Week 1: Perspectives on education

To be teacher was my vocation. I studied Tourism and Administration and I worked a few years too before. For me it's hard to think that somebody only wants to win money with “Education”. But it's a real situation. I know it. Then, it's not unusual that somebody wants to win money with Education and Technology.

However, now we can get free software, programs, books,... in Internet. Some teachers and programmers share their work with creative commons or other licenses which allow us to download and to use them for free. It is my utopia. Maybe these are not like software or programs by which you pay a lot of money, but if you get something for free or 5€, what are you waiting? Internet changes the world (we change the world). We should accept this aim.

At the moment I can't think that I am Digital Native, because the first time that I used a computer was when I was 18 years old. But I'm sure that I'm not Digital Immigrants, because I watched TV and I played with my game boy many hours. I know that I can't watch any video or listen more than 5 minutes, if it isn't really good. I take notes in class to solve it, if I write, I listen. I should admit that I can't watch a film, because it's like when you must read a book and you are all the time counting the pages to finish it. If I can't, for a child who is more hours in front of a screen than a teacher, it should be impossible. As a teachers, if we want that ours students learn, we should adapt our methods with the new technologies. It's the way to get the attention of them. I'm sure. I agree with Marc Prensky, you should read it.

But Internet is not accessible in all the world. Some people can't allow to get these free programs. They don't have Internet. They can't buy a computer. They can't access to any computer. They are offline, like my mother, she can, but she doesn't want. And the question is: must they get computers and internet to learn? Yes and No. Yes, because they can get the same good conditions than others, like me. No, they should, but they mustn't. In my opinion, if we impose new technologies to learn, we are bad teachers. It's the best way to this period, but we can't impose our thinking to all the world. If somebody does it, it's because they only want to win money.