mE-Learning

Through my experience as a teacher I found that having the students interact with class and provided a greater and more supportive learning environment. It encourage original though, provoked self learning, increased experiential learning and most of all it is student centered and therefore largely a constructivist approach to education, One example i can give was a smart board activity that involved the students creating a 3 on 2 defensive and offensive scenario in basketball and analyzing the options within that, i found the activity very effective and useful. R.Reichert and W. Hartmann (2004) published a paper from the world conference of educational media that focused on the learning in E-learning and the important role the interactive software holds within it.  Interestingly enough they seem to disagree with my own experience as they found there is a significant trade off between interactivity and the cost of development. That general purpose interactive tools such as smart boards or interactive whiteboards have a trade off between what it takes to create and develop them and the productivity of the teaching and learning. They argue that in order for interactive software to be fully productive it needs have extensive and be highly domain specific to the development of the student.   

In response to Mathew’s post regarding the discussion of technology in schools i cant agree more that the promise that technology holds for education is remarkable. The Article in The Austrlain comments on howtechnology can not only hold great benefits for students, parents, teachers and their professional development. The SMH article titled dial up duxes shows how the need for technology and the benfits that it holds is undeniable. However, what this article easily illustrates is the ever looming problem withtechnology in education today and that is money. Already in society we are seeing further dispersion of our class systems and this is easiest to view when you look at the state of education around Australia. Some schools have 5 computer labs with 35 computers in each room. Some schools even have laptops for every student. At the other end of the scale we have schools with one computer that only works for 1 hour and only in the cooler periods of the day and runs on Windows 92. As the article quotes from the DET ”no milestones have yet been reached”. It was interesting in retrospect that Kevin Rudd wanted to put a computer in every school for every student but when he realised to do that would cost a lot of money on top of training the students and the teachers which would cost a lot more money, he backed out. Unfortunately money is what is needed to make technology run and money is something that clearly at this time the government doesn’t have. The inequality that schools face in today’s education means that it is impossible to think every student will have access to such technology. And given the rate at which technology changes and improves it will always be hard to access the right technology. So I think a certain sense of realism needs to be taken into account when considering the role technology has in education. I think technology should be in the forefront of our minds as educators we should look at how it can improve tomorrow and the next day but not how it is going to improve education in 50 years time how is that going to help today’s student. Maybe to start we should see if every student can even type on a keyboard. But first every student needs one.

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The BBC published a article saying that computer games could become a part of the school curriculum. Some games “can improve a child’s strategy and planning skills” also parents reported there children having marked improvements in maths and science. Arguing that adventure and simulation games should be put into today’s curriculum is absolutely ludacris. When argued that simulating a battle of Hastings within a computer game can be more entertaining and thought provoking for a student, yes you can see the merit in such a program, but what is the message we are sending to the next generation? As a PDHPE teacher I find it offensive to use technology in this way. IF this is where  it ends, then we’re doomed. Our children’s lives and our children’s children’s lives will be at threat. They will be dead by the time they are thirty and wont have left their room. An article by Laura Clark on mail online highlights the fact that leaving our children on compouter games will increase the chance of adult diseases and will greatly diminsh there ability to deal with real life stresses and problems. WE must be aware of not just what a student is learning but overall what we are teaching. Are you teaching the battle of Hastings in a computer game or are you teaching a child to experience the world through a computer screen?   

What will the future of educational technologies involve. As a young teacher who is only just starting out it is this prospect that exists me the most. In Barbara Means (2002) article on technology use in tomorrows schools, she sets a standard science classroom scene which involves the use of (to our generation) highly sophisticated measuring technology, virtual readings, automatic analyzing equipment, advanced technological classroom displays and intricate software programs to allow greater analysis, judgment and reliability of results. Examples like this demonstrate that the opportunity for students in the future is going to be far greater then what is seen in today’s classroom. Continue further and we see that teachers are holograms, all information is gained though online databases and students interaction is done through web based messaging and video casting. This is not so say that this technological student will not encounter challenges. Barbara goes on to discuss that the increased availability of web based alternative learning resources is far greater, this would lead to a decline in the confidence of schools themselves. Why send my future children to school when they can do it at home for free?

This is in reaction to Drews blog on the top ten reasons to use a blog in the classroom.

I can see that the obvious use of ICT and blogging technologies has its benefits within education and it would be naive to think that they don’t hold benefits for the future of pedagogical practices and students achievement in the future. However, Allow me to play the devils advocate and give 10 reasons why blogs should not be used in the classroom.

