap one, install\u00a0\u00a0software and other learning technologies and then when they complete your introductory course (with gold embossed certificate), reward their efforts with\u00a0a voucher for a months free Internet connection. Simple \u2013 we\u2019ve got a connected educator.<\/p>\n

Or maybe not. I’ve set up\u00a0a straw man proposal, and I’m kicking Aunt Sally<\/a> around\u00a0to make my\u00a0point. Digitally effective teaching and learning is often\u00a0hampered by\u00a0access and resources. Computers break, software can be expensive, internet access (here in South Africa) is\u00a0expensive and, most importantly, training\u00a0for teachers that\u00a0share the same interests, have the same skill levels or are interested in the same outcomes is seen as a “once off event”, not an ongoing process.<\/p>\n

Don’t frame these problems as a\u00a0Digital divide<\/a> –\u00a0the hassles we’ve mentioned are not a permanent.\u00a0They are perceptual, temporary\u00a0 or environmental. I call these problems digital dongas<\/a>.\u00a0 A technological ditch, caused by erosion of opportunities, experiences, skills, and knowledge. With attention, time\u00a0and\u00a0conversations with affected educational communities, this scarring can be stopped or maybe even repaired.<\/p>\n

So if you are interested in getting teachers connected,\u00a0stop the reductionalism. Solving issues of technological access will not create a connected teacher. The conversation needs to move forward to focus on the participation skills required for teachers to benefit from the technology. Find opportunities for teachers to contribute and to develop the their competencies and social skills needed for involvement. Recognise that each institution has a set of dongas and then begin working in collaboration with with schools and the teachers to bridge or start repairing the gaps. Remember though, bridging digital dongas is a process, not an event. A one-time teacher training workshop does not count as\u00a0 effective professional development. Start thinking more about the teachers on-going, relevant professional development, and how you can support that process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Give your teacher a computer, preferably a cheap one, install\u00a0\u00a0software and other learning technologies and then when they complete your introductory course (with gold embossed certificate), reward their efforts with\u00a0a voucher for a months free Internet connection. Simple \u2013 we\u2019ve got a connected educator. Or maybe not. I’ve set up\u00a0a straw man proposal, and I’m … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Recipe for a connected educator”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[56,57],"class_list":["post-337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discover","tag-dongas","tag-training","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}