ED 403 Session 2: Learning resources and technologies

Hello All

Learning resources and technologies

Tertiary education system have generally been quick to adopt new technologies, often even before their educational value has been proven. Throughout its history, higher education has experimented with technological advances as diverse as the blackboard and the personal computer. Some technologies have become permanent parts of the higher education enterprise. Others, such as the slide rule and the 16-millimeter movie projector, have been replaced as more sophisticated or more cost-effective technologies have emerged to take their place.Emerging technologies in education inspire countless conferences, workshops, white papers, and think pieces every year. They pledge to revolutionize the way students and teachers work and interact. At times, they aim to eliminate some elements of education altogether, including the need for physical proximity to the classroom, costly textbooks, or even the presence of a human teacher. Much like the promises made by the apps on our phones, these educational technologies try to make learning more efficient, engaging, relevant, and entertaining. Session 2 was divided into two very important concepts of learning resources and technologies: Learning technologies inform of web 2.0 tools and Open educational resources( OER's).

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Learning Technologies (Web 2.0 tools)

Advances in information technology with emerging mode of abstraction is known as "Web 2.0" it has begun to change the paradigm of higher education. Web 2.0 can also be defined as the social use of the Web which allows people to collaborate , to get actively involved in creating content , to generate knowledge and to share information.Web 2.0 tools provide enormous opportunities for teaching and learning, yet their application in education is still underdeveloped. What is more, it is no longer possible for teachers to ignore such a technological advance, while they are expected to provide students with opportunities to take control of their learning. For this discussion I evaluated two very important Web 2.0 tools Flickr and Application and tools for Agriculture farm management calculations, for which I have outlined a instructional video link attached below.

Link to instructional video on Web 2.0 tool: https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cYefc1xhwM

Open Educational Resources

OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge. Higher education is facing a number of challenges: globalization, an aging society, growing competition between higher educational institutions both nationally and internationally, and rapid technological development. OER is itself one of these challenges, but may also be a sound strategy for individual institutions to meet them. The trend towards sharing software programmes (open source software) and research outcomes (open access publishing) is already so strong that it is generally thought of as a movement. It is now complemented by the trend towards sharing learning resources – the open educational resources movement. For this discussion 5 OER's were evaluated: Wikipedia, Research Gate, Internet Achieve: Audio Archive, Linkedin slideshare and You tube. You tube and Research Gate were further incorporated as major part of the course which I am teaching this semester. Each of the OER's mentioned above are free for users and is unique in a particular way to provide information for its users and equally contributes towards higher education learning.

Thank you.     

Reference

Lillejord S., Børte K., Nesje K. & Ruud E. (2018). Learning and teaching with technology in higher education – a systematic review. Oslo: Knowledge Centre for Education, www.kunnskapssenter.no

PDF) Using Web 2.0 Tools to Enhance Learning in Higher Education: A Case Study in Technological Education. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265282563_Using_Web_20_Tools_to_Enhance_Learning_in_Higher_Education_A_Case_Study_in_Technological_Education [accessed Mar 05 2020].

Mishra. S. (2015). Understanding Open Educational Resources. COMMONWEALTH OF LEARNING. Canada.