[LINK] Pedagogy in the age of the Internet

Tom Worthington tom.worthington at tomw.net.au
Sat May 26 08:48:30 AEST 2012


On 23/05/12 20:45, David Boxall wrote:

> It hadn't occurred to me just how bad the impact of the Internet
> might be on teachers. ...

The Internet can be of great benefit for education. But educators need
to learn how to use the Internet effectively, with a combination for 
formal training and on the job practice.

The University of Southern Queensland is one of several institutions
training educators in online course design and delivery. I am just 
finishing "Online Pedagogy", which concentrated on techniques for tutors 
to develop student's skills online:
http://www.usq.edu.au/course/specification/2012/EDU8114-S1-2012-WEB-TWMBA.html

The certificate in tertiary teaching, which a university lecturer 
usually does, will now include some component about online teaching. I 
am concentrating on how to design and run online courses in my studies:
http://blog.tomw.net.au/2011/08/tertiary-teaching-for-research-led.html

> ... after being asked the same misleading question by some arrogant
> adolescent for the umpteenth time, I'd end up in gaol for committing
> terminal discipline.

One useful technique is for the teacher to have the students find
information on a topic and then discuss in a group how credible the
information is. The teacher prompts occasionally to keep the discussion
on topic.

> The Conversation has a coterie of climate science warriors; nothing
> surprising there. What does surprise me is the nuclear power
> advocacy. ...

Keep in mind that "The Conversation" is not a scholarly journal. It is a
marketing exercise paid for by CSIRO and some universities:
http://theconversation.edu.au/partners

> Are there reliable lists of ... their credentials? ...

I find Google Scholar most useful for a quick check:
http://scholar.google.com.au/

Australia's Knowledge Gateway is a system for finding Australian
research experts. Here is a search for "climate science":
http://gateway.go8.edu.au/s/search.html?query=climate+science&collection=go8-experts&search-type=expertise

Keep in mind the search service is sponsored by the Group of Eight (Go8) 
universities.

Australian Science Media Centre (AusSMC) provide a referral service for
the media to Australian researchers (but like "The Conversation" AusSMC
is funded by some universities): http://www.smc.org.au/mediaofficers/

In the end, there is no web index to the truth. Each of us has to decide
on the evidence for ourselves.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards
Legislation

Adjunct Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/



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