Educational Technology VUB

Future of Educational Technology

1.     Background

1.1 Education and Technology

The alliance of technology and education have come a long way, aside the fact that the former to a great extent was the offspring of the later, technology, however, has impacted education enormously.  However, for the purpose of aligning strictly to the context of the course Educational technologies, technology discussed in this paper is chiefly referred to communication and information technologies.

1.2 Educational Technologies at Present

Since mid-20^th century, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has experienced a huge revolution which is referred by many as the dot-com bubble. Since then ICT has taken center stage in practically every human endeavor, most importantly, the education sector. Thus, educational establishments, educators and even students, especially in developed countries, have experiences dramatic changes in the instruction and administrative practices and this adoption of technology has improved teachers and students’ experiences immeasurable ways.

 (Shahadat, 2012) pointed out that ICT has the potential to further transform the nature of education by improving teachers’ design work, enhancing the roles of students and teachers in the learning process and helping to create a collaborative learning environment, etc

Today, it is no doubt that technology is the core of all educational processes in and out of educational institutions.

2.     Future of Educational Technologies (by year 2020)

Considering how technology as rapidly evolved since the arrival of digital computers some decades ago, trying to predict the future of educational technologies accurately is somewhat dicey, however in this paper I shall try to propose a few plausible scenarios based on assumptions drawn from the present trends, as antecedents for the future of educational technologies:

        i.            Change of teacher-students role in organized education

Almost two decades ago, Kinnaman opined that "modern technology comprises the richest sets of educational tools in the history of the world, but the art of teaching is still safely and surely the province of human teachers only." However, the role of teachers as principle authority in learning and teaching is fast becoming obsolete as many students and individuals from all work of life have taken advantage of various online platforms to disseminate information and this trend gaining an increasing allegiance from young students around the globe, because, unlike formal education, some of these platforms do not just create and push information out. They allow users to participate in the creation, dissemination and eventually consumption of any information they desire or value.  Also, with the many websites such as www.skillshare.com, www.w3schools.com and www.coursera.org  the role and importance of teachers and formal education system might be threatened, because these websites afford the students to learn whatever that interest them from peers and professors at a cheap or no cost, online, anytime, anywhere, thus, students can work through and finish the courses at their own pace and timing without strict lectures and examination schedules and assignment deadlines (Lepi, 2012). Also these platforms offer avenue to meet people from all over the world and the showcasing of one’s skill or idea to a larger range of audience that share same interest as them.

      ii.            M-learning/Remote-learning

In recent years we have experienced a leap and high rate of advancement in mobile technologies, from smart phones and tablet computers that are twice as fast as computers of few years ago to cloud computing and increased access to high speed connectivity, wifi and satellite communication. It is expected that by 2020, mobile computing will be common practice in educational technology. This will gradually replace the use of desktop computers and might even reduce the need for centralized systems where compulsory physical presence is needed. Also, as opined by Shelly Blake-Plock ( (Blake-Plock, 2009) “students will form peer groups by interest and these interest groups will petition for specialized learning using such platforms as www.change.org/”, this might in turn thrust the present strict curriculum to a more flexible system where students’ can choose most of his/her course credit from wide range of options.

    iii.            Increased sharing and free learning communities

Within the last decade, educators and students have welcomed the use of many open-source and free-sharing platforms. This practice is has no doubt being welcomed by students and some educators/educational institutions. However, with the increased awareness and the need for affordable education, these practice will record high support by 2020, so much that most institutions might be left with no options that to embrace such educational technologies. Also, makers of Proprietary software might be forced to offer free or very cheap educational products, as open source models will outgrow them (Heick, 2013). Also, in other to be relevant more educational institutions will offer free pre-recorded lecture videos to their students and perhaps a fully self-regulated learning in terms of pace and timing. Also, the cost of research papers might decrease. With platforms such as Creative Commons, more community friendly scholars would share more of their papers free and hopefully it shall be embraced my all and sundry in the educational institutions.

