Culmination

Culmination
I was surprised at how much I have learnt about e-learning this semester. E- learning provides many benefits for children, it was always a known fact that children learn by doing things rather than passively listening. I always thought that children can create something like a poster as it allows children to problem solve and reflect. However through readings I have realized that technology holds many more benefits that pen and paper can not compete, this is largely because children can come back and edit and add to their projects as their knowledge expands ( Idit Harel)1
Coming into this subject I was not really to sure with what to expect however at the conclusion of it, I have come to realize that incorporating technology into the classroom isn’t a question of should we it is rather a question of when. It truly is a collaborative tool, things such as blogs really made an impact on me. It allows children to have a wider audience, people in other countries can view and comment this allows children to gain multiple perspectives but it also makes learning a lot more meaningful. Parents can keep up to date with their children’s work; teachers and students can communicate outside of school hours. I am amazed at collaborative tools such as VoiceThread, blogs, elgg and messaging they take learning to a completely new level, they allow children to collaborate outside of school hours this means that learning never really ends.
These collaborative tools allow the shy child to feel comfortable in sharing their opinion, but they also allow multiple discussions to take place. In classrooms one discussion at a time takes place, and if the current discussion does not interest the child then they will tune out, but these interactive discussions allow the child to choose which one they want to contribute to, but more importantly children are able to think about their responses before they post it, contributing to deep learning.2

Podcasts still amaze me, I had never really heard of them before I started this course, now I can’t pick a fault in them, they encourage children to engage in the topic and they also develop oral development and communication skills.
I have always been a firm believer that a textbook was much more reliable than a website, however this semester has taught me that both do have their merits. We need to teach children to be active in their research, just because they see something doesn’t mean that it is true, they need to cross check information to check for reliability and validly and we are also encouraging children to look for bias. 3
I have learnt that we haven’t really stopped with mobile phones becoming part of this research and collaborative world, we are forever changing and new technology will always be emerging and we need to keep up to date.
I think the major thing that I learnt was that children do want to learn we are just not engaging them, when I was on prac every child had a computer and they really wanted to learn, they were motivated and enthused to complete their work, if we want children to learn we should be incorporating technology.
But that doesn’t mean that traditional methods need to abolished we can have both.

1. http://www.mamamedia.com/areas/grownups/new/21_learning/sand_castles.html
2. : http://www.edutopia.org/voicethread-interactive-multimedia-albums/
3. : http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_420.php