Mood's In Control
The task to develop an essay about a certain situation always makes my dendrites grow…Now if this happens, does this imply change? Change in my internal faculty? A mental growth or exercise? Or a change in my routine? Well, whatever it may be, I know for sure that this is a part of me. Whatever I thought is what I will become. A Change happens. Now what is my issue? What is my cause? What will I write? As assigned, the topic is written below.
“The pace of change seems to increase relentlessly, especially changes involving information technology. Using your crystal ball, identify and discuss three changes likely to have substantial impact on your school services in the next three years. (1500 words).. “
Change..change..change..development..progress..what more? Very much related…words that speak volume. Wherever one goes and whatever one does, the word CHANGE is like a shadow that always comes along. But how is change identified? Is it if the result is positive or negative? Good or bad? Where is it going? Does it cause an effect? Absolutely! But what causes the change? Ahhh…numerous causes..various reasons..many factors. Changes happen anywhere and everywhere.
Trying to look at my crystal ball, I can see that one main change that has been affecting our life, for the past 20 years or so, that has impacted all phases of our life, is the advent of the computers. We are at the point of breaking the nano second in processing data and this event will have no precedence as to how our world will be. Schools already use the computers to substitute regular teachers and make it easier for students to receive education, receive and transmit their assignments. Because computers at the present moment are limited in their capacity, with the advent of powerful servers and computers, more students will be able to search and receive better transmissions. I can visualize many classrooms being served by one professor with the new systems. More and better information will be available to all students and best of all, quicker processing.
As I looked at my crystal ball again, I happened to find a statement of Luther S. Williams, Assistant Director Directorate for Education and Human Resources in United States of America . According to him, “The National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) is responsible for providing national leadership and support for improving the quality and accessibility of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SME&T) education, kindergarten through graduate school. In a nation – indeed a global economy – increasingly based on information as its common currency, the provision of appropriate information technology in addition to well prepared teachers, instructors and facilitators of such powerful tools, must become a vital part of the entire educational continuum as we step into the next century.
In order to be effective, the use of technology in education must involve not only the provision of equipment such as computer hardware and software, but also the human aspects of essential content, engaging presentation, effective pedagogy, appropriate evaluation, and widespread dissemination. Communication and computing provide dynamic tools, placing nearly continuous demands on financial reserves and human resources as equipment and professional training are revised and upgraded. The NSF-hosted workshop presented in these proceedings addressed these and other issues in order to define unique perspectives, concerns, and desirable benefits of educational technology to a broad spectrum of constituents. The notion of widespread, uniform access to information technology is not a trivial problem. As more adults, paraprofessionals, and part-time students utilize the classroom or laboratory to seek skills in the use of generic or specialized technology, we see that the traditional purviews of academe now extend deep into the entire community. Regardless of the rapidity or direction of change offered by exciting and revolutionary new technologies, the true challenge for developing guiding principles for their appropriate implementation lies in the inclusion of all students at all types of academic institutions, with secure and tangible links to the public and private sectors. Again, while access for all, coherence in underlying infrastructure, and compliance between the skills taught in school and those necessary in the workplace are fundamental to this discussion, it is the collective effort of our human capital that will ensure these powerful tools do not instead widen the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. As this vast endeavor is begun, the cross-divisional and multidisciplinary activities will encourage projects that create effective learning environments with the broadest possible access to them.” This I find as an inspiration for this institution to at least conceive an act or a program like this.
The third change that I found in my crystal ball is a very vital information that could possibly give an idea or insights to this institution about the K-Web by Patrick McKercher, Judy Bonne and Andy Rogers.
The Knowledge Web (K-Web) is an interactive tool for understanding and inspiring the creation of ideas, and for vividly demonstrating how our world is a direct result of ideas and events of the past. Students can trace the profound influence not only of Aristotle's logic, but also see how perspective in painting literally changed the way we see the world, or how the invention of the car would not have been possible without the perfume bottle. By flying through its unique 3D nested globes, which combine space and time into a single intuitive construct, users can explore how seemingly unrelated people, places and disciplines interrelate in unexpected and unpredictable ways to produce our world.
The Knowledge Web vividly demonstrates that all subjects are connected, and offers an innovative, accessible yet compelling and powerful tool for their exploration. Moreover, it graphically shows that the present is the outgrowth of the past, and helps us anticipate the future.
The K-Web is informed by Constructivist methodology, and thus the ability of students to create material, not just passively consume it, is key. It is what one of the project advisors Doug Engelbart (best known for creating the computer mouse and a pioneer of virtual collaborative organizations) calls a Dynamic Knowledge Repository. Not only will its database be able to connect to the Library of Congress and other digital collections, but students will be able to contribute content. In this ever-growing omnipedia or library, the user can get the kind of information she wants in the way she wants it (text, video, simulations and immersive virtual reality.) Moreover, the user can see how ideas of a given text evolved (or even mutated) through time, how they were situated in varying contexts, and their effects on our lives today.
