A talk about education: “Educación y cultura digital” by Hugo Pardo Kuklinski.

A couple of weeks ago we were invited to attend a talk about digitial culture and education. It was delivered by Hugo Pardo Kuklinski at UNL. Before sharing ideas we agree with and others we do not, let’s learn more about the speaker. Hugo Pardo is a PhD in communication and the director of a project called “Outliers School”. He has also written a number of books and numerous articles in relation to digital education.

One of the ideas he shared in the talk we attended is that teachers, in order to integrate technology in the classroom and improve their teaching practices, should be “intraemprendedores”. That is, according to him, they should reflect on how they positioned themselves as regards content, methods and technology itself.

However, Hugo’s position as regards education was too business-oriented. He referred to the red as if it was the most intelligent way of transmitting knowledge inside the classroom. He puts the teacher on a in a passive role. We do not agree with his point of view in this case. We cannot deny that the web is more intelligent than any teacher in the world (you can find anything you need on the internet), but there is something that it cannot offered you: the experience teachers gained by being in front of the classroom, and the benefits this offers to students. 

Even thoguh we did not agree much with him, there are certain points which, in our opinion, are good and important to take into consideration. For example:

- The fact that we need to adapt to the changes that take place in society and technology. If we do it with others, much better.

- We need to help students to move from where they actually are to the place they want to get.

- We have to take advantage of the opportunities offered to us.

What do you think of these ideas? Do you agree with them?