Advancing Learning with Technology

Technology has become more and more important to society since it was first established. We all use technology in our everyday lives, since it's already we should utilize its abilities to help us. We can improve our education and overall learning capacities with the use of technology. Project Red (which is the Revolutionizing of Education). Project Red is a national research plan that was created by a team of education and industry professionals who wanted to change education for the better. It's funded by three research organizations: the Greaves Group, The Hayes Connection, and One-To-One Institute. They conduct research on technology in the classroom, focusing on 1:1 classrooms. Project Red is the first and only national study of education technology to focus on student achievement and financial implications. They work to use technology to enhance education at a low cost. Results show that 1:1 schools offer more opportunistic chances for enhacing education and returning investment than other schools. Online education possibilities also increase collaboration and student engagement.

Image Posted on Flicr by katerha

For more information about Project Red in general can be found at http://www.pearsonfoundation.org/great-learning/project-red-the-technology-factor.html.

Providing Educational Oppourtunity

The importance of technology in education has taken on a new level. In order to educate children in low income countries, a program has been established to provide these children with an opportunity to have an education. OLPC or One Laptop Per Child is a nonprofit organization that provides cheap, educationally-based laptops to these children who reside in poverty-stricken areas all over the world. Every child in a classroom receives rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with specific content to enhance their education. These laptops are called the XO and they were created to specifically combine innovations in technology and learning. It also supports easy repair and local language support and handles environmental conditions such as high heat or humidity.

Image Posted on Flickr by Knight Foundation

With the use of these laptops, children are given the chance to learn new information in multiple ways, as well as to share information with others/collaborate on group activities. With the use of these laptops, they become connected to an environment based on promoting their education.


This website shows more information about the One Laptop Per Child organization, as well as information about the laptops themselves: http://one.laptop.org/

The following video presents a review of the One Laptop Per Child laptop.
The video was posted by NewYorkTimes on Youtube.
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PM33EEAszHA

The XO laptop is a great example of innovating technology and education and an even greater example of creating and using technology for specific needs, such as those of educational value.

Always Connected

Learning can reach beyond the classroom with the use of mobile capabilities. In this day and age, new mobile devices are created yearly, various phones, ipods, netbooks, each of which are different, yet they all hold the capacity to enhance learning through applications and web use. Mobile learning is a great way for students to communicate, share, and create tools that they can use anywhere at anytime. Mobile learning offers research capabilities, access to communication websites (digo, twitter, facebook, email), and the use of applications and note devices for students to create note cards or leave themselves reminders. Examples of various uses of technology in the educational sense can be found here: http://learninginhand.com/.

Whether or not to use technology in the classroom is of strong debate today. Some are supportive, others not so much. Those who are supportive would like to utilize the mobile capabilities to expand the boundaries of the classroom. The debate of mobile device use in the classroom is highly represented in this video:

Cell Phones in the Classroom: Learning for the 21st Century, video posted by OnOttButton.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXt_de2-HBE 

Ways to enhance education on mobile devices:

Web tools are a helpful accessory for storing and accessing data. There are many different types of web tools that satisfy numerous wants and needs. For instance, google drives and prezi are useful tools for organizing information through the creation of web documents, forms, spreadsheets, and presentations. Both are creative ways to organize information and both are accessible from anywhere, as long as you have internet usage. Evernote, another web tool, is useful for capturing ideas and placing them in one location. Here, the user can save their own ideas, find new things that may be of interest to them, and search for text and images quickly. As well as Evernote, Lino is another web tool that is excellent for saving your thoughts and ideas or note taking. Glogster Edu is yet another web tool. This one relates directly to applying technology in the classroom setting. The purpose of Glogster Edu is for the expression of knowledge and skills by educators and students. GLOGS, themselves, are online multimedia posters that present information with the use of many tools- text, photos, videos, audio, and attachments. It is great for digital literacy and for promoting new ways to present information. 

Podcasts are new ways to use technology to educate. Podcasts are a series of audio and video clips that are created to present information about innumerable topics. Podcasts are popular applications used on mobile devices because people can listen or watch while on the go through their mobile devices. Podcasts are also great for sharing information with a wide scale audience. 

Image by University of Maryland Press Releases
Published on Flickr

Mobile devices are the future. There's much debate about them currently, but I see them becoming part of everyday education sooner or later. This is due to the helpfulness they could contribute to learning in the classroom. It's a demand that schools will learn to accept and to utilize to its full capacity. 

Utilizing Personal Learning Networks in the Classroom!

Personal learning networks are great for many things! A majority of society views them as good social websites, and although they are a wonderful way to share social information and connect with peers, personal learning networks can be used for so much more! When applying an educational outlook, personal learning networks are a reliable way to share ideas and to find/access information quickly. Educators can use them to share various educational ideas for the classroom with each other. Educators can also use them to communicate with students on related topical information or to share links to related topics from the current classroom discussion. Students themselves can also use them to share thoughts with other students about the content their currently covering or to share outside links of related information they have discovered. Personal learning networks are great for communicating outside of the classroom, as well as for applying outside information about current classroom topics.

Photo Taken by fredcavazza. Published on Flickr

I have been an avid user of Facebook and Twitter for a couple of years but I only ever used them in the social sense with my peers. I never considered the possibilities of using them in an educational sense. I have recently realized the usefulness they bring to finding and sharing ideas for classroom. I have also recently started using Pinterest and Digo, both of which are excellent websites for finding classroom project ideas or other websites with educational ideas or value. Below are linked some examples I have found while using these learning networks.

I found this website http://www.nms21stcenturyclassroom.com/#!  through an educational page on Digo; it's a swell example to model my own website off of one day to help students further their knowledge on different subject matters!

Digo also brought me here: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/archives/technology.shtml which is a great website for finding all sorts of information about using technology in the classroom. It offers links to tips and tricks, as well as new ideas and innovations to use in the relation between technology and teaching. For instance, one of the links brought me to http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech256.shtml which offered great examples of how to use social networking websites for prime educational value.

Along with Digo, Twitter and Facebook are also helpful in innovating technology and education. With the use of them, educators can follow quality education foundations, such as edutopia, to discover new technologies and new ideas in relation  to education and technology.

Overall, personal learning networks are fantastic ways to find and to share educational ideas, as well as to create new ways to display educational information to others.