Virtual Classrooms

http://education.qld.gov.au/learningplace/onlinelearning/virtual-classroom.html
The article from The Learning Place provides a clear definition of the virtual classroom. A virtual classroom is private online space in Blackboard that teachers can use to support student learning. It is accessible via the Internet, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Just like your face–to–face classroom, a Virtual Classroom is a busy place. It has several benefits for students and teachers as well. The classroom is available during and outside regular school hours. Students do not need web authoring skills. Lesson overviews, assessment tasks, criteria sheets, links to web resources, downloadable files, worksheets, and tutorials are all part of a well created online classroom. Teachers absent on sick leave or attending a professional development activity can leave work for their students in their Virtual Classroom and check progress. Students on holidays can also check in with their class.

Virtual classrooms have to be well organized, just like a traditional classroom. It includes calendar and timetables, unit overviews, important information for students and parents, student grade book, and criteria sheets. It may include a place for student comments, and student homepages. Students can submit drafts, plans and assessment items through the digital drop box, and their progress during collaborative projects can be tracked. Students can work together conveniently after class hours.

I believe that online learning is a great opportunity for learners to attend school, just like myself. It is especially successfully used by higher education institutions, like colleges and universities. Virtual classrooms are accessible whenever a learner is available, so you can be part of a learning community, even if you have to work, or have a family.

Virtual classrooms are the next generation classrooms, however many teachers do not want to develop full online learning courses. Further research would be useful how to help the teachers to use the internet to support student learning, and create clear and open forms of communication between the school, students, parents and community members.

Streaming Video

http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=streaming%20video&x=&y=
The article is by TechEncyclopedia and explains how streaming video works. It is a one-way video transmission over a data network. It is widely used on the Web as well as company networks to play video clips and video broadcasts. Computers in home networks stream video to digital media hubs connected to a home theater. Unlike movie files that are played after the entire file has been downloaded and stored, streaming video is played shortly after only a small amount is received. The data are not stored permanently in the destination computer.

Streaming video is a great tool in education. Evidence has shown that video streaming integrated with classes helps to grasp the attention of students. As audio and video combined give a clearer picture than text book examples, this way of teaching clarifies lessons that would otherwise have been quite hard to grasp.

I believe that streaming video, as a new techology can be very succesfully implemented into the traditional curriculum. Video streaming provides examples of real situations and the potential of video streaming is most valuable.

The digital technology is radically transforming daily life, bringing with it immense potential for streaming solutions. Continuing research is useful on how to target trainings, update teacher and employee skills and educate partners or parents.

Podcasting in Education

http://www.learninginhand.com/podcasting/

The article explains how podcasting used in education. It provides links to several free educational programs available online. A podcast has a news feed (known as RSS) that allows it to be cataloged in various podcasting directories like iTunes and Podcast Pickle. ITunes is a podcatching program that can automatically download new episodes. The article can walk you through the steps of subscribing to a podcast and describe the three kinds of podcasts: audio, enchanted and video.

Podcast has several benefits in education for both students and teachers. Students can create a product they can share with a potentially worldwide audience. To create something spectacular for a large audience is the best motivation. The process of putting together an audio recording is extremely valuable and is certainly a cross-curricular experience. Podcasting is a great tool in education, since you do not need an iPod to be part of podcasting, you can use your web browser. Whatever personal device you may use to listen to podcasts, learning is certainly in hand!

Podcasting used in education worldwide. IPods used to listen to downloaded music and children are very excited about this new technology. I believe that we shall not fight it, but capitalizing on it by giving students iPods and re-imagining them as a learning tool. We can use the technology to create podcasts, like online radio shows that can be downloaded to an iPod or other portable MP3 player. We can create reports on field trips and interviews.

Further research would be useful on how teachers can take advantage of the benefits of podcasts. It can be consumed anywhere at the users’ convenience. It is a great tool in education and should be used along with other technology more frequently.

Animation in Education

http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00066/content_education.html

Animation is to provide entertainment, to aid scientists to perform complex laboratory experiments, but the most significant purpose of animation is in the field of education. Teachers are always looking for new and better ways to educate the young. When children are having fun, they tend to learn better. In the article, Adel M. Agina highlights the advantages and disadvantages of the animation technology in education and training.

Students improve their skills and ability as the interactive environment of animation helps them learn faster, promotes interactivity and flexibility. Since it is fun, learners are motivated to learn more and more each day. It eliminates frustration, since learning through animation helps in making decisions. The program adapts to the user's choices and reacts in different ways. With computer animation, students are provided with options. It is practical, because it presents true-life situations. Education through animation has many benefits, but it also has its disadvantages. It is hard to fit in the curriculum and some information of real-life learning will be lost in the animation program.

I believe that animation is truly useful in the field of education. It is interesting in many subjects, since it provides a different learning experience. A book may describe Budapest’s fascinating mix of multitude styles and overwhelming atmosphere, but it would take a fraction of that time to absorb the beauty of the town through a virtual tour.

3D graphics, animation, and artificial intelligence are becoming more and more prominent in our society. Our culture is constantly expecting grander sights and sounds from film and video game media. Further research is useful on how to keep production costs down, yet create more realistic animation than traditional systems.

Digital Images: Capturing America's Past with the Technology of Today

http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ703243&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ703243

The National Science Teachers Association published the article. The use of digital photography in education offers technology that can help students develop the skills necessary to access, analyze and evaluate all forms of information and communication. Students learn to recognize how images represent diverse perspectives and connect or manipulate information. Incorporating digital imagery in the classroom instruction provides a hands-on, motivating learning environment. Students also enjoy taking pictures of their local community and learn about economics, geography, and history.

