The trends in the future should not really refer to just technologies, because the philosophy behind them, and the social drivers that underpin such trends.

In George, Mark, and Nancy’s comments they were all were looking at the more holistic context of the trends. Nancy even commented, “My first impression too, was that the prioritization makes me think “this is all about technology!” What about society? politics? Globalization? ” And this is really how I felt about yesterday’s discussion. Although it is thrilling to divine the future, there is really a disconnect on what is happening on the ground…I struggled to demontrate to myself how is it going to help my students. In my mind, the question that was running is how do trends like “portability” and “accessibility” affect the way my student slearn and the way that I teach.
In today’s discussion of teaching complex tasks, the main learning point I had was on the differentiation of complex and simple tasks and I seem to disagree with David on some issues especially on the definition of the word “complex”. Fromt he context of the discussion, complex tasks are the ones that are imbued with decision making processes, and in fact, continuous decision making throughout the process makes for a more complex task rather than a one-off, singular decision made at the start of the task. A task that requires a cycle of assessment, adjustment, reassessment is one that requires experience and therefore probably less inclined to technological based teaching than the one with a big decision at the beginning followed by many steps (that maybe confusing and therefore misconstrued as complex) but in fact mechanical. The latter maybe more technologically suitable (well, at the current level of technology at least).
Philosophically, the role of the teacher is again challenged or at least questioned–are we nannies that pre-digests information and simplifying them for our students prior to their consumption? Or are we navigator-guides that point them to the right areas of learning? Are we colleagues int he learn process, learning side-by-side and giving support when needed (like sidekicks)? Or are we the traditional vessels of knowledge that fills the students’ empty cups?