Life as we know it has quickly shifted due to the COVID19. Every government, business, family has been forced to change how thing are done, because our reality has been turned. The same is true about education, the reality that has quickly become apparent is that physical classrooms are almost obsolete, they are no longer to be treated as the 4 walls that confine teaching and learning. What has become more important now than ever is that every 21st Century educator needs to be fully equipped to utilise digital resources to teach without compromising on the delivery, better yet, it should enhance it. Here are some of the skills and resources the 21st Century educator needs to be relevant and efficient in this climate.
Basic digital device operating skills: Let's start with a simple example. The use of a computer has so many advantages over using a pen and paper, in terms of storage, sharing information, editing the work etc. However, if one has a computer but no knowledge on how to use it, then the benefits are lost, on the user not on the device. It is quite important for educators to familiarise themselves with devices that are essential in remote facilitation of learning.
Virtual collaboration skills: A very important teaching strategy in the 21st century is collaborative tasks. These are beneficial to the learners in that it allows knowledge sharing, students get to interact with each other and share their understanding of concepts. This is a teaching strategy ideal in developing learner confidence, negotiation skills and other interpersonal skills. Now, in the classroom this would be easy to do buy putting learners in a group and give them a task. The stakes are raised when one has to facilitate learning virtually, the good news is that, its far from impossible. once again it comes to being aware of resources that are available to facilitate virtual collaboration.Making available online chat rooms were learners can interact, platforms that allow the learners to work on the same document or worksheet simultaneously.
Creativity, originality and initiative: It's a challenge to keep a learner engaged in a physical classroom, you can safely anticipate that it will be more of a challenge when making use of remote teaching and learning. It is up to the educator to device and plan lesson delivery, making use of technological resources that are engaging to the learner. Collaborative tasks are essential here, visual teaching material will be beneficial. Over the long run, the educator will have to diversify on the approaches used. It is important to note the methods used will have to differ from one class to another, the methods used will have to be adaptive. This therefore requires some creativity and originality on the part of the educator.
Information Literacy and managing online content: The world wide web has a vast amount of information and not all of it true and or tested, therefore it becomes very important to be able to sift through that mountain of information to find and make use of valuable information. It is essential therefore for educators to be able to equip their learners with the ability to manage online content. To know how to assess information received, and to know which sources to rely on. It is good to allow learners interact with knowledge independently, however, it still requires the educator to be able to give them some direction on how to navigate all the information available online.
This skills is particularly essential when making use of teaching and learning strategies such as the flipped classroom approach. If a learner is to go and engage a concept they have not yet learnt in class on their own they need to have the ability to assess between useful and questionable information and they need to know sources to go search from.
This is a very pivotal time in educational history. The approach should not be one of hesitancy but it should be every educator's goal to find and learn new and sustainable ways to facilitate learning remotely. There should be a proper understanding of how learners learn such that activities are designed in a way that does not compromise the outcomes. The challenge that is before us is not one that cannot be conquered, the resources are available, its about mastery and creativity.