Sunday 20 November 2011

Is a lack of ICT skills an excuse for not embracing digital pedagogy?

This morning whilst I was procrastinating and trying to avoid writing report cards, I was engaged in a conversation via Twitter.  An interesting tweet from Ricky Pryce came across my stream.  He stated:

@ashleyproud there is pedagogy and ict skills can't have one with out the other and some people have neither
This really got me thinking.  I obviously agree with the second part of the tweet which stated that some people have neither in regards to digital pedagogy and ict skills.  But the first part got me thinking.  For a long time teachers have leaned on this crutch which is 'I can't DO ICT so therefore my kids can't use it either' thing.  It really annoys me.


But the key question is this - Can I have a culture of embracing digital pedagogy if I don't have the skills? My first thought was yes you can.  I embrace various digital tools / mediums within my classroom to empower my learners that I have no clue (and to be honest no desire) how to use.  But I guess that goes along with my beliefs about teaching: The learner is the most important thing in the journey and they should be able to embrace mediums that suit their learning needs.  But the more I thought about the initial question, the more confused I became.

I just don't know about this one.  I would love to hear your thoughts about it.  This one has really stumped me.

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