New Ways of Teaching and Learning

You can create quick movies using Windows Movie Maker. if you have a digital camera, you can tape short video clips and upload the to Window Movie Maker. You could also upload pictures and crate a slide show with transtions and video effects. ou could also add audio if you would like to incorporate a narration of each slide and create a story.

See the following tutorial demonstrating the steps on how to create and edit a movie.Editing Movies with Windows Movie Maker 

We have seen a tremendous change in Education in the last 10 years. There is no doubt that kids learn differently now and we also teach differently. From my observation and in my opinion, technology is allowing to realize the changes we have been expecting for a long time.

The Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education by Chickering and Gamson describe very clearly the teaching strategies that facilitate student learning. The Read/Write Web tools are starting to support and facilitate those strategies. Also theories such as Constructivism and Connectivism suggest that deep learning occurs when the learner has the opportunity to construct his own knowledge through experience and connecting and synthesizing different types of information gathered in different ways. However, neither the educational practice nor the technology that supports it have reached the point yet of facilitating complete relevant and meaningful learning activities to the students, and connecting content to real-life situations. Simulated real-life experiences are not yet widely adopted.

In the Year 2020, technology such as SecondLife or other virtual environments will advance and become more accessible by a wide range of schools, allowing students to be immerse in virtual worlds simulating real situations. Technology tools will be more easily adopted and allow the development of 21st Century skills.

According to the 2009 Horizon Report produced as a collaboration between the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), the technology trends to watch in the next 10 years are mobiles and cloud computing (within one year or less), GeoEverything and the Personal Web (within 2 to 3 years), and Sematic-Aware Applications and Smart Objects (within 4 to 5 years). These technologies will become mainstream in schools and universities.

As mobile devices become more capable of performing many functions, storing large amount of information, and allowing the use of third-party applications, there will be an increase in their use for education and every day living. Students will be able to learn from anywhere and at anytime. They will be able to consume and create new information using a variety of media. They will be able to communicate and participate in group activities right from their mobile devices. These devices will become easier to carry, and probably replace laptops and notebooks.

There will be an increase of information and technology tools that will be stored in large specialized data centers hosting thousands of servers. These data centers are called the “cloud”, and they provide a very economical and centralized way of storing information and tools, liberating schools and universities from the cost involved in owing and maintaining servers. Information will be accessible via the Web.

GeoEverthing technology opens opportunities for field research and data acquisition in the sciences, social observation studies, medicine and health, cultural studies, and other areas. Researchers can study migrations of animals, birds, and insects or track the spread of epidemics using data from a multitude of personal devices uploaded as geotagged photographs, videos, or other media plotted on readily-available maps. By placing collected data on a map and adding easy- to-obtain data such as weather, population, urban development, or other factors, researchers and students can study the patterns that emerge. An example of geoeverything technology is the Mediascape tool that allows to create interactive stories and unfold as the user moves through space and time.

The personal web is becoming more popular and has great potential in Education. With the staggering amount of information available in the web, the available easy-to-use and free tools to produce and publish media and information, and with the ability to use tagging, aggregating, and keeping track of information, students can create Webs that are personal and tailored to their own needs and interests.

Search engines will become smart and deliver meaningful searches through the use of semantic-aware technology. These searches will save time in finding accurate and in-context information needed right away. Currently when a user performs a search, the search engines return keywords found inside a document that sometimes is not related to the context that the user is looking for.

The use of smart objects is another type of technology that will be available in the future. Smart objects are the link between virtual worlds and real worlds. Think of doing a web search that reveals not pages of content, but the location, description, and context of actual things in the real world.

Programs to protect safety and privacy will become prominent. Programs preventing viruses will not be sufficient.

So, imagine teaching and learning anywhere and anytime, making connections between the virtual and the real worlds, and in a the type of environments where you are constantly communicating and collaborating, learning from others and teaching others, and customizing the access of information that you need. Would that be engaging?

I would recommend my students to use Picnik to edit the images they collect for the presentations they create to practice their Spanish speaking skills. I think this tool has a lot of potential because is a free applications and students can edit images very easily.

Another benefit of using Picnik is that it only requires the Flash player in students’s computers, which is an application that is already installed in most computer or could be easily downloaded and installed for free.

The learning curve to use this application is very low, so students do not have to spend time trying to figure out how to use the tool and concentrate thier efforts in creating a meaningful presentation.

How would a paperless class change my role as a teacher?
A paperless class would allow me to be a facilitator and a coach rather than the only expert in the subject matter. As I teacher in a paperless class, I would ocncentrate my efforts in designing activities and asessments that allow students to connect content learned in the class with real-life situations. I would try to make connections with community resources that could serve as learning centers for students.

How would paperless classes change learning?
In a paperless class, students would be actively engaged in the learning process and be connected with each other and the instructor using Web 2.0 tools. Students will not only be consumers but also creators of knowledge.

How would I measure learning in a paperless class?
I would measure learning using outcome-based or product-based assessments. I would also have students use multimedia to produce and demonstrate learning.I would apply authentic assessment methods.

Would a paperless space make it easier or harder to build a learning network? Why?
Students are used to a paperless space when they interact with their friends, so it would be natural to them to build a learning network. Possibly, it would take some adjustment to the teacher to create learning environments that would facilitate learning networks for students.

Shift #3 from Will Richardson’s book: The social, collaborative construction of meaningful knowledge. As the Read/Write Web makes it easier to collaborate in the construction of knowledge, the way I teach changes. I focus on searching for technology that will facilitate the adoption of collaborative learning environments. I create wikis to have my students work in group projects. I have my students create blogs to save their work that could be used to build their e-portfolio. I have them also use blogs to reflect and receive feedback.

As the Read/Write Web makes it easy to share ideas and products, it came to my mind that if students use other people’s ideas as starting points to create something of their own, they should be taught the meaning of the concepts of copyright and plagiarism in this new context. Many students copy and paste text they find in the Web without including citations thinking that that is perfectly acceptable.

The Read/Write Web is obviously changing the way I teach and the way students learn and construct knowledge.