Final Post: Analytical Synopsis [Managing eLearning AI2]

Introduction

Humanity is always moving forward; inventing, expanding and modernising. The term modernisation is defined as “the process of social change initiated by industrialisation.” (Pearson, 2005). The social change is largely a product of vast technological progression. It is modernisation; the change is now. In a world that is progressing, something as essential as Education cannot become dated or complacent. The 21^st Century learner requires a 21^st Century Learning Manager who will strive to meet their needs.

The Classroom of Tomorrow… Today!

Today’s youth are what Marc Prensky refers to as Digital Natives who grew up speaking the digital lingo and using complex technology. Prensky also identifies Digital Immigrants, as typically from an older generation, and having to spend a lot of time and effort understanding the digital tongue. The analogy makes it plain to see – “our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.” (Prensky, 2001. pg 2). The learning manager, unlike the ‘teacher’, caters to the learner, with their own unique strengths, skills, needs, interests and abilities. Therefore, delving head-first into the digital world with our learners is the only road to take!

The futuristic classroom of today incorporates digital literacies into all of the KLAs. This also opens new and exciting avenues in the world of distance education, online teaching and eLeaning. Distance education is not some new innovation but dates back to 1728, when Caleb Phillips, a teacher of the Short Hand writing method, sought out students in the Boston Gazette, who he would mail weekly lessons to (Holmberg, B. 2005). Today, distance teaching has few restrictions. Teacher-Student connectivity is so effective and efficient that ‘distance’ is barely a consideration at all within learning experiences (Davis, 2007). “While many new technologies have emerged throughout history, so has the cry for educators to find meaningful ways to incorporate these technologies into the classroom […] It is critical that education not only seek to mitigate this disconnect in order to make these two “worlds” more seamless, but of course also to leverage the power of these emerging technologies for instructional gain.” (Klopfer, 2009).

Click here for practical ideas for applying new digital tools to areas of your teaching instruction and learning experiences.

Digital Tool Analysis

Blogs:

The term ‘Blog’ was coined in May of 1999 by Peter Merholz, as he comically wrote “we blog” in the side panel of his blog. This was a pun on the original name, “weblog”, which was coined in December of 1997 by Jorn Barger, a well-known American Blogger. Thus, the term originates from its description, being a web log. By the end of the 90’s the term blog was widely recognised and used by the public, both as noun and verb (e.g. to blog, open, edit and update a blog). Eventually, this led to the creation of Blogger, a free online Blog-Publishing Service, and many other services like it (Blood, 2000).

Click here to see more. 

“Blogs provide a communication space that teachers can utilise with students whenever there is a curriculum need to develop writing, share ideas and reflect on work being undertaken in the classroom.” (WADE, 2011). Bloom’s Taxonomy highlights the appropriateness and effectiveness of student blogging in the classroom. Well planned learning experiences can facilitate the presentation of learning in a progressive manner which uses all six skills in the cognitive domain: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. In a journal-type format, learners can update their blogs with information on a given topic. This information would be personalized and paraphrased, which requires comprehension. In later posts, learners may apply this information to new real life or hypothetical situations, to find solutions. Finally, their learning journey can culminate in posting a self-reflection. Furthermore, learning can be collaborative, maintaining, sharing and commenting on partner and group blogs. This tool is very user-friendly for both students and learning managers. The Connectivist learning theory is highly accessed, as is constructivist learning theory.

Click here to see ideas for blog implementation over various KLA’s.

Click here to see a more extensive post on blogging from earlier in this Blog.

Videos:

Since the first moving picture in 1867, people have been captivated by the movie screen. The video experience is constantly improving and, recently, digital video has become extremely accessible. In 2005 Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim created YouTube, a free, online, video-sharing website. Six years later, YouTube has “hundreds of millions of users from around the world” and shares “nearly 8 years of (video) content every day.”  Videos are a useful tool in distance education and eLearning. Learning Managers can create YouTube Accounts and, in a Blogging fashion, routinely upload videos for the learner to view. This style of online video blogging was coined as ‘Vlogging” in November of 2000, by Adrian Miles. 2004 was proclaimed “the year of the video blog” by Steve Garfield, who teamed up with Miles and other to create a Yahoo! Group devoted to video logging. In many ways, YouTube was a follow on from this. Salman Khan is an American Educator, best known as the founder of Khan Academy, “a free online educational platform and nonprofit organisation.” The idea started with Khan tutoring his cousin with a series of educational YouTube videos he would create and upload. But, as popularity increased and the videos started to reach and help hundreds and thousands of confused young minds from around the world, the organisation took form, and the vision became clear. Video Education is the future. And it’s happening right now.

Click here to see the Khan Academy YouTube page, a perfect example of video learning, pushing educational barriers today. 

Click here to see more online video sharing sites.

To harness video power means to connect the students in your classroom with the outside world and all that it has to offer, presented in one of the most beautifully captivating and easy-to-understand formats available… video.

The use of videos in learning experiences can greatly increase student engagement, participation and, ultimately, learning outcomes. Videos can be embedded in presentations like PowerPoint or Prezi, or minimized on the screen until needed. Videos can be incorporated:

i)                 at the beginning of a lesson as a hook,

preparing learners for the content to be covered, and stimulating learner interest – creating positive attitudes and perceptions

ii)                in the body of a lesson to emphasise a point or illustrate a concept, or

providing a visual aid to help learners conceptualise knowledge. Additionally, it offers a break in teacher instruction or work, allowing the learner to refocus and effectively work for longer.

iii)               at the end of a lesson as a culmination activity or reflection.

consolidating learners’ understanding of the content covered. From a behaviourist learning perspective, using the video as a reward for working well throughout the lesson will have positive effects.

