EDLD+5364+Week5

Week 5 reflections

When it comes to teaching with technology there are a lot of things to consider. A couple that caught my eye this week were the web 2.0 tools and the virtual world technologies that are available. I remember teaching a professional development course using web 2.0 tools. it was an interesting experience and one that changed my views of how technology could affect education. My ideas of technology in education used to be primarily focused on productivity. I still believe that students can and should learn to use technologies to create products in a variety of mediums, but that experience showed me that technology could literally change the very structure of the classroom. Considering that teachers from different parts of the world can teach students in many different parts of the world, online learning is becoming more than a possibility, it is becoming an amazing opportunity and even perhaps a necessity. Then technologies like 3-D virtual worlds bring the idea of online learning to a new level. I'm still exploring the possibilities of 3-D vritual environments, but one of the Lindens (managers of Second Life) made a presentation to a group I was at and discussed the affect that 3-D virtual worlds have on the brain. The brain reacts, chemically, to things in a 3-D virtual environment, the same way it would in real life. In other words, while online learning is text and video-based and requires the students to engage themselves with the course, teaching in a virtual environment engages the students the same way as in the classroom. It is an exciting world and just goes to show how things evolve.

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