Comments on: Day One at TEP09 http://www.thethinkingstick.com/day-one-at-tep09 Jeff Utecht - Bangkok, Thailand Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:12:44 +0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Jeff Utecht http://www.thethinkingstick.com/day-one-at-tep09/comment-page-1#comment-29445 Jeff Utecht Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:31:33 +0000 http://www.thethinkingstick.com/day-one-at-tep09#comment-29445 Great points Julia! The theme of culture was a revolving one throughout the conference. That culture has much to do with the education a community expects. Could you take Finland's high teacher expectations and import those into the GCC? Probably not because of the culture differences between those two cultures. This is a larger issue than just education as you point out and there was also push back from some at the conference that they are feeling "colonized" by universities and a western way of educating people. Again culture differences will need to be discussed and accepted before anything will be able to move forward. Great points Julia!

The theme of culture was a revolving one throughout the conference. That culture has much to do with the education a community expects. Could you take Finland’s high teacher expectations and import those into the GCC? Probably not because of the culture differences between those two cultures. This is a larger issue than just education as you point out and there was also push back from some at the conference that they are feeling “colonized” by universities and a western way of educating people. Again culture differences will need to be discussed and accepted before anything will be able to move forward.

]]> By: DHRhoads http://www.thethinkingstick.com/day-one-at-tep09/comment-page-1#comment-29441 DHRhoads Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:06:54 +0000 http://www.thethinkingstick.com/day-one-at-tep09#comment-29441 Motivates me to be a better "online educator"! Moving towards embracing technology and understanding that "knowledge workers" can be created online as well as in classrooms. Motivates me to be a better “online educator”! Moving towards embracing technology and understanding that “knowledge workers” can be created online as well as in classrooms.

]]> By: Julene Reed http://www.thethinkingstick.com/day-one-at-tep09/comment-page-1#comment-29432 Julene Reed Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:58:26 +0000 http://www.thethinkingstick.com/day-one-at-tep09#comment-29432 Wow! I love the thoughts and ideas you have presented here. It is great food for thought as we are all trying to "rethink" what the schools of the future should be...what they should "look like." As we design education for the future, we definitely need to be thinking outside of the box, as you suggested. I am very involved in global initiatives, and I really like your comment on "Think locally, act globally," reversing the more common order of the words. And, having worked in Tanzania with students and teachers there, I understand much of what you are "saying' about the value of using the technology to take the education and the educators to the students when there are no options in their area. I look forward to your reflection on the remainder of your conference. I was unable to attend this year, but am hopeful I will be invited again next year. Wishing all of the participants a safe journey back to their homes! Wow! I love the thoughts and ideas you have presented here. It is great food for thought as we are all trying to “rethink” what the schools of the future should be…what they should “look like.” As we design education for the future, we definitely need to be thinking outside of the box, as you suggested.

I am very involved in global initiatives, and I really like your comment on “Think locally, act globally,” reversing the more common order of the words. And, having worked in Tanzania with students and teachers there, I understand much of what you are “saying’ about the value of using the technology to take the education and the educators to the students when there are no options in their area.

I look forward to your reflection on the remainder of your conference. I was unable to attend this year, but am hopeful I will be invited again next year. Wishing all of the participants a safe journey back to their homes!

]]> By: Julia Pfaff http://www.thethinkingstick.com/day-one-at-tep09/comment-page-1#comment-29428 Julia Pfaff Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:27:51 +0000 http://www.thethinkingstick.com/day-one-at-tep09#comment-29428 Jeff I think your observations are interesting, but one thing you need to be aware of is that in many places -- the GCC for sure students do not have the foundations to be life long learners. I just returned to the States after teaching for two years in the GCC at the college level. My sons attended the best American curriculum HS in the country. In general the students both at my level and my sons level approached education from the point of view of just getting a piece of paper which allowed them to get more money from the government. They really needed the spark of learning to be lit and then fanned. This is something which requires a relationship and trust to develop between the teacher and the student. What will be interesting is how this part of on line education will develop. The second point I want to make is that because students were only after the "piece of paper" and they had no problem justifying cheating the Ministry of Education had a problem with online education. This is points to another area that online education will need to solve in order to be effective in the GCC as a tool to really educate. Jeff I think your observations are interesting, but one thing you need to be aware of is that in many places — the GCC for sure students do not have the foundations to be life long learners. I just returned to the States after teaching for two years in the GCC at the college level. My sons attended the best American curriculum HS in the country. In general the students both at my level and my sons level approached education from the point of view of just getting a piece of paper which allowed them to get more money from the government. They really needed the spark of learning to be lit and then fanned. This is something which requires a relationship and trust to develop between the teacher and the student. What will be interesting is how this part of on line education will develop.
The second point I want to make is that because students were only after the “piece of paper” and they had no problem justifying cheating the Ministry of Education had a problem with online education. This is points to another area that online education will need to solve in order to be effective in the GCC as a tool to really educate.

]]> By: Jeff Utecht http://www.thethinkingstick.com/day-one-at-tep09/comment-page-1#comment-29427 Jeff Utecht Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:33:30 +0000 http://www.thethinkingstick.com/day-one-at-tep09#comment-29427 And that's been the issue with technology in education from the beginning. You can not take what you do in the classroom and just do the same online. We need to reteach teachers what this means. Do we do this in pre-service education? Do we take time to do this in our schools? The conversations I'm having here with Ministers of Education is that the found out the hard way that online learning is way different than the in class teaching, yet we're not helping them to rethink what teaching and learning looks like online. And that’s been the issue with technology in education from the beginning. You can not take what you do in the classroom and just do the same online. We need to reteach teachers what this means. Do we do this in pre-service education? Do we take time to do this in our schools? The conversations I’m having here with Ministers of Education is that the found out the hard way that online learning is way different than the in class teaching, yet we’re not helping them to rethink what teaching and learning looks like online.

]]> By: Dana S. Watts http://www.thethinkingstick.com/day-one-at-tep09/comment-page-1#comment-29426 Dana S. Watts Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:00:45 +0000 http://www.thethinkingstick.com/day-one-at-tep09#comment-29426 I agree that teaching is more than putting content online, yet it seems that more and more schools are leaning this way to prepare for potential closures due to H1N1. F2F is priceless, especially for students that become energized by social interaction and acknowledgement from their respected peers and educators. There has to be some balance, but with the world of technology moving so fast, we might tip the scale in the wrong direction. This is where we lose the old school teachers in the tech debate. They are not afraid of losing control, but of technology becoming the educator. Education equals more than content; it blossoms with the proper delivery. I agree that teaching is more than putting content online, yet it seems that more and more schools are leaning this way to prepare for potential closures due to H1N1. F2F is priceless, especially for students that become energized by social interaction and acknowledgement from their respected peers and educators. There has to be some balance, but with the world of technology moving so fast, we might tip the scale in the wrong direction. This is where we lose the old school teachers in the tech debate. They are not afraid of losing control, but of technology becoming the educator. Education equals more than content; it blossoms with the proper delivery.

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