But the Knowledge Web goes beyond interactivity to immersion. Selected people and places will be recreated in virtual reality; thus students could visit DaVinci's studio, chat with him, read his notebooks, and solve a problem with him and other students in real time using his materials or apparatus. It might seem that educational virtual reality (edVR) is too difficult and expensive, but the opposite is true. The software is free, and some software like Activeworlds makes creation of such environments so simple that middle school students make them. Some artificial intelligence programs are so easy that the only skill required to teach a character to interact with a user is typing. Students can create learning environments for other students, and teachers will be able to pool assignments they've created based on the K-Web in a searchable database articulated to standards and frameworks.
EdVR allows role-playing and simulations, which enables rich exploration of complex situations. Such role-playing brings us back to the original meaning of e-ducation, to draw out: students can engage passionately but safely.
I am excited by the potential of VR for a number of other reasons (see: http://cyburkespace.net/content/origins.htm), but briefly it lends itself to constructivism by its very nature. Often students too shy to participate in class or who do not shine in the rather narrow range of behavior we call being a good student will do so in virtual spaces. When students see VR, they want to master it, which requires all sorts of mathematical, artistic and even diplomatic skills. They either have to acquire these skills or deal with those who have them.
An important aspect of the Knowledge Web is that it involves students and teachers as participatory designers. Learn by best by doing together and are "hard-wired" to play, to build and to work cooperatively. Students build learning experiences that require many and high level thinking skills, precisely those needed in the twenty-first century. This is further explored below.
The introduction of the desktop computer has simultaneously challenged and invigorated the institution we know as school. The technology and information age launched a whole new vocabulary and concept of teaching. The days of teachers as purveyors of knowledge were made increasingly irrelevant. The new questions are:
• "How is learning organized in the classroom?"
• "What is the role of the teacher?"
• "How to teach students to access, evaluate, and synthesize the volume of information they encounter?"
Schools have been slow to adapt to the information age for a number of reasons. Lack of technology, infrastructure, learning needs of the teachers, and poor quality materials are a start on a lengthy list of barriers. So there is a need to prepare learners to live in a complex, high tech, and fast-changing world. That requires that schools be responsive, fluid and adaptive to emerging needs and opportunities.
In this endeavor the Knowledge Web is pivotal; a dynamic learning resource converges with equally dynamic approaches to teaching and learning.
References:
Brooks, J. & Brooks, M. (1999). In Search of Understanding; The Case for Constructivist Classrooms. Virginia: ASCD.
Gardner, H. (1991). The Disciplined Mind. New York: Simon & Schuster.
“The pace of change seems to increase relentlessly, especially changes involving information technology. Using your crystal ball, identify and discuss three changes likely to have substantial impact on your school services in the next three years. (1500 words).. “
Change..change..change..development..progress..what more? Very much related…words that speak volume. Wherever one goes and whatever one does, the word CHANGE is like a shadow that always comes along. But how is change identified? Is it if the result is positive or negative? Good or bad? Where is it going? Does it cause an effect? Absolutely! But what causes the change? Ahhh…numerous causes..various reasons..many factors. Changes happen anywhere and everywhere.
Trying to look at my crystal ball, I can see that one main change that has been affecting our life, for the past 20 years or so, that has impacted all phases of our life, is the advent of the computers. We are at the point of breaking the nano second in processing data and this event will have no precedence as to how our world will be. Schools already use the computers to substitute regular teachers and make it easier for students to receive education, receive and transmit their assignments. Because computers at the present moment are limited in their capacity, with the advent of powerful servers and computers, more students will be able to search and receive better transmissions. I can visualize many classrooms being served by one professor with the new systems. More and better information will be available to all students and best of all, quicker processing.
As I looked at my crystal ball again, I happened to find a statement of Luther S. Williams, Assistant Director Directorate for Education and Human Resources in United States of America . According to him, “The National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) is responsible for providing national leadership and support for improving the quality and accessibility of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SME&T) education, kindergarten through graduate school. In a nation – indeed a global economy – increasingly based on information as its common currency, the provision of appropriate information technology in addition to well prepared teachers, instructors and facilitators of such powerful tools, must become a vital part of the entire educational continuum as we step into the next century.