Development in technologies and web services provide many opportunities for developing learning, teaching and assessment activities. It is low cost; therefore, it is available in any school or classroom. Designed to encourage creativity and it is a great way to present ideas and information to learners in ways that help their understanding and learning.

I believe that we must prepare learners for a digital world. Students must be thought how to critically view and constructively use imagery as one form of media in a cultural and digital world. By promoting an exchange of knowledge, the classroom became the site of active learning fostered by the technological resources available.

Research would be useful on three dimension digital imaging. Unfortunately, there is currently no commercially available technology suitable for delivering 3D objects.

About Storyboards

http://www.sbdoc.com/Home_main.html

Good storyboards are more than pretty pictures. It is better than a written instruction. It will help you succeed; because it helps your audience visualize your ideas. Supports communication, and is helping people who do not know or who have their own conflicting idea to visualize the impact of one key thought. They used in the film industry, commercials, animation, business presentations and in education. Storyboard art is a service business today; experienced illustrators can create a variety of professional materials for your business to succeed.

In education it helps you plan what is the instruction will look like when it is completed, what your students need to do in order to learn. Storyboarding is a popular management tool to facilitate creative thinking. Students may illustrate major events in a story through sequential pictures. Storyboards used as a pre-writing activity or to review a story.

As an educator, I use storyboards to get my students to focus, to think, to be creative and more productive. They provide the visual part of the communication and support my instruction. Powerful tools for learning and organizing through pictures or diagrams. With a little creativity, I can create my own materials. Very helpful in teaching today’s diverse population of students when verbal instruction is not enough. It also helps students to recall and express their experiences. Students may identify points in the process where more research information and definition is needed.

Research would be useful on how the students can imagine the results of their decisions and how it can help them choose their priorities that will lead them to the development of the final solution.

Wikis in Education

http://www.scienceofspectroscopy.info/edit/index.php?title=Using_wiki_in_education

A Wiki is like a combination of a Web site and a Word document. It allows any visitor to easily contribute to and edit that web site using only their Internet browser. Very easy to use, you can view it, like any other webpage and it does not require any access privilege. Groups can work collaboratively on the content and use only one web browser. You can also keep track of the history of a document after revision. When a person edit a Wiki page, a new version of the document become the current page, but the previous files could be viewed or compared to the current version. The article describes how to use wikis in education and how it can be implemented in the curriculum. It also provides links to a variety of courses using Wiki and web site links to Wiki tools.

Wikis offer educators an opportunity to create a different type of web resource in which both teacher and the student group can have active roles both contributors and editors. They are flexible and we can create any site structure. Ideal for collaborative writing applications. Enables web publishing without use of special web development tools. Disadvantages of Wikis is that it offers easy and open access to editing a website, so page edits has to be closely monitored. Still, wiki can offer students and educators a more active relationship with web-based materials.

I believe that Wikis are very useful in creating quality material that benefits educators’ worldwide. With Curriculum Wikis, educators can share materials and collaborate on the essential learning. Students can create their own place to post projects, assignments and can invite each other to their wiki space to study, collaborate, review or complete a project.

Further research on how to use Wikis for knowledge construction, for critical thinking, like group problem solving and for virtual team activities would be very useful for using this tool in modern education more and more frequently in the future.

Blogging in Education

http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech/tech217.shtml

This article talks about Blogging-or Web logging as a new teaching tool used not only in the middle or high school, but in the elementary classrooms. I was very interested to read about how students as young as kindergarten now blog in a variety of new, exciting ways, since I will be an elementary teacher. It provides information how elementary blogging works, what topics elementary students cover in their blogs, software and tools to consider and very important safety tips to get started.

New technologies are changing education. Blogs are beneficial as a new learning tool; it can encourage writing, journalism, and improve communication skills. Educators know that students write better when they have a real audience and with the use if the Internet students can write to a real audience.

I believe in the educational benefits of online access. It has the potential to be transformational technology for teaching and learning. The opportunities for communication and self-expression to Internet provides are bringing benefits to everyone-especially children. Blogging is an exciting and doable activity even in the elementary grades. We have to admit, there are risks involved with letting kids online. We have to educate students and parents about blogs and how they should and should not be used.

Blogging has become firmly established as a web based communications tool. It used to be a medium for the publication of simple, online personal diaries and now has the capacity to engage people in collaborative activity, knowledge sharing and reflection. Further research could be to explore the potential of blogs as learning spaces, explore methods of using blogs for educational purposes.

Virtual Field Trip

http://surfaquarium.com/IT/vftguide.htm

The article gives guidelines to plan a great virtual fieldtrip that provides new learning experience to your students. It requires just as much careful planning, structure and supervision as a traditional fieldtrip and has to be included within your existing curriculum. The article includes a nice list of useful ideas of how to prepare your students and your classroom as well as highlights common mistakes made when planning a virtual field trip.

Technical revolution has brought us new possibilities in education. Virtual field trip is a structured online experience. A great model of a teaching strategy that was not possible before the advent of computers. It benefits students, teachers, families, schools and communities.

I believe that teachers are lifelong learners and virtual fieldtrips open new possibilities to both teaching and learning. It provides information about areas that students are unable to visit as a class and helps them to appreciate cultures other than their own. It is very important to make the experience interesting to raise it above the everyday classroom learning routine. The list includes great ideas to do that, like create treasure hunt checklist.

Further research would be interesting on combining media to simulate real-life environments and experiences to practice skills that would be too expensive, difficult or dangerous to practice in real life.