Based on what you know about the Internet and the World Wide Web, and what you read about he history of instructional films, television, and the computer, indicate whether you think these technological innovations will have a major impact on K-12 education, higher education, and/or adult education.
My short response is a resounding ABSOLUTELY!
Before I go further, I must admit that I did not realize that there is a difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web. I have always used those terms interchangeably, and for the purposes of not pretending that I know how to distinguish between them, I will simply refer to both as the Internet in this blog posting. Having said that, I welcome input from anyone who might be able to explain the difference to me in a comment.
In K-12 education...
Even since the publishing of the textbook (in 2007), the Internet has expanded tremendously, with new content being added every day, and it only continues to improve. As we are learning in this class, there are incredible resources available for the whole spectrum of grade levels and subject matter. Innovative applications are becoming more widespread and easily accessible, and are interactive and beneficial for student learning, lesson delivery, and assessment. I think that is the key. What sets apart this current advancement in educational technology, is the fact that it is interactive, continuously growing, and continuously improving. In comparison with historical advancements, such as instructional television, the impact was not great because it provided very minimal added benefit to the end user. As was pointed out in the book, instructional television was little more than a recording of a lecture.
In higher education...
I think we have already seen the increasing popularity of online college and university programs. These benefits are obvious, and can be boiled down to a matter of flexibility and convenience. Additionally, the advantages that the Internet provides in terms of gathering and observing research data has changed the way that our current generation approaches assignments. We use the Internet to search and obtain journal articles, conduct surveys, communicate with professors and classmates, and collaborate on group assignments.
In adult education...
Professionals are able to communicate and collaborate more effectively using the Internet. There are content-specific forums available where people can ask questions and receive or provide answers. Experts in various fields have created blogs to inform their "followers" of current trends in their particular industry. Audio and video podcasting makes it possible to subscribe to tutorials or information sharing that pertains to a specific subject. Professional conferences can webcast their sessions, which provides opportunities for people who would otherwise not have been able to benefit from the content of the conference.
Well, Beth I always thought they were interchangeable too. I went to Wikipedia and checked. It says the internet is a network of networks from private, public, academic, business, and government. For the World Wide Web it says it is an interlinked hypertext documents accessed by the internet. So they are aparently intertwined, but the internet is the galaxy to the stars.
ReplyDeleteAny way, I totaly agree with you breakdown at each level for the influence in education.
Margie
I agree with the ability to interact being the key to the difference between earlier technology and the personal computer era of today.
ReplyDelete"As was pointed out in the book, instructional television was little more than a recording of a lecture."
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think sets podcasting apart from instructional television?
The video you posted was interesting. There were some alarming statistics: only 28% of 12th grade high school students believe that schoolwork is meaningful and a mere 39% believe that schoolwork will have any bearing on their success in later life?! I think that Internet technology is useful in providing more resources for relating classroom lessons to the real-world.
Your arguments about the internet's impact on higher and adult education are very strong. I was blanking a little on these sections when writing my own D/B5. Sometimes it seems like just a habit to check out professional blogs or search for articles that I forget how amazing it really is. To be connected to so many great authors, teachers, and professionals with just a few clicks is pretty revolutionary. You convinced me that the internet is here to stay.
ReplyDeleteJustin, I suppose that you have a decent argument about instructional television being similar to podcasting. Perhaps the largest difference is the accessibility piece. Uploading and downloading podcasts is so easy and available, that you can find several pieces to apply to almost any subject. In fact, there is so much content out there, that I could ask students to each watch/listen to a different podcast every week, and have them teach the class something outside of the textbook. However, in format, it is almost the same as instructional television. Podcasts are a bit more advanced in that they can incorporate screencasts, and the ability to cut a piece together audio, video, and stills is much easier and ultimately produces something that is much more captivating than the recorded lecture.
ReplyDeleteI agree that I think the Internet and WWW will be here to stay. I had never really thought about the difference between the two either. I agree with what Kelly said about podcasting in the comments. I think that it is the flebibilty of podcasts that makes them different.
ReplyDelete