Why Technological Resources
by Daniel Bornt.
Technology is the key to enhanced intercultural exchanges. Prior to the Internet, cross-cultural exposure in the educational setting was limited to classroom show-and-tells, readings from geography and social studies textbooks, or actual visits to the other regions under study (always an expensive proposition and burden for schools and for students’ families alike).
The Internet, along with changing migration patterns due to globalization, has changed all that. Not only are students exposed to other cultures right in the classroom due to the intermixing of cultural-specific student demographics, students now have ready access through digital-era technological innovations to virtually explore other cultures, their folkways, their beliefs, and their habits.
The Internet, along with changing migration patterns due to globalization, has changed all that. Not only are students exposed to other cultures right in the classroom due to the intermixing of cultural-specific student demographics, students now have ready access through digital-era technological innovations to virtually explore other cultures, their folkways, their beliefs, and their habits.
It’s not just the more popular and well-recognized platforms of social media (like Youtube or Facebook), creating an interest and curiosity in other people’s lives around the world that can be effective in facilitating such cross-cultural mixing. For teachers especially, being made aware of the advantage of lesser-