eLearning reflections

With EduTECH 2013 behind us (only just), I wanted to to ponder the legacy of affirmations and revelations that the 3 days of intensive learning have left.

Of most significance is the affirmation that it isn't (and has never been) about the technology. It is about the learning but, perhaps more importantly, it is about the thinking - creative, analytical and critical.

The technological revolution has laid before us all a series of challenges, challenges that exist because of the access to information, and the degree of interconnectedness, that changing technology has created.

The nature of the game of education has changed. It seems that we can learn almost anything that we choose from the web today. Knowledge is power, but it is no longer a matter of dishing out information carefully in order to safeguard our positon of power, because our constituency can simply bypass us if it chooses. Learners can use the web, and their inter-connectedness, to access knowledge at any time that they choose.

What may prove to be slightly more difficult to acquire without some guidance is the ability to think critically, although the web offers an increasingly powerful set of tools with which to develop these skills.

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that one of my own revelations was the powerful set of Google Operators that lie behind a Google search. Google gives us access to so much information that it is essential to be able to sort the information  and critically evaluate what you find. The operators allow the searcher to select specific information sources. So for example the searcher might want to compare and contrast views of a specific event formt he perspective of the protagonists  Imagine being able to see how the British and Argetinian Press portrayed the Falklands/Malvinas war of 1982.

Of even more interest and perhaps significance was the discovery of the software 'Wolfram Alpha'. This software allows the learner to select two different things to compare. The software then selects a wdie range iof dta formt eh web about these two things/ideas and assembles the data in a form that allows analysis and deeper thinking  The viewer can look a trends, similarities, differences without having to spend a large amount of time collecting and laboriously processing this data.

Steven Wolfam can be seen here discussing this amazing tool.

The biggest gain for me was the motivation to try out the use of a couple of Google tools in a constructivist lesson. The opportunity to reflect as a learner was also valuable.  I'll describe and explain these in a later post.