wikipedia correction deleted!!!

Yesterday I created accounts in Wikipedia, Flickr and Del.ici.o.us.It was the highlight of my evening to correct the renaming of Bombay, something that has been annoying Bombayites for the past few years.

Today it is gone.

Online Pedagogy – Reponse Paper 6

Student-centered pedagogy using digital technologies is where the future of education lies. Collaborative online learning and asynchronous learning networks are a great social equalizer; there is no gender or class to be concerned about when you participate in an online environment. According to Hiltz & Turoff online learning will produce learning systems of a blended nature that are far better than the prior “gold standard” of the face-to-face class. For the internet generation it will be a natural medium for instruction. They do not have to make any effort to change or to adapt to technology like the previous Gen Y and others have to. Truly the future of education will be online not just in colleges but in schools too. Warren Arbogast, a tech consultant for colleges says “It’s going to get bigger and bigger, and I see a proliferating arms race” (Davidson).

The always connected society of today, has been shaping how we work, make new friends and find suitable matches. Students are connected with other students, their teachers, their families and friends in a multitude of ways. USA Today reports that “the American college campus, long an oasis of scholarship and coming-of-age, is now being transformed by a more palpable force: an armada of laptops, cell phones and perpetual connectivity” (MacMillan ). How are we equipping society to deal with this influx of technology? In this ‘information age, we need to understand how ethical issues are impacted by technology. It is taught at every grade level to cite your reference sources. As an educational technologist it is vital to understand and implement the correct use of electronic media with current knowledge of copyright issues. Tiene and Ingram discuss the possibility of instructors putting course material on the web and the potential copyright difficulty it might pose for people who were not members of the class to access such material. They state that “one solution is to password protect the materials to restrict level of use, but not many college instructors have the Web sophistication to establish such protection.” Almost all colleges and universities have made available course management systems. Online courses are either downloadable self-paced courses to real-time, instructor-led courses.

The New Copyright Law for Distance Education provides details about the role, requirements and duties of instructors and institutional policy makers. The community colleges have WebCT-Vista which provides a platform for teachers to put up lessons and assignments. It has the facility of online testing and a box for submitting grades with comments. Blackboard which most colleges follow has now taken over Web CT Vista. All of these online learning tools come under instructional technology department. These techniques are referred to as mentored- learning because there is periodic digital contact with the professor through emails and with the other students on the discussion boards. Students get timely feedback on their assignments electronically. The internet is changing lives by increasing the ability to connect with others any time any place. It is rightly stated by Hiltz & Turoff that the researchers in online learning have an ethical obligation to help consumers and the public understand the effectiveness of the alternatives that will be available. On the other hand some professors worry, too, that in the rush to expand connectivity, something intangible is being lost. “Once you post lectures to the Web, it implies the face-to-face encounter of a classroom doesn’t matter,” says Duke history professor Elizabeth Fenn. (MacMillan ).

According to a survey conducted by The Princeton Review, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute comes in at No. 1, as the most wired campus. The top 10 include Temple, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania. In every college campus you come across students hooked to laptops, cel phones, iPod’s and constant texting or instant messaging their buddies. Connectivity and online learning comes at a cost. Typical costs of educational technology would be the materials needed like disks, video tapes, cables, and the varied software and hardware components. In addition there will be the expense of training personnel to run the systems and facilitate optimum use on campuses, not to mention the maintenance and utility bills. Not every state or university has the funding in their budgets to support new technology which has no measure as yet of its effectiveness. This hike will of course be borne by the student body. So will it be worth it to install online learning systems?

For the schools of the future what might be the impact of technology on them? Artificial Intelligence may be used to deliver units of instruction. Expert systems with a supporting database and a profile of every student could custom tailor the curricula to each and every individual. Every one learns at a different pace, and come with various levels of preparedness. These intelligent systems would adjust according to the requirements and provide a multi media based instruction best suited to the individual. Immersive and holographic environments maybe incorporated to visit the past ages to study and experience the Hellenic culture, or the Stone Age. First hand experience is a great learning method.

We are in a transitory phase today, we have the hybrid online models as well as the fully online models. Lately universities like Harvard and Quinnipiac have utilized exciting online technologies to conduct classes in an online 3 D world. A virtual reality world helps students better visualize and appreciate the context or scenario being studied. The role of teachers would be more as a guide and a moderator then, rather than the standup face to face lectures. ‘Some experts suggest that the anywhere-anytime access yields tangible benefits’ (Davidson ). The classroom will not be in a physical structure where students and teachers congregate, learning will take place wherever there is a connection to a modem. New skills will be needed by teachers and the student of the future in using technology extensively. This can be best summed up by the following words of Tiene and Ingram, ‘Technology in teaching will really revolutionize learning only if teachers learn new ways to teach that take advantage of what the various technologies do best’ (257).

References:

MacMillan, Robert. “Generation Z, Meet Generation A.” Random Access 03/30/2005 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12363-2005Mar30.html>.

Davidson, Paul. “Gadgets rule on college campuses.” USA Today – Tech 03 /29/2005 <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-03-28-college-tech-usat_x.htm>.

Hiltz, S.R. & Turoff, M. (2005). Education goes digital: the evolution of online learning and the revolution in higher education. Communications of the ACM, 48(10), 59-64.

Tiene, Drew, and Albert Ingram. Exploring Current Issues in Educational Technology. 1st. ed.. NY: McGraw-Hill, 2001.

http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=distanceed&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=25939#newc

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2005-03-29-wired.htm