moment of a round table at the New Education Forum training congress, Vigo, 2024
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 4:22 am
Do elements that work very well in marketing, such as blogs or podcasts, have a pedagogical use in the classroom? If so, how do you integrate them into your work with students?
Of course, both are technological tools that open up great possibilities in the classroom. For that to happen, we have to put in the hands of our students what I call "transparent technology", not complex tools that require a long tutorial or a steep learning curve, but those that require little technical knowledge and that allow them to focus on the learning process. Garageband on iPad is an incredible app that we can work with and from music (the great forgotten one in education and one of those that can make the greatest contribution to learning) and we can also use it in an incredibly simple way to record podcasts, create audio mixes, DJ...
The podcast itself already allows us to work on something that we rarely allow in the classroom: oralizing, working on our intonation and our message because doing it in audio is not the same as doing it on video or even in front of our interlocutor.
And a blog is a must-have. Do you want to develop written language , peer communication, research and publishing content? Create a school newspaper and publish it in blog mode. There are many options at hand, but I always recommend putting “ Wordpress ” first .
Speaking of podcasts... What is “El Recurso” and what is its objective?
The resource is a podcast focused on the educational world , understood in a general way since we cover all pre-university stages, university education and lifelong learning. It is produced by me and Alfonso Tejedor, content director of Faq-mac, the veteran website on Apple technology in Spain.
Our aim is to address all the important topics that we believe teachers at all levels should be aware of , such as active methodologies, digital teaching competence, educational innovation or European laws regarding the protection of minors.
At the same time, we bring up issues that are currently being discussed, such as the use of educational screens, neurodidactics, inclusion in the classroom or the PISA report. We bring people who know these topics very well and, possibly something that differentiates us from other podcasts, I tend to get very involved in these topics, first because I live a lot of everything related to educational innovation and second because I have my own approach that I want to show.
It's not all about new technologies ... How do you apply soft skills in the learning dynamics you use with your students?
Soft skills are a tremendously important topic, which some people associate with a label from a commercial or business perspective. I sincerely consider them to be one of the most important issues that we should address throughout our entire training life, both within and outside of formal training.
And there is no textbook or written exercise that will help you develop it, like subtraction calculations in mathematics. You can't get it that way.
The only way to enhance and develop soft skills is by creating learning situations , by showing them moments in which, in addition to learning concepts and processes, they must develop other skills for themselves and for others. You cannot develop ethics in your work from a textbook, you cannot enhance emotional management in a team if you do not have them develop a project together (and together is not giving each one a piece of work) you cannot enhance their communication skills if they do not present kuwait city name list to an audience they do not know, for example when presenting a solution to a challenge, we cannot develop our capacity for adaptability if we always propose the same type of process in the same structure.
We cannot expect them to develop time management strategies if we give them all the activities parameterized, it is like expecting a young person to be responsible when going out at night but we never let them go out…
There is a lot to rethink about how actions are developed in the classroom and, above all, why and for what, and addressing the contents is only part of the answer, not the whole answer. That is why it is so necessary to modify the practices, the processes that arise and develop in the classroom, that is where you can work on soft skills.
As seen on your website, imaxinante.com, you like to share work and you have several presentations available for download. We were struck by the one you dedicate to Design Thinking and its application in the classroom. Tell us why this methodology is useful in face-to-face teaching.
Yes, although each person may have a personal vision of how things should be done in a classroom, I think it is an obligation to provide other experiences that can help teachers to launch themselves with more confidence into more active methodological initiatives with students. For example, creating Virtual Reality spheres with students. This technology has tremendous potential to build experiences with them... not only to view them in a metaverse. Eight years ago I carried out a project with my 2nd grade primary school students to show areas of Vigo through interconnected VR spheres, also involving families in the process. I also undertook a research project on noise pollution with students, all of them carried out by students using simply the iPad.
Answering the second part of the question, Design Thinking is a methodology that was consolidated at the d.school of Stanford University (USA) almost 30 years ago and that IDEO (one of the business firms that makes the most use of this methodology) adapted to the educational context. From this perspective, DT allows us to address in a structured way all the essential steps to be able to meet a complex learning challenge.
I think it is a great methodology that should be taught at many educational levels (higher ESO courses or in high school, but above all at university level as they already do in universities such as MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Sydney or Copenhagen). Teaching using these complex processes allows us to address much more than content, processes and concepts, error is valued as a means to make progress and makes students authentic, participative and responsible for these advances and generates something that we are lacking in education… reflection. But it also requires that the institution and the teachers change their mentality. And that is very difficult, it is a very slow process.
Finally, what challenge motivates you most about the future that awaits us, perhaps the application of artificial intelligence in the daily lives of people who work in education ?
A few days ago, a very interesting article appeared in Wired magazine, which states that no one knows how generative AI will affect jobs. Unfortunately, it is not AI that can take away jobs, but the misuse of it by companies or people, as we have already seen in the US in the audiovisual markets. If the goal is to minimize costs at the expense of workers and replace them with low- or medium-quality AI products… I don’t think that is the way. I think AI + people should be understood and not instead of people. That is the way and it is a path that can be incredible in education… as long as we do it well.
