Technogogy

This generation doesn't silo skills or access the way past generations might have. Likewise, we need to break down false barriers among work, learning, collaboration, and fun. We need to make good on kids’ right to the learning tools of their time and embrace the potential for technology to facilitate our rebirth as teachers and learners,

To be a polyglot (speak more than one language) had never been so easy; thanks to the potential of ICTs. Now students/ learners interested in becoming polyglot can make use of ICT tools for learning and practicing a language without joining any formal language learning centre and without paying high tuition fees or without cost; except time and energy.

With technology allowing nearly 24-hour media access as children and teens go about their daily lives, the amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among minority youth, according to a study released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

The dynamic of an intellectual ecosystem, where students dive deep into class readings and argue contentious issues outside of class, is difficult to create if discussion ends when class is over. Fortunately, Twitter has no time limit. In fact, Dr. Rankin’s colleague David Parry, Professor of Emerging Media at the University of Texas, found that Twitter chatter during class spilled over into the students’ free time.

In the context of the coral gardens metaphor, I actually think that seeing the classroom as a real place with a real culture of its own is likely to help us to draw on its richness and complexity as a valuable resource for learning to take place and not just language learning . If we don’t believe in the classroom as a place where interesting and useful things happen, is it likely that our students will?

As hard as it may be to believe -- especially given the large investments being made in this area and the increasing strategic importance of this topic in many countries -- basic answers to many basic questions about the use of technology in schools around the world remain largely unanswered.

In each edition of the Horizon Report, six emerging technologies or practices are described that are likely to enter mainstream use on campuses within three adoption horizons spread over the next one to five years. Each report also presents critical trends and challenges that will affect teaching and learning over the same time frame.

In a class of 21, there was naturally a range of responses to the different technologies used, from enthusiastic embrace through indifference to active resistance. But student feedback, formal and informal, was overall more positive than negative, and in some cases strongly supportive. Several students have continued to use tools introduced in the course. I expect to apply the lessons learned in future iterations of this course and in others, including how to better serve students who do not readily embrace all the techniques and technologies used.

In the coming decades, lovers of the written word may find themselves ill-equipped to defend the seemingly self-evident merits of text to a technology-oriented generation who prefer instantaneous data to hard-won knowledge. Arguing the artistic merits of Jamesian prose to a generation who, in coming years, will rely on conversational search to find answers to any question will likely prove a frustrating, possibly humiliating endeavor.

When e-learning is intended to support the improvement of productivity, it is ultimately aimed, in economic terms, at ensuring that the output per time or dollar spent is the same or greater than before the e-learning program was introduced. At the least, an effective investment should result in an equivalent level and quality of output. At most, one or both are improved.

I am an advocate for Project Based Learning in the classroom. True Project Based Learning is a process that puts the student at the center of their learning. In this post I wish to share with you some of the top sites I found on the internet that promote true PBL. Since my research I have bookmarked a few more and will be sharing those in a later post.