pedagogical mediation in_tefl

The Importance of Social Networks in Language Instruction

PEDAGOGICAL MEDIATION IN TEFLBy Prof. Dr. Gilberto Hernández Quirós

1Educational material created for Centro de Estudios de Posgrados at ULATINA by Prof. Dr. Gilberto Hernández Quirós. 2010

INTRODUCTION

In today’s globalized world, it is extremely important for language instructors to utilize different ways to mediate language teaching. Social networks are tools which can help facilitate continuous instruction.

Educational material created for Centro de Estudios de Posgrados at ULATINA by Prof. Dr. Gilberto Hernández Quirós. 2010 2

QUOTES ON EDUCATION• “It is possible to store the mind with a million

facts and still be entirely uneducated.” Alec Bourne (1)

• “Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” F. B. Skinner (2)

• “Only educated are free.” Epictetus (3)

• “The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” Herbert Spencer (4)

• “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” Malcolm Forbes (5)

• “In order to learn, it is necessary to unlearn.” Gilberto Hernández (6)

3Educational material created for Centro de Estudios de Posgrados at ULATINA by Prof. Dr. Gilberto Hernández Quirós. July 2010

QUOTES ON TECHNOLOGY

• “If were a country, it would now be the 6th most populous in the world.” From inside Facebook

• “The value of a social network is defined not only by who's on it, but by who's excluded.” Paul Saffo, Silicon Valley Forecaster

• “Regardless of what may be the hot social media property of any particular month or year, social networking has become a core part of our daily lives.” Amy Kean, senior marketing manager, Internet Advertising Bureau

4Educational material created for Centro de Estudios de Posgrados at ULATINA by Prof. Dr. Gilberto Hernández Quirós. July 2010

ACTIVITY 1. DISCUSSION

• Discuss your thoughts on the following pictures and on the contents depicted by the images.

Educational material created for Centro de Estudios de Posgrados at ULATINA by Prof. Dr. Gilberto Hernández Quirós 5

What is pedagogical mediation?• In a nutshell, pedagogical

mediation refers to the treatment of contents and of the different forms of expression of different topics to make learning possible within premises of participation, creativity and relationshipness.

• Mediation is possible from the construction of knowledge, creativity, investigation and the exchange of learning experiences.


CORE COMPONENTS IN SUCCESSFUL TEFL

TEFL

SELFORGANIZATION

INTERCONNECTIVITY

MEDIATION


POSSIBILITIES TO MEDIATE

• PODCASTS• MUSIC

• PODCASTS• VODCASTS

• PICTURES• WEBCASTS• VODCASTS

• BLOGS• SOCIAL

NETWORKS

WRITTEN/READING

VISUAL

AUDITORYVERBAL-INTERPERSONAL


Upgraded Approaches toTEFL and Education in General


New Paradigms in Education


Organizational change and the human mind

12Educational material created for Centro de Estudios de Posgrados at ULATINA by Prof. Dr. Gilberto Hernández Quirós

Data, information, knowledge, understanding, wisdom

• Data: symbols• Information: data that are processed to be

useful; provides answers to "who", "what", "where", and "when" questions

• Knowledge: application of data and information; answers "how" questions

• Understanding: appreciation of "why“• Wisdom: evaluated understanding.


DATA and INFORMATION

• Data is raw. It simply exists and has no significance beyond its existence (in and of itself). It can exist in any form, usable or not. It does not have meaning of itself. In computer parlance, a spreadsheet generally starts out by holding data.

• Information is data that has been given meaning by way of relational connection. This "meaning" can be useful, but does not have to be for everyone.


KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

• Knowledge is the appropriate collection of information as intended is to be useful. Knowledge is a deterministic process. When someone "memorizes" information, then s/he has amassed knowledge. This knowledge has useful meaning to them, but it does not provide for, in and of itself, an integration such as would infer further knowledge.

• Understanding is an interpolative and probabilistic process. It is cognitive and analytical. It is the process by which I can take knowledge and synthesize new knowledge from the previously held knowledge. The difference between understanding and knowledge is the difference between "learning" and "memorizing". People who have understanding can undertake useful actions because they can synthesize new knowledge.

15Educational material created for Centro de Estudios de Posgrados at ULATINA by Prof. Dr. Gilberto Hernández Quirós

WISDOM

Wisdom is an extrapolative and non-deterministic, non-probabilistic process. It calls upon all the previous levels of consciousness, and specifically upon special types of human programming (moral, ethical codes, etc.). It beckons to give us understanding about which there has previously been no understanding, and in doing so, goes far beyond understanding itself. It is the essence of philosophical probing. Unlike the previous four levels, it asks questions to which there is no (easily-achievable) answer, and in some cases, to which there can be no humanly-known answer period. Wisdom is therefore, the process by which we also discern, or judge, between right and wrong, good and bad.


WAYS TO MEDIATE TEFL

BLOGS

CUSTOMIZED MATERIALS

DEVELOPMENT

SOCIAL NETWORKS

PODCASTS

VODCASTS WEBCASTS

FACE-TO-FACE INSTRUCTION


THANK YOU!


• THANK YOU!