I am interested in AI, on the one hand, because of the doors it opens for us to focus on other things for which there does not seem to be enough time, not to parameterize percentile advances when addressing content, which is not bad but is still mere training. It is not education.
Of course, both are technological tools that open up great possibilities in the classroom. For that to happen, we have to put in the hands of our students what I call "transparent technology", not complex tools that require a long tutorial or a steep learning curve, but those that require little technical knowledge and that allow them to focus on the learning process. Garageband on iPad is an incredible app that we can work with and from music (the great forgotten one in education and one of those that can make the greatest contribution to learning) and we can also use it in an incredibly simple way to record podcasts, create audio mixes, DJ...
The podcast itself already allows us to work on something that we rarely allow in the classroom: oralizing, working on our intonation and our message because doing it in audio is not the same as doing it on video or even in front of our interlocutor.
And a blog is a must-have. Do you want to develop written language , peer communication, research and publishing content? Create a school newspaper and publish it in blog mode. There are many options at hand, but I always recommend putting “ Wordpress ” first .
Speaking of podcasts... What is “El Recurso” and what is its objective?
The resource is a podcast focused on the educational world , understood in a general way since we cover all pre-university stages, university education and lifelong learning. It is produced by me and Alfonso Tejedor, content director of Faq-mac, the veteran website on Apple technology in Spain.
Our aim is to address all the important topics that we believe teachers at all levels should be aware of , such as active methodologies, digital teaching competence, educational innovation or European laws regarding the protection of minors.
At the same time, we bring up issues that are currently being discussed, such as the use of educational screens, neurodidactics, inclusion in the classroom or the PISA report. We bring people who know these topics very well and, possibly something that differentiates us from other podcasts, I tend to get very involved in these topics, first because I live a lot of everything related to educational innovation and second because I have my own approach that I want to show.
It's not all about new technologies ... How do you apply soft skills in the learning dynamics you use with your students?
Soft skills are a tremendously important topic, which some people associate with a label from a commercial or business perspective. I sincerely consider them to be one of the most important issues that we should address throughout our entire training life, both within and outside of formal training.
And there is no textbook or written exercise that will help you develop it, like subtraction calculations in mathematics. You can't get it that way.
The only way to enhance and develop soft skills is by creating learning situations , by showing them moments in which, in addition to learning concepts and processes, they must develop other skills for themselves and for others. You cannot develop ethics in your work from a textbook, you cannot enhance emotional management in a team if you do not have them develop a project together (and together is not giving each one a piece of work) you cannot enhance their communication skills if they do not present kuwait city name list to an audience they do not know, for example when presenting a solution to a challenge, we cannot develop our capacity for adaptability if we always propose the same type of process in the same structure.
We cannot expect them to develop time management strategies if we give them all the activities parameterized, it is like expecting a young person to be responsible when going out at night but we never let them go out…
There is a lot to rethink about how actions are developed in the classroom and, above all, why and for what, and addressing the contents is only part of the answer, not the whole answer. That is why it is so necessary to modify the practices, the processes that arise and develop in the classroom, that is where you can work on soft skills.
As seen on your website, imaxinante.com, you like to share work and you have several presentations available for download. We were struck by the one you dedicate to Design Thinking and its application in the classroom. Tell us why this methodology is useful in face-to-face teaching.
Yes, although each person may have a personal vision of how things should be done in a classroom, I think it is an obligation to provide other experiences that can help teachers to launch themselves with more confidence into more active methodological initiatives with students. For example, creating Virtual Reality spheres with students. This technology has tremendous potential to build experiences with them... not only to view them in a metaverse. Eight years ago I carried out a project with my 2nd grade primary school students to show areas of Vigo through interconnected VR spheres, also involving families in the process. I also undertook a research project on noise pollution with students, all of them carried out by students using simply the iPad.
Answering the second part of the question, Design Thinking is a methodology that was consolidated at the d.school of Stanford University (USA) almost 30 years ago and that IDEO (one of the business firms that makes the most use of this methodology) adapted to the educational context. From this perspective, DT allows us to address in a structured way all the essential steps to be able to meet a complex learning challenge.
I think it is a great methodology that should be taught at many educational levels (higher ESO courses or in high school, but above all at university level as they already do in universities such as MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Sydney or Copenhagen). Teaching using these complex processes allows us to address much more than content, processes and concepts, error is valued as a means to make progress and makes students authentic, participative and responsible for these advances and generates something that we are lacking in education… reflection. But it also requires that the institution and the teachers change their mentality. And that is very difficult, it is a very slow process.
Finally, what challenge motivates you most about the future that awaits us, perhaps the application of artificial intelligence in the daily lives of people who work in education ?
A few days ago, a very interesting article appeared in Wired magazine, which states that no one knows how generative AI will affect jobs. Unfortunately, it is not AI that can take away jobs, but the misuse of it by companies or people, as we have already seen in the US in the audiovisual markets. If the goal is to minimize costs at the expense of workers and replace them with low- or medium-quality AI products… I don’t think that is the way. I think AI + people should be understood and not instead of people. That is the way and it is a path that can be incredible in education… as long as we do it well.
I am interested in AI, on the one hand, because of the doors it opens for us to focus on other things for which there does not seem to be enough time, not to parameterize percentile advances when addressing content, which is not bad but is still mere training. It is not education.