Rationale
On Kevin Gannon’s Inclusive Design track at Digital Pedagogy Lab 2019, Kevin tasked us with writing an inclusive teaching manifesto. He is clearly a fan of the manifesto. One of our suggested readings was the Manifesto for Teaching Online from the University of Edinburgh, and anyone familiar with Kevin’s writing will have read Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto.
Based on those texts, I was happy to jot down some statements of my own. I gave some thought to the work I already do, and the work I want to do, and put it as simply as I could.
Spending a week at Digital Pedagogy Lab is draining in the best possible sense of the word. It can be a heavy week. In light of that, each statement is accompanied by a gif from The Simpsons. It’s my blog, so I can do that if I want to.
On a more serious note, writing a teaching manifesto alone seems like the first step of a more lengthy project. I’m working as part of a team on a national project to enhance digital teaching and learning. The project team meets regularly, and I think this could be a useful collective exercise for us to try, and we could work with a view to creating a manifesto on each of our campuses.
We’re using the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu) for the project, and it would be useful to use the six areas covered to create our collective manifesto.
- Area 1: Professional Engagement
- Area 2: Digital Resources
- Area 3: Teaching and Learning
- Area 4: Assessment
- Area 5: Empowering Learners
- Area 6: Facilitating Learners’ Digital Competence
For now, this is my own personal manifesto.
The Text
Choose technology that matches your pedagogy.
Are kindness and empathy visible ‘through the screen’?
Research your technology. Am I using open, ethical tools whenever possible?
Create an environment that is easily navigable and accessible.
Can students easily seek support or help?
Learning spaces should be inclusive for all students.
Evaluation and feedback should inform my practice.
The learning space should help foster a sense of community.
The courses I create should contain elements of fun and joy.
Keep it simple, and don’t believe the digital natives hype.
When I design a course, I should keep student agency in mind.
Online teaching is still teaching.
Be flexible.
Don’t ban devices and ‘out’ students who have accommodations.
Be human.
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