This is the third time a bone in my leg has let me down. Always at inconvenient times:
- two weeks into my new job at the university,
- a conference dinner in Stockholm,
- 48 hours before a flight to Dunedin, NZ to present at ASCILITE 2014.
It could have been worse, but as I looked at my foot, pointing in the wrong direction, it felt as bad as it could get. The up side is everyone has been wonderful; my room looks like a flower shop and I have cake, chocolate, grapes and wine – gifts don’t get much better than this. I’m immobilised but still connected and have recorded a narrated version of my presentation ‘e-teaching craft and practice’ which summarises the key points of my paper which can be downloaded here e-teaching craft and practice ASCILITE 2014 Concise Paper Fortunately this had already been uploaded to the conference proceedings so you could call it a break just in time!
The seven step guide to being an e-teacher can be summed up as follows:
- pedagogy of uncertainty; always expect the unexpected, nothing can be predicted
- go do a mooc; experiencing the reality of e-learning will help prepare for e-teaching
- myths of digital confidence; not everyone knows their way around, expect to provide step by step instructions and reassurance
- it takes two to talk; no one wants to go first, e-teachers have to make discussions possible through the design of their tasks
- Activity Based Content (ABC); interaction is key, set up groups and make use of tools like blogs, wikis, forums and journals
- signposting; new students feel overwhelmed by too much information, provide content in layers and hyperlink to non-essential resources
- identity blur, virtual education is different, e-teachers can expect to become facilitators of learning experiences from back of stage rather than in the spotlight
e-teaching calls for a digital lens to be applied to teacher education programmes. The ‘e’ in e-teaching is not a pedantic endeavour. It’s the other side of e-learning; the side which has always received less attention but is equally important.