Over this past week, my cohort and I have learned about useful tools that both educators and students alike can use: ChatGPT, Personal Learning Networks, and Open Educational Resources. Additionally, we viewed two videos that demonstrated the recognition of technology advancement and how education needs to change in accordance with that: Education as if people mattered | Jeff Hopkins | TedXVictoria, and the documentary film Most Likely to Succeed by Greg Whiteley.
ChatGPT, Personal Learning Networks, and Open Educational Resources are tools in which educators can collaborate by collecting and sharing ideas, with an ease of access due to the removal of copyright limits. For many, creativity and ideas do not come naturally, resulting in the need to acquire outside help. When platforms are created to provide educators with countless ideas and activities, their workload is able to slightly lessen. Educators are able to showcase their techniques that have greatly benefitted students learning, allowing teachers around the world to adopt these practices so that more and more students receive positive outcomes, rather than a small selection of them. Recently, online educational marketplaces such as Teachers Pay Teachers, has allowed many educators to maintain a passive income outside of their career. Although, open educational resources are greatly important due to their free of cost nature, many individuals utilize the opportunity for additional income, so they begin to make worksheets for educators to purchase. In order to best accelerate their online shops, teachers promote their business through personal learning networks so that their content reaches wider audiences so that they excel over competing creators who are stagnant within only Teachers Pay Teachers.
Ideas by Laymik | Arrow by Taqrib Icon | Ideas by Ida Desi Mariana | Arrow by Taqrib Icon | Ideas by Setyo Ari WIbowo
Both videos pinpoint that despite revisions of education curriculums, the original objective has since remained the same, that being the formation of students to become valuable members of the workforce, economy, and ultimately, society. Relatively, this objective makes sense: to teach children about multiple topics so that upon graduation they can choose a profession as a result of their gained knowledge. The problem faced, however, is that the teaching style is outdated and irrelevant to the needs of society as a result of technology. As Enrique Dans, a Senior Advisor for Digital Transformation at IE University recognizes in his Forbes article What Is The Point Of New Teaching Tools If We Are Going To Cling On To Outdated Teaching Methods?: “We need to understand this and rather than grudgingly adopting new technological tools, embrace instead a radical change on how we teach.” Students are still being taught to memorize information and then regurgitate it upon request, only to forget the material days later. In the past, this teaching technique was the best way to learn. Yet, with the majority of individuals walking around with their own personal digital memory bank at all times, the process of memorization seems redundant. Memorization is at its peak performance when it is used in collaboration with understanding, and doing. Perhaps, instead of solely focusing on facts, the education system should teach students critical thinking skills, collaboration skills, problem-solving skills, among numerous other practical skills within their learning of these topics. If we teach students primarily through their reliance of technology, the ease of access will result in a decrease of these most valuable skills needed in society. These skills are ones that artificial intelligence will (hopefully) never be superior in over the human mind. Life is based on circularity, proven by the numerous rises and falls in civilizations. Who is to say that our civilization will remain constantly improving? We have become a world dependent on technology, and without it, we would crumble.
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