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How Emerging Technologies are Changing Education

Guest Blogger — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:11:13 +0000

As technology grows it reaches into every nook and cranny of society. Education is a sector which has benefited tremendously from software and computing advances and will continue to do so in the future. Students looking to prepare themselves for a wide variety of careers, from physician jobs to entrepreneurial ventures, are now exploring a plethora of different educational tools and programs.

Podcasts

Producing a podcast is a cheap, creative, and interactive way to educate a global audience without stirring up privacy issues. Video podcasts can be shot and edited with a simple webcam and free software like iMovie and can be streamed across the Internet for maximum exposure. These days you can learn about just about anything through podcasts and many teachers prefer it over stale lectures.

Interactive gadgets

Tablets and other handheld devices are allowing students better ways to interact with their professors and with other students. To provide access to video tutorials and interactive programs, many schools now hand out tablets in the classroom as a way to contextualize lectures and create feedback loops among students. Digital whiteboards are portable interfaces and part of a growing trend toward embeddable screens that may characterize the coming decades. Imagine the utility of a teacher being able to present 1:1 information to a student on a mobile whiteboard. No messy chalk, no cumbersome apparatus. It will be interesting to see how technology like this evolves into augmented reality and even holograms.

e-Campus

More and more students are getting their college education right from the comfort of their own living rooms. E-campus degrees are becoming more high-tech and reputable as technology improves and Internet access proliferates. Self-starters don’t necessarily need a classroom setting in order to learn and may prefer to save money and shape their own study schedules. E-campuses also make it easier on people who are keeping down a job or raising a child while they earn their degree. The more cutting edge programs, such as Oregon State University’s e-campus, offer worthy alternatives to in-class degrees. In the future, telepresence technologies and virtual reality may make it possible to populate classrooms with avatars, combining the e-campus experience with a revamped interpretation of the traditional classroom setting.

As you can see, the stale old classroom days are coming to an end. Vibrant new options are arising in the educational world and this trend is expected to flourish with the arrival of more advanced technologies. The only question now is whether teachers will ultimately be replaced by artificial intelligence (gasp). But we’ve still got a few decades to figure that one out.

How Emerging Technologies are Changing Education is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.

The Value of Lecture Podcasts

Jorge Goncalves — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:07:25 +0000

Article: Questioning the Student Use of and Desire for Lecture Podcasts, Laura A. Guertin, Matthew J. Bodek, Sarah E. Zappe, Heeyoung Kim, MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2007. Abstract: The use of audio files, specifically podcasts, has become more visible and accessible to students in higher education. Despite a lack of pedagogical research on the benefits of podcasting, several universities have adopted the technology of using audio for instruction outside of class and sharing of information. Although institutions and instructors have embraced the technology, have the students? A professor in an introductory geoscience course for nonscience majors recorded the audio from classroom lectures and made these audio files available through the university’s online course management system. Student accesses of the audio files were tracked. The students were surveyed about their knowledge on how to utilize the audio files and if they believed the audio to be of some use. Although percentages were not high in terms of student accesses to individual lectures, and a little over half the students were aware of how to access and utilize the files, all of the students reported a perceived value to having lecture podcasts available.

MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT). ‘MERLOT is a free and open resource designed primarily for faculty and students of higher education. The MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT) is a peer-reviewed, online publication addressing the scholarly use of multimedia resources in education. JOLT is published quarterly in March, June, September, and December.’

The Value of Lecture Podcasts is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.

University Podcasts Collection from Open Culture

Jorge Goncalves — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 20:00:51 +0000

University Podcast Collection at Open Culture. Very good. [via Distance Learning]

More podcasts at Open Culture: Podcast Library

Open Culture. ‘Open Culture explores cultural and educational media (podcasts, videos, online courses, etc.) that’s freely available on the web, and that makes learning dynamic, productive, and fun.’

University Podcasts Collection from Open Culture is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.

For the Weekend: Utopia Podcast

Jorge Goncalves — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:15:47 +0000

Utopia Podcast at LearnOutLoud. ‘Written in 1515, Sir Thomas More’s famous narrative describes what could be considered the perfect society, and questions whether a perfect society is possible.’

Wikipedia: Utopia. ‘Utopia (from Greek: “no place” or “place that does not exist”) is an imaginary island, depicted by Sir Thomas More as a perfect social, legal, and political system. It may be used pejoratively, to refer to a society that is unrealistic and impossible to realize. It has also been used to describe actual communities founded in attempts to create an ideal society.’

