Coles notes- Learning Tech Trends
I chose to analyze Connie Malamed December 2010 opinion piece “Learning Technology Trends to Watch in 2011.” In the true fashion of judging a book by its cover I chose this particular piece because of the visuals – a conscious choice as I feel I understand and learn better when there are visual cues that augment the information in the reading. However, as many have already written it did turn out to be a “People Magazine” overview of learning technology trends as it glosses over each trend and does not really present anything new. I say “really” because I did get excited about Augmented Reality and Virtual Worlds. I had not heard of AR before the Emerging Market Poll last week and this article did more to explain it to me. I felt it was an interesting trend and one to look into. I especially like the possibilities of this for a language class. You can take a picture of something and then can be told what it is in your target language. While I had heard of virtual worlds before I am especially interested as gaming is the topic of my group’s presentation. However, I found the comments a better source of information for this than the actual body of the article.
The reason the article failed, in my view, is that it fails to mention some learning technologies that I feel are important – like “the cloud” (whether or not you agree with it, it still is newer than a mobile phone). On that note I feel as if Malamed missed the mark on the mobile phone portion. It is true that mobile phones are becoming more and more important but I feel she could have mentioned which new apps were available for learning technology. Using a phone is old news and I would have like to know what is NEW in the phone department not just that “there are new apps.”
While I found parts of this article interesting I don’t think I would seek it out for professional development. I might recommend it to friends who are not really interested in technology to provide a ‘Coles notes’ version of some learning technologies they may like to try in their classroom.
Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace
themusicwoman 9:19 pm on September 16, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Dear Tamara,
I literally closed my eyes and clicked on one of the links and I chose the same article. I also didn’t read anyone else’s post but I like whomever called it the “People Magazine” overview. 🙂 I agree with you that the comments were more informative but I liked the layout so will probably go back to the site. When I say I would recommend it, I’m actually thinking of some of the teachers I work with who are still hitting reply all instead of reply sender. Nice post.
khenry 5:54 am on September 17, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Tamara,
I appreciate your multi-perspective approach to this discussion, particulalry the parallels made from your experience on the site to an integrated learning tool ( your language arts example).
Perspective is an interesting thing. I agree that many of the accounts could benefit from further exploration. However, it could also be that Malamed is catering to a specific target audience, perhaps the kind of teachers MW mentioned, or objective, an introduction and brief overview to platform further research. Also, perhaps she could offer services that would garner deeper information. That in and of itself would be a viable venture.
Kerry-Ann
mcquaid 3:28 pm on September 17, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi, Tamara.
I had not thought about the language possibilities for AR before you mentioned them. It’s like taking Google Goggles to the next step… what a useful technology-aided ability that would be when traveling! One would just hope that those in charge of translation knew what they were doing and were trustworthy. When they aren’t, we all know what the consequences could be:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6D1YI-41ao
Like you, I would only recommend it, I think, as a “neat little summary-type” article.
Cheers,
Steve
kstooshnov 1:07 pm on September 18, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Tamara,
There is something to be said about the opening comment you made, how visually appealing Malamed’s blog is, and it may be an appeal to Gardner’s spatial intelligence, The phrase “judging a book by its cover” was meant to indicate shallow, snap judgements rather than a more academically-sound analysis of the book itself. Yet now with digital technology, does this old saw hold true? Like rotary phones, analog clocks and television dials, books are slowly being replaced by Web-based content (very slowly, it may be decades before children ask parents “what does dust jacket mean?”). Internet-users need those visual cues to incite their interests, even if it turns out to be the “People Magazine” version of learning technology. How many people are willing to read through a screenful of plain text to gather information? How many of us ETEC 522ers actually read through each edtech marketplace report before posting our responses? While Malamed’s predictions may not be absolutely informative, she has caught the attention of enough of us to continue on with this discussion.
Kyle