It should be noted that using online video hosting websites is only one option. Digital videos saved on a computer or portal hard-drive, or even videos in hardcopy (DVD, Video Cassette, etc) create fantastic opportunities to energise enrich learning experiences. 

Prezi:

Prezi is the 21^st Century response to typically linear presentation tools like PowerPoint. Prezi is nonlinear, dynamic and exciting to look at. The software tool was created by Hungarian architect Adam Somlai-Fischer. In early 2001, Fischer used ZUI presentations in his work, to zoom in and out of computerized building floor plans. This led to the idea of a zoom-based presentation software tool. With the help of Peter Halacsy and Peter Arvai, Prezi was launched for free online use by the public in April of 2009.

Prezi offers new opportunities in the classroom. For learning managers, the conveyance of information need not be accompanied by slide after slide of lengthy, complicated clumps of information with “excessive use of the software’s features” (“Death by PowerPoint” n.d.). Instead of slides (linear), Prezi presentations are created on a 2.5D virtual canvas which can be zoomed infinitely inward or outward. This allows the presenter to cover as much information as they want whist keeping the screen uncluttered, and not losing sight of the “fine details” or the “big picture.”  Prezi is user friendly. The appropriateness of Prezi in the classroom, in planning, working and presenting can be cited by conducting a SWOT analysis.

Strengths:

Prezi is fresh, dynamic, and exciting. Presenters can customise their presentation or use preset colours schemes and fonts, having complete control over the pathway of the presentation, which can zoom as far in or out as they want, and look at the canvas from any 2.5D angle (360°). As with many other presentation tools, images, audio files and video clips can be embedded. 

Weaknesses:

Being a new program with a completely different functionality may pose a learning hurdle. There must be a high level of academic trust established and maintained.

Opportunities:

Learning Managers can use Prezi in a variety of learning situations. Students can use Prezi in their own presentations. Students can use Prezi as a brainstorming tool (e.g. writing a word on the canvas, then zooming in and writing related ideas around the word – then zooming back out to print).

Threats:

If the learning experience is not well planned, structured and properly scaffolded, learners may become undirected, off task and disengaged from the actual learning intention of the lesson. It is important to balance learner arousal with productivity. It is not enough to maximise productivity and neglect student enjoyment or visa versa.

Google Docs:

Google Docs is a free, online office type platform and storage tool. In the event of teaching textypes (information reports, debates, etc) there is a requirement for at least two drafts to be checked by the learning manager, followed by a final copy. Instead of the tedious back-and-forth of rehashed documents between student and teacher, Google Docs offers a central space for the student to work on, as well as for electronic conferencing to effectively take place in. Furthermore, Google Doc uses a format which is an extension on learner’s prior understanding of how o use Word. This is not always the case with other programs. For example, you can’t apply knowledge of PowerPoint to Prezi, as the format and navigation is completely different. Google Docs uses familiar formats, making easy navigation for the learner.

Ensuring Safe, Legal and Ethical Learning Environments

It is important for Learning Managers to consider the responsibility to maintain safe, ethically sound learning environment. With internet access, this responsibility increases. Learning Managers must ensure privacy and security, as well as learner restrictions to material or activity that is inappropriate, harmful, etc. This includes learners’ communication and interactions with each other. Learners must be supervised adequately. A level of trust must also be established, for learners to abide by the guidelines of a safe and secure learning environment.

Conclusion:

The digital world offers new and exciting opportunities in the educational context. Technology is constantly being pushed, offering more to the learner and learning manager: More engaging, captivating, informative and productive learning experience. With the increase in power and capability, however, is the need for strategic pedagogical design, and plans for implementing digital tools into the classroom safely. The world will continue to progress, and education must try to stay one step ahead, if it is to prepare today’s youth for a future that could be far beyond anything we can currently comprehend. 

References

Glossary (1995 – 2005). Pearson Education retrieved from http://wps.pearsoned.co.uk/wps/media/objects/2143/2195136/glossary/glossary.html December, 2011.

Robinson, K. (2006). Do School Kill Creativity [T.E.D. Presentation] retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY December, 2011.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon

Distance Education (15^th December, 2011). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distance_education December, 2011.

Holmber, B. (2005). The Evolution, Principles and Practices of Distance Education. Bis, Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg

Carswell, L., Thomas, P., Petre, M., Price, B. & Richards, M. (2000). Distance Education via the Internet: the student experience. Blackwell Publishers , Oxford, England.

Murphy, E. (2011). The Birth of the “Modern” Classroom [The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania]. Retrieved from http://beacon.wharton.upenn.edu/remurphy/2008/05/the-birth-of-the-modern-classr/ December, 2011.

History of  Distance Education (n.d.) Retrieved from http://webberm.wordpress.com/com-546-papers/history-of-distance-education/ December, 2011.

Davis, V. (February, 2007). Connectivism in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/02/connectivism-in-classroom.html December, 2011.

Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., Groff, J. & Haas, J. (2009). Using the technology of today, in the classroom today. The Educational Arcade, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved from http://education.mit.edu/papers/GamesSimsSocNets_EdArcade.pdf December, 2011.

Blood, R., (2000). weblogs: a history and perspective. rebecca’s pocket. Retrieved from http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html December, 2011.

Department of Education - Western Australia (2011). Blogs in Education. In RESOURCING THE CURRICULUM. Retrieved from http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/ December, 2011.

Frequently Asked Questions (2011). In YouTube. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/t/faq December, 2011

Khan, S. (2006). Let’s use videos to reinvent education [T.E.D. Presentation] retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTFEUsudhfs December, 2011.

Salman Khan (12^th December, 2011). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Khan_(educator) December, 2011.

“Death by PowerPoint” (11^th December, 2011). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerPoint#.22Death_by_PowerPoint.22 December, 2011.