Project Gutenberg: Utopia by Saint Sir Thomas More

For the Weekend: Utopia Podcast is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.

PoducateMe Podcasting Guide

Jorge Goncalves — Tue, 15 May 2007 17:50:18 +0000

PoducateMe – Practical Solutions for Podcasting in Education. ‘Youâ€™ve likely heard of podcasting by now. Countless universities, colleges and K-12 classes worldwide are using the technology to deliver recorded lectures, news and information to students. In fact, nothing has had a greater impact on students since the invention of the paddle. OK, I kid, but I’m also making a point here â€” podcasting has taken education by storm, and the technology cannot be ignored.
PoducateMe features a comprehensive podcasting guide that reveals exactly how to bring the benefits of podcasting to your classroom. The entire PoducateMe Podcasting Guide can be read online free of charge.’

PoducateMe Podcasting Guide is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.

TeacherTube: Educational Videos Sharing

Jorge Goncalves — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 10:18:14 +0000

TeacherTube. ‘Started in January 2007, TeacherTube is an online media property for people to watch and share Education videos worldwide through a Web experience for everyone.
Anyone can watch videos on TeacherTube. People can see first-hand accounts of great messages from people who care most about education. Video clip sharing on TeacherTube is a new way to expand to a broader audience as more people turn to the internet for more information, not only can they hear you (radio), but know they see you (TeacherTube.com). TeacherTube is helping teachers and students get more out of education all over the world via video sharing.’

TeacherTube Blog

TeacherTube: Educational Videos Sharing is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.

Odiogo: Convert Blog Entries into Podcasts

Jorge Goncalves — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 23:22:21 +0000

Odiogoâ„¢ announces the launch of a groundbreaking Web 2.0 application that enables text content providers to create new audio media in a snap. Blog entries are converted on the fly into high fidelity voice files ready to play on MP3 players, PDAs, phones, or laptop computers.
Odiogo â€“ a play on â€œAudio To Goâ€ â€“ extracts blog posts or articles from member news sites and converts them to lightweight MP3 files in seconds. The files can be loaded to any mobile device, giving users anytime-anywhere access to their favorite web content.

How It Works: Odiogoâ„¢ Generates Podcasts of Text Content: Many news and blogs sites available on the Web today leverage the standard distribution format, RSS. Odiogo monitors its content partners’ feeds and automatically creates for each news item small audio files using cutting-edge text-to-speech technology. Unlike many of its predecessors, this new breed of artificial intelligence technology observes punctuation and more natural speech patterns to provide a high fidelity listening experience, which the company is continually fine-tuning.
Odiogo-enabling a content site requires minimal effort and bandwidth. The service is run from Odiogo’s data center, where the MP3 files are stored, and later downloaded to iPodsâ„¢ and other mobile devices, free of charge.

Read full press release

Odiogo: Convert Blog Entries into Podcasts is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.

TeachOutLoud.com: Publishing Your Educational Audios and Videos

Jorge Goncalves — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 17:22:56 +0000

TeachOutLoud is a revolutionary new service offered by LearnOutLoud.com that allows you to spread your knowledge to the world using audio and video. A simple web-based interface allows you to upload your digital content and sell it, or offer it for free.

Tags: TeachOutLoud, Educational Podcasts

TeachOutLoud.com: Publishing Your Educational Audios and Videos is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.

Front Row: Boston College Podcasts

Jorge Goncalves — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:45:06 +0000

Boston College Front Row. ‘Boston College Front Row is a Web site that offers free access through streaming media to tapes of cultural and scholarly events at Boston College. Front Row is a service of Boston College Magazine and is produced by the Office of Marketing Communications in partnership with the colleges, schools, departments, and programs of the University.’

Front Row: Boston College Podcasts is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.

LearnOutLoud.com Free Directory

Jorge Goncalves — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:47:54 +0000

LearnOutLoud.com Free Directory. ‘LearnOutLoud.com has scoured the Internet to bring you over 500 free audio and video titles. This directory features free audio books, lectures, speeches, sermons, interviews, and many other great free audio and video resources. Most audio titles can be downloaded in digital formats such as MP3 and most video titles are available to stream online.’

Tags: LearnOutLoud

LearnOutLoud.com Free Directory is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.