Thanks to our wonderful professor selecting such deliciously bite-sized nuggets of wisdom (truly, I appreciate the gentle start to course readings), I can effortlessly group the first. three. articles. under the banner of “Neat… and?”
As coffee break reading material, it was mildly interesting to read how random writers are predicting future trends of technology in education, and offering little snippets of vague information about some new technology; but what was the point of the articles? The purpose of this exercise was not clear, thus motivation and interest was practically non-existent and I simply needed grit-my-teeth and quickly skim the articles to understand key terminology like augmented reality (AR), cloud computing, or learning science. This mindset persisted until the Top Hat article, which stated “[their] technology in education 2019 predictions are less about exactly what emerging technologies will be… but how they will be applied.” All of a sudden, I understood the purpose the author had in writing this article, and how their work may potentially be relevant to me. In addition, I found the article to be much more enjoyable as it provides concrete examples such as using AR to practice surgery planning. This was absent in previous articles where they merely spouted some completely generic advertisement like “applications such as HP Reveal have near-limitless uses and could be used in any curricular subject” (Tech & Learning, 2018); something I strongly disagreed with as it’s restricted to well-funded institutions that can afford a class set, and does not alleviate or enhance teaching of mechanical processes like two-digit multiplication. In reflecting upon this, I once again realized that my experiences as a student in this online Masters program is nearly identical to that of my own students in the distance learning courses I teach.
As a learner, I’ve recognized that my own learning is often dependent on knowing the purpose of the material and how it may benefit me in the future. It is from that framework do I maintain consciousness when engaging the literature, and have the mental capacity to find a topic of interest or inquiry to delve into. For example, I really enjoyed the Top Hat article so I began looking into who the writer was, where were the sources he used for the predictions, and more importantly, what other article has he written. This was not done for the any of the earlier articles because I simply could not care enough after having satisfied the expectation of reading the article. What’s worse is that some articles either lacked the references for me to search, or lacked credentials for the article to be considered worthwhile. Case in point: in Lambda Solutions‘ disclaimer, they note that their article was written by some fellow who was “interested in culture, education and fiction” (wait… that last part worries me), which I’m not sure how their opinion can be considered as the “expert insight” that their advertising in the preceding sentence. Furthermore, the writer’s “views and opinions expressed [in the article] belong to the guest blogger alone, and do not necessarily reflect the official policies or opinions of Lambda Solutions.” This is painful for me as I feel the article’s purpose was to provide an expert’s view on educational technology trends and promote the company’s services, which it failed because the expert was not an expert. Knowing my motivators and being able to find them helps me succeed at learning, which becomes my task to inspire the same in those I teach.
As a teacher, my role in student education is to have them understand their own reasons for learning (purpose), recognize what they need to succeed (benefit), and develop a strategy to accomplish that (more benefits). The best method I can think of is to offer my own learning process as a functional example. I need to ensure the purpose of my decisions, activities, or content are visible to the students, and I’m able to justify the benefit of engaging in them. Being a teacher at a distance-learning center, this means I have more flexibility in the sense that I have the option and access to some of the technological trends being mentioned, such as cloud computing, online presence and learning communities, self-paced learning, or access rich multimedia for our diverse learners. With this in mind, the articles I read becomes relevant as I have options under consideration for “meaningful integration of new technologies… aligning to best instructional practices” (Holland and Holland, 2014) into my classes. This simplifies my work down to weighing the pros against the cons of adopting a new piece of technology and whether it provides an authentic, engaging learning experience, or becomes a simple tokenism having cutting-edge technology. This is why that I would need to familiarize and assess for myself with the practicality of those new innovations, or study how other have tried making it relevant in their pedagogy, before agreeing or disagreeing the effectiveness of these trends. For instance, the easiest to implement would be online discussions or debate in forums as opposed to in-class ones. While the benefits include allowing remote learners to participate and letting students contribute at their own pace of learning, one common problem I’ve seen is the misinterpretation of words (due to lack of seeing facial and body cues); or that the discussion peters out due to participants posting at different times thus lacking that immediate consideration of ideas and subsequent feedback. Another example would be using virtual reality (VR) or AR to provide a sense of “hands-on” learning through remote connection or in under-equipped classroom. As a traditional science teacher, I still value and support authentic in-person laboratory experiments simply because I feel the alternatives cannot fully emulate that holistic experience of: the weight and burns from holding a hot beaker, the sight and sounds of the wrong solution being added, or simply experience working with lab partners.
