The online technologies are widerspread in our society
and play an increasingly critical role in shaping our teaching and learning
skills. Digital technologies can excite and engage students, teachers and
communities in learning process. As a learner, we have an excellent opportunity
to achieve success in our education [1]. Our common goal as a teacher to ensure
that students live harmoniously in an increasingly diverse society, contribute
to solving complex social, economic, environmental problems, pursue activities
that guide them to the desired outcome of their university studies. The
traditional teaching approaches are generally more teacher-orientated. It looks
like we follow cookbook steps of activities and demonstrations which I prepared
mostly by the teacher. This approach might provide students with valuable skills
(think about our grandparent generation!) or might not provide students with
valuable skills [2]. To enhance the quality of teaching and learning in the
classroom, we should go towards non-traditional strategies such as active,
cooperative, collaborative or problem-based learning. In this world we are
surrounded by digital technologies where we can foster innovative teaching and
leadership if we know a lot about how to use the digital tools.
Since many years ago in Denmark it is allowed to use
internet, books, article during the exams. Some of you will be surprised how does
student build his interdisciplinary knowledge if they are allowed to use the
whole bunch of different digital sources? Yes, the students must build interdisciplinary
knowledge to solve the industry-based problems during the four hour exam. In my
opinion, the exam corresponds to the fifth step of creating process in Bring
Your Own Devices for Learning tool (BYOD4L)[3]. Based on FISh model, students
at the beginning of the course should connect. With the guidance of the teacher
and other participants students should be focused around one specific activity
during the first four weeks and learn how to gather the appropriate
information. In the next step, students should start to work in groups to solve
assignment problems. At that time students are already comfortable to use with
learning activities, digital tool, assignment problems and hopefully with the
teaching methodology so that they could smoothly go into collaborative
problem-based learning environment, and finally to the creating process or in
other words an exam. My reflection on the FISh model is that it is a very slow
journey through the learning process. It is not about how fast you will learn
about digital tools, but how long it will take in your head to understand that
there are these digital options, and you should prefer to use these digital
tools instead of the well-known traditional tools. Another concern about
digital tools is mainly the losing vision of the real world. When we think
about facebook, it is a great platform for all 5C (connecting, communicating,
curating, collaborating, creating) principles from FISh model, but is it just a
one-way journey? That means that we have all 5C in digital environment, but we
will not have time for the personal interaction in the real world. I would miss
a lot that personal interaction with my collaborative leaners by drinking a cup
of coffee.
References:
[1] Gaal
Z, Szabo L, Obermayer-Kovacs N and Csepregi A. Exploring the role of social media in knowledge sharing, The Elect
J Knowledge Manage, 13(3) (2013), 185-197
[2] Udovic,
D, Morris, D, Dickman, A, Postlethwait, J and Wetherwax, P. Demonstrating the effectiveness of active
learning in an introductory Biology course, BioScience, 52 (3) (2002),
272-282.
[3] Nerantzi
C and Beckingham S, BYOD4L: Learning to
use own smart devices for learning and teaching through the 5C framework. In Middleton
A (ed.) : Smart learning: teaching and
learning with smartphones and tablets in post-compulsory education, MELSIG, Sheffield Hallam
University, (2015), 108-127.
