21st Century Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning, even how many hundreds of ways to do it and acquire it, still depends on your students or the target audience. I’m quite moved with the last speaker (I forgot her name, and was she a dean of a specific school? Well never mind) in a video: A Vision of 21st Century Teachers, she said something like there’s no way of keeping abreast with the 21^st century student but to be at par with them in terms with the knowledge and technology savvy these children are.  Moreover, it would also be an advantage when one acquires the two premium skills which are: non routine thinking and complex communication.

Somehow I could relate with the school administrators in the video since, they grow up with the time when black boards are used instead of the promethean. Visual aids are manually done rather than flashing a ppt or prezi presentation. Pages of a Book need to be flipped than swiping your fingers. So going through these changes is, in a way, a major feat.

But again, we always end up with this question: Can we keep up? Or can these future students can respond appropriately with the goal that we have at hand which to prioritize “lesson learned” at the end of the day.
Now, let me tell you a story.

Cinderella has to go home before 12 midnight. yeah? And before she unintentionally or intentionally left her glass sandals did she ever think about her chores and has this conviction that she want to be a scullery maid---a domestic servant, forever? As demure and as flirt as she is, she still wanted to meet and marry the prince! Whatever it takes! (her animal friends, her fairy godmother etc)

And I guess, this also applies to us, as future teachers, we have to leap into these changes before it’s too late. So let’s start with what we have learned from the past, the traditional learning, and marry it with the advent of new technology and integrate them with teaching methods (which are already mentioned at the on set of this thread) that could enhance the holistic learning of the people of tomorrow.

And of course, I think it’s not that evil to sprinkle some magic.