Wonderful discussion. As to the use of the term teacher and teaching, I've been wondering lately if we educators who are interested in
"how we learn and how we help other people learn, including through teaching, when it can’t be avoided, but preferably through a wider variety of means and contexts" might should promote the use of the word teacher to mean someone who provides guidance to individuals to help them learn what they desire, or even reach their potential to learn in a particular area. I think there's a need for someone to create a learning environment for the learner(s) that is challenging yet supportive, collaborative, fair and honest, and most importantly a safe place to try, fail, and try again. Maybe this is the teacher's role. Rather than imparting knowledge, a teacher works with learners to help them make decisions about how to approach a subject: what content materials to use, how to pace themselves through the material, how to self-evaluate their learning, what groups of learners can do together to support each others' learning, .... So, getting back to Gurmit's original question about how to effectively use technology to "bring knowledge" to individuals who are geographically distributed. One part is the design of the OER to be a rich repository of content in the broadest sense of the word (sequenced lessons--building from easier to more complex, integrated interactive exercises, self-assessment tools, multi-media presentation...) designed around particular learning goals. I think the other part of the equation is a learning community. One that supports the learner as he/she develops in knowledge and skill, to include both other learners and "teachers". As Nellie said, WE is a great place to have this conversation. As you can see from the depth of comment on this thread, there's a number of us who are deeply interested in using technology to support learning. Alison --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
