Just reading up on the ePortfolio topic with this article here

This is a great article outlining exactly what e-portfolios are, how they are different from webfolios, how they can be used and what it means for the future of education
ePortfolios are being designed and developed to not only keep up with the modern technology, it is being developed to be useful, to meld the conventional system of handing in assignments with the world wide web. Giving people everywhere access, to not just a static portfolio, but something that can evolve with the student and with the times.

The ePortfolio is great in a way that keeps students organised, and everything is readily accessible for them when they need it. Faculty members and administrators are also able to keep track of students works and assess them digitally. Although, most people still prefer reading from hard copies.

With technology being so easily accessible, education is also moving outside the classrooms and into the digital world. It would be a new area for many of the existing teachers but in order to move forward, we all need to keep up to date. The digital world is not without its flaws either, with so many different designs from different campuses/schools, the challenge becomes trying to create systems which are inter-operable between systems as well as the space needed to store some much data. Hard copies are no longer discarded like they used to be. With soft copies of all this data to be made readily available to people, it needs a great amount of time and money invested into developing systems which can accommodate this.

I think ePortfolios are a great idea in that, they are able to follow through a students progress throughout their educational life. Each subject could more easily meld into each other and it becomes easier for students to see the connections and links between the different subjects/topics.

I agree with this article.

I think people become blinded with the razzle dazzle-ness of new technology and how to implement them in the classroom, they forget what is really important. It’s possible that the basic teaching pedagogy goes right out of the window, when one absent mindedly forces technology into the curriculum.

It’s not to say that it is impossible, but one really needs to think carefully about how one would implement it, and how effective it will be in getting your students to learn. We also have to consider other options, sometimes the best and most effective way might just be something old fashioned, other times, a new method of teaching might need to be developed. As long as we don’t dive head long into things we don’t fully understand… it may all be good in the end.

Masako’s review on this article

I think this is a very interesting article. It is rather similar to the article i read before about educating children with games. It didn’t occur to me until reading what Masako said about children not being able to learn with games once they reach the real world. It is so true, however, once you hit the real world, there are many things you are no longer compulsory to learn.

This article is right, the games shouldn’t be used to teach specifics, they should be used to teach students how to learn and explore and design.

I think the author also states the same thing i was saying before, if you want students to build games, they need support from people more knowledgeable. Its not as easy as professionals make it out to be.

Just read this article.

This was done very well. It shows how technology could be used without going overboard. I like the different scenario it gave to show the examples of how the use of technology could go overboard, and i believe that that can happen if you don’t think about how you will teach students using technology. The situations might have been very exaggerated and futuristic, but that may not be so far off from the now, seeing how fast technology is improving nowadays.

Sometimes, teachers get so caught up in the new that they don’t realise how it actually affects the students. It is still important to see what students want and encourage their curiosity to learn and explore. It is easy to do so with technology, but we much not become dependent on the technology and be blind to what students actually want.

Computer as Paintbrush: Technology, Play, and the Creative Society

The cricket??

It was only reading this, i realise the difference between ‘edutainment’ and ‘playful learning’, the difference between passive and active learning in these cases. I do think children learn better when they are actively engaged and I think that students can learn more difficult things as long as it is connected to fun and to their interest.

The article mentions how students learn best when they not only interact with materials, they are designing it. I like it how students can test out their own ideas and hypothesis, and it would be something that they are interested in not something they are forced to find out. I think in a classroom, there are all levels of students, what maybe easy for one, may not be easy for another. I guess as long as we give enough scaffolding and support, students will be able to learn and design.

I am also curious about this ‘cricket’ computer, it sounds like something that might be very useful for artists… i think maybe things like this can work for HSC Visual arts. Unfortunately, I am not doing VA. I don’t know how it could fit with Japanese.. but maybe i can think of something…

How shocking to read the first few lines of this… its CHEATING!

But when I do think more about it… its just an open book test… you need to know enough about the subject to efficiently use the available access to information. It gives the examiners more things to examine on and on more difficult concepts…

It is true then Ms Coleman says “purely memory-based assessment is increasingly irrelevant in the modern world”… With technology being so easily accessable… you really don’t need to memorise everything now. Particularly in schools where you don’t specialise in one particular subject… it can be a lot of information to take in and if you need to know something basic, you can easily just search it up on the internet.

