Tags
compendium, elluminate, facebook, flickr, learning, second life, technology
Using technologies in education seems to be a “must” nowadays. However, how suitable are they? I checked the reports of several case studies of the ATELIER-D project. They illustrate the integration of different technologies to educational courses. Here are the conclusions I found.
Facebook is a social networking website. It offers several functionalities, like discussion forums, wall posts, picture upload and comments. Researchers set up a course group to provide “guided-study”. They found that within this space, participants built a community of interest. (CDI 1: Social network of design learners). Since most students have a facebook account, this tool has great potential to enhance learning.
Compendium is a free knowledge mapping tool developed at the Open University. It is useful to cluster and connect ideas, concepts and arguments. However, when unfamiliar with the software, students tend to focus more on operational issues rather than on the actual task (CDI 2: Mapping of Design Thinking and Practice).
Elluminate (now Blackboard Collaborate) is a web conferencing tool. It is tough to decide how suitable it is. Advantages and disadvantages seem to even up. On one hand, videoconferencing can work well for discussions with the teacher, and students can share images and applications. On the other, organizing the synchronous session might be complicated, not all students have microphones to interact, and following the text chat might be complicated for teachers while they are delivering a presentation (CDI 3: Conferencing to Support Collaborative Group Work).
Second Life is a 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and create using voice and text chat. While it can enable students to explore, experiment and evaluate situations in risk-free interactive ways, it requires a generous period of familiarisation (CDI 4: Collaborative Design in Second Life). Thus, it is only recommendable when teachers and students have enough time to learn how to use it.
Flickr is an online photo management and sharing application. It was used to foster peer to peer assessment. Students found it difficult to master its complexity (CDI 5: Peer to Peer Assessment in Design)…
Technology can effectively foster learning. Different technological tools are suitable depending on how easy to use they are. The more sophisticated they are (e.g., Second Life), the longer familiarisation period they need.