After reading “25 Years of Ed-tech” it dawned on me how quickly the online world is changing. Technologies are constantly being reinvented and revised to keep up with the ever-changing times of society. For example, in school we use Fresh grade to document students learning and each year the platform looks different and there are new features added. Although I am happy that the site has more features it can be difficult to keep up with all of the new technologies.
After reviewing the topics in these weeks readings I noticed that it focused a lot on “Humanizing Online Learning”. Most of the technologies over the past 20 years have been designed to bring people together. Some of the ways I feel connected to others is through blogs, videos, Skype, and social media. In my Kindergarten class we have connected with another Kindergarten class in Australia through Skype and Flipgrid. Our goal is to find out how their culture and way of living differs from ours. The students have made many meaningful connections with the other students and they look forward to seeing them each week. Blogs are another great way to humanize learning as it allows individuals to share their thoughts and ideas and receive feedback and communicate with their peers.
In the future I hope that technology will be able to meet the needs of all learners. The component that I find difficult with online learning is not being able to incorporate hands-on learning. I wonder if there is a way to incorporate this and how that would work? I also wonder if technology will have different learning environments similar to a classroom setting?
Two questions that I have for Dr. Weller include:
- Which topic is most important for creating a meaningful experience online with young learners?
- Which online tools do you recommend for education?
References:
Weller, M. (2020). 25 Years of ed tech. AU Press. Retrieved from https://read.aupress.ca/read/25-years-of-ed-tech/section/e69021f2-91b6-4ca4-9d0b-81d3e9748707
What is Human-Centered Instruction? https://www.leadsv.com/hcn
I’m glad that you enjoyed this weeks reading as it has also enlightened me on the ED tech advancements. Seeing how the technologies have advanced through the years to what they are now shows how rapidly changing our society today is . I like your suggestions on ways to improve humanizing learning through Skype, blogs an other forms of technology. Your questions for Dr. Weller are very relevant for this topic as they would help clarify which online tools are most effective to use.
I enjoyed reading your blog Shelby. Its like every week I read your blog and I learn something about kindergarten. Its great that you are able to connect your professional life and skills with this class. Its funny to me that when you read the reading, things dawned on you and same thing happened to me. You did not mention which ED tools you were most intrigued by and wish to do a final project on, any preference??