The first assignment I am planning for the new intake of students is going to be a digital reflection on professional identity. This is based on work that Gemma Tur Ferrar has been doing in Ibiza with first year primary school teachers which we have been discussing over the summer. As well as analysing the work of her students over the last couple of years, we are planning - together with Victoria Marin - to run the same activities with our respective cohorts and compare outcomes. Victoria and Gemma's students are all trainee primary school teachers and are Catalan speakers, mine are health and social care students and English speakers. Victoria and I have very large seminar groups (70 -80 in each) whilst Gemma's is much smaller. We hope to consider differences in class size and technical (digital) skills; the influence of language and culture and the different emphasis that health and social care and educational values might place on different aspects of professional identity.
To kick start the process with my students I have decided to give them as an example the work of one group from Gemma's class (in Catalan with translation - courtesy of Google translate - below):
“The teachers we want to be…..
Because the text book is already outdated
… and rows of desks also,
a new day dawns in education.
There are many ways of learning
and many situations in which to learn
incorporating new technology,
valuing diversity,
promoting respect for the environment.
Continually developing ourselves,
we are committed to developing people for the 21st century”.
I like the idea of sharing the work of students from different cultures - internationalising the curriculum is big on all our agendas at the moment but language can create barriers. It would be great if we could find more ways of using technology to overcome them..... now there's a challenge!
