As I ponder assignment three I marvel at some technological changes that have occurred over the past 33 years since I began teaching. However, until this current pandemic, the goals and institutional elements of a physical classroom full of students with an instructor at the front, delivering content in various ways has not shifted much (Macgilchrist, Allert, & Bruch, 2020, p. 79). Covid 19 has unleashed, or perhaps more accurately, accelerated, changes to educational delivery that will continue, perhaps beyond 2030. There is however, a future that we should be striving for by 2030, one that aligns with the tone of Macgilchrist, Allert, & Bruch’s, (2020) scenario of “collective agents, in institutions as spaces for exploring new forms of living” (p. 82). It is a future that would emphasize outdoor experiential place-based education, and Indigenous ways of knowing, but what are the ed-tech strategies that can best be used to support it? And, what shifts in education are required? Would it be accurate to say that nothing short of a transcendence of the current economic paradigm (which directs educational norms) will be required for “exploring new forms of living” in order for humanity to adapt to or mitigate the ongoing and accelerating climate crisis which will affect everyone? It is interesting and tempering that Selwyn, Nemorin, and Perrotta (2020) emphasize continuation of current trends, eschewing “radical demographic, environmental and/or economic futures” (p. 3) in their paper. The “pretense of digital ‘knowing’ (p.14) as seen at Lakeside contrasts with what I would hope for in any pedagogy of the future, one where the outdoors is seen as valid classroom space.
References
Macgilchrist, F., Heidrun Allert, H., Bruch, A. (2020) Students and society in the 2020s. Three future ‘histories’ of education and technology, Learning, Media and Technology, 45:1, 76-89, DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2019.1656235
Selwyn, N., Pangrazio, L., Nemorin, S., & Perrotta, C. (2020). What might the school of 2030 be like? An exercise in social science fiction. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(1), 90-106.
October 16, 2020 at 9:46 am
Thank you for this reflection, John. These are big and important questions. The challenge that you will face is being able to do justice to these issues in 1,000 words. A colleague and I recently wrote this paper dealing with similar questions, and had quite a bit of trouble limiting the discussion to 7,000 words: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42438-020-00196-3 (I’m also sharing this as it may be helpful to your writing)
One way forward may be to consider how particular disciplines or particular settings would infuse some of these ideas in their curricula. For instance, it may be more manageable to consider how educational technology may support indigenous ways of knowing in a particular context (e.g., higher education). Or, how place-based learning may be better integrated? Or, whether climate change concerns will force a rethinking of particular ways of teaching and learning….
Keep on thinking about this. You are on to something here.
October 16, 2020 at 3:21 pm
Thanks George! That helps a lot. I see now that The three questions are each papers in themselves. I will check out the link that you have provided, and I will stick to one of the three questions for assignment 3