Girls and Technology

TECHNOLOGY, GIRLS, TECHNOLOGY, GIRLS

I feel, after completing research for many of my assignments and attending the KSRA Reading Conference in October, that the United States is definitely behind the times with the use of technology. Okay, maybe not the entire United States - but definitely some specific locations. I found a website based out of Queensland, Australia that actually believes girls can and should become more involved in ICT endeavors. They have actually created a website devoted just for girls interested in ICT. The entire website has many useful links associated with technology and the way they incoprorate within the educational system.


Main Site Visited:
Department of Education, Training and the Arts --- Queensland

Visit these links that are also posted there:

Girls in ICT Information

Girls in ICT Website

PADLA Meeting

I recently attended the Pennsylvania Distance Learning Association meeting at Drexel University as the topic resounded with what we have been doing in class "Distance/e-learning Challenges". The program was well run and comprised of 4 people coming to the group with thier challenges with e-learning. This was relatively ironic as we had just (in our first class) discussed the to 10 challenges of on line learning, and our class had elequently described challenges that 3 weeks later were being discussed by industry and educational professionals. It's always good to see what we are learning has direct and immediate application to our lives! Anyway, I'm convinced that the more we share during classes and can learn from each other, the greater this experience will be. This case based learning was truly enjoyable and I found myself talking about Wiki's and Blogs as though I was an expert (which you all know I'm not, just fully embrase the technology and know I have a ton to learn). My background in simulated learning using cognitive recall models and cyclical learning in a virtual role-play environment had allowed me to offer some valuable solutions to the folks, however there is still much to learn.

e-learning July 2008

Jerry Roche published a great article in the July 2008 edition of E-Learning titled "Teaching & Learningt in the 21st Century". He sites a variety of organizations, schools and consultants who have converted to a virtual learning environment and he feels Virtual Classrooms are "the most profound difference between learning in the 20th century and learning in the 21st century". A consutant Lance Dublin (founder of Dublin Consulting) offered his 5 tips for presenters in a virtual classroom environment which were very much in line with what we discussed on Thursday and address some of the obstacles we felt were important;
1. "Slice and dice the content into 10 minute sections". He includes ideas such as visual polls, interactions and annotations, which definitely kept my interest during our first class last week
2. "Leverage the visuals". Dublin offers advice around drawing, color use, highlighting, and keeping the screen active (avoid static lecturing).
3. "Think conversation, not lecture". I know my experience in previous virtual classrooms had been very static and unidirectional. Viewing the environment as a facilitation ideas vs. a lecture can have great impact.
4. "Move it along". He recommends maintaining a good pace "two to four minutes per visual" and that multi-tasking is assumed in a vitual world.
5. "Interact, interact, interact". Considering the updates we viewed on Thursday evening, it looks like Centra and others have advanced thier toolbars and offerings to create greater opportunity for interaction.

audience, topic, medium

The review of the 10 obstacles to e-learning, brought up a thought around building to the learners competence (both from a technology as well as a subject matter perspective). E-Learning has to consider the 3 critical learning criteria to include the right audience, the right topic, and the right medium. Although e-learning may not always be the right medium to transfer the knowledge to every learner, learners need to become more adapt at learning from on line sources. Just as the onset of cable TV did not eliminate movie rentals, e-learning should complement other methods of learning. Just some thoughts generated from the class tonight and look forward to more!