mercoledì 5 novembre 2014

#edcmooc INTO THE PAST

                             

#edcmooc        WEEK 1 


                                      INTO THE  PAST 
   I remember reading  Asimov's  science fiction short story  " The fun they had" and how I felt: the children  must have   felt lonely when they had to work on their own and worked on a machine and there was no school and no teachers!! I was only a student  at that time  but  today as  a teacher I like to read this short story with my students  because it describes today's world in education in some way and I like them to think about the main differences between now and  the time I went to school forty years ago. Yet, I feel technology can be positive. My students are digital natives and they can   do more things than me. They learn in a different way!

The videos in the  resources of this week were " shocking"  because they  showed the negative side of technology where human beings are  overwhelmed by using it  and  also made me  reflect  because  the man seemed to lose contact with nature and had a life  that depended too much on the use of technology. I  am and  was aware that e-learning can be threatening , especially if you belong to a  generation that is not digital born.We are used to analyzing the complexities and often it is said that technology can make  our life  worse, because we depend on it, on the changes, we are under pressure any time we change a mobile device or buy a new one.
However , life in the past was not always so easy and we can say that  the new tools are empowering us and our  students. It is up to use  to know how to use them.
       It is true that today we are more connected and we can do a lot of things from home. Learning  is more  on line than in the past, thus  I found interesting  the article "  Change comes hard:
higher education's view of online learning follows the familiar "pc pattern" in  eLearn Magazine.   
In my country, Italy ,  we are still working in the old  schools, but  we are trying to implement  teaching by  introducing  the new technology....... 
The article  is a bit old, from  2002 but  it still describes  how some  teachers, the old  generation, are  looking at  technologies in education.
24/7 college courses are also mentioned.  And we learn that there will be more education,  I feel that today's MOOCs are a great opportunity but we  must think about education  not only as a business, education is important for the generations who will live in this  world in the next  years because technology will continue shape and change our life.  Human  beings  can manage !
Technology can help us to be less passive, we can create  and develop projects on line, we can work with our students, and the use of internet and  youtube can make the world enter school rooms. Too often there is gap between school and the outside world.

With the young and children  it is up to teachers to  know the risks and to monitor them while they are working but again  life should be part of our  teaching, because we might learn  a lot about  William Shakespeare but it is also important to be able to express one's ideas, to work together, to use new tools and possess the so called competences needed in the XXI century.
  
Technology should be  seen in a positive way because the world of education  of the past   does not exist anymore.
Digital education for me can be good,  Noble considers  technology in a negative way but I feel that  education cannot be like the past and teachers will be important supporters in education. 
The main problem for me is  to have the money to buy technology that can work: in poorer parts of the world it must be difficult. Also in Italy we have great problems, the great  digital divide now can be negative for the future of a nation. 




WHAT MIGHT  THEN  HAPPEN IN EDUCATION NEXT ?
PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D8aEOzqDn8


 you might also like to watch this VIDEO

For sure we are moving into a new  age!





Nessun commento:

Posta un commento