Hello!

Dr. Elsa Sophia Morote, Chair of Educational Leadership, Administration, and Technology at Dowling College, describes her quests in keeping up with the continual changes and improvements in educational technology in her blog, Educational Technology, My Personal Adventure.  The analogy to an adventure is perfect because following the rapid advancement in technology is like a trek through uncharted territory, especially for the casual user, such as myself.

The YouTube productionThe Networked Studentby Wendy Drexler helped me to begin to understand the learning landscape in the Technological 21^st century.  The best analogy that comes to my mind after viewing The Networked Student is an octopus and its tentacles.  The delightful animation describes what a student in this technological age will need to be aware of and be able to navigate -- from . . . Google Scholar to obtain reputable sources of information on a topic, a social bookmarking site such as Delicious that keeps track of your favorite sites and allows sharing, to blog sites for sharing opinions and RSS readers to subscribe to blogs on topics of interests.  Let’s not forget Wikki spaces that are places for more formal postings of factual information versus opinion or views.  It does not end there, because iTunes U offers a plethora of informative podcasts and Open Sources of information including college courses from world-class professors for FREE!

So, what does this mean for education, instruction, and teachers?  Change.  Real change.  The kind of change that can transform the way the world works, lives, learns, and plays.  It does not mean fewer teachers.  On the contrary, teachers are at the heart of the matter.    It means teachers’ roles will be changing, the places of instructional delivery will be changing, the form of instructional delivery will be changing.  Change is coming.  The technological network is ready and waiting.  All of the tools are available to us now.  We have a lot to learn, but we are teachers.  We are the best learners.  

Regards,

Linda Tillinghast