3.      Conclusion

It is obvious that the future of educational technologies is not something one can predicted accurately, because of the nature of technology as one that alternates pace and is either boosted or impeded by the cultures and norms of the society. However, the predictions above are the possible trend I expect in the next 7 years of educational technology. However, one questions comes to mind, which is the present cost of these technologies and how evenly dispersed would it be in the next 7 years, for instance such universities like Stanford, State University New York, etc. have a remarkable presence in free-learning platforms[1] where renowned professors share lectures at no cost and give students a course completion certificate should they pass the courses. Conclusively, the future of educational technologies knows no bounds and Que Sera, Sera!

Works Cited

Blake-Plock, S. (2009, December 15). 21 Things That Will Become Obsolete in Education by 2020. Retrieved 08 07, 2013, from teachpaperless: http://teachpaperless.blogspot.be/2009/12/21-things-that-will-become-obsolete-in.html

Heick, T. (2013, 03 19). 30 Incredible Ways Technology Will Change Education By 2028. Retrieved from http://www.teachthought.com/trends/30-incredible-ways-technology-will-change-education-by-2028/

Lepi, K. (2012, July 19). http://edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/edtechfuture.png.

Shahadat, H. K. (2012, July). BARRIERS TO THE INTRODUCTION OF ICT INTO EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE EXAMPLE OF BANGLADESH. International Journal Of Instruction, 5(2), 20.

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[1]http://online.stanford.edu/courses, https://www.coursera.org/courses?orderby=upcoming

Future of Educational technologies 202 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://educational-technology-vub.blogspot.com/2013/09/educational-technology-vub.html.

The Role of Management Games in Education and Research by Kalman J. Cohen and

The Role of Management Games in Education and Research by Kalman J. Cohen and

Eric Rhenman

In their research, Cohen and Rhenman shows both the present and the potential role of management games in education and research.

 Management game is simulation exercise designed for management applications and used for training purposes. Management games can be group or individual exercises.A whole lot of people of all age groups consider playing on the management games as the most favrotite method of learning.

Both simulation and management games are mathematical models, but they differ in purpose and mode of use. Simulation models are designed to simulate a system and to generate a series of financial and operating results regarding system operations. Games do the same thing except that in games human beings play a significant part; that is, participants make decisions at various stages. The major goals of the management game are: (1) To improve decision-making and analytical skills.
(2) To develop awareness of the need to make decisions lacking complete information.
(3) To develop an understanding of the interrelationships of the various functions of business (accounting, finance, marketing, production, etc.) within the firm and how these interactions affect overall performance.
(4) To develop the ability to function cooperatively and effectively in a small group situation.
Management games offer a unique means of training accountants and have been used successfully as an executive training device.
in their article, Cohen and Rhenman firsly we first try to characterize the present development of these games. They discuss the differences between general and functional business games are discussed. Present uses of management games as a teaching device are surveyed and evaluated.

They search the advantages of the potential use of management games as a laboratory for business and social science research.

Here is an example of management game:

 

 

 

online high schools

Online High School

 

Online High School is a new concept of education. They are becoming more and more popular. They are not only useful for teenagers but also for adults who want to have a diploma without attending F2F courses. It also offers flexibilty regarding arranging working hours and learning styles. Moreover, It develops students self-regulation abilities as they decide when and how to study. The diploma that they will acquire will be accepted at collages.

 

There are four different types of online high schools. However, they are not equally created.

 

-Private online high schools

-public online high schools

-online charter schools

-university-affiliated online high schools

 

PRIVATE ONLINE HIGH SCHOOLS


They usually offer quality at a high prize. They are not controlled by the government. One of the most important advantages of them is that they offer students one-on-one access to counsellors, teachers ext.

PUBLIC ONLINE HIGH SCHOOLS

Public online schools educate students for free. Unfortunately they are not available in all areas. Many countries are trying to create public online high schools. Some of them even lend curriculum and computers at no cost.

 

ONLINE CHARTER SCHOOLS

 

Students attending online charter schools are educated almost at no cost. They are funded by the government; however they run independently.

