I got email from UCO, saying that Curtis Bonk will deliver an educational and entertaining keynote for the Heartland eLearning Conference. All right, since I am taking online class and interested elearning, I sign up for this.Bonk is an instructional systems technology professor at Indiana University and I came to know that he is internationally known eLearning author.
I really had fun while listening to his lecture, because he was creative, loud and clear. He explained how things are being taught online. According to Dr.Bonk, the key issue educators and teacher will face in the near future is how to engage and connect students. He suggested ten technology trends which he called educational openers. Interestingly, when the first letter of each opener is combined, the acronym becomes WE ALL LEARN:
Web Searching in the World of e-Books
E-Learning and Blended Learning
Availability of Open Source and Free Software
Leveraged Resources and Open CourseWare
Learning Object Repositories and Portals
Learner Participation in Open Information Communities
Electronic Collaboration
Alternate Reality Learning
Real-Time Mobility and Portability
Networks of Personalized Learning
His lecture gave me time to think of several issues; What is the future of learning like? What role should technology play in the classroom? What should I prepare for paradigm shift in education? Can I, as a teacher, survive in this new learning environment?
I enjoyed reading your post. The information on e-learning is very informative. I had an introduction to e-books last semester during our Bibliography and Research class. I was able to view a book online that was over 100 years old. This definitely added to my learning experience. Without e-books, I would not have been able to view and use information from that particular book. It certainly added to my learning experience. Thank you for posting very useful and informative information.
ReplyDeleteGreat posting!!!
ReplyDeleteEspecially, the acronym part, WE ALL LEARN.
Teachers need to have access to this kind of information continuously. Your post makes me think what I should do to be a good teacher and how to help my students using state-of-the- art computer technologies. E-learning will get more popualrity as a conducive alternative for traditional leraning in near future without doubt.