When one of this weeks blogging task asked the question, should education 'stretch' a person? I immediately came to the conclusion that when you say 'stretched' one could argue that it literally means to 'stretch' both mentally and physically. In which case, one could argue that yes education should 'stretch' a person. If education came easy to a student do you think they would have as much satisfaction than if they had to find out and discover things through different ways?
Take this unit for example. Speaking from my personal opinion, and probably speaking for others on this course also, i have never had to do such a thing as blogging for a unit. I have had to learn a. how to use this system b. how to incorporate the knowledge that i have found out to the blogging & c. to get used to interacting to my fellow group members, where as previously we would meet face-to-face and discuss our ideas and issues. For me personally, this form of education has 'stretched' me because i have had to learn and educate myself to use such a system. In addition, no lecturer (or one could argue a 'digital immigrant') has been there to tell what is right and what is wrong. Instead that has been up to us to find out.
In addition, by taking Prensky's notion that he thinks that 'digital immigrants' should 'learn new ways of teaching old stuff,' one could argue that this could be a positive thing. Surely, such a change would 'stretch' the so called 'digital natives' through educating them through a different medium. Looking back to my early school days, as soon as a teacher did something different to educate us it was interesting and made me want to learn more, even if i wasn't used to learning via such thing. What do you think? Do you think that this course of blogging has 'stretched' you? and if so/if not, do you think it has helped you learn more about this topic? or do you think normal lectures and seminars in 'meat space' would have helped you more?
Take this unit for example. Speaking from my personal opinion, and probably speaking for others on this course also, i have never had to do such a thing as blogging for a unit. I have had to learn a. how to use this system b. how to incorporate the knowledge that i have found out to the blogging & c. to get used to interacting to my fellow group members, where as previously we would meet face-to-face and discuss our ideas and issues. For me personally, this form of education has 'stretched' me because i have had to learn and educate myself to use such a system. In addition, no lecturer (or one could argue a 'digital immigrant') has been there to tell what is right and what is wrong. Instead that has been up to us to find out.
In addition, by taking Prensky's notion that he thinks that 'digital immigrants' should 'learn new ways of teaching old stuff,' one could argue that this could be a positive thing. Surely, such a change would 'stretch' the so called 'digital natives' through educating them through a different medium. Looking back to my early school days, as soon as a teacher did something different to educate us it was interesting and made me want to learn more, even if i wasn't used to learning via such thing. What do you think? Do you think that this course of blogging has 'stretched' you? and if so/if not, do you think it has helped you learn more about this topic? or do you think normal lectures and seminars in 'meat space' would have helped you more?
One of the points you seem to be making here Hannah is that while you (and others) may be digitally fairly native, there are ways of using new technologies that you are not used to. This is an important point, because we need in this debate to recognise the difference between being able to use a particualr technology, and being able to use it in specific ways. A bit like the difference between being able to swim, and being able to compete in the 100 metres Butterfly. The difference is also relevant to the educator too.
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