212 Web 2.0 Tools Identified for Education

This is a great research project presented by Matt Bower of Macquarie University in Sydney Australia. His study highlights 212 different Web 2.0 technologies that are suitable for learning and teaching purposes. This also demonstrates that there are many technologies that are not used or unknown to higher learning educators. I can now refer to this reference to try and explore other options to improve interactions and communications with students.

Typology of Web 2.0 Learning Technologies

The examples provided in the article have the Instructor in mind. Teaching in the modern world will have to include more of these tools than are used currently. 

I have noticed many new tools that I had not thought of yet.

This article will also have its own page in my section area.

Q

 

Distractions in the Classroom

Technology is working its way more prominently into the classroom. Both Instructors and Students have technology to use. We have to find ways to integrate them.
Teachers can use classroom computers and projectors to help students understand concepts and fuel discussions about theory or real world situations.
For example, I used the construction site of Disneyland's new Star Wars Land as an example of weldors on a work site. People shot videos from the parking structure across the street and posted them on YouTube. As the weeks went by students can see how the progress of construction is going.
However, smart phones used in class are a distraction for students if it takes their minds away from the class topics. They will spend time shopping, communicating and browsing all at the same time as class discussions or lectures. Multi media tasking.
I support the use of technology outside of the class to have students spend more time with the concepts. I want to have this blog filled up with resources that are easy to find.
Students can then us this as a resource to review topics that are discussed in class.
The use of smart phones is restricted in the classroom and shop at my welding school. Students constantly checking for updates and communications takes there attention away from the tasks at hand. In the classroom it is disruptive to others. Even just because of the unfairness of one student using and others feeling left out.

Technology as a distraction to important tasks

       What have been some of the negative connotations of the social media bombardment / smart phone debate? The delivery mechanism seems to have developed very strong technology driven issues. I will highlight situations technology is used as a distraction. My chief complaint is that people have a difficult time keeping their attention on important tasks. Receiving notifications from so many different service or content providers. Consider all the constant tweets, burps, jiggles or bells. I value being up to date but this is another dimension. When I recently went on holidays I set my email to manual fetch. Ya, that’s right, the other choice. Rather than having it automatically check every 15 minutes. An absolutely dinosaureous setting. You have to pull down on the app, then wait for new messages to load. My reasoning for doing it was to do with data rooming in the US but it enlightened me.  Apple headquarters could tells us all how many users have each setting, but push must be heavily favored.
I clearly remember modems that connected while bleeping in that special annoying way. Why are we so distracted by technology that by its very nature can be done at any time, anywhere? 100% portable and not easy to turn off. Why when focus is demanded by operating machinery or during work do people use technology that's well known to be inappropriate to interact with?

     People who drive still taking on cell phones. No Bluetooth. No hands free even. This one is so bad. It is criminal behavior and yet the crotch watching is everywhere. Texting at lights to pass the time unaware of surroundings. I put my phone under the arm rest face down while driving. I don't want to miss anything the web will be there when I arrive at my destination. Lack of focus from the task at hand can have serious consequences. Car signal jammer interlocks installed in repeat offenders vehicles are next.

     

     Lastly, please use the example of a repair person hired by you to fix your broken appliance but uses a smart phone inappropriately while in your home. Is it correct to charge you for effort spent doing other things not work the technician is supposed to be doing for you? The worker may call other workers to discuss other work while on the job for you. Family calls are hard not to receive but what would you consider yakking while on the job? I am concerned most about the attention span of the tradesperson doing detail orientated work. If workers are on my property distracted from the task at hand they could be injured. Now that they have lost focus, will they cause damage to my equipment or property through carelessness? All the while they expect to be paid for all the time spent at your home. Trouble with worker productivity is trouble for customers making trouble for employers.

Q

VR & AR technology in the future classroom

     The first thing I found interesting was that I have lived long enough to be able to compare what it was like in an older technology world versus what it's like now in the rapidly changing 2010's. I can reflect on how the methods of instruction changing nowadays, have evolved from when I was taught in the 1990,s. We turned pretty good, so we can’t deny the ultimate need of the adult learner to see purpose in what they are doing. An end goal to energize their work ethic. Students will always do well if correctly motivated to take charge of their learning. Who's to say changing the way we do things is better? This technology is ripe for application to current systems. “In our more than 100 years of building critical human infrastructure, we have seen a lot of technology advancements, and AR has a compelling value proposition in our industry right now. We are looking at AR applications that provide individual operators with data they need to perform specific construction and maintenance tasks remotely.” (Krunkel, Soechtig, Miniman & Stauch, 2016)  I am concerned that modern technology is not better for society overall. Certainly, students nowadays are attracted to more entertaining projects and things that grab their attention better. This modern technology should be attractive to the student population. I agree It is pretty cool. The WOW factor is huge. For now. Does it reduce the amount of instructors that we need in the future? Students will be able to study theory online before they even come to the welding school. I instruct weld theory now. "Technology has infused every aspect of society to essentially change the thought process in learning" (Merrrian & Bierema, 2014, p. 191) This will create staff changes eventually. The high-tech nature of this equipment brings maintenance and repair with it. As someone who works in an 80 power source welding shop can agree, reliability becomes an issue around students. Units would require regular servicing and repair. I could see that assistant rolls maybe necessary in concert with instructor education. The students then may benefit from having additional help as they work through simulation style class study. I will continue to be involved with the direction of change of my trade overall.

References also in Resource section:

Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2014). Adult learning: Linking Theory and Practice. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.

Krunkel, N., Soechtig, S., Miniman, J., & Stauch, C. (2016) Augmented and virtual reality go to work: Seeing business through a different lens. Deloitte MCS Limited. Retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/technology/deloitte-uk-tech-trends-2016-augmented-and-virtual-reality.pdf