Saturday, May 26, 2012
Week 3 Reflection
From this week readings what I have retained is that educational technology is not a new field of inquiry as many people might think. Indeed, this field exist since the beginning of the computer revolution in the 1950. The main goal of the field of study has changed in a drastic manner during the time moving from supporting standards teaching practices in the beginning to improving and fostering the quality of education today. Indeed, the first the first objective of using technology in education systems was merely to support teachers in their activities, they were not suppose to play a central role in the education environment as it is the case today. As we all know it new technologies are everywhere in our classrooms, we use them in mostly each of our class activity and and they contributed to facilitate the transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the students since the later have now access to information and can to their own research without in most of the cases the help of the teachers.
It seems important here to underline that the new technologies as an instrument of change have been victims of many resistances in the school systems. And this continue to be the case even today. Indeed, many teachers saw in these technologies a threat. They were uncomfortable about using these technologies because they were not familiar with them and also because by using these technologies, the students become more autonomous and rely less on the teachers for their learning.
Furthermore, the top dow approach which has been adopted by many education institutions has contributed to frustrated may teachers. The absence of training for the teachers was also an important cause of the resistance of many teachers against the use of the new technologies in school.
The lesson I have learned from these examples was that it is not possible to successfully implement a new technology in the school environment without including both the teachers and the students in the process. The teachers are one of the key actors in the school life and their commitment to the new technologies is an imperative in order to improve the performance and the quality of the education delivered in class. Students should also be involved because their are the final customers of the new technologies. It will be useful to know what kind of technology they want to use in order to facilitate their learning process.
To conclude , I think this week reading clearly pointed it out that the only way to make a good use of new technologies in the education system is when everyone in the organization is informed and trained about how to use these technologies. School actors should work together as members of a same team in order to adopt and to use in the best manner the new technological tools which will help them achieve their goals and objectives
It seems important here to underline that the new technologies as an instrument of change have been victims of many resistances in the school systems. And this continue to be the case even today. Indeed, many teachers saw in these technologies a threat. They were uncomfortable about using these technologies because they were not familiar with them and also because by using these technologies, the students become more autonomous and rely less on the teachers for their learning.
Furthermore, the top dow approach which has been adopted by many education institutions has contributed to frustrated may teachers. The absence of training for the teachers was also an important cause of the resistance of many teachers against the use of the new technologies in school.
The lesson I have learned from these examples was that it is not possible to successfully implement a new technology in the school environment without including both the teachers and the students in the process. The teachers are one of the key actors in the school life and their commitment to the new technologies is an imperative in order to improve the performance and the quality of the education delivered in class. Students should also be involved because their are the final customers of the new technologies. It will be useful to know what kind of technology they want to use in order to facilitate their learning process.
To conclude , I think this week reading clearly pointed it out that the only way to make a good use of new technologies in the education system is when everyone in the organization is informed and trained about how to use these technologies. School actors should work together as members of a same team in order to adopt and to use in the best manner the new technological tools which will help them achieve their goals and objectives
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Is Technology The Problem?
In my personal opinion, there will always be a debate about the use of technology in our education systems. As the article Beyong technology clearly pointed it out , there are many authors who believe that we need more technology in order to transform and to improve our education systems. I think we will all agree on teh fact that technology has made teaching extremely easy. We dont use anymore the old blackborad and the white chalk to explain things to our students. We can also thanks to the use of technology share with the students a large number of information in a very short time. The use of technology ahs also made communication very easy. Teachers can share information with their students and their parents in a very short period of time. All these are very important things that the use of technology has brought in the education system.
However, despite these important advantages I dont agree with the argument wich says that technology should take over in the education system. I believe that technology can be a very effective tool when it comes to teach some specific activities with the students in classrooms. But it cannot and should not take the place of teachers who are one of the key actors of our education systems. I personally dont see a classroom where the teacher will be just a facilitator and where the students will be in charge by using technology. I am convinced as Postam that there are certain things that only teachers are able to do and should be in charge of.
Again the use of technology in class can make the laerning process of the students very interesting and enriching. The can take a huge advantage of some of the tools that they are already familiar with before even being in school. However, there is an important role that teachers should have when it comes to how to use these technologies. They should be the one who will determine what kind of technology to use in order to help the students to dvelop their imagination and their critical thinking.
To conclude, I will argue that the use of technology in educational systems has both proponents and opponents. The question for me is not to determine if we should not techonlogy in schools or not? The real problem in my opinion is how can we make the use of technology is educational systems efficient? What role should teachers play when it comes to use new technologies in school?
EDT 5410 : Week 2 RSS & WIKIS
Using blogs
I have to say here that I never had or used a blog before. Of course I heard from friends and classmates about how the blogs were all about but I did not have any experience using them. Therefore, for my first experience I can argeun that creating and using a blog is relatively easy. By following the directives from the instructor I did not ahve any problem creating and using my personal blog. I also found that blogs can be very useful tools to save and to share information with others. They also offer the possibilty to their users to organize tehir work in a way that they can easily found them once needed. To conclude , I will argue I had a fun when creating my blog. The process is simple and and relatively fast. I think anyyone with a lil bit of help can create and use a standard web blog page with any problem.
