Every educator should be mindful of what is happening around them in their class with their learner's. Being mindful will help educators to realized what is working in their classes and what is not. By knowing this, the educator can take away some things which seem unnecessary for the learners and what they should add to the learning environment to make it a more fun and learning environment. It is small things that people normally overlook which can create serious problems or can bring so much joy into the classroom. In the case of New Roads Middle School, the lesson that was taught in class can go a long way for the learners and might even be used to apply in their own life's in the future. Being mindful will create a classroom atmosphere that can be conducive for the learners. Classroom activities should be created in such a way that the learners take full responsibility with the guidance of the educator. Such class activities and discussions can create an environment where cooperation can take centre stage and the building up of social relations among the learner's. The teacher should be mindful of the learner's environment outside of the class in order not to make learner's feel uncomfortable and shy to participate in activities which will eventually help them. Learner's should bear in mind at all times that the teacher is there to facilitate them in whatever way possible and they should take advantage of that learner opportunity. In the event of being mindful in the classroom learners can become the masters and facilitators of their own learning environment be taking away a skill that otherwise would not have been mastered in another environment. This idea of being mindful is definitely something that every educator should try in their class as it create an environment of being aware of what others like or dislike. Learners will feel very comfortable in an environment which they have helped to create for their own learning. 

Standards for good digital pedagogy is needed but not to the extent where the learners and teachers are confined to only a particular set of standards. Standards in its rightful form are normally set out as a guideline as how things are supposed to happen, but could also be a form of indoctrinating a particular form of learning. Standards as it is indicated in the article can "limit the consciousness which critical pedagogy aims". I do not say that there should be no standards, but standards should be implemented in such a way that it can be bend for the benefit of learning. It is like I have said in my previous blogs, that I cannot stress it more that whatever happens in the classroom, learning should take place and the learner should walk out of any given class with knowledge accumulated in any particular lesson. The teacher should not be intimidated by standards or technology for example, but instead make the learning environment conducive for learning with any tool available that can progress knowledge, facilitate and educate learners. This should be done to the best ability of the teacher, and technology or whatever teaching method should be just a tool that can assist the learning process. Standards can have the ability to "systematically oppress students...but students and teachers should grapple with this culture of silence". Teachers should be able to feel comfortable teaching, and not be a puppet leader that is controlled by standards. Teachers should do what they deem necessary for their learners to excel instead of being oppressed by standards and norms. Although be in some instances difficult to do, teachers should be the educational vehicle in which learners want to drive in order to get to their learning and knowledge destination. Learning should not be debilitated because of standards and learning should be able to occur individually as well as in group dynamics where communication play a vital role for a conducive learning experience. Learning should be a liberating experience and not make learners and teachers feel that they are in shackles. Personally, I think that the more freedom a learner has to learn, the better a student him/her will become and ultimately a better citizen. I am not an expert on this topic of education and can only speak from my own experience, but it does not take a rocket scientist to know that a free learning environment is conducive to educational excellence.    

Social media are playing a very important part in our everyday lives at this age in time. It would be a good idea to incorporate it in the classroom. Learners will enjoy and probably learn more through this form of education since them basically spending most of their days on Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I personally can say that it is good tools to use in the classroom since we at university are actively using these media platforms to do our own schoolwork and make the interaction between students and lecturers much easier. These media platforms can be used to incorporate different schools in a certain district to share ideas and schoolwork. For example: In an area like Stellenbosch with many different schools, it will be useful for teachers and students to share information regarding their particular subjects. This will be especially useful since all schools need to follow the same curriculum. Learners will be able to engage with some of their friends at other schools with whom they are doing the same modules/subjects. There are many ways that students and learners can share schoolwork or to help each other on these platforms. They can form groups on Whatsapp or Twitter relating to their particular modules/subjects which will be helpful. The fact that certain learners (previously disadvantaged) do not have the resources to acquire certain gadgets or are not able to access internet should not debilitate the rest of the learners. Furthermore, teachers should rather try to communicate with parents and inform them of the benefits of social media and how their children can and will benefit from it. The world is becoming a beacon of technology and if people, and especially learners do not start to engage with it now, will be left behind and be technologically isolated from the rest of the world. The use of social media in class can also help those children who normally do not understand the work but prefer to suffer in isolation. This is not good because this will discourage the student which might lead to them dropping out of school if it is getting too much to handle. People should bear in mind that these platforms can be used without jeopardizing the safety and security of the learners nor the teachers. Teachers who prefer to make use of these platforms should do so with the consent of the parents. 

Something I cannot stress enough about is that teachers are there to teach and be the best teachers they can be. Whether the learners are actually learning should be at the center of teaching instead of a sometimes unnecessary debate about how to teach. What is important is that the learners understand and grasp the content that is given to them and their teachers should make sure that the way it is conveyed is informative and educational seeing that teachers should inform and educate. Whether the teacher is using the black board and chalk or a YouTube video or any other digital technology to teach should not be more important then what you as the teacher expect from that learner to know at the end of the course. It is not something that one can deny that the internet and other digital tools are taking over the way teaching classes are presented. For some it is a very easy way of teaching which on the one hand can make you an out-of-touch educator, especially with the learners. Loading something online for everybody to learn from does not necessarily means that everybody is actually understanding it or learning something. For example, if you do not understand something you might not always have the time to wait for a correspondence from your lecture whom you have no interaction with and so one can suffer due to that. This becomes a problem for those educators who believe that learning should take place in the classroom with physical interaction between teacher and learner and learner and learner. Teaching online does not always take into consideration the context in which that person is receiving that teaching. The learners should be at the center when finding better ways of how to teach are on the agenda since they are the ones that is supposed to do the learning and understanding of relevant content. If the learners are placed at the center and be part of the decision making phase on how to present the teaching they might get more out of it. 

Fun education

Education should be about having fun while learning at the same time. The learners should be enthusiastic to attend a lecture instead of being bored out their skulls. How to go about teaching should not be about making it easier for the teacher, but the emphasis should be put on the students who are the ones that who should absorb the information. For a long time now, computers have taken over the classroom and at some instances make away with physical teaching. Computers are useful tools to present a lecture, but it should not take up the bulk of the teaching experience as students sometimes loose focus. On the other hand, students prefer in many instances not to too much readings for example, and therefore would prefer to just sit at the back of the class and listen to the lecture.

From a digital perspective, it is inevitable that computers and technology will take over the classroom and there will be no space for 'naked teaching'. Computers should not be regarded as the evil of education but rather as another tool to make teaching fun and easy for both lecture and student. Through the use of technology in the classroom, the teacher can make use of different tools to educate but not to the point where teaching with computers or any other technological tools are the only method of teaching. Computers and technology take away the fun of physical teaching as teachers sometimes put up a slide and just sit back and listen with the learners and do not do actual work as it used to be done in the past when computers was not yet introduced in the classroom.

Technology and physical old school teaching should be put together to get the most out of a given lecture as well as entertain the learners in an educational way. Many of the old teachers and the ones that is new to computer use in the classroom have the idea that teaching with technology take away the social aspect of learning which is an important part of the learning process. The main idea that should be get out of this is that education should be fun, educational and convey the message which is initially intended, which is that the learners should learn.

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