In order to be effective, the use of technology in education must involve not only the provision of equipment such as computer hardware and software, but also the human aspects of essential content, engaging presentation, effective pedagogy, appropriate evaluation, and widespread dissemination. Communication and computing provide dynamic tools, placing nearly continuous demands on financial reserves and human resources as equipment and professional training are revised and upgraded. The NSF-hosted workshop presented in these proceedings addressed these and other issues in order to define unique perspectives, concerns, and desirable benefits of educational technology to a broad spectrum of constituents. The notion of widespread, uniform access to information technology is not a trivial problem. As more adults, paraprofessionals, and part-time students utilize the classroom or laboratory to seek skills in the use of generic or specialized technology, we see that the traditional purviews of academe now extend deep into the entire community. Regardless of the rapidity or direction of change offered by exciting and revolutionary new technologies, the true challenge for developing guiding principles for their appropriate implementation lies in the inclusion of all students at all types of academic institutions, with secure and tangible links to the public and private sectors. Again, while access for all, coherence in underlying infrastructure, and compliance between the skills taught in school and those necessary in the workplace are fundamental to this discussion, it is the collective effort of our human capital that will ensure these powerful tools do not instead widen the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. As this vast endeavor is begun, the cross-divisional and multidisciplinary activities will encourage projects that create effective learning environments with the broadest possible access to them.” This I find as an inspiration for this institution to at least conceive an act or a program like this.
The third change that I found in my crystal ball is a very vital information that could possibly give an idea or insights to this institution about the K-Web by Patrick McKercher, Judy Bonne and Andy Rogers.
The Knowledge Web (K-Web) is an interactive tool for understanding and inspiring the creation of ideas, and for vividly demonstrating how our world is a direct result of ideas and events of the past. Students can trace the profound influence not only of Aristotle's logic, but also see how perspective in painting literally changed the way we see the world, or how the invention of the car would not have been possible without the perfume bottle. By flying through its unique 3D nested globes, which combine space and time into a single intuitive construct, users can explore how seemingly unrelated people, places and disciplines interrelate in unexpected and unpredictable ways to produce our world.
The Knowledge Web vividly demonstrates that all subjects are connected, and offers an innovative, accessible yet compelling and powerful tool for their exploration. Moreover, it graphically shows that the present is the outgrowth of the past, and helps us anticipate the future.
The K-Web is informed by Constructivist methodology, and thus the ability of students to create material, not just passively consume it, is key. It is what one of the project advisors Doug Engelbart (best known for creating the computer mouse and a pioneer of virtual collaborative organizations) calls a Dynamic Knowledge Repository. Not only will its database be able to connect to the Library of Congress and other digital collections, but students will be able to contribute content. In this ever-growing omnipedia or library, the user can get the kind of information she wants in the way she wants it (text, video, simulations and immersive virtual reality.) Moreover, the user can see how ideas of a given text evolved (or even mutated) through time, how they were situated in varying contexts, and their effects on our lives today.
But the Knowledge Web goes beyond interactivity to immersion. Selected people and places will be recreated in virtual reality; thus students could visit DaVinci's studio, chat with him, read his notebooks, and solve a problem with him and other students in real time using his materials or apparatus. It might seem that educational virtual reality (edVR) is too difficult and expensive, but the opposite is true. The software is free, and some software like Activeworlds makes creation of such environments so simple that middle school students make them. Some artificial intelligence programs are so easy that the only skill required to teach a character to interact with a user is typing. Students can create learning environments for other students, and teachers will be able to pool assignments they've created based on the K-Web in a searchable database articulated to standards and frameworks.
EdVR allows role-playing and simulations, which enables rich exploration of complex situations. Such role-playing brings us back to the original meaning of e-ducation, to draw out: students can engage passionately but safely.
I am excited by the potential of VR for a number of other reasons (see: http://cyburkespace.net/content/origins.htm), but briefly it lends itself to constructivism by its very nature. Often students too shy to participate in class or who do not shine in the rather narrow range of behavior we call being a good student will do so in virtual spaces. When students see VR, they want to master it, which requires all sorts of mathematical, artistic and even diplomatic skills. They either have to acquire these skills or deal with those who have them.
An important aspect of the Knowledge Web is that it involves students and teachers as participatory designers. Learn by best by doing together and are "hard-wired" to play, to build and to work cooperatively. Students build learning experiences that require many and high level thinking skills, precisely those needed in the twenty-first century. This is further explored below.
The introduction of the desktop computer has simultaneously challenged and invigorated the institution we know as school. The technology and information age launched a whole new vocabulary and concept of teaching. The days of teachers as purveyors of knowledge were made increasingly irrelevant. The new questions are:
• "How is learning organized in the classroom?"
• "What is the role of the teacher?"
• "How to teach students to access, evaluate, and synthesize the volume of information they encounter?"
Schools have been slow to adapt to the information age for a number of reasons. Lack of technology, infrastructure, learning needs of the teachers, and poor quality materials are a start on a lengthy list of barriers. So there is a need to prepare learners to live in a complex, high tech, and fast-changing world. That requires that schools be responsive, fluid and adaptive to emerging needs and opportunities.
In this endeavor the Knowledge Web is pivotal; a dynamic learning resource converges with equally dynamic approaches to teaching and learning.
References:
Brooks, J. & Brooks, M. (1999). In Search of Understanding; The Case for Constructivist Classrooms. Virginia: ASCD.
Gardner, H. (1991). The Disciplined Mind. New York: Simon & Schuster.
