Going back to the basics.

While I acknowledge the significant impact technology has, not only in schools and education but the whole world seems to rely on the ever changing and improving systematic organisation technology has to offer. I still believe that “going back to the basics” is the key to a successful and empowering teaching and learning experience for both teacher and learner.

What I mean by going back to the basics is that we, as teachers, do not have to rely on technology, as it can, like any other human invention, fail. We need to look beyond the computer screens and see the blackboard and chalk. Digital pedagogy refers to “digits”, hands, fingers and thus using your hands and enabling students to write on the board, on paper or in notebooks would be sufficient and also excel the learning process. By making this statement, I’m referring to an article written by Lizette Borreli, which states that using pen and paper, not laptops, to take notes boosts memory and the ability to retain and understand concepts (http://www.medicaldaily.com/why-using-pen-and-paper-not-laptops-boosts-memory-writing-notes-helps-recall-concepts-ability-268770). Your brain remembers your unique writing technique, which help retain the information that is being written down.

Creativity is also a major part in the writing process, as I refer to sir Ken Robinson, which said that creativity and adaptability has a huge influence on our economy, thus we as teachers must create, creative and open minded learners, which will be set free in to an economic driven world.

As mentioned previously, “digital” refers to using your hands, cultivating creative students by letting them put down the smart phones and tablets, to use their, now free hands, to create a model, form art, paint a picture or draw anything related to the subject specifically. This will also enhance the learning process and will keep the learners interested.

I repeat, I’m not disregarding the huge impact technology has on our past, present and future, I’m simply stating that, us as educators, should not rely wholeheartedly on technology itself and rather use it as a crutch to ease our learning journey, but not to lead it. Using all our resources efficiently will result in creating a more efficient learning environment for our learners.  In the end, that is all that we want to achieve.