UNIVERSITY-AFFILIATED ONLINE HIGH SCHOOLS

The number of universities that support online high school is raising as colleges want to protect their good names. They usually offer high quality education.

SMART PENS A NEW TOOL OF EDUCATION

Smart pen is a new tool in education.It records and link audio to what you write. It allows you to listen to your recordings by tapping on what you wrote. Moreover, it allows you to search and share your notes from your computer.

Technology has been indispensable  in the last years and smart pens also allows for usage of technology through social media. Educators can easily reach students and advance their academic understanding.

A lot of educators have started to use smart pens to help their students achieve. Students can post questions on their fan page and educators can easily answer their questions though they are not in front of them.

The smartpen technology uses a special notepad and a high-tech pen to record both sound and the written word, and by using that technology, everything a teacher says and writes can be accessed by computers at a later time for students to review.

 

POWERPOINT AS AN INNOVATIVE TOOL FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING IN MODERN CLASSES

PowerPoint as an innovative tool for teaching and learning in modern classes

Educational Technologies have become essential in supporting teaching and learning process in modern classes. One of them is PowerPoint presentation. Holzl, (1997) holds the view that PowerPoint is a user- friendly package that can be used for creating visually clear and dynamic and attention capturing presentation for students.  If used thoughtfully, PowerPoint can play a good role in enhancing teaching and learning.  It provides a roadmap, reinforces what teachers say and allow the use of graphics and other multimedia to clarify understanding and support different styles of learning. ©20011 published by Elsevier Ltd Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Prof Hüseyin Zunboylu.

The use of PowerPoint during lectures is supported by Evans (1998) who contends that PowerPoint lectures help in increasing attendance rate at lectures. Furthermore, better preparation of lectures by PowerPoint can be a source of motivation for lecture attendance. Past studies on the use of PowerPoint, have confirmed that better organization and structuring methods can be of benefit to students learning (Holzl, 1997; Lowry 1999).

However, PowerPoint like most technologies has some disadvantages too. Using it as a teaching and learning tool, teachers need to be aware of the following:

Firstly, any component of the system can fail. To deal with this, alternatives activities could be prepared so that in the event of any failure there will be an alternative to turn to.

Secondly, file corruption is another thing that can occur hindering a presentation. As a solution, there should be alternative media files available for any presentation.

Lastly, lack of proper training in both the programme and technology can cause the presentation to flop.

For tips to create a better PowerPoint presentation go to www.microsoft.com/atwork/skills/prsentations.aspx#fbid=7mNMCtoZ4HI

REFERENCES

Evance, L.(1998). Preliminary Study: Lectures versus PowerPoint. 4.0 http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo:us/longview/lect-pp.HTM

Holzl, J. (1997) Twelve tips for effective PowerPoint presentations for the technologically challenges Medical Teacher 19.175-179.

Lowry, R.B (1999). Electronic presentation of lectures- effect upon student performance: University chemistry Education 3.(1).18-21

PASCO Technologies: Igniting 21st Century Science Education

At school I studied in the class of Physics and Mathematics and liked it very much; the previous article mentions pasco.com, online educational resource for science, engineering and earth environment. Together, school background and innovations in this field became an area of my interest; therefore, I decided to study it in-depth.

PASCO's technologies are widely used all over the world and keep developing from year to year. Let's look at the structure of its website. There are three main directions: subject areas, products and educator resources.

SUBJECT AREAS	PRODUCTS	EDUCATOR RESOURCES
Physics In High School Physics At University Biology Chemistry Earth/Environment General Science Middle/Primary Engineering	Probeware Software Curriculum Lab Equipment Labware And Supplies Replacement Parts What’s New	Training And Events Experiments More Educator Resources

I would like to focus on products. The category What's New provides the following novelties:

Let's study on PASCO Capstone Software and the 850 Universal Interface. It is updated software for data acquisition, display and analysis and destined to be the new standard in physics and engineering labs. It was not created on the basis of other software; it is absolutely independant, powerful and flexible option available on educational market.

