There is a delicate balance in DE in regards to maintaining and introducing new technologies in order to keep up with current trends and avoiding overspending on such software. In my personal experience in Distance Education I find it interesting what students perceive as cutting edge technology. Often, I find that students are impressed when an instructor provides videos to correspond with their coursework. While making good videos is not for the faint of heart, it is hardly new or cutting-edge technology. It's really considered more of a 2nd Wave technology. In fact, the concept of a "talking head" in an online classroom is really quit outdated.
In my opinion, the best way to make a classroom feel relevant or cutting-edge is to make it as technologically dynamic as possible. This does not have to cost a lot as there are a lot of free resources available to individuals and non-profit institutions. I recently wrote a paper about the use of Google Applications in DE. One of the main benefits of using a tool like Google is that it is extremely intuitive and many students are already familiar with it. There is a huge sum of money invested in training educators and IT staff on new technologies so that they can support students. In addition, tutorials must be designed to familiarize students with the new software. This takes not only financial resources, but time from development staff. It can be shocking the number of individuals needed to complete something like an LMS upgrade.
My utilizing free resources or ones similar to those students are already familiar with, universities save time and money. My making solid investments in technology that will not need frequently updated universities can do a better job of retaining students. Many students become frustrated when adapting to new technology impacts their classroom performance. By making wise choices with all resources, the impact to students can be minimal.
Anderson. & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning (Second Edition). Retrieved July 29, 2008, fromhttp://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/second_edition.html.
Megan,
ReplyDeleteIt really is amazing to see all of the free technological resources that are out there to help enhance the classroom. Here, at MFRI, instructors are required to participate in Professional Development in order to maintain their instructor status. The last Professional Development seminar that I attended was based on free technologies that instructors could incorporate in the classroom. We reviewed such sites a Survey Monkey, Google Docs, Scriblink, and others. There are really an endless number of ways that a teacher today can enhance the learning environment for their students. Making it interesting gains their attention in could very well increase the opportunity for learning, comprehension, and memorization.
Here is one website that I found that lists a number of free tools to use for education:
http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2010/50-free-collaboration-tools/
Leeanne Poist