Guest lecturer, Paul Kirschner

We had a guest lecturer from the Netherlands, Paul Kirschner.

Students had prepared him questions about Educational Technology. Paul gave interesting and long (but still to the point somehow!) answers to the questions. He seemed to be a true expert in this field of study and had an energetic  and motivating “lecturing” style.

Some main points for me:

Technology as a tool/aid only, not some silver bullet to solve all problems in teaching and learning – the pedagogy comes first. First, think about what it actually is you are teaching. Next, how can this be taught/learned best? And only then – what technologies can be used as optimization tools in this teaching/learning process?

Paul also emphasized the importance of support in learning. For more info: Scaffolding.

As for how to bring technology to everyday learning at schools, Paul thought it important to ditch the categorization of people to “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” (Digital Native). Educational technology should not be treated as some, almost “magical” thing that only the few can have true insight into, and kept separate from “traditional” teaching. Educational technology becomes a natural part of everyday learning at schools, when we start treating it that way!

Some people  to check out, that have inspired Paul: Gavriel Salomon, E. Rothkopf, Richard Clark. There was one other that I didn’t write down. If anyone has that please leave a comment.

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