While it was designed in conjuction with the new 850 Universal Interface, Capstone is completely compatible with all PASCO USB Interfaces - the 850, Xplorer GLX, SPARKlink, SPARK, USB link and even older interfaces such as the SCience WOrkshop 750 or 500.

PASCO Capstone is available now for the PC. A Mac version will be released Spring 2013.

Overview

This screenshot illustrates the main page of Capstone Software and the mentioned 850 Interface. It tools include: hardware setup, data summary, calculator, signal, generator, photogate timer, setup and more. Sampling bar givea an opportunity to set sample rates for each sensor, record, playback and delete runs. Display palette can be clicked and dragged onto graph. Displays available are Graph, Oscilloscope, FFT, Digits, Meter, Table, Picture and Video. Finally, this software can create multiple pages or customize each page to the tasks performed.

Licenses

There are two licenses to be acquired: Capstone Single User License (UI-5401) - to install on a single computer for classroom demostrations, or individual activities, and Capstone Site License (UI-5400) - to install on all computers on a K-12 campus or in a college/university department.

References

www.pasco.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha405XsPOhI

PASCO’s Interactive, Hands-on Science Technology for Education in Kazakhstan

It was interesting for me to look for new technologies in education launched in my home country. Among several curious projects I came up to pasco.com and the related article of Dixon K. (2009) 'Republic of Kazakhstan Embraces PASCO's Interactive, Hands-on Science Technology for Education'. PASCO is a website providing and describing latest innovative products for education, in particular, for science, engineering and environment.

As it was mentioned in the article, PASCO participated in Kazakhstan's  efforts to infuse schools with innovative technology and build world-class educational system. Kazakhstan high school students will use PASCO's Xplorer GLX, a standalone graphing data logger that captures, analyzes, annotates, stores and prints data and seamingly, without being connected to a computer. PASCO has also the high schools with labs and lab apparatus for chemistry, physics and biology.

More than 4000 teachers have been trained on PASCO's solutions and now applying them in classroom along with products from Promethean, a global leader in interactive learning technologies such as whiteboards, software and learning response systems; and LJCreate, a UK company offering topic specific learning solutions and complete classroom management systems for STEM curricula.

Promethean product: whiteboard

LJCreate's eLearning resources

Summary

They say older generation does not accept innovations. Our Physics teacher was seventy years old when our school was equipped with interactive whiteboards and other new technologies. She could spend all days to learn how they work and how they can be implemented into educational process. Innovations are good and effective when used skillfully.

Despite the fact that this article was published in 2009, a considerably long time ago, there are still problems in purchasing, launching and using those technologies. As for me, I am only familiar with whiteboards, but I would also like to try other high-tech things. PASCO, in this cas, in my opinion, is a gerat source.

References:

Dixon K. (2009). Republic of Kazakhstan Embraces PASCO's Interactive, Hands-on Science Technology for Education, published on January 15th, from http://www.pasco.com/about/news/press-releases/republic-of-kazakhstan-embraces-pascos-interactive-hands-on-science-technology-for-education.cfm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLC5emoBORE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2_SuFwlfql

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ0H6kheN_c

Technologies helping disabled children in school

One of the articles that I like the most is 'The AuRoRa Project: Robots as Educational and Therapeutic 'toys' for autistic children' posted by Karen Triquet (Novwember 17th, 2012). I tried to search for similar topics dedicated to disabled children and their needs, and here is what I found. The article is called ' Technology as Prosthetic: Opening New Educational Doors for Disabled Childre' by Withrow F.B. (2011). It describes innovative ways of making deaf, blind, cerebral palsied and mentally challenged people feel the world in its true and open meaning.

Functioning Principle

According to Withrow F.B. (2011), signs, codes, speech and language begin in the average baby very early. Children send special signal (cry) to their mothers, by which she can understand the need of a baby (wet, hungry, ill, etc.). When a need is accomplished, a baby stops sending any signal or change it for another one. In case of disabled children, this process goes a bit harder and functions in a different way, that is why prosthetic devices come into account.

