What challenges and opportunities do you see for the realization of your philosophy of education in the evolution of eLearning as we know it?

I think that as online tools become ubiquitous in everyday life, they will need to become more entrenched into education as a whole.

The Challenges

I feel like the issue of security and privacy when using educational technology is going to be very important going forward. All the stakeholders, from students and parents to school boards and government, need to balance protecting students’ privacy with using new and interesting tools in the classroom. Teachers need to work closely with parents in order to ensure that the safety of the students is being protected at school, and at home as well.

I also feel there needs to be significant classroom development for teachers in order to use educational technology effectively and safely in their specific context. Teachers without a lot of digital experience are going to struggle when introducing technology in the classroom – especially because most educational technologies require an up-front time investment to learn how to use them effectively. As well, teachers need to feel comfortable enough with the technology to help students. Although many students enjoy using technology within the classroom, they do require training to use it effectively. Many teachers believe that students are native to digital technologies and understand how to use them, but there is an intrinsic difference between students’ use of digital technology in their everyday lives and using it in the context of learning.

The huge number of different educational technologies, from LMSs to social networking platforms, means that teachers need to be careful what tools they choose to use. It is easy to be swept up into a new tool without developing a pedagogically sound plan for it. Some teachers run into this obstacle because they feel pressure from students, parents or other teachers to use technology.

For all of the reasons above I need to be careful when trying to realize my pedagogy in a real classroom context. Without much in-classroom experience, I feel that being swept up in using technology will be especially dangerous for me.

The Opportunities

The growing pressure to integrate more digital and “new” media into the classroom is also creating new and different opportunities for students to interact with each other in meaningful ways. Technology can also help students to organize, express and share their work in ways that were not possible before. An especially apt example is available on teachinquiry.com (http://www.teachinquiry.com/index/Introduction.html). Teachers were able to leverage technology to enhance a powerful inquiry-based laboratory on decomposition.

I feel the other really exciting opportunities for STEM teachers include the ability to conduct remote laboratories with “real” scientific equipment, as well as the opportunities to use a variety of remarkable virtual reality tools to enhance poorly-equipped Science classrooms. I truly believe that Science is a way of thinking about and interacting with your world. All students, even those that “don’t like Science”, can benefit from “doing” Science in a meaningful way.

Additionally, there is greater opportunity to bring in experts from beyond the surrounding community to interact with students. Personally, the most important thing to do is inspire students, and who better to do that than those who have devoted their lives to their field? During my teacher training I was immensely lucky to be involved in a school-wide Science Fair where members of the University of Alberta took the time to support students during their projects and then come back to the school to see the students present their learning. There was a lot of powerful learning and inspiration catalyzed over the course of that Science Fair – in part because the students could see that the larger community cared about what they were doing which inspired them to push themselves. I believe these kinds of experiences can be possible for all students using technology for communication, community building and presentation of learning.

There is so much power and potential in technology in STEM fields, but the risks and concerns associated with technology use must be balanced.

 

Inspired by:

Ansell, S. E., & Park, J. (2003, May). Tracking Tech Trends. Education Week, 22(35), 43-52. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/media/ew/tc/archives/TC03full.pdf

Gros, B., Garcia, I., & Escofet, A. (2012). Beyond the Net Generation Debate: A Comparison of Digital Learners in Face-to-Face and Virtual Universities. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 13(4). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1305/2311

Kear, K. (2011). Online and Social Networking Communities: A Best Practice Guide for Educators. [Kobo Version]. Retrieved from http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/online-and-social-networking-communities

Sauter, M., Uttal, D. H., Rapp, D. N., Downing, M., & Jona, K. (2013). Getting real: The authenticity of remote labs and simulations for science learning. Distance Education, 34(1), 37-47. doi:10.1080/01587919.2013.770431