3 Interesting ideas

Radio Broadcasting – Podcasting

Being able to listen to something auditory takes the right kind of person. Not all people can concentrate on sound. I find this type of learning easy, when I have nothing else to do. For example: I can listen to any educational podcast while I am driving in the car, but not while I am sitting at home. Interestingly enough, I can listen more intently when I am driving rather than when I am a passenger. I have subscribed to several podcast with my iPhone, and I find the content to be extremely fresh and relative to the most current news of today. It is convienient and it comes to me, I don’t have to search for it.

Individual Learning

The learners of today learn to become very adaptive. They are not used to “the way we have always done it”. Daily, their procedures and routines change. They are stimulated by new games, new encounters, and constant new experiences. This has become so normal for some of them that change is welcomed and expected. They are continually looking for new tricks, quick fixes, and things to stimulate them. Some have become so bored, that they have become independent learners. They seek their own knowledge. These will be the successful learners of distance education. They will motivate themselves and they will change and adapt to whatever environment is available for them.

Revert back?

“PG 28 Faculty live in a craft oriented premodern culture. In most cases they design, develop and implement their courses on their own. Very rarely do they step into the modern culture when they are offered assistance by an instructional designer, or other professional personnel, or are presented with capital to develop and disseminate instructional materials. If such modern means are afforded to them, they are for a limited period of time and they revert back to their premodern mode of work when the funds from a grant or a project are depleted.”

I can see this as true for now, but the shift is coming. Our cohort for example will begin to design instruction for our sites. We will collaborate and bring all that we have learned to the table. We are on the forefront of change. Most teachers want to engage. We want thing to be easier for the students and us. The great thing about technology is that it is convenient, it is organized, and it is becoming more and more available.

Here is a perfect example: We went from overhead projectors to Elmo document cameras. No teachers want to go back. I don’t think they will ever revert back. Although, having lost our Computer Lab teacher next year, I find myself asking if we are going backwards. What is the district thinking? I have no doubts they will be asking themselves why in the not so distant future.