For example, for blind children it is necessary to lean on auditory communication skills; whereas, cerebral palsied children develop receptive communication skills. Technology as a prosthetic device opens new educational doors for amny disabled children. A cochlear implant enables a deaf child if it works to develop almost normal speech and language.

Computer aided speech gives a severely paralyzed individual an opportunity to hear him/herself. For blind, there are special assistive technologies: computer screens with text can change the type and brightness that make it possible for some visually impaired learners to read.

References:

Withrow F.B. (2011). Technology as a Prosthetic: Opening New Educational Doors for Disabled Children. A journal for educational technology&change. Retrieved May 20, 2011 from http://etcjournal.com/2011/05/20/8508/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajD8BeVgSJQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILaUx7BJ4rO

Making  new Connexions between learner, teacher and publisher

Open source education engages everyone in creating educational content

The beginning of a changing relationship with how we produce, procure and engage with information and learning. Connexions is a repository of free educational content where people can create and upload educaitonal material that is open to be modified, reorganized and even reassembled to create courses, books, reports etc. It is open for everyone to see and add information.

In a nutshell Connexions is a place where:

authors create and collaborate

instructors rapidly build and share custom collections

learners find and explore content

(www.cnx.org)

How it works

Finding Modules

Once on the web page you can begin by typing in a keyword or choosing either to search by subject, author, title, language or popularity(%). When you search by keyword a list will appear of available modules and offer specific information about the last time it was revised and the number of revisions it has undergone as well all the fore mentioned criteria ( popularity, language, author, etc)

After you click on the module of interest you will find a link under the title of who created it the option to email the author either to give feedback or to ask for permission to edit the module. Then followed by the educational content.

Other features include downloading the module as a pdf or EPUB file (so it can be read on different mobile devices). There are also instructions on how to download it to your device. You can also add the module to your favourites (login required) which will recall the last module you had open and offers special lens (definition) that can be used to bookmark modules and collections.

Reusing & Editing Modules

In order to reuse or edit a module you have to have permission. Once you have permission you can use the reuse / edit button to move the content into your personal workspace or a shared workgroup in order to make your edits

However if you don,t have permission to edit the content it doesn't stop you from modifying it through a derived copy and changing and publishing this copy. A derived copy is therefore when you make changes in accordance with your specific needs without altering the original version.

Creating a Personal or Shared Workspace

(in order to create or edit a module) as easy as 1,2,3

1. Create an account and log into you workspace

2. Create content, from scratch or import data from documents on you computer

3. Publish it

Other Points of Interest

Detailed instructions are also available on:

How to Reuse and Attribute content

How to cite content (licensed under the creative commons)

Publishing Material

Finally their complementary project is a publishing outfit where faculty have assembled peer reviewed modules to create a course textbook printed through the openstax college for an extremely reduced price in comparison to the regular cost of textbooks.

However anyone can construct their own textbooks custom made to the needs of their course, culture, classroom and audience and have them published.

REFERENCES

Connexions. Retrieved December 17, 2012 from http://cnx.org/

CreativeCommons. Retrieved December 17 2012 from http://creativecommons.org/

GOODmagazine (2011). Future Learning: Richard Baraniuk. Retrieved December 15 2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOExdnESMkY

Openstax. Retrieved December 22, 2012 from http://openstaxcollege.org/books

OTHER RESOURCES

Compilation of Videos about Connexions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOExdnESMkY&list=PL9AA4CDB21E60F596&index=3

Edutopia http://www.edutopia.org/richard-g-baraniuk

Tedtalks (2006). Richard Baraniuk on open-source learning. Retrieved December 15 2012 from http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_baraniuk_on_open_source_learning.html?quote=38

Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connexions

Wise (word innovation summit for education). Richard Baraniuk Connexions http://www.wise-qatar.org/content/richard-baraniuk-connexions