Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Engaging Learners with New Strategies and Tools



Fig. 1  Chart adapted from template supplied by Walden University.
 According to Anderson, T. (2010) the online educational environment provides students with unique educational opportunities: interacting at the time and place that best suits the learner and teacher; accessing content in multiple formats such as multimedia, video, audio, immersive environments and text; supports human contact in multiple formats, video, audio and text in synchronous and asynchronous modalities.


In this chart we are able to see how content, collaboration and communication provides the students a complete and motivating learning experience. In each of these areas there are tools to enhance this experience.
 
According to the Horizon Report (2011), the new educational technologies such as, augmented reality and game based learning are going to be adopted within the next 2 to 3 years. There are some very good games:  In distance education they can be very important, as are the ebooks, specially for those students that live in isolated regions and do not have efficient posting services. In the next 4 to 5 years there will be the gesture based computers and then learning analytics which is the great development in data mining, interpretation, and modeling to improve understandings of teaching and learning, and to tailor education to individual students more effectively.

I present some good sites http://www.globalconflicts.eu/%20and  which has some examples of virtual games.  http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2009/100-most-educational-iphone-apps shows a list of applications which can be used in many disciplines in face to face education and also in distance education. http://www.pr-inside.com/world-s-largest-openuniversity-goes-r1553595.htm  shows the example of an university that adopted mobile technology in their courses. http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/layar/ augmented reality which based on GPS values shows the person photos of what the place looked like 100 years ago. This last one would be a wonderful tool for historians.

References:
Anderson, T (2010). Teaching in an Online Learning Context. Edmonton: AU Press.
Horizon Report (2010)  Horizon Report. The new Media Consortium.
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8 comments:

  1. Michelle Jones-WrightApril 29, 2011 at 8:43 PM

    I had the most difficult time capturing my graphic organizer to place on my blog. I enjoy your posts and appreciate your links of various helpful sites.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 30, 2011 at 2:05 PM

    Maria,

    Very interesting information. How do you feel these technologies can be brought into the online class room and use them to engage the learners?


    Tabitha

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  3. Maria DoloresApril 30, 2011 at 4:50 PM

    Hi Tabitha,

    We are already accustomed to the content tools. As for the collaboration tools, people can use wikis to produce group projects all working together. Blogs and voice thread can be used to share ideas where peers give feedback. Virtual worlds are good, there is an educational virtual environment called skolaborate in which students and their teachers may attend conferences and they use avatars to represent them in these environments. About a year ago I saw that a student was building a school with the help of professional architect on skolaborate. PBL and case studies involve the students in real life activities, making them find the answers to concrete questions.
    The communication tools are Skype, where students are able to video, communicate using audio or write to their peers. Emails and discussion boards and class cafes are asynchronous tools for communication.

    Maria

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  4. Maria DoloresApril 30, 2011 at 4:51 PM

    Hi Michelle,

    Thanks for your kind words.

    Maria

    ReplyDelete
  5. Janice Gilmore-HenryApril 30, 2011 at 11:34 PM

    Maria:


    Nice write up; we used the same suggested template for graphic organization. I assumed that the example did not take into consideration the overlap of some of these tools… But it would appear that I over thought the exercise. Thanks for sharing…

    Thanks,
    Jan

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  6. Maria DoloresMay 1, 2011 at 6:27 AM

    Hi Jan,

    Glad you brought up the subject of overlapping of some of these tools. I took some time in trying to see which would preferably go where because of that.

    Maria

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  7. aSalasMay 2, 2011 at 11:32 AM

    Maria-
    The use of games is an area I am interested in learning more about. Thanks for posting the link. Terrific graphic organizer- can you provide an example of simulations?
    Alexandra

    ReplyDelete
  8. Maria DoloresMay 3, 2011 at 11:51 AM

    Hi Alexandra,

    There are some simulations for chemistry, physics and Biology at pHET. What is your area?

    Maria

    ReplyDelete

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