Tools and technology will no longer limit the pedagogical process

Pedagogy is the combination of teaching and learning. I had never heard this word until 1 February 2016. Since then I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I say I’ve heard the word at least 15 times a day. This work has a significant meaning once you try and really grasp the concept of what actual teaching entails. Teaching goes a lot further than merely standing in front of classroom and reading out of a textbook. Teaching is the act of preparing young adults for the future, preparing them for obstacles they may encounter and essentially preparing them for the real world. Learning is not as simple as learners which learn for a test or exam. Learning can take place in various forms – the mistake that most people make is thinking that teachers have learnt everything, but the fact that teachers can learn from learners is often overlooked.

Teaching and learning has various facets. This process is able to take place in numerous amounts of ways. I often thought of technology as being expensive and therefore it can be used in affluent schools. This idea of mine was changed when I heard that long ago paper was seen as technology that would revolutionize the world and people were unhappy about it. Technology often has a stigma attached to it.

Whenever we hear the word digital we also automatically think of unaffordable technological devices and think of it as quite impossible to use it in classrooms. On the contrary, digital pedagogy does not have to be anything electronic. Therefore there is not limiting factor when making use of digital pedagogy.

Living in the 21^st century technology is all around us, everyday and everywhere we go. This cannot be denied but not having access to technology in the form teaching and learning does not have to hold one back.  Tools and technology does therefore not have to limit pedagogical creativity. In one of our classes the lecturer illustrated examples how we can use mainstream technology such as twitter or blogs in a classroom where there might not even be an internet connection. Post-it notes can be used to write ideas on and it can be stuck on surfaces such as walls or blackboards, this can then read as tweets by the learners. I liked this idea because it encourages a different way of interacting and sharing ideas.

We need to steer away from the idea that technology is just iPads, laptops, smartphones etc. To me personally technology means anything that is different to how it has been done before- any change that learners have not experience. In essence evolving and using different strategies in a classroom environment. If we want to improve the quality of the learners leaving matric at the age of 18/19 we as teachers need to find better and more innovative ways to capture the minds of our learners. Teaching them to think creatively, critically and out the box is the only way that the future of South Africa will start looking a little brighter. We also need to stop using excuses such as too little resources available to not enhance the pedagogical process.

This also is summed up in an article by Fyfe (2011) where various aspects of pedagogy, digital learning and teaching naked are addressed. In conclusion we shouldn’t allow anything to hold us back as teacher to not allow for the best possible way to teach learners and the future of the world.