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Thursday, May 22, 2014

Smart Pedagogy for the 21st Century --Part I

Greetings-
 Smart pedagogy means using techniques that irresistibly engage the heart and mind of the student. Engaging the heart means that the motivation to persevere in the online course comes from a growing intrinsic motivation that overwhelms previous doubts that students may have harboured about the course. Engaging the mind means that the learning experiences challenge the student to apply the skills they are learning to  real world problems which are presented to them in a unique way. These real world problems are ones that they have never thought about or confronted before. The problems are presented in such a manner as to intrigue the student and they are able to receive immediate feedback on how their decisions affect the outcome for the problems that they are tasked with. Smart pedagogy fosters transformational teaching because the vision dictates that we teach students with the attitude of them and us being change agents in the world.


Credit: CLUC





In the last post I gave you an example of how one technique in online education could be transformed into a more engaging experience that would give a higher yield in sustained, deeper learning for the student. The simple truth here is that collaborative online discussion in an e-learning environment needs to be improved because it is a great vehicle for testing the critical thinking skills of students as they apply to real world problems. We need to shift from learning experiences that seem to be germane only to the course specific to learning experiences that develop the necessary skill sets students need in order to be productive in the world that they are living in now and in the future. The potential application of serious gaming principles to online education learning experiences should not be underestimated.

I would like to emphasize that the purpose of such procedures are not to add to the work load of teachers but instead are to enable them to work smarter with a new mindset that suggests that what they and their students are working towards is transformational in terms of the societies they live in. The rising tide of a culture of innovation will impact all of our societies and education will be the driving force with the generations that it mentors.

More later..........

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