Week 2

So I have completed week two in 391X “Web-Based Technologies in Education” and I am still trying to piece the class together in such a way that it will prove beneficial to my final project. I hope to design a piece of technology that will empower students to become life long learners as they develop a sense of autonomy around technology. It is my belief that technology should allow for more creative expression as it infuses a ridiculous amount of information into the classroom environment. Such capabilities should permit teachers to play more of a supportive role and less of a dictator role in the classroom. While this is my ambition, the classroom is not what this course focuses on, as much as transcending beyond the four-wall institution and I can really appreciate that.

Professor Kim settled us into a discussion on web-based aids that are creating a global tech culture. Undoubtedly, these aids (like GLORIAD) are revolutionizing the way things are being done in scientifically and politically. People have access to a high volume of information, in a variety of ways, over a high-speed network, from all over the globe. Although, access to such devices are limited to the highly affluent, Professor Kim makes no differentiation between social classes; as all people (having some technological device) can be privy to an affluent education; with the right enabled body resources. This is all possible through what is called “cloud computing”, which enables any hardware-limited device to connect with a more powerful computer and perform the task for it. While not noted in the discussion, I wonder if Kim has any desire to optimize the use of such a source, in the use of his Learning Mobile System or what could also be called Pocket School (applications downloaded onto old generation Nokia phones used to engage students in a number of academic lessons that span from reading to math).

While I was impressed by the limitless possibilities of these high functioning systems, I was most curious about the concept mappings that teachers were being asked to construct as a means documenting what they were learning. As I have been told, these reflectionary aids are being used to cross-reference data and support finding in a variety of academic fields. This is all well and good, but this device poses another use that would serve me more beneficially as a teacher; which would be to align student work to content standards. Now my head may be stuck in the classroom, but the level of impact could be global. Imagine a kid in India getting a high school diploma in New York, because the work he put out aligned with the New York State Standards. In my class, students are always being asked to construct concept maps across a multiple academic disciplines. What if teachers didn’t have to fit students into the small confides of the state standards, but the standards where brought to life in the vast creativity of student inquiry and creativity. I LOVE IT!!! Total paradigm shift and much needed (though a small step in the right direction). I could see us being more of a portfolio-based society; empowering students to take hold of their own learning.

Professor Kim’s research (as shared in his class) alluded to the new trends in how children work around the use of technology. Although we did not get into deep discussion on this topic (as I don’t know if he necessarily understood what I was asking him) the whole concept strikes me as being an evolutionary movement towards teachers being less hands-on and allowing children to explore devices and make their own connections in learning. I have seen the progression of things happening in my own household. My mother knows little to nothing about computers and yet my younger sister is maximizing the use of it on a daily basis; so much that my sister has become a reference source of information for my mother. Children are no longer dependent on adults’ educational capacities. They functions independently more and more everyday; accessing and utilizing information in a variety of ways; that I must say can be productive or unproductive (this still needs to be watched and governed). I have a great deal of interest in observing any new trends in how children work collaboratively around the use of academic based technology.