Personal and Professional Development - Essay Example

Education 15 May Professional Development In the modern world there is a renewed emphasis on learning and professional development in order to drive objectives and goals. Most modern careers tend to progress from a basic level to higher levels through professional development at all levels. Teaching is one such profession that allows an individual to develop from one level to another using professional development methods. The post Industrial Revolution structure saw teachers as people who were supposed to drive ideas into students with instructions provided from policy makers. However, in more recent times this has come under fire as teachers have to be strategically planned at their own levels in order to drive learning and other functional requirements. The modern learning structure places copious demands on individuals at all levels. In order to deal with the rigorous requirements of modern teaching and learning it is essential that the teacher be dynamic and willing to learn on the job. Times have changed and are continuing to change as the gauntlet is transferred from one form of learning expertise to another. While previously it was enough for a teacher to be able to handle simple routine tasks, this definition has passed into oblivion in recent times. Above everything else, a teacher must be possessed with a vision to go forward and to explore new turf. Modern life is all about integration and modern teaching and learning are following the same path. Consider for example the state of communication that we exist in today. Only a few years ago it was common to have a phone at the office, a cellular phone in the pocket, a fax machine on the desk, a desktop computer and other such articles to deal with communication. Today all of these things have disappeared altogether. Everything is integrated. It is extremely common today to find all of this communication equipment and more (such as GPS, location tracking and the like) in a simple Smartphone that sits in your pocket. This trend of integration has not been limited to high end executives and CEOs alone. Instead integration has been sweeping the entire socio-economic strata from end to end. A Smartphone is as common in the Corner Office as it is with children attending high school these days. The key thing to take note of here is integration. Much similar to communication equipment, teaching and learning are becoming more and more constrained to integrate with other things in order to drive the efficacy and success of both. Modern careers are coming under increasing pressure to obtain individuals who have more than one area of expertise. The modern manager for a car repair business for example may need to know how to handle people, how to mix paint, how to repair fenders, how to create budgets and other such functions all at the same time. This situation is different from the specialization that was offered under the Fordist model of growth that calls for specialization. Instead a manager and a leader today need to have essential skills in their bag to deal with the competitive nature of the market. This is only possible if the learning offered to the modern student is enough to handle the strains of modern careers. Modern learners need to be offered various avenues to explore their own potential in order to produce individuals who are ready to pick the gauntlet and walk with it. Traditional methods of learning including blackboards and hard printed books are all but things of the past. The modern learner is far more interested in finding the information they require using digital methods rather than having to search through volumes of printed material. It could be expected that children would need to be taught how to extract information. However, in the modern day this situation is nowhere to be found. Instead the teacher is at times learning from students as to extracting information from the internet. Modern students are well equipped and prepared to handle the information they require to learn more. This is all the more true of students who are studying in a higher class in school. The integration offered by modern life has ensured that children are well aware of modern technology and its uses for learning. The common impression in circulation regarding young learners and technology is that students tend to waste too much time going through digital entertainment than in learning. This may be true to a certain extent but this cannot be treated as the final word on the matter. Being young children tend to treat technology as a method for entertainment but it is up to the teachers to educate them to the learning based use of technology. Consider for example the teaching of social studies to students. One method could be to ask students to go through length reports and research findings over the internet and the other method could be to allow them to play an interactive game such as the Sims. The integration of technology to learning may seem like a real waste of the student’s time because playing the Sims in class seems to make little sense. However, if the student is allowed to learn how social groups and systems operate on their own the retention rate would be far greater because of the inherent interests of the students. Another avenue that demands exploration is the learning achieved through the use of such interactive games. When a student plays the Sims, he or she would obviously want to gain a better score. This could only be possible if the student understood how the Sims operated. The student could then be offered methods and mechanisms that allow the explanation of social processes and systems. In my experience with students, the readiness to learn was far more when their interest had been developed through prodding prior to the lesson. This would mean that the students would already come to class in a mood to learn and would then also be able to implement those ideas somewhere such as a reality based video game. These ideas may seem too radical to apply to teaching and learning at the moment but this could essentially be the future of learning in the digital age. It has already come to my notice that practicing professionals such as doctors and engineers are being taught using interactive materials because its tends to enhance their retention. For example, a doctor may have to piece back the human skeletal system using a simulator. Similarly an engineer may have to piece back a machine or alternatively take it apart using a comparable simulator. These simulators can be seen as being analogous to modern video games that children play on a regular basis. The contention here is that if these simulators or video games are introduced to children early on then the integration between digital learning and teaching would be far smoother. Another major impact would be holding the children’s interests when teaching them which is essential to any form of learning process. In the classroom children are taught using methods that are archaic in modern terms. Even though digital technologies are being used but these technologies are outmoded for the current learner. For example, homework is being emailed in the current classroom scenario in order to be handled with desktop applications but children are already using Smartphone platforms to respond to it. This clearly shows that current teaching methods are behind the curb when it comes to integrating modern technology and learning. Another common observation made by a number of teachers is that the interest level of children in class is raised when they are exposed to forms of technology that they are familiar with. For example, in order to use SmartBoard technology the computing platforms use Windows XP. I have noticed that one glance at the commonly observed Windows XP desktop tends to drive children’s interests up in terms of the lesson. My learning from the classroom shows that modern learners can only be allowed to fully explore their potential if contemporary technology is allowed to play its full part. Otherwise classrooms and teaching methods would always remain a step behind the current technological platforms. Children are quick to adapt to change and they essentially learn to use contemporary platforms as well as slightly outdated platforms being used at school. This in itself speaks volumes of the ability of young learners to learn. Rather than wasting the learner’s time in adapting to different platforms at home and at school, it would be far better to use commonly integrated and up to date platforms for learning. This would ensure that the extra mile walked by the young learners is put to better use. There is also the possibility that using these mechanisms the efficacy of learning processes will go up and will tend to produce more flexible and adaptable learners. Bibliography Gordon, Stephen P. Professional Development for School Improvement Empowering Learning Communities. New York: Allyn & Bacon, 2003. New York Times. Corner Office. 15 May 2012 . Read More