Pedagogy, Digital Pedagogy, Pedagogue- You say what?

 I am always overwhelmed when I come across these words.  My head goes al crazy and I gasp for air, and then I need to orientate myself with definitions.

So "Digital Pedagogy is the use of electronics to enhance or to change the experience of education"

I would like to focus on the words "to enhance" or "to change”. It is important for a pedagogue to enhance or to change a learners experience through being creative and using the environment to create a successful learning experience. Pedagogy is a creative style of teaching and Digital pedagogy allows the boundaries of teaching to enlarger to a wider field. As state by Sean Morris (Decoding digital pedagogy, pt. 1: beyond the LMS):

"Pedagogy has at its core timeliness, mindfulness, and improvisation"

According to Morris "Pedagogy experiments relentlessly, honoring a learning that’s lifelong", meaning that pedagogues must rather focus on “meaningful, sustained learning”. For instance teach them a pedagogy of poetry. And you all say what? A Pedagogy of poetry for what? All that I am saying is that teachers must rather teach a love for poetry then giving 12 lessons on a poem. By doing this a teacher will create a love for poetry within the child and that will encourage the learner to write poetry himself in the feature. Yes! That’s what you call sustained learning and I like it!

And if technology is the way for you to sustain learning, why not? Like @slamteacher argues that “What is important is seeing the difference — a difference that becomes much more acute when learning goes online” And that are exactly what pedagogues is after – the difference.

Even so Morris reminds us that “Not all teachers are pedagogues, nor need they be”.  At First I was like noooo I thought pedagogues are teachers. But then I created my own way of understanding this (I don’t know if it is the right way, though) and that is: pedagogues are more creative than teachers. And it is fine if you are not the creative type, Morris promise you that “There is a place for all styles of classroom practice”. It is fine if you are not a pedagogue or even a digital pedagogue for that matter, but it is important to ask the question whether your learners will be able to sustain what they have learned in your classroom?

As I sat in my PGCE computer class I heard about this very strange concept DIGITAL PEDAGOGY, and for a student who is not bothered or concerned about computers or technology I felt a little bit out of place with this concept. But then I heard something that totally blew my mind – Digital Pedagogy can even be a potato or sticky notes.  I was totally confused, until I read the article, by Paul Fyfe (2011), explaining this concept.

But first things first…

Digital Pedagogy refers to: Digital pedagogy is the use of electronic elements to enhance or to change to experience of education (http://www.briancroxall.net/digitalpedagogy/what-is-digital-pedagogy/).

Okay, so digital pedagogy is the use of electronic elements to change our experience of education. But then where does the potato fits in to all this digital vibes?

According to Paul Fyfe (2011), technology is only one factor of being “digital” and with the word “digital” referring to “something to get your hands on”.  So I presumed that my iPad is “something to get my hands on” and dada of I go into the digital sphere, but then Fyfe said “To be a digital humanist, you don’t need a computer”. For a moment I was like no wait Mr. Fyfe without technology you are lost, in the dark and limited. Even for a not-so-good-technologist, like myself, this might be a bit extreme. But I came to a drastic change of mind. Yes, technology can limit you in the classroom, especially when it comes to creativity and interaction. But how?

Well I have been in a class where the lecturer only focused on the (very good, colorful and compact) PowerPoint slides; he hardly made any eye contact. Have you been in such a class? I was board to death!

Technology is a tool and it’s a great tool, but one must not forget that there are human beings sitting in front of you, who have the need to be entertained and to interact. This brings me to a new concept of “teaching naked”. Jose Bowen refers to teaching naked as the removal of all the computers and projectors from the classroom, but still uses technology outside of the class setting offering podcasts and online discussions to students.

I like the idea of “teaching naked” it creates a space where the teacher is pressured to create an active and creative atmosphere, but one must not put technology on the sideline. It still forms part of our daily lives and it is important to bring the outside world into the classroom. This brings me to my conclusion that even a potato can be digital if you are creative - it's worth the try!