Extension Specialists tend to engage in more community education, rather than traditional classroom education. However, just because you take the educator out of the classroom does not mean you take the classroom out of the educator. That is, even community educators may be relying on traditional teaching strategies, which could be enhanced by including contemporary pedagogical strategies. As a future professor and Extension Specialist, I hope to employ these innovative teaching and learning strategies, both in the classroom and in the community.
My goal is to obtain a tenure-track professorship with a joint-appointment in Cooperative Extension. I have always attended land grant universities (Cornell University, University of Delaware, and now Virginia Tech) and have come to really value Cooperative Extension. Through Cooperative Extension, land grant universities transform the scientific knowledge generated in the "ivory tower" into practical information using lay language. Although Cooperative Extension is not a contemporary institution, I think it has the potential to initiate even greater good in communities if it incorporates contemporary pedagogical strategies. One way Cooperative Extension has begun to respond to a more digital society is by establishing eXtension, Cooperative Extension's interactive online system, which provides practical research-based information online. For example, eXtension has an "Ask an Expert" feature, which allows people to pose questions to Extension Specialists. While the notion of "commoners" depending on "experts" for answers has its own host of philosophical and epistemological issues, I think this is a practical service that youth, parents, farmers, educators, and others can use to access trustworthy research-based information in a practical way (that may be more beneficial than a mere Google search).
Extension Specialists tend to engage in more community education, rather than traditional classroom education. However, just because you take the educator out of the classroom does not mean you take the classroom out of the educator. That is, even community educators may be relying on traditional teaching strategies, which could be enhanced by including contemporary pedagogical strategies. As a future professor and Extension Specialist, I hope to employ these innovative teaching and learning strategies, both in the classroom and in the community.
2 Comments
Maria E Nieves
4/15/2015 03:14:33 pm
Thanks for your post Natalie! I have to admit that I never heard of Cooperative Extension before. Shame on me, since I also have studied in land grant universities all my career. Very interesting thing concept, and yes, I think it has the potential of being something great. Thanks for teaching me something new today :)
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Hi Natalie,
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GEDI BLOGI am taking a Contemporary Pedagogy, a Graduate Education Development Institute (GEDI) course towards the Preparing Future Professoriate (PFP) certificate. In this section of my blog, I will be posting about topics related to innovation in teaching and learning. Archives
April 2015
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