Phew, my kids would be frustrated watching me suffer when watching me hesitate at every step when setting up this blog. But here I am, determined to become less of a ”digital native”. My profession is far from computers and understanding digital tools – it feels as if I am learning a whole new profession in order to teach my REAL proffession.
Why am I doing this? I am taking a course in On-line-learning and this blog will reflect my work in the course. I will learn by reflecting and reading blogs of other students. Also I want to use my new knowledge:
- I want to create a school on line about motor development and about learning when disabled. I am a paediatric physical therapist since 35 years! I have worked in different parts of the world and I am passionate about children and giving all children the possibility to participate in play. Control of the body helps us play.
- Why read my blog? Perhaps if you are interested in my journey learning to become digitally competent – it will be a challenge!
And teaching is also complicated. I guess it has to do with WHAT we teach. There are facts such as that water will boil at 100 degrees Celsius, and there are ”truths” based mostly on us repeating a certain thoughts numerous times until we believe it is true. But even self-evident truths can be wrong, most people think that the sun goes up in the morning and goes down at night, but where I grew up the sun is up 24 hours in the summer and we barely see sunlight in December. There are always two sides of looking at things.
Here are some questions I want to feel confident answering:
- How can I make learning interesting and fun?
- How can I get over my frustration with digital tools?
- How can I connect with others over the internet?
- What incredible new things will I learn while learning about the digital world? What can it help me achieve?
- How can we unveil scientific truths?
At least some laws of nature apply in science, and there are subject matters where ”the truth” can be interpreted in any which way. I went to university in Uppsala for my physical therapy degree, and I do like the the inscription above the entrance to the auditorium ”Thinking freely is great, but thinking right is greater”. Already in 1794 this was a provocative and controversial point of view from the lawyer Thomas Thorild. I won’t go into discussion about it – but yes there are a few things that are true! Some of them I do not know, but I try to find out.
It is easy when we know how to do things right, such as answering questions during todays zoom-meeting. My problem is that I am too slow – the verbal instructions go in through one ear and out the next – I lack the time to pay attention and absorb the information.
This is important to me:
- How we give instructions – verbally? visually such as text? by showing an example?
- How quickly the information is given
- How we make sure that the information is understood
During todays lecture it was comforting to understand that I was not alone in being a digital native. I at least managed to read some of the comments in the chat during the lecture and nice people shared their shortcomings. It is also promising that this course will force me to become better at participating in digital learning. I will re-watch the seminar. Stop the recording and try to understand how to go about acting and responding quickly during a seminar. Pathetic ? Perhaps, but I am motivated.