1. Too time consuming

2. minimise social skills

3. unmonitored work

4. lack of accuracy of information

5. information can have bias

6. Technology is not always reliable

7. can provide a distraction for other work

8. can be harder source information

9. Not all students can access blog websites or even computers

10. A certain level of computer literacy needs to first be achieved.

I found this podcast very interesting. David Weinberger a fellow at the Harvard Berkham centre discusses The digital revolution in today’s society and the inherent effects its has had on society and how we access information and learning. I agree with the statement that technology has allowed information to shift from the constrictive paradigms that the physical realms of technology and specifically education provided. It allows a student to see a far more raw and natural image of information, which may have less bias and less propaganda within it. David Weinberger’s pod cast suggests that in this ‘Brave New World’, the most effective way to establish knowledge is to create huge amounts of it, hence he gives the metaphor of a pile of leaves, with each leaf having a link and a meaning or transition to another area of knowledge or information. However, his argument gives the idea of a great and vast amount of information that can be used but how much of it is valid and reliable. If our society merely opens its doors to all information will be leading young students into a world with a lack or moral integrity where by the idea that all information is good information. Will social skills and life experiences, which were once thought of as the most valuable lessons of life be rendered useless?

After reading Mathew’s posting about the use of video technology (click here) within the classroom and the oppotunites it can hold in the future, it ignites some exciting ideas and prospects for further development in teaching. What was particulary interesting was the idea of teacher examplers being uploaded to make a teacher community resource. They present teachers with different ways as to how they can approach topic that will engage students. I think this sought of technology creates a online community that allows for further learning for the teacher. Better teachers should equal better students.

I think what this could lead to is the further development of virtual worlds within modern day classrooms for both teachers and students where by education gains further chioce. Choice of what you learn, how you learn it and who teaches it to you. To have a added resources in there such as teachers examplers gives not only a techer knowledge but could give a student a choice. Using such video technologies within virtual worlds gives a real world aspect in such a virtual component of teaching. This is ultmialtey the aim of constructivist learning, the learner makes all the decisions regarding his or her learning. However for this virtual world of collaborative resources, teachers, students and information to be achieved there will still need to be some resembelecne of structure, rules and assesment. But it is easy to see that this sought of technology can hold exciting and inovating prospects in the future. It is safe to say this is only a drop in the ocean compared to what is to come.

This Teacher Tube video is a advertisment promoting  physical activity for young children. With obesity now considered a epidemic it is a alarming issue, especially within my Key learning area of PDHPE. However it is ironic that the advertisement for getting up and playing outside is placed on a website which ultimatley requires them to be sitting down and inside. Is this the catch 22of technology? In order for society today to promote physical activity, technology has to be used in order to reach the target audience, this is even more so in younger generations, this means that we are inherently promoting technology as well, not that it is necessarily bad, but its not the intended message. If they then use the technology they are most likely going to be lured by the ease and efficiency it provides in entertainment from games and music to virtual tours and skype. Why go and play amateur football at the local park when you can play professional football for the biggest teams in the world in the comfort of your own house. I do not attempt to place blame on the strangle hold that technology has on the youth of today for obesity but rather suggest that certain aspects of technology that younger generations have access to have parameters that will help to educate and promote a sense of self worth and self efficacy. The horrible truth is that this is alot easier said then done.      

I just read Candice’s article on the cost of technology on students lives. The demands that technology has over our lives has always seen to be positive but at what cost? The omnipresence that technology has over students is astonishing. The idea that a student can be sending a email to someone in the next room, while listening to music on a Mp3 player the size of your index finger and having a international video phone call in front of you and you dont know it is alarming as a teacher. Are students of today becoming to reliant on technology for answers? is technology reducing there social awareness? Will the students of today be able to construct a sentence in a job interview tomorrow or will it have to be done by sms. The 7.30pm report on the concern over teen internet habits reiterates this problem by taking it one step further and reviewing the idea that teenagers lack the ability to verbalise there emotions and feel the only way to do it is through technology. A severe problem when youth suicide is so prevelant in todays society. Technolgy can put the world at your finger tips but its useless if you want to talk to the person next to you. 

This article raises several different issues about computers and technology within society. Although a US based articel it still brings to the surface the issues that is faced with a governement trying to incorporate computers into a already well recognised and succesful education system. The understanding that the 21st century is a time where things have to be faster and better is well accepted both in society and in education. However the problem lies not with funding but more with the idea of computer literacy. It is the ability to develop the students literacy of computers and when that should start that the problem begins.

However it si the idea that teachnology must be used in a way that enhances the students learning adn not just increases there level of knowledge. The computer delusion is essentailly the idea that if computers are placed within education systems that education will be more effective and more productive. But this is not necceasrily so. Although computer technology holds several benfits such as the ability further use skills from school in the workforce and create the idea of life long leraning so that students can grow with technology it holds several unseen problems as well. THe idea of internet isolation and that internet is the only source of infomration is nieve and resticting. Also The ideas of hypertext minds and artifical experiance are just a few of the things that this articel brings to the surface.

Education has many facets, constructs and methods. All of which need to be considered when teaching what is right for one students may not be right for another, this statement should hold true for computers as well. Student centered learning appear to be the way education is heading and the idea of computers for every students needs to be evaluated depending on the students themselves and what is being taught.  The common trend throughout this article is that computer technology has the ability to both restrict education dramatically and enhance it. It seems inevitable that computer technology will be intergrated into education systems of today, as technology continues to grow so does our dependence on it. The question isnt if computers should be in our schools but rather how will they be implemented into our schools?