Mod 3 Entry#3 My reaction to a video clip, "21st Century Education"

I watched all video clips on the list. Some of them shared the same information, and all of them were interesting to me. Among these clips, I thought “Educational Change Challenge 21st Century Education in New Brunswick, Canada” was the most interesting video clip. It included a lot of impressive phrases (Quotes), some of which were really meaningful for educators in that they might feel necessity of adopting new technology into their classroom in order to fulfill students’ needs in the 21^st century.

The most impressive quote in this video was what Molebash stated, “if you put a doctor of a hundred years ago in today’s operating room, she would be lost, yet if you placed a teacher of a hundred years ago into one of today’s classroom, she wouldn’t skip a beat.” You can say that this is overstatement, however, in terms of technology, teaching methods of English teaching might have not been developed enough to inspire students and are still traditional in comparison with one which used in the medical field. It might be both good and bad in some reasons. Philosophy or objectives of teaching which contemporary teachers should have in their mind can be similar to those of a hundred years ago if they fit the students’ needs, however, in terms of contents (and, of course, teaching methods as well), teachers need to adopt new things into their classroom, especially when they can facilitate students’ positive learning experience.

In addition, the narrator of the video also stated that “in education, the use it or lose it may mean, if you don’t use technology for learning you may lose relevance. An educator must be relevant.” From these points of view, the video clip, again, suggested teachers should use technology simply in order for satisfying students’ needs. Otherwise, students miss chances of learning what they are supposed to know by the time they graduate from the school.

I liked this video clip also because it presents neutral viewpoint, in that it did not explicitly mention that you should use technology, although others did say so clearly. Therefore, the video did not suggest specific examples which teachers can use by adopting technology into their classroom; however, it was obvious that you can use youtube, podcasts, SNS, twitter, wikis, and some more others.  I felt a bit awkward at first when I heard teachers can use texting in their class, but, yes, my impression might also have come from a “primitive” way of thinking in the 21^st century. Now that it is time to “change” our minds and ways of teaching for the sake of students’ needs, educators need to discard old thinking and adapt to new ways.