When I contemplate my own progression with technology the first thing that comes to mind for me is “google”. This thought makes me feel guilty because I know there are other (and possibly better) ways of learning and finding information. But in an emergency, when I need a quick answer I always go straight to google! The other day my sister asked me if Liz Hurley was taller than Shane Warne. I ripped out my phone straight to google and found the answer! Now you know what I mean when I say emergency!! This course has helped me think about this fact more though, the way I learn, and possibly, hopefully, this will change for good. Now I feel confident and willing to use other tools – for example Instagrok! Another change I think is worth noting is how I organise my information. I love Evernote! Previoulsy I would create a word document and just save little notes, but Evernote has changed this practice for the better. Previously learning for me was to look in a book or ask someone and if I couldnt find out, “oh well”, just forget about it. But now, because I know the answer is there on-line on my computer (because everything is there) I dont give up, I eventually find the answer.
I have many feelings about the impact of technology on us as citizens. The most prominent feelings I have though are, “I want to tell everyone about this so they can be excited as me” and “but be careful though” . I feel as though everything is out there and available now. I feel as though everyone has opportunities through technology to get the help they need. If they need help with a problem there are on-line communities to help, websites with information, or videos from others who have asked the same question. This impacts on us as citizens because it is all there, available and shared by many. My feelings also lean towards caution. Being very carelful about this information though, because some of it is not that reliable and may lead to misinformation. When you sign up for an on-line community who are you sharing information with? and can they be trusted? We have been impacted in this way because we are out there more, out there in the cyber community for everyone to see!
The five chosen characteristics of an effective learner that I have chosen are listening, interested, questioning, open minded, willing. Technology can support these characteristics in many ways. Take for example an on-line community such as Facebook. If we think of it in an educational context, and a teacher sets up a group with an assigned task. The whole class are members of this group. They can listen to others opinions and suggestions of information, they can show interest by liking a comment or adding a comment of thier own to encourage others, questions can be asked, they can be open minded to find out things they never knew before and they can be willing to learn as much as they can about the group and the task assigned. Facebook is just an example of one technology but there are so many out there to choose from I could go on for weeks! The bottom line is that everything an effective learner needs seems to be available through technology.
I believe that at the moment we are going through a process of change. The way people learn at the moment seems to be a mixture of how we learnt in the past and with very big glimpses of how I predict we will learn in the future. The other day I went to my seven year old’s mother’s day concert. The music teacher was playing a tape recorder! I think it will take a while for the habits of the past to diminish but when my seven year old is my age (or even much much younger) most of his learning will be done on-line. At school he will still be in a class, but the whole class will be on-line and they will all share the information they find on-line. They will do their assignments on-line through such tools as Glogster and Animoto. Everyone will have a blog and an Evernote account. Questions will be answered before you even get to ask them and one – on- one learning is just a click of the key pad away. And all classes will be set up in Edmodo of course. As an adult still learning he will still be going on-line (I wonder if it will still be google!) to find out information (especially about Shane Warne!) Everything will be there and available at anytime and he will be able to share and ask as many questions as he likes! I may be right about this but I could also be way way off and there may be some amazing technological wizz bang tool that no-one has even thought of yet! But I do know for sure that there is definitely change happening and it will effect how we learn in the future.
lynteresting 