About Me

Hi and welcome to my blog!
My name is Debbie Morris.
I am currently a Career Technology Coordinator
at our local high school. I am a Walden University
student. This blog was created as part of my
coursework for Walden University. I hope you
enjoy my blog!







Thursday, July 28, 2011

Module 4

Module 4: July 28th




The ongoing growth of the Internet for teaching and learning will likely continue to raise networks as a prominent means of representing knowledge and the learning process (Siemens, 2008).  We are certainly observing this in our present educational arena.  Society has recently shifted from the total face to face classroom setting to incorporating online distant education with comfort.  Distant education is growing rapidly and tools have been created to assist these learners.  Some of these tools were first introduced as a social means of communication.  Educational institutions have transferred many of these tools into the classroom in order to provide a means for collaboration and communication.
Collaboration tools that are now being used are blogs, wikis, virtual communities, and chat forums.  Tools such as these provide students with a means of creating dialogue and sharing information.  Collaboration between students expands the boundaries of knowledge being shared by professors and students. Very often a student’s greatest academic gain is obtained from the student to student communication process.
 The internet has caused a power shift in classrooms, as learners now have greater access to information, experts, and peer learners (Siemens, 2008).  Communication is essential in the distant education classroom.  Email, Skype, Discussion Boards, and Twitter allow communication lines to flow smoothly between the professor and student and between students.  It is essential for everyone to participate in the communication process.  Clarification of assignments, posting, and responses are most important and should be completed in order for distant education to be successful.
The Internet provides access to a wealth of information.  There are many different tools that provide the “transportation” to this wealth of information.  Search engines, software, Moodle, Blackboard, Web page, and podcasting are resources that allow you to search many different topics.  A student must note the importance of carefully selecting the correct tool to use when searching for data (Durrington, Berryhill, and Swafford, 2006).

References

Durrington, V. A., Berryhill, A., & Swafford, J. (2006). Strategies for enhancing student interactivity in an online environmentCollege Teaching, 54(1), 190−193.  Academic Search Premier database; Accession Number: 19754742

Siemens, G. (2008, January). Learning and knowing in networks: Changing roles for educators and designers. ITForum. 





4 comments:

  1. Debra,

    You paint a broad but coherent picture of the myriad and flexible advantages of an online and distance education environment. I share all of the points you have advanced. Of particular kudos is your reference to the integration of social media, which represent another notch in our highly sophisticated information age environment.

    Online interactive apparatus such as Skype and Logitech vid also are laudable, and this video telephony has brought educator and learner in distance education even closer in the mission of
    educational technology.

    Excellent display!

    Fred

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  2. There are so many new collaboration tools available, it is hard to keep up with! One of the greatest improvements in these tools, in my opinion, is the growth of very easy-to-use tools at little or no cost. With this, learners have often experienced the tools now used in courses and it seems to make the transition easier.

    Did you find that any of the categories were more difficult than others to complete? Or,did you find that they often could be placed in more than one category?

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  3. We really have our work cut out for us, but I am so excited about the opportunities this provides for teachers.

    Nice job on the concept map.

    How is your video going?

    Gini

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  4. Very thorough explanation of tools and examples on how they can be utilized in the classroom. Nice display of technology.

    ReplyDelete