The mindset list in my eyes

The Mindset List for the Class of 2015 is a great piece of writing, imagination, creativity and actuality. It recognizes the need to change the curriculum, teaching styles and instructional technology with the time. In a way, this article implicitly conveys that teaching whether inside the four walls of the classroom of a primary school or a complex management course, offered online, has to take care of the needs of the learners’ social, cultural and economic background. The teaching methods and the teacher have to be dynamic, ready to accept and adapt to the changes occurring ‘out there in the world’. This is strongly required because the teaching content has to go parallel with the learner’s life. We can’t simply forward whatever we learnt in our classrooms as students.

Today’ s primary school children might not have seen a typewriter ever! They are living in the era of touch screen where they don’t even have to move their fingers a lot for coloring a picture. (I’m talking about the Leapfrog’s leapPad). A typewriter can only be a part of a history project.

Similarly, a landline phone and TVs with the rotary dial can only be seen in pictures. I remember, we had a red land line phone with dial and a heavy receiver in 1980’s when I was a primary school student and by the time I graduated high school in 1999, I had my first cell phone Nokia 3210. Within, ten years the communication industry took a wide turn, from landlines to mobile phone. With the further advancement of the technology, the smartphones are not only used for making a call to friend, but they do multitasking loaded with thousands of features and apps. So, the statement made in ‘The Mindset List’- Dial-up is soooooooooo last century!- is just appropriate.

Thus, if we understand the mindset of our students/learners, we can cater to their needs and develop the best course for them. The cultural differences also matter a lot. For example, if I want to develop an alphabet recognition game/activity for pre-schoolers and label ‘B’ is for burger and ‘P’ is for pizza, this game/activity won’t work well in a country where these food items are not eaten (many African and Asian countries). Kids won’t be able to relate to these examples. They would understand bamboo for ‘B’ and paper for ‘P’, which is very much around them.

My comments on Justin, my classmate's mindlist review:

This is a very detailed and impressive reflection. You have really taken up things those are or were important part of our lives. The list tries to remind teachers that they should closely watch on the references and the examples used while teaching. Yes, the mindset list makes us feel “old”but also prompts that the time accelerates. There is only thing in this world that never changes and it is the ‘change itself’.

Amazon can only be an online store where you can find anything and everything for the class 2015. Some of them might not even know that it is one of the largest rivers of the world. I, somehow have a different opinion on this. Consider a student’s response to the question what is Amazon, as“ an online retailer”, then, as educators, this is our flaw and not the student’s. If we get such an answer, this means our geography lessons and projects weren’t effective enough to teach them the facts.

I hope you somehow agree to this!