Reflection of the day - 08.07.2014

Today was the day for the slovakian team to "spread magic".

They did very well and all the presentations were really interesting and introduced us to several tools we can use for educational purposes. A new generation of young future elementary or secondary teachers seems to be quite well prepared to enhance technology for teaching, as they all are already digital natives.

Here's a short summary of today's presentations with some explanatory comments, in a Mindmap built with Mindomo, one of the tools presented today:

Make your own mind maps with Mindomo.

By the end of the day, we could ask ourselves what will be teachers' role in the future, as this question arose during the presentations. I don´t believe teachers will ever be dispensable but it is my strong belief that they must be well prepared to take a different role as they, probably, should have already done. The role of the teacher in the classroom is changing to that of someone who will guide the students and provide them with the appropriate tools to engage them in building their own knowledge. ICT are the new reality known to current children/juveniles into which they are deeply immersed. It is teachers' task to go along with their wishes and abilities creating a new classroom order more appealing and engaging to the new digital generations.

I must point out the last presentation made by Marlene Groer, from Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany, who quite well showed us the benefits which can be brought into education by the emmerging concept of Gamification, that is the use of games in learning activities. I liked this presentation very much, very relevant, very clear and objective. The explanation about the use of games in therapeutic context was also very relevant. Congratulations to Marlene!!!