With 2.5 online graduate courses, it’s easy to be consumed with everything digital this semester. In thinking about technology and how to best “keep up” with everything happening online, I stumbled upon a great video from Alan Levine (who will be leading a session in the EC&I 831 course), that reminds educational technology users to:
Establish a network of colleagues & maintain these connections with online social tools, e.g. e-mails, RSS, blogs, Twitter, etc
Tap into a sense of play & willingness to experiment.
Don’t be afraid to continue to grow & learn new things.
Here is an archived clip I was reminded of today about the current state of our learners. Although this video past posted back in 2007, I think that the “vision” or purpose of the message still holds true as we support technology & learning.
This video is brought to you by Kansas State University, who has a working group led by Dr. Michael Wesch. This group is dedicated to exploring and extending the possibilities of digital ethnography. You can follow along at Media Cultures or @mwesch.
This was today’s topic on CBC Radio One’s Get Talking this afternoon. Much of this discussion evolved from the Ontario Public School Board Association discussion paper What If?: Technology in the 21st Century Classroom. This paper reviewed how technology can support and contribute to learning in school. Many callers shared concerns and questions about the increase of technology in the classroom, with respects to relevance, budget priorities, curriculum needs and instructor knowledge of resources.
Not all listeners approached the topic from a negative perspective. It was apparent that technology is thought to be an excellent instructional tool. One current example is the “adopt-a-teacher” program at Don Mills Collegiate in the GTA. This program supports the idea of how to utilize knowledge from the digital natives – the students. Students are able to share their experience with various emerging technologies that can incorporate into the learning experience.
Walls are coming down between teacher and learner. The idea of fostering learning from both ends brings learning communities to the forefront of education.
Students find the classroom more ‘relevant’ when they have opportunities to interact with real world experiences and practical learning means. Lets engage our students in the entire learning process.
Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology.
Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. Entrepreneurs, innovators, sysadmins, programmers, designers, games developers, hardware experts, tech journalists, tech consultants. The list of tech-related careers is endless. c/0 http://findingada.com/
Be sure to celebrate by posting about women who inspire YOU. Although the numbers are growing , there are less women in technology. Let’s be sure to recognize those we admire. Speaking of which, here are just a few of the many women who inspire me:
To help states and districts prepare today’s students for the opportunities and challenges of tomorrow, a set of seven action steps and accompanying recommendations have been developed.
This national plan was initiated in 2004 to increase the involvement of technology in K-12 education. I hope that this tech plan will also be part of the educational reform focus for the new administration. The changes to K-12 technology use can and will impact students who attend college & university.
There may not be a mandate for higher education to have a specific, uniform technology plan, however there are a few trends to follow from the last few Horizon Reports c/0 Educause. Many institutions have seen great value incoporating technology into their strategic plans and recognizing the need for this support and growth.
Are you aware of what YOUR institution is planning for technology development & support for learning? Find out.
Technology is often created to make things more efficient and our lives easier. I also think that there has been excellent developments in the field of technology to support our various learning needs.
I was introduced to the Lecture Series from KMDI at the University of Toronto from my former U of T colleague. This series is free and open for live events to the viewing public by creating a log-in ID and password. The other option would be to check out the Recently Published Events on the ePresence Presentation Portal.
Yesterday’s 2-hour lecture series was on the topic of “Supporting Learning & Teaching.” Three Curriculum Learning and Teaching presenters from OISE discussed various topics around this main idea for the viewers. Here are the presentation topics and a few few notes/thoughts/questions that I had for each:
New Ways of Teaching & Learning with Technology, by Jim Slotta
Digital communication technologies: educational and social practices, by Claire Brett
Values in Education (Terry Anderson, 2008): Presence, notification, cooperative learning, student modelling, documenting and sharing
Technology & learning is understanding HOW to best utilize & embedd these technology resources into education and courses.
How do you reconcile the difference between education and cultural purposes of these tools??
Social vs. Technical integration; the GRAIL model: GRaduate Student Academic Identity on-Line – to help students see how their research and training is connected to their broader academic experience and relevance to their social life.
Higher education learning with powerpoint, clickers, podcasts & wiki:
Do students skip class if the lecture is available on podcast?
Havard study says NO; students use podcasts for key points in lectures, or could podcasts be used to replace lectures and use the lecture time for more in-depth review of matrial
Clickers: “gateway” technology to expose more lecturers to the great uses of technology in their teaching practice.
Clickers promote learning by: questioning, encourage peer to peer learning, take a vote/poll & discuss results with peers in the class
Clicker Results: Increased performance on test, decreased dropout rates & reduced failure rates (10-12% is now down to 4%)
Higher education needs to consider utilizing peer instruction/learning instead o f traditional teaching practices
Overall, these lectures provided a few insights and it is interesting to see what colleagues elsewhere are thinking about learing & teaching with technology.
A few technical notes, that you should keep in mind if you are to partake in these lecture series:
distance viewers are able to engage in online chat & questions
ensure you have a strong wireless connection for streaming video
attach good set of speakers as the sound quality was low
Here you will find a collection of technologies, tools and learning trends emerging in education. There are a many links, bookmarks and collaborations to provide any educator with ideas on their technology projects for learning. I especially enjoy Jane’s Pick of the Day, which is updated consistently in her blog. This website is divided into two main elements:
The best part of this resource is Hart’s interest in collaboration for learning technologies. She wants recommendations from YOU for the Top Tools of 2009. This database of information is regularily updated and contributions come from various educators using technology.
Speaking of hot, new & exciting (see previous post)… Did you know that 1 month from now the NACADA Tech team will be hosting an interactive & engaging seminar on working with technology & advising?
February 12-13th will not just be about sun n’ fun in Clearwater, Florida. This innovative seminar is breaking the institute frontier with its new style & format. The NACADA Technology Seminar is designed to immerse participants in web 2.0 technologies, explore practical uses for advising, and encourage collaboration amongst colleagues.
For more details about the NACADA Tech Seminar, registration & more be sure to go visit the Winter seminars on the NACADA website. Hope to see you there!
