Welcome to New Technologies in Education and Training
The Unit Chair is Muriel Wells (Geelong Campus) email: muriel.wells@deakin.edu.au.
We hope you find this an interesting learning experience and that you find it both a personally rewarding and professionally useful experience.
This is a fully online unit. Background: The infusion of new technologies into everyday teaching and training practices is one of the most significant challenges to be faced by contemporary educators.
New technologies are constantly changing and accordingly there is an onging need for educators and trainers to keep up-to-date with technological advances. Currently there are many teachers around the world who are exploring the use of mobile technologies such as Android tablets and iPads and new generation read/write web (Web 2.0) technologies including podcasts, blogs, and wikis as well as other computer based technologies.
The use of new technologies to support teaching and learning has been growing rapidly in most countries for over 30+ years. For many mainstream educators their use in everyday learning spaces are now a reality.
The infusion of new technologies into educational institutions has been associated with constantly changing technologies which have been adopted in many different ways by different educators.
Some critics argue that these uses have not always been productive, with little real effect on learning or on transformation of teaching. Others argue that new technologies have had a positive impact, but that many of those impacts are not easily measured by standardised content-oriented testing regimes.
However, this does not mean that the use of new technologies should be, or can be, ignored. Nor should it be seen as providing teachers with utopian solutions for every educational problem or situation. It is our view that, as in many parts of life and work, we need to have a balanced approach.
New technologies in Education and Training can serve different kinds of social and political goals. In many countries, online learning has become a national priority and many schools and universities are putting their curriculum materials 'online'. These initiatives have been in part an effort to 'meet the needs of the people' who have difficulty in engaging in formal schooling for a variety of reasons. It is also a 'numbers game'. There is an enormous shortfall of university places, parsticularly in developing countries. For example in China ubiquitous access to online courses is seen as a partial solution. In China new technologies may also help to provide culturally adaptive learning materials to each of the 31 ethnic minorities, something that has the potential to help to provide some social cohesion while respecting diversity.
The western world has largely ignored these kinds of issues and proceeded as if new technologies, and particularly online learning (in its various genres), fits all western cultures and contexts. There is, of course, a significant debate surrounding this.
This unit, New Technologies in Education and Training, is designed to help you to explore the uses of new technologies in Education and Training contexts, the claims surrounding them, and perspectives about how to make more effective decisions about the use of new technologies in your professional contexts.
Throughout the core module, and in your first assignment, you will explore and identify issues in relation to the effective and appropriate selection and use of new technologies in educational and training contexts. You are expected to consider the complexities within which these issues reside. Some questions you might keep in mind as you engage with your readings for this unit include:
What are some these new forms of technologies?
How are they currently being used?
What are the major educational issues that relate to their use?
What sort of teaching practices are associated with this usage?
How might they be used more effectively to enhance learning?
In the first half of the unit you will be exploring the research and professional literature about the use of new technologies in education and training contexts. You will be reading, reviewing and publishing summaries in the discussion spaces - to develop your understandings of contemporary perspectives on how and why we use new technologies in education and training. These summaries and associated discussions will form the basis of assignment 1 and are part of the assessment for assignment 1. In the second half of the unit you will work with a group of four students, to address a particular issue you will select about the use of new technologies in education and training. This part of the unit adopts a small group learning approach as you work in a similar way to a professional learning team. We believe that this is an important part of the learning outcomes for this unit because you will experience and therefore learn more about using online communications to work collaboratively with colleagues. This will be another instance of using technology to learn.
Welcome to New Technologies in Education and Training
The Unit Chair is Muriel Wells (Geelong Campus) email: muriel.wells@deakin.edu.au.
We hope you find this an interesting learning experience and that you find it both a personally rewarding and professionally useful experience.
This is a fully online unit.
Background: The infusion of new technologies into everyday teaching and training practices is one of the most significant challenges to be faced by contemporary educators.
New technologies are constantly changing and accordingly there is an onging need for educators and trainers to keep up-to-date with technological advances. Currently there are many teachers around the world who are exploring the use of mobile technologies such as Android tablets and iPads and new generation read/write web (Web 2.0) technologies including podcasts, blogs, and wikis as well as other computer based technologies.
The use of new technologies to support teaching and learning has been growing rapidly in most countries for over 30+ years. For many mainstream educators their use in everyday learning spaces are now a reality.
The infusion of new technologies into educational institutions has been associated with constantly changing technologies which have been adopted in many different ways by different educators.
Some critics argue that these uses have not always been productive, with little real effect on learning or on transformation of teaching. Others argue that new technologies have had a positive impact, but that many of those impacts are not easily measured by standardised content-oriented testing regimes.
However, this does not mean that the use of new technologies should be, or can be, ignored. Nor should it be seen as providing teachers with utopian solutions for every educational problem or situation. It is our view that, as in many parts of life and work, we need to have a balanced approach.
New technologies in Education and Training can serve different kinds of social and political goals. In many countries, online learning has become a national priority and many schools and universities are putting their curriculum materials 'online'. These initiatives have been in part an effort to 'meet the needs of the people' who have difficulty in engaging in formal schooling for a variety of reasons. It is also a 'numbers game'. There is an enormous shortfall of university places, parsticularly in developing countries. For example in China ubiquitous access to online courses is seen as a partial solution. In China new technologies may also help to provide culturally adaptive learning materials to each of the 31 ethnic minorities, something that has the potential to help to provide some social cohesion while respecting diversity.
The western world has largely ignored these kinds of issues and proceeded as if new technologies, and particularly online learning (in its various genres), fits all western cultures and contexts. There is, of course, a significant debate surrounding this.
This unit, New Technologies in Education and Training, is designed to help you to explore the uses of new technologies in Education and Training contexts, the claims surrounding them, and perspectives about how to make more effective decisions about the use of new technologies in your professional contexts.
Throughout the core module, and in your first assignment, you will explore and identify issues in relation to the effective and appropriate selection and use of new technologies in educational and training contexts. You are expected to consider the complexities within which these issues reside. Some questions you might keep in mind as you engage with your readings for this unit include:
- What are some these new forms of technologies?
- How are they currently being used?
- What are the major educational issues that relate to their use?
- What sort of teaching practices are associated with this usage?
- How might they be used more effectively to enhance learning?
In the first half of the unit you will be exploring the research and professional literature about the use of new technologies in education and training contexts. You will be reading, reviewing and publishing summaries in the discussion spaces - to develop your understandings of contemporary perspectives on how and why we use new technologies in education and training. These summaries and associated discussions will form the basis of assignment 1 and are part of the assessment for assignment 1.In the second half of the unit you will work with a group of four students, to address a particular issue you will select about the use of new technologies in education and training. This part of the unit adopts a small group learning approach as you work in a similar way to a professional learning team. We believe that this is an important part of the learning outcomes for this unit because you will experience and therefore learn more about using online communications to work collaboratively with colleagues. This will be another instance of using technology to learn.