Once a student does decide to specialise in particular subjects it would be in their best interest to do know about their subjects and memorise more things.

I’d like to see how this progresses.

Another article read?

The internet has really made everything so easy.

I quite agree with this article. I think all the Realities that this article brings up is true without going overboard. Technology is very rapidly developing and becoming more easily accessable and affordable that even the younger people can afford to be all teched up with new fangled gadgets that may or may not have functions and features that one would need.

Everything is portable nowadays… especially with the latest mobile technologies appearing here. We can be doing work, playing games or watching a program while on the move… It should be making lives easier, making use use our times more efficiently? Computers are almost everywhere now, and i am constantly stuck to one… and hopefully it will have the internet… it is almost my entire life. I do post photos and talk to people online through live messaging … i can be more active online than in real life. Isn’t that sad?

Multitasking? … My sister commented on me once… i was watching tv, on my laptop chatting and playing my DS at the same time… add i wished i could still do more. This technology has made it easier to multitask… but i still cannot read books and sew at the same time…

Reality 6: I think everyone must have a sense of what is right and wrong about the copyright issues. I think if particular people are part of particular groups or feel that they are part of these groups such as artists, muscians etc… they are very well aware of the copyright issues… whether they abuse it or not it is up to their conscience. I think it is mainly the morals that each individual is exposed to.

Reality 7: It already changing very fast already! My laptop is only 1 year old…but i want a new one already. The same model has 2 times better specs… *I cry a little inside*

Reality 8: The way they approach Learning and research tasks will be shaped by their new techno-world. It does for me… the first place to research would be online on the internet or on the library journal database. If people need surveys done.. just send a mass email out :p

Yes, I did read an article. Yes, it is called “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrant”

What did I think about it?

This article here is 7 years old, so is it writing about me as a Digital Native or an Immigrant? I think I am supposed to be a native, I did grow up with the games, computers and mobile phones. Although I supposed to be a teacher soon, I do carry a Nintendo DS with me, and my friends all have either DSs or PSPs… and yes, we did have a party where we’d sit around on a couch racing each other on the DS. I go online to chat, play games…. etc etc… I’d like to think that I am a digital native.

Picture from: http://media.techeblog.com/images/ds_11.jpg

There are things that I did (research using books for school assignments) and still do that, may possibly be considered “immigrant”, such as sending letters by snail mail, I still do bring people physically to my computer to show them something…. So, I don’t the the line is so clear cut. I am sure many of the ‘older’ generation, depending on the people, would be considered much more of a native than i would be if this could be tested

And when this article states that “Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language”

I honestly think, no. That is one wide general sweeping statement which i don’t think would apply at all to many of the students nowadays because everyone is different. Many of the student I had during pract, aren’t as efficient as a ‘native’ could be. They know how to operate the general programs required to message friends, type up something for school and play games… i am sure that most of them would not know how to us a flash program to develop games or build websites. I think this article assumes to much from this generation of students. I am one to think that although, this generation are hit with much more information at a much faster pace… it does not necessarily mean it can be adopted for learning in classrooms. 100 Pokemon names to some students might be more interesting that 100 geographical locations, thats why they can remember it all, to others it might not be, but how can a teacher adopt the same method to teach geography to students as pokemons. Develop an entire animated series featuring lovable characters and music? Design a game to catch all the countries? (hrmm… Where in the world is Carmen SanDiego was good, what happened to her) Are all teachers required to have software development degrees now?

It is because the pokemons are more meaningful… throwing in technology is not going to make anything more or less meaningful if students don’t think it is. I’ve heard many students at my practicum class say that they had no access to a computer to do research, two of the student was one who was not particularly interested in the subject or the topic, not until the teacher told them to do it on something that was actually meaningful to them.

Every generation of students have had more to learn than their predecessors, that the way things are with progress of technology and science. There is probably not much difference here except for the large jump in accessible information.

It is probably true that students now do learn differently. But to simply throw computer games at them all and think that thats all it is going to take to make them learn better… i think not.

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