Tag Archives: education

Lifelong Learning

What is it?

I often hear people claim to be lifelong learners. It’s a cliché that is frequently seen on resumés, LinkedIn profiles and e-portfolios (such as this one). In today’s rapidly changing world, demanding up-to-date skills, knowledge and technical expertise, it is a quality that employers seek out.  But what does it really mean?

Wikipedia defines lifelong learning as:

Lifelong learning is the “ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated” pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. Therefore, it not only enhances social inclusion, active citizenship, and personal development, but also self-sustainability, as well as competitiveness and employability.

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Indigeneity, Technology, and Education

The ETEC 521: Indigeneity, Technology, and Education course was my favourite course in the whole MET program so far. I think it is because the content and ideas presented were completely new to me. If there was one course that I had to recommend to future MET students, this would be it. I thoroughly enjoyed this course.

Our class contributed to the research weblog  to the  research weblog. The weblog archive goes back to 2005, so you can imagine what an expansive collection of Indigenous education and technology resources can be found there. Continue reading

Education, Technologies & Vulnerable Populations

Photo by Stahlkocher CC BY-SA 3.0

A reading by Susan Pitman, in the ETEC511: Foundations of Educational Technology course, discusses the use of technologies and their impact on child development and well-being. In that article, The Impact of Media Technologies on Child Development and Wellbeing,  Susan Pitman mentions both the positive and the negative impacts that electronic media can have on child development and welfare. One key point which stood out for me was that the most vulnerable children are the most likely to succumb  to the detrimental effects of technology use. For me this re-enforces the idea that technology use by children should be mediated by adults (teachers, parents, guardians, etc) who are aware of the scope of potential impacts in order to capitalize on the benefits.  Continue reading