Featured Teacher
Victor Guthrie
Risk taker and lifelong learner
while others have begun to test new
technologies that can assist with their
delivery of curricular content.
Victor Guthrie, Ed.D.
Director of Technology and Media Services
at the American Community School.
Tell us two technological
gadgets that you must have in
your classroom and why?
I truly believe that you only need two
foundational pieces in a classroom: a
personal learning device (i.e. a laptop)
and connectivity to the Internet. I
have found that classes can continue
to operate without electricity, but
when you remove the connectivity, the
learning is often impacted.
What advice would you give
to other schools that are
struggling with implementing
the use of technology in their
classrooms?
Photo credit: ACS
“
I
f you follow your bliss, you put
yourself on a kind of track that has
been there all the while, waiting
for you, and the life that you
ought to be living is the one you are
living. Wherever you are—if you are
following your bliss, you are enjoying
that refreshment, that life within you,
all the time.” – Joseph Campbell,
Writer and Lecturer
Victor Guthrie has called the UAE
home for the past three years.
Originally from Southern California,
Victor grew up in a little city just
sout h of Los Angeles. He brought his
geniality and love for teaching to his
classroom and watched as his students
got excited and excelled at learning.
His initial plan to pursue a career within
the corporate world changed after he
completed his MBA in International
Business. He realised that his passion
was not in business, but in education.
This led to him pursuing his Doctorate
in Educational Leadership and
Organizational Learning.
Who inspires you most?
Risk takers… This isn’t a particular
person, but rather the collective group
of innovative educators who are willing
to see education differently. If I had to
choose a single person, I’d say it would
be the philosopher, John Dewey, who
recognized and articulated the need
for an educational reform in the early
1900s.
What are two steps that you are taking
to advance your career?
I continue my education formally in
schools, actively through events and
conferences, and socially through my
Personal Learning Network.
What are three key steps
that other educators who are
interested in implementing a
robotics programme in their
schools ought to consider?
Students only need two things to
begin with robotics; access to the
equipment, and an educator who is
passionate about learning, trying and
doing. Even without formal robotics
training, a good educator can leverage
the collective knowledge found on
the Internet, to guide the classroom
activities.
What are some of the ways
in which you use ICT to help
other educators to improve in
their practice?
Part of our Strategic Plan calls for the
expansion of innovative technologies
to improve teaching and learning. To
help accomplish that goal, this year
we created a Technology Innovation
pilot project to support teachers'
exploration and training in new
classroom technologies.
Some of
our teachers have opted for a series
of focused technology trainings,
The first thing to consider is the
learning environment. What are the
strengths and weaknesses of that
learning environment, and how can
the implementation of technology
make it better? All too often I have
seen schools spend a lot of money
on buying technology without a good
idea of the desired objectives, or a
good plan of how to use technology to
achieve those objectives. Technology
by itself will only serve as a distractor.
However, technology driven by a
comprehensive implementation plan,
specialized training, and ongoing
support, can positively impact student
learning.
What is the best advice that
you have received and how
has this helped you?
As educators in the 21st century, we
are no longer the sole repositories
of knowledge. Our job is not to fill
our students with stagnant content
knowledge that can be found in
books or online. Instead, we need
to recognize that we are all learners
drinking from the same fountain of
information. It is our job as educators
to help students to find information, to
validate that information, to leverage,
synthesize, and communicate that
information, and solve a problem or
meet a need with that information.
These are the 21st century literacies,
and it looks vastly different from how
most of us were taught.
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Nov - Dec 2015
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