Abstract

This paper presents the first phase of an investigation into marrying the 21st century approach to teaching to the old paradigm of chalk-and-board method of teaching. These two different paradigms of teaching were researched and the wedding approach was formulated. The wedding approach used something old, (marker and whiteboard), something new, (the projector), something borrowed, (the collaboration approach), and something blue, (Bringing Learning for Ultimately Everyone). This is called the ONBSblue approach. The sample used was two groups of first year students at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. The course selected was C++ programming. The ONBSblue approach was a three-stage approach. The first stage used the 21st century approach to motivate students by connecting to their digital world. The next stage was to establish collaboration among the students. The final stage was to used chalk and board to stimulate critical thinking. The results of the first phase of the ONBSblue approach are discussed and the conclusion showed that this ONBSblue approach was very encouraging, suggesting that the key factors to the 21st century teaching and learning is motivation, collaboration and critical thinking.