RSS Readers
Before this week assignment I had never clue about what was a RSS Reader. Therefore , the readings were very interesting and useful for me in the sense that I have been able to understand these news concept and to apply them in a practical situation. I found Readers very interesting because they allow their users to subscribe to websites from where they would like to have information. The user can suscribe to as many websites as he want. This gives him the opportunity to have acces in time to all the information he might be interested in. Using readers also enales the users to save a important amount of time. Indeed, once you suscribe to a web site, instead of you going to look to the information , it is the information which comes to you. I think one of the videos explain how the reades work explain in a very good manner this process. In addition, having the option to know what your friends and classmates in the case of our class is another important advantage of using RSS readers.
Wikis
For having used wikipedia for some many years, I always has in mind how pwoplw were able to add and delete information on this enclopedia. I think now I have my answer. Wikis are a very technological tool that we can use in order to share information. This can be very useful tool for students in their school activities. They can use it to share infromation.They can use it to explain their opinion about a class activity and to interact with the rest of the class. I think Wikis give the students the opportunity to particpate in a different way in class activities. They can use the wikis to do their research and to make their own conclusions and interpretations about a topic without teh help of the teacher.To conclude, I will argue that if used in an effcetive manner, the Wikis can really empower the students in their schools activities by giving them the opportunity to become more independent.
You can find here my presonal Wikilink:http://gamalsow.pbworks.com
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Week 2 : Blog and RSS
Using blogs
I have to say here that I never had or used a blog before. Of course I heard from friends and classmates about how the blogs were all about but I did not have any experience using them. Therefore, for my first experience I can argeun that creating and using a blog is relatively easy. By following the directives from the instructor I did not ahve any problem creating and using my personal blog. I also found that blogs can be very useful tools to save and to share information with others. They also offer the possibilty to their users to organize tehir work in a way that they can easily found them once needed. To conclude , I will argue I had a fun when creating my blog. The process is simple and and relatively fast. I think anyyone with a lil bit of help can create and use a standard web blog page with any problem.
RSS Readers
Before this week assignment I had never clue about what was a RSS Reader. Therefore , the readings were very interesting and useful for me in the sense that I have been able to understand these news concept and to apply them in a practical situation. I found Readers very interesting because they allow their users to subscribe to websites from where they would like to have information. The user can suscribe to as many websites as he want. This gives him the opportunity to have acces in time to all the information he might be interested in. Using readers also enales the users to save a important amount of time. Indeed, once you suscribe to a web site, instead of you going to look to the information , it is the information which comes to you. I think one of the videos explain how the reades work explain in a very good manner this process. In addition, having the option to know what your friends and classmates in the case of our class is another important advantage of using RSS readers.
Wikis
For having used wikipedia for some many years, I always has in mind how people were able to add and delete information on this enclopedia. I think now I have my answer. Wikis are a very technological tool that we can use in order to share information. They can be a very useful tool for students in their school activities. They can use it to share infromation.They can use it to explain their opinion about a class activity and to interact with the rest of the class. I think Wikis give the students the opportunity to particpate in a different way in class activities. They can use the wikis to do their research and to make their own conclusions and interpretations about a topic without teh help of the teacher.To conclude, I will argue that if used in an effcetive manner, the Wikis can really empower the students in their schools activities by giving them the opportunity to become more independent.
I have to say here that I never had or used a blog before. Of course I heard from friends and classmates about how the blogs were all about but I did not have any experience using them. Therefore, for my first experience I can argeun that creating and using a blog is relatively easy. By following the directives from the instructor I did not ahve any problem creating and using my personal blog. I also found that blogs can be very useful tools to save and to share information with others. They also offer the possibilty to their users to organize tehir work in a way that they can easily found them once needed. To conclude , I will argue I had a fun when creating my blog. The process is simple and and relatively fast. I think anyyone with a lil bit of help can create and use a standard web blog page with any problem.
RSS Readers
Before this week assignment I had never clue about what was a RSS Reader. Therefore , the readings were very interesting and useful for me in the sense that I have been able to understand these news concept and to apply them in a practical situation. I found Readers very interesting because they allow their users to subscribe to websites from where they would like to have information. The user can suscribe to as many websites as he want. This gives him the opportunity to have acces in time to all the information he might be interested in. Using readers also enales the users to save a important amount of time. Indeed, once you suscribe to a web site, instead of you going to look to the information , it is the information which comes to you. I think one of the videos explain how the reades work explain in a very good manner this process. In addition, having the option to know what your friends and classmates in the case of our class is another important advantage of using RSS readers.
Wikis
For having used wikipedia for some many years, I always has in mind how people were able to add and delete information on this enclopedia. I think now I have my answer. Wikis are a very technological tool that we can use in order to share information. They can be a very useful tool for students in their school activities. They can use it to share infromation.They can use it to explain their opinion about a class activity and to interact with the rest of the class. I think Wikis give the students the opportunity to particpate in a different way in class activities. They can use the wikis to do their research and to make their own conclusions and interpretations about a topic without teh help of the teacher.To conclude, I will argue that if used in an effcetive manner, the Wikis can really empower the students in their schools activities by giving them the opportunity to become more independent.
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