Week 3 Assignment 1 – Educational Technologies Blog The two social networking sites that I believe will enhance adult learning are Ning.com and LinkedIn.com. The best parts of the Ning site for educators is that it is totally self-contained, it can be totally private, and the teacher has total administrative control (Richardson, 2010). The LinkedIn site has over 250 million plus professionals which allows the user to access knowledge, insights, opportunities, and share information and ideas. In my practice as an adult educator, I would create a Ning site with all of my students as part of the private site and assign research and blogging assignments to complete. I will also invite outside professional individuals with expertise in our area of study to join our small group of students and interact with them. This would expose my students to networking, critical thinking, and problem solving. I would use the LinkedIn site to invite my students to participate with me in using LinkedIn on our topic of study. I would also obtain permission from some of the professionals on my network to add them to the student’s site in order for them to network in a larger arena. Toward the end of the semester, the students would submit a report on the advantages and disadvantages to social networking. This would create a safe, secure environment for the adult learners to expand their networking capabilities and enhance learning. Social media is not a tool that I have used nor was it in my tool box prior to this class. The advances in technology and the increased use by all ages with social media indicates to me that this would be a very effective learning tool and one that I look forward to incorporating into my classroom. References LinkedIn. Retrieved from: www.linkedin.com Ning. Retrieved from: www.ning.com Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin

Week 3 Assignment 1 – Educational Technologies Blog The two social networking sites that I believe will enhance adult learning are Ning.com and LinkedIn.com. The best parts of the Ning site for educators is that it is totally self-contained, it can be totally private, and the teacher has total administrative control (Richardson, 2010). The LinkedIn site has over 250 million plus professionals which allows the user to access knowledge, insights, opportunities, and share information and ideas. In my practice as an adult educator, I would create a Ning site with all of my students as part of the private site and assign research and blogging assignments to complete. I will also invite outside professional individuals with expertise in our area of study to join our small group of students and interact with them. This would expose my students to networking, critical thinking, and problem solving. I would use the LinkedIn site to invite my students to participate with me in using LinkedIn on our topic of study. I would also obtain permission from some of the professionals on my network to add them to the student’s site in order for them to network in a larger arena. Toward the end of the semester, the students would submit a report on the advantages and disadvantages to social networking. This would create a safe, secure environment for the adult learners to expand their networking capabilities and enhance learning. Social media is not a tool that I have used nor was it in my tool box prior to this class. The advances in technology and the increased use by all ages with social media indicates to me that this would be a very effective learning tool and one that I look forward to incorporating into my classroom. References LinkedIn. Retrieved from: www.linkedin.com Ning. Retrieved from: www.ning.com Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin

Educational Technolgies

This past week I have been investigating educational technologies (applications and multimedia resources). I discovered many interesting available and upcoming technologies that I believe will have an impact on the way we provide adult education. My investigation led me to a very interesting website provided by Envisioning Technology Research Foundation (n.d.): http://envisioning.io/education/images/envisioning_the_future_of_education.png. The foundation is predicting that education will be moving from the classroom to a studio environment and then to a virtual environment. I believe that we have already seen the move from the traditional classroom to a more virtual classroom.

The studio environment is a peer to peer learning environment where groups come together to discuss, learn and solve problems with each other and the teacher serves as a facilitator. The studio environment includes gamification, student-developed applications, and self-paced learning. There is a push to change the way information is given to the students using more technology and peer-to-peer interaction (collaboration) and moving away from the “sage on the stage” or instructor lecture based delivery. The studio environment is happening now in many educational environments. From the studio environment the move will be to the virtual environment where learning, discussion, and assessment happen regardless of physicality or geography. We see this today in our online educational opportunities, video lessons, open courseware, digitization of books.

The next move is to a disintermediation environment where AI handles personalization while the teachers focus on teaching. This environment includes assessment algorithms, S2S teaching platforms, task-assignment algorithms, algo-generated lessons, telepresence, and mobile learning platforms. The instruction becomes project, performance, and portfolio based instead of traditional assessments. The foundation has projected that this, disintermediation environment will happen around 2020.

As I look at the virtual classroom, I see technology and multi-media becoming a driving force and a greater use of tablet computing. Tablet computing is one of the technologies that I have incorporated into my classroom teaching. Material is being downloaded on the tablets along with digitized books and articles, and the students are down taking their exams online. This reduces the cost of copies (handouts, exams, etc.). My experience has been that the younger generations love this technology and way of receiving information; however, the veteran generations and the baby boomers have mixed opinion and many of them ask for the printed material. The current push, due to cut budgets, is to provide more online training and fewer classroom training. The barrier to overcome is to make sure that the students receive the same value of training online as they do in the classroom. To ensure that this happens we must build virtual learning communities where the students can meet and discuss in the virtual world.

The second application that I have chosen is gamification. The use of simulation has been used for years in law enforcement; however, I have found that we can make them more interactive and current. I have also found that creating games or critical thinking exercises that include problem solving and critical thinking creates a more interactive learning environment. I use the software (GameshowPro4) to create my games. Student response to the simulations and educational games has been very positive.

The U.S. Department of Education (2010) stated that leveraging technology can help us improve learning and assessments. Using technology enables us to provide access to more effective teaching and learning resources where they might not otherwise be available. It offers adult educators more options. It is up to the adult educators to make the necessary changes in order to improve our delivery of material. Change is an opportunity and should not be feared.

                                                        References:
Envisioning Technology Research Foundation (n.d.). Envisioning the future of education technology. Retrieved from: http://envisioning.io/education/images/envisioning_the_future_of_education.png

U.S. Department of Education (2010). Transforming American education: Learning powered by technology (National education technology plan 2010). Retrieved from: http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/netp2010.pdf

            I have found three emerging technologies on the Internet that I believe have the potential to enhance adult education.  All of the technologies appear to have a draw to the younger generations and are currently being used in schools throughout the United States. 

The first is Learning Analytics that I discovered on two different websites:  http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2013/07/29/10-emerging-educational-technologies-how-they-are-being-used-across-the-globe/  and

http://www.learndasy.com/6-emerging-technologies-in-enducation.  Learning Analytics combines data analysis with student interaction in order to create a more integrated and customized learning experience for the student.  This technology can help predict learning difficulties and give the instructor the ability to assist the student before failure and frustration sets in.

            The second technology that caught my eye was Game-based Learning and virtual and remote laboratories also found at:  http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2013/07/29/10-emerging-educational-technologies-how-they-are-being-used-across-the-globe/.  This is of great interest to me due to the advancement in technology and the desire of more and more students interested in online learning.  I currently use games in my classes at the present and have found that they have been very successful in increasing critical thinking and retention.   I also discovered that Minecraft has a educational division found at http://minecraftedu.com/page/.

            The third technology is Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC).  I discovered this technology at www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319157813000384.  MOOC has the capability for connectivity & collaboration, engaging students, is very participatory, is event distributive, and promotes life-long learning.  Game-based learning and virtual and remote laboratories can be used on the MOOC format which adds to the appeal.