My name is Tutaleni Asino, a doctoral student in the Instructional Systems program. I am from Namibia, and as such many of my educational interests tend to be concerned with how to use technology in the "developing world" or in communities that are not necessarily well off. I am also interested in anything that has to with multimedia learning and design and how to use mobile technologies for learning.
I am taking this class because I am intrigued by the idea of taking what is viewed as a distraction and turning it around for learning purposes. I must confess that I have a somewhat bias towards technology because I do not think that all technologies should be used as tools for learning. I think those of us enthusiastic about technology tend to look at ways to incorporate every new tool into learning. I am not convinced that this is always a good idea.
I feel that I am comfortable with various uses of technology as I currently teach an course for world campus and have also taught at other institutions. My graduate degree is in Multimedia technologies and have used various learning and design tools.
Does technology interest me? Definitely!!
I think we have just begun to unearth the potential for the use of technology in teaching and learning. There is still an over emphasis on improving teaching by infusing technology. Little exist on improving learning with technology by using technology in such a way as to look at what technology world can offer that a regular classroom experience cannot. It is similar to the earlier adaptation of distance learning, where an online class simple involved taking text from a F2F class and posting them on line.
I am excited about the influence that technology is having on teaching and learning, and looking forward to a time that there are entire pedagogies dedicated simple to learning with technologies instead of adapting old models.
I am taking this class because I am intrigued by the idea of taking what is viewed as a distraction and turning it around for learning purposes. I must confess that I have a somewhat bias towards technology because I do not think that all technologies should be used as tools for learning. I think those of us enthusiastic about technology tend to look at ways to incorporate every new tool into learning. I am not convinced that this is always a good idea.
I feel that I am comfortable with various uses of technology as I currently teach an course for world campus and have also taught at other institutions. My graduate degree is in Multimedia technologies and have used various learning and design tools.
Does technology interest me? Definitely!!
I think we have just begun to unearth the potential for the use of technology in teaching and learning. There is still an over emphasis on improving teaching by infusing technology. Little exist on improving learning with technology by using technology in such a way as to look at what technology world can offer that a regular classroom experience cannot. It is similar to the earlier adaptation of distance learning, where an online class simple involved taking text from a F2F class and posting them on line.
I am excited about the influence that technology is having on teaching and learning, and looking forward to a time that there are entire pedagogies dedicated simple to learning with technologies instead of adapting old models.
I wonder, what technologies are you opposed to using in the classroom? I am asking because a lot of what you said in terms of thinking critically about technology resonates with me. While I
Oops. I'm not quite sure what happened but here is the rest of my post:
I wonder, what technologies are you opposed to using in the classroom? I am asking because a lot of what you said in terms of thinking critically about technology resonates with me. While I enjoy incorporating digital tools into my classes, as I said in my introduction, sometimes I think that a face to face discussion is just as, if not more effective. What have you found in terms of technology's impact on developing communities? Are you referring to digital technology specifically? I would love to hear more!
I think that a mistake that a lot of teachers make with the technology issue is that they don't talk to their students about these issues, teaching them to look at things with a critical eye. Many of the posts discussed the issue of Wikipedia and its potential lack of credibility, as a classmate mentioned, why not have a discussion with the students about why a certain entry or submission carries less ethos than another. For example, a common frustration I had as a high school teacher was why my district filtered and blocked certain web sites - this creates a perfect teaching moment.
Hi Nicole,
I am not really explicitly opposed to any particular technology in the classroom as much as I am opposed to using technology for the sake of technology. I agree with you that sometimes, face to face is just as effective, and perhaps more effective. The things that I am opposed to are such as using Twitter and facebook just because that is where a lot of people go to socialise but without critically looking at whether or not it is the appropriate tool. My favourite way of looking at technology is that it is a tool. If I would look ridiculous if I was to overlook the small screwdriver and take a hammer to fix my glasses just because the hammer was the new cool tool in my toolbox. Yet, this seems to be the way some are looking at many educational technology tools.
In my experience I have found that technology has a way of opening up the students in the developing communities in ways that I still find amazing. The problem of course now is that of access. The disparity in access (globally) continues to put many at a disadvantage because at a purely numbers level, there are more students in the world that do not have access to a lot of the technologies that we discuss in class.