But how can these technologies possibly help student interaction and commitment to work? Students have individual learning needs that are unique, and it becomes nearly impossible to satisfy every student. In some cases, teachers will teach content the way that they learn best, but have they taken into account those students who are active, reflective, visual, verbal, sequential or global? Or what do teachers do about kinaesthetic learners in a maths class or those who are linguistic in a PE class?
The answer is e-learning tools. These tools have the ability to enhance learning experiences for all students who gain more opportunities to understand, problem solve, perceive, and communicate ideas and solutions. Perhaps the greatest assets of e-learning tools is their ability to engage students and provide assistance with collaborative learning. What e-learning tools are there that exist that can help engage students? The answer is many. This blog is filled with over twenty such tools with examples of how teachers can incorporate them into the classroom environment.
Perhaps the most useful e-learning tool that I grew familiar with was the blog. The ironic thing about this assessment is that I am to reflect on how useful blogs can be for students, when in fact I, the university student, am using one. So I guess you could say I am learning first-hand how useful and exciting it is to use these e-learning tool. The genius of this tool lies in its simplicity and collaborative option. Nothing could be easier than posting your thoughts on an assignment to a blog or discussing and reflecting on different content with peers and teachers. I believe that from now on I will be often using blogs in my classrooms, where ever possible. For me, blogs have a lot to do with engaging the students.
In fact, the Engagement Theory does a lot to align itself with the fundamental outcomes of using blogs. Engagement Theory is about meaningfully engaging students in worthwhile tasks in a group atmosphere with the assistance of technology. When this engagement is present, then activities that allow students to create, problem-solve, reason, make decisions and evaluate become easier. I have experienced first hand in the first six weeks of this course how much potential blogs have inside the classroom facilitating learning.
Another reason why I so highly rate e-learning tools is their ability to facilitate team-building exercises. Take WIKIs for example. If I were to use WIKIs for the purpose of assessment, I would have students work in teams, where they would be assessed on communication, planning, and management of team efforts. The modern workplace, and universal to perhaps all jobs, demands that people possess these skills. However, schools tend to drift towards the assessment of the individual, which does not provide meaningful investment into a student's future career as a team member. WIKIs can provide both team building qualities and engagement.
Engagement. Perhaps the most important asset of the e-learning tools. One of my personal favourites was the visual simulation WebQuest idea. Today's students spend endless hours on video games of various types and genres, and are able to memorize millions of facts on these games. So why is it so hard for students to memorize facts inside the classroom? I believe that the WebQuest e-learning tool is part-way there with the solution, the end result being a platform in which students experience their work as if it were a computer game.
Take the Microsoft ESP visual simulation platform, The World Game, for instance. The objective of the World Game is to provide students with an intensive, immerse three-dimensional experience designed to help them develop understanding of the complex nature of global systems as the try to meet the challenges of climate change and the future of energy. However, for the moment, WebQuests are far away from becoming three-dimensional visual simulation wonderlands. Not all e-learning tools that can be used will be so groundbreaking or entertaining, for example, in some cases all a teacher may need is something simple.
Multiple Choice Quizzes, or MCQs, are a simple way of engaging students in content. With a quiz at the beginning of class, students will perceive what they will need to know by the end of the lesson, or by having the quiz at the end of class, teachers are reinforcing what has been learnt. Of course, MCQs require the teacher to write the quizzes and present them in an entertaining way. But there are some e-learning tools that exist that teachers will have to do no beforehand work. I speak of tools like Google Earth.
Google Earth has many uses. Subjects that this tool could be used in range from Geography to Mathematics. Students could in reality spend all lesson tinkering with the technology because it is so vastly engaging, the possibilities for assessment and homework are boundless. Google Earth has the ability to cross over other course work where students can relate a particular subject they are interested in, say Mathematics, to a course that they may have particular troubles with.
In conclusion, E-learning tools have such a great potential to brighten the classroom with engaging lessons and authentic team building exercises that it would be a shame to ignore them. It was not until I personally used some of these technologies in the classroom that I realised how great effect these tools can have on a student's education and commitment to learning. I have had students who tried their hardest to never engage in school work actually volunteering to do exercises and it has been very satisfying as a teacher and a human being to be thanked by students for my lessons. I will always consider this course a God-send.
Damian Coles.
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