Educational technology in a learning environment.

Learning Objectives :

Enhancing Learning & Personalization through Open Source Digital Media, Freeware, and Shareware

3.1 Determine appropriate implementation of technology tools in education.

3.2 Analyze factors that influence the integration, implementation, and evaluation of Educational technology in a learning environment.

SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS :

Respond to the following prompts in this Week Abstracts discussion forum by the deadline :

Post links or APA citations to two articles you found valuable from The Chronicle of Higher Education or Education Week from your **readings this week.

What do you think the implications of the articles you selected are for higher education?

Provide examples to support your perspectives.

Check a sample of response bellow!

Reading this week :

Spector, M. J. (2016). Foundations of educational technology: Integrative approaches and interdisciplinary perspectives. (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Chapter 6: Integrative Approaches to Planning and Implementation

Chapter 12: Teaching with Technology

Chapter 13: Educational Technologies in the Workplace

Online Resources

Read the following:

Current articles or sections from the following academic literature related to technology trends in higher education:

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Education Week

Other academic journal with approval from your instructor

What is open education? Open source resources

(Links to an external site.)

from opesource.com.

The Basics of Blended Learning

(Links to an external site.)

from TED-Ed’s Lesson Creator

Videos

View the following:

“How games make kids smarter

(Links to an external site.)

” [16:20] by Gabe Zichermann presented at TEDxKids@Brussels.

“

Khan Academy: The future of education?

(Links to an external site.)

SAMPLE OF RESPONSE : (Y.D)

ARTICLE # 1

Culbert, P. D. (2021, January 22). Advice: When This Is All Over, Keep Recording Your Lectures. CHE. https://www.chronicle.com/article/when-this-is-all-over-keep-recording-your-lectures

(Links to an external site.)

Prior to distance learning and in my experience in higher education, course lectures were rarely posted online for viewing and if we missed any class, we had to get the notes from a classmate and go to office hours to make up the work. I often would end up secretly voice recording my lectures so I could go back and review them, as it was always hard to write down every little nuance the teacher spoke of during a 90-minute lecture on cell and molecular biology. Culbert (2021) shares that in his ecology course at his institution, what started as a favor to one student led to insights that would not have happened without the pivot from the pandemic. The insight Culbert (2021) shares is that recording lectures online benefited students more than he anticipated. Rather than see a drop in attendance during live lectures, Culbert (2021) was able to maintain attendance in person as well as provide a resource and study tool for students to review at a later time. In the context of higher education, I truly find value in a professor recording their lectures and Culbert’s (2021) unofficial experiment in his own class confirms this. I believe that higher education faculty can see great benefit to student learning if lecture recordings were made available for viewing, not only as a tool for general education students to review but for English learners to pause and look up unfamiliar vocabulary and for students with special needs to have access to closed captioning to facilitate learning, for example.

ARTICLE # 2 Hoover, E. (2021, January 20). Covid-19 Is Accelerating Changes in Standardized Testing. Expect to See More. CHE. https://www.chronicle.com/article/covid-19-is-accelerating-changes-in-standardized-testing-expect-to-see-more

(Links to an external site.)

With the shift in the pandemic in how education is approached, one aspect of admissions to higher education institutions has been greatly affected: standardized testing. Always a topic of contention, the standardized tests that the College Board puts out never truly measured the ability of a student to succeed in college. Furthermore, as Hoover (2021) explains, there was always a gap in access to such standardized tests for students of color and minority groups. Not only was access to testing limited for disadvantaged students, but this population also had less access to test preparation resources to help them excel in the exams. Due to the pandemic, the College Board has elected to withdraw testing for subject examinations and in some sense, this can help advance higher education to become more inclusive. The implications for higher education will not be known for many application cycles to come, though I believe that the reduction in testing requirements will allow for many more disadvantaged students to access higher education. The challenge then becomes ensuring that all students have fair and equitable access to extracurriculars that allow them to showcase their talents, which is another issue in the quest for higher education in our country. I think that reducing the testing requirement will help lower the barrier to families who do not have access to testing resources though this is not a one-stop shop for encouraging more students to access high education. This is a great start to a conversation that the country needs to have to increase access to higher education in all populations, not just those that are privileged.