Change in Educational Technology
The last twelve weeks have been extremely informative with regards to the power and potential of how multimedia can impact education. I have seen the power of wikis, blogs, podcasts, and a host of other technologies brought to life in a way that I have not seen before. This is not to say that I didn’t understand how to use those technologies before, but my understanding has been enhanced in a variety of ways. Probably the greatest enhancement of my understanding has been in how technology can solve a number of our educational problems today, when it is properly used.
On May 21, 2009, the New York Times ran an article about the impact of the swine flu on schools. Schools were closing and according to the article, those schools made recommendations as to how students could continue to further their education while the school was closed. Many of these suggestions were probably not likely to followed by the students. I would guess that if suggestions on how to continue education while school is closed are being made, that there probably isn’t a great deal of follow through on evaluating the work and designing meaningful activities.
With the proper implementation of technology, and it wouldn’t require a great deal more expenditures on the part of schools, schooling could continue just as easily with students sitting at home (or more likely in the mall, unless they really are sick) and meaningful learning could still take place. Imagine that a teacher had created a series of podcasts over the specific units being covered. The podcast is posted to a class website where the students have a series of questions to be answered about the podcast. The answers are submitted electronically to the teacher who grades them, returns them with comments, and posts the student course grade to the online gradebook. In addition to the podcast, the teacher then creates a problem based learning scenario, and the students are required to work collaboratively with classmates to solve the problem. The progress is posted by the students to a wiki where the teacher monitors participation by the students and provides guidance to them when they appear to be having difficulty. Finally, the students reach a solution to the problem, post the answer to a blog where experts from the field (who have been contacted before hand) participate in the discussion about the solution.
Meaningful learning has just taken place, all students in the various groups are expected to participate in the learning activity and their participation is monitored, yet no one set foot inside a classroom. Education doesn’t have to be interrupted by things like the flu, floods, or other disasters, we just have to be willing to insure that it continues. Some of this requires more funding to insure that the digital divide is closed and some of it requires that teachers see relatively easy beneficial ways to implement the technology into their specific curriculum. This course, these last twelve weeks have helped me to achieve the second requirement. I see relatively easy and applicable methods of implementing multimedia technology into my classroom and have attempted with varying degrees of success. I think that as I continue to use it, my students will continue to get better at using it as well.
We have the tools to solve many problems of education, what it takes is the will for us to implement the needed changes, even when it isn’t easy to implement those changes. However, if someone doesn’t take the lead in making changes, even on a local level, the changes will never be made. To my classmates who have been following my blog, I hope to see you in future courses and with your talent pool, I am positive about the future uses of educational technology.
Reference:
Bosman, J. (2009). Flu closings failing to keep school children at home. New York Times, online article retrieved May 21, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/nyregion/21kids.html?ref=health
It is interesting to note that it would not be too much more expensive for schools to work on proper implementation of technology tools. I think that we can definitely work with the tools that we have; if we make the most of what we have, administrators will be more open to purchasing new technologies.
While my comment doesn’t have much in the way of actual facts to back it up, it seems to me that if we quit spending money on textbooks and other consumables that need to be replaced frequently, the technology costs would be balanced out.
I agree with both of you. The costs are often not examined in the context of the savings possible when you eliminate so many other expenses. Money would need to be diverted to providing the tools to ensure equitable access in many communities, but I believe it is possible, and the trend towards decreased costs of computers, Internet access, etc. will make it more appealing.