Keeping up with Technology

Hi everyone-

I am currently finishing up my time in the OTEC program and I must say that technology is a entirely different animal than anything I have ever come into contact with. Over the past several years, throughout my undergraduate program as well as this one, I've learned more technologies than I ever knew existed, and I've discovered that it's a never ending process. The internet is a road to everywhere and there is no way to gather together or tame the amount of technology that can fly at us at any given time. As an educational technologist, my job will constantly involve working my way through a lot of software, some that I will feel comfortable using and some I will not.

When I first started using technology I believed that it made my life easier--and more productive. I can type a paper, format it, and make it ready to publish much faster in Microsoft Word than I ever could on a manual typewriter. But I soon realized that it also makes my life more complicated by requiring me to dig through a huge amount of information. I can't just open a new program and know immediately how to use it; I have to read about it, and play with it before I'm able to actually create something with it. How do we control technology?

The answer, I believe, is that we don't. We keep moving forward, and learning more and more about the tools that will make our lives easier, more organized, and enables us to reach far and wide. Since there is no controlling the complete chaos of the internet, I would advise a colleague to first be aware of what they're looking for when discovering new technologies. Technology has to have meaning in order to make us more productive, and they also need to know what they're trying to accomplish before they start looking at all the technology that is available. If you don't know what you're trying to do, and how you want to do it, you're not going to know when you've found the right Web 2.0 tool to help accomplish it.

Since technology is always going to change and evolve, we have to do the same. There is no right or wrong way to keep up with technology, or keep track of it; what's most important is that we just keep discovering it.

tm

Collaborative Learning Technologies

Hi all--

While doing the research on collaborative learning technologies it was amazing the things I found. Collaboration is a huge thing now, in business as well as education, so there are dozens of collaboration technologies available. Some free. Some not. Programs such as Google Docs, Skype, Ning, Second Life, Mindmeister, Teamspace, and from our assignment this last week, Twitter, make it possible for students located in different cities, states, or on different islands, to come together and plan, negotiate, strategize, work synchronously, and complete projects--all without ever actually seeing their teammates.
I think that is one of the most wonderful things about technology today: the ability to put together an amazing project, and even present it, without having to be in the same room with anyone else. Emerging technologies are coming out at a pretty rapid pace as more and more people are realizing the advantages, and monetary savings, of collaborating this way. Professionals and Educators also use collaborative tools for professional development.
One of the things I've enjoyed most about this program is the new technologies I've had a chance to learn and use (even when I don't quite understand the point of using them every time) and long after I've graduated from it (next month!) and moved on I will continue to explore the wonderful world of collaboration, gaming, learning, storytelling, and visual technologies that are just waiting for me to find them.

Here is a link to the collaborative learning technology I chose for my assignment: http://www.teamspace4students.com/index.html  Go check it out; it's very cool. 


Until next time, 
tm