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“Our task is to educate their (our students) whole being so they can face the future. We may not see the future, but they will and our job is to help them make something of it.”

                                                           - Ken Robinson

 

Since I was a child, I knew that my passion was teaching; I even played being a teacher with my cousins in the garden of my house; I was really young but aware of reality; I taught them to read and count. Then, I grew up and that passion fell asleep until the end of high school, due to the influence of my doctor father  who wanted me to study medicine and not Education since the salary of teachers was one of the lowest. I decided to study Radiodiagnostics, I graduated, and worked for two years. Still, in my mind, something told me, "This is not your thing." Even though I liked what I did, I had no passion. At that moment, I began to reflect on how I saw myself in a couple of years and decided to awaken that dream of being a teacher that I had put on hold.

 

During university, I was super motivated. I felt that Education was my true vocation and that I had that wonderful gift of teaching. I had the pleasure of being taught by teachers whom I greatly admired and from whom I copied many of their strategies and methodologies for transmitting knowledge. One of them was Mrs. Ana Paula; she used mental and conceptual maps to summarize information quickly. However, I also had other teachers who contributed almost nothing to my learning process.

 

Now, analyzing this entire study process, I can show that it was based on a traditional education without the presence of any technology, the only technology available was the teacher's overhead projector, the acetate sheets where the teacher had the information he wanted to project, the books of which I had to make infinite copies, and I remember that at the end of my degree they began to use PowerPoint presentations. Therefore the objective was to cover content, the teachers were focused on teaching the curriculum. They tried to protect the material required to assess students through rubrics that precisely dictated all aspects of the student's assignments. They aligned closely with curriculum standards, leaving little room for creativity and personal expression.

 

Obviously, since I had no other reference then, I was fascinated by my teaching and learning process. Still,’’it is never too late to learn’’,  is a philosophy that my parents instilled in me. I discovered through the first subjects of the master applied digital learning that there is another approach adapted to the reality of the 21st century called the COVA and CSLE approach that promotes a growth mindset and the construction of a learning environment that encourages experimentation and collaboration. Such a growth mindset is advanced through the power of the word "Still" and a learning environment that rewards effort, determination, and perseverance. Additionally, students can select and participate in authentic or "real-world" learning experiences that allow them to make a genuine difference in their learning environments and communities.

 

This is through a fundamental authentic collaborative learning technology tool called ePortfolio, a tool which gives the student control and voice over the representation of their learning experiences. Likewise, this can be done through blended learning, and together we can achieve meaningful learning by taking into account our students' learning styles, needs, and interests. In this sense, after knowing those above, I said to myself, wow, it is lovely to be able to have tools to prepare our students for the future, changing our traditional teaching and learning models of information transfer and adopting pedagogies that provide students with opportunities for social collaboration and constructivist ideals.

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Now, answering the questions about the opportunities and challenges in education, how to solve them, and the benefits to my community, I can say that everything depends on the conception and philosophy of the meaning of teaching in school; from my point of view, the rapid technological evolution raises the constant need for adaptation in all areas, with the possibility of creating more personalized and accessible learning experiences. However, institutional resistance is sometimes observed when applying these updates to the curriculum, and inequalities in access to resources can hinder the effective implementation of these advances. As globalization and cultural diversity intensify, the opportunity arises to enrich learning through collaborating with all educational actors and adopting more innovative pedagogical approaches.

 

So, the key will be to embrace technology and develop today's world skills while addressing disparities to ensure that education is inclusive and continuous professional development of educators in such a way that students are prepared to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities of a constantly changing world. The contribution to my community will be to encourage undertaking an authentic transformation of education without waiting for “someone to do it for us.” Since we can all contribute our grain of sand to this educational change.

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So, from my position as a teacher, if I want to improve my practices and pedagogies, I must contribute to getting out of the traditional, starting with being clear about my focus on where I want to go by incorporating digital learning, modeling through my actions and involving minds and hearts. You may wonder why. First, because it is necessary to include it due to the changing and challenging world in which we live, second because said digital learning will make it possible to take advantage of technologies to improve the accessibility, personalization, and effectiveness of the educational process with a focus on preparing students for a digital environment in constant change. And third, the use of authentic technological learning opportunities could help my organization. I stay focused on assisting students to reach their full potential and become future leaders who contribute to improving our world, as mentioned by Dr. Thibodeaux's "Passport to Learning: Turning Today's Students into Tomorrow's Leaders."

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References

Harapnuik, D. (2024) It’s about learning..https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=7003

Harapnuik, D. (2024) It's about learning. https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=7007

Thibodeaux’s,T.LearnersMindset.https://tilisathibodeaux.com/wordpress/?page_id=1539