As individuals and educators, each of us views the world through a different lens. Influences of being born within a certain generation (mine is generation X), our personal life experiences, education and our professional experiences along with a myriad of other factors assist our viewing of the world.

Having become a Paramedic educator within a decade following Robert Gaskins original software proposal for PowerPoint, I’ve born witness to the overwhelming growth in technology. The application of which has afforded us with unprecedented tools as educators.

After almost three decades of education experience and having transitioned from face-to-face to online and mixed modalities, I can look back and cringe at our application of early pedagogies based on Skinner’s and Watson’s behaviourism theories. Conversely, as a life-long and life-wide learner, I also reflect on lessons learned, future learnings and relearning requirements.

Within my current role as University paramedic academic delivering a Bachelor of Paramedic Science via mixed modalities, I produced a video on how I perceived my role at the time (2014). Whilst the video contains a lot which is relevant today it’s also lacking in depth and breadth. My personal aim is to correct these shortfalls and continue my learning journey.

The video mentions the concept of students being connected to a world of data. However, my understanding of data has expanded to more than simply equating it with the various forms of resources or media. Rather data is, at a micro and macro level an inundation of information in which we can detect patterns and base a plethora of decisions.

The nature of data available has also changed and continues to transform (see Drivers of change future landscape). Advancements toward democratising data availability which may seem foreign to many who are comfortable with paywalls are also one of the issues which will play out within the coming decade.

Growth in computing power also enables more intricate and larger volumes of data to be available to researchers and in turn educators, who may or may not be involved from the beginning. From an education viewpoint, this has advantages and disadvantages. For example, I can see what resources students are viewing, how long they watched a video and determine what social media platforms may be the best for engagement purposes.

Whilst educators value social engagement within the online, physical and mixed environments there are also 21st-century skills required to undertake this effectively. When students have an almost unlimited number of platforms and resources (expert and questionable) at their fingertips, they require the digital literacy skills outlined by Bawden (2008).

One of the mistakes many new academics make is to equate digital natives or digital residents with discerning digital literacy skills(Bawden, 2008; White & Le Cornu, 2011). Whilst many have a permanent presence online, fulfilling White and Le Cornu (2011) definition, they are still in essence consumers rather than creators.

Our roles as 21st Century educators has changed dramatically from the previous century. With the rate of change so rapid we have to adopt different roles. Creating safe conditions to develop critical thinking, social beings who have excellent digital literacy skills is paramount. Failure to do so will result in an illiterate generation, those who Alvin Toffler, Futurist described as “not… those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”(Toffler, 1990).

References

Bawden, D. (2008). Origins and concepts of digital literacy. In (Vol. 30, pp. 17-32).

Toffler, A. (1990). Future shock: Bantam.

White, D. S., & Le Cornu, A. (2011). Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement. 16(9).