Week One Learning Activities for ICT"S

1. Think about your own education, what has it resembled to date? Was it remnant of the Industrial Age or was it based around skills required for the 21st Century?

Thinking back to my high school education, my school was in the changeover from the industrial era to educating for the 21st century. There was a strong base of traditional ways of teaching and in early years of high school there was a lot of 'chalk and talk' classes. In year 8 and 9 (1997-1998) I saw computers in the library and maybe a couple of computer labs for the commerce subject and thought to myself 'Why on earth would you want to learn about computers and what on earth would you do on them?' In year 11 (2000) two of my teachers said they would no longer accept hand written assignments. I was shocked and had to learn to use a computer. My family did not own a computer, therefor I had to go to the library at lunch time or on my study period to type up these particular assignments. This was one of my first interaction with computers, as up until this time the school made no emphasis that I needed to. Although all our classes were not just taught on text. In my later years of high school some teachers incorporated Oht's, videos, music, text and PowerPoint presentations. I do believe my high school was going through a transition from the Industrial ere to educating for the 21st century. I do regret that my school wasn't more focused on educating for the 21st century as it seems I've had to learn most things from scratch, specifically technologies.

2. The Future work article was written ten years ago. Think about where we are now and the rapid changes that have occurred since that article was written

Since the Future work article was written, enormous changes have occurred in technology within the economy. This to me shows the progression in only ten years. At the rate of technology advancing I predict so much more changing in the next ten years. In the article I like how the writers predicted a rise in childcare centres and workers and a rise in food type jobs for the convenience of working families. Most of what was predicted back then is happening now. Although from all these technological advances I think we are going to loose out slightly on traditional/trade type workers which may be a down fall if you think about farmers etc. Ten years ago if a machinery part broke on a farming machine and a new piece needed to be ordered it could take week/s to receive the replacement part, especially in a rural area. Now with the technological advancement a new one could be ordered in minutes and arrive within days. What I'm trying to say is that the upsides to living in a knowledge economy out way the few downsides. Just imagine how much is going to change in these next ten years

3. How does the author differentiate between mode 1 and mode 2 knowledge and what implications does this have for you as a teaching profession?

From my understanding mode one is a traditional way of educating. It is discipline based and usually produced by individuals and is inherently local or localised. Whereas mode two is produced in divers sites, subject to social accountability, heterogeneous and transdisciplanary. Mode one has it's foundations firmly based in most schools . Mode two knowledge is becoming more widely used in schools and educational institutions as they need to adapt to rapid and extensive change. In saying this mode one still has a place in education. We have entered a period of 'meta-change'. In becoming a teacher I believe that I will need to be versatile and adapt easily to the knowledge economy we have become. I will need to incorporate text, Internet, DVDs and power point presentations just to name a few, into my pedagogic strategies. A teacher now days needs to change with the times, stay current and make learning interesting so the student can relate to it and retain the information/knowledge.