This was my editorial for the Term One edition of Warta WILTA.
Do our students suffer from Qantas Syndrome? Do we get them to sit in rows, face the front, strap in (don’t move unless completely necessary), and switch off all devices until they reach their destination? Do we offer a broad range of programs, seemingly catering to all tastes, but ultimately ones that don’t allow for flexibility, negotiation and user input? These are questions being asked by
educators in the blogosphere at the moment, particularly given the current trend towardsstandardised testing and “meeting benchmarks.” However, I don’t think our Indonesian classes sufferfrom this syndrome. With such an emphasis on communication and collaboration in Languages learning and teaching, we tend to facilitate learning opportunities that involve more than just sitting and staring at the seat in front.
What airlines and schools often have in common, though, is that they force their passengers to “power down.” Is this what happens to students in our classes? Do we help develop a “digital divide” between classroom use of technologies and out-of- class use, due to a myriad of factors, not least including access, policy and stakeholder expectations?
What we do need to develop is 2020 vision for the Indonesian classroom. Today’s kindergarten learners will graduate from high school in 2020. What will life be like for them? Will they even travel by aeroplane anymore? Will pens be as antiquated as chalk and slate? Will paper be such a luxury item that the thought of photocopying a class set of handouts is out of the question? How will literacy and numeracy be defined? What skills will our learners need for the jobs that don’t even exist yet? And how will Indonesia and Indonesian figure in all of this?
If we asked a dukun to peer into the future, we might get an ambiguous (“typically Javanese”) response. Perhaps we need a similarly open mind to the use of technology in the classroom. A mindset that embraces (or at least accepts) change and allows for experimentation. But it should be informed experimentation. Hence the importance of networking, sharing, and participating. There is just so much change, so many tools, and so many things we could do. And we shouldn’t do it all ourselves. 2020 vision doesn’t require a dukun or crystal ball, rather it requires a different approach to networking. We need to actively seek out opportunities to share and develop our skills, and WILTA is certainly a great organisation to help achieve this aim! Online technologies, particularly “Web 2.0” resources, can also help. I like the diagram of the “networked teacher” below because it demonstrates what Web 2.0 is all about. Web 1.0 was about access and (one-way) interaction, Web 2.0 is about (multi-way) collaboration and participation. We know that students learn best when they are active and when they produce and contribute, and the same goes for teachers. This is not a new idea, certainly not where language learning is concerned, but what is new are the free online tools available to help us do so.
2020 vision also involves hindsight. We don’t stop using established skills, tools and techniques when we develop our curricula and flight plans, and we certainly pay attention to the “little black box” when something has “crashed and burned” in the past.