Teachers Need Tech Skills

Greetings from the Australian Computer Society's Reimagination 2017 conference in Sydney. 

Senator Bridget McKenzie, Chair of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee pointed out that teachers need tech skills, to be able to teach in the modern world. I suggest this also applies to those teaching in universities.

 

Even computer experts need training to apply the Internet, mobile phones and computers to education. It took me years to admit that as a certified computer professional and experienced university lecturer, I could not effectively apply the technology for my students. Five years and three tech-education qualifications later and my academic colleagues are asking what the "trick" to my high student feedback scores is. The trick is simple: learn to use the tech for education and it is easy.

Games for Education

Greetings from the Australian Computer Society's Reimagination 2017 conference in Sydney. The keynote speaker is Jane McGonigal on "Transforming the digital playfield – collaboration and gaming to achieve epic wins". She is pointing out that games can be used for education, because they provide reward for achievement. Also Jane pointed out that game can be a social activity. This is something well known by educators (I studied gamification in my MEd, but it is hard to achieve.

However, we don;t need to make all, or most of, education look like a video-game. The same short term challenge-reward cycle can be built into conventional looking education. As an example, my project management students at the Australian National University Techlauncher program have to learn to give presentations. Giving a presentation is a challenging stressful experience, but provides rewards through intimidate feedback from their peers. The result is confident professionals who can give very good, focused presentations under difficult conditions.

Teaching a can do approach is something which will help with Australia's tech industry development, including defecne. I was discussing this with Mark Eggleton at the Australian Financial Review recently (See: "Forging closer links with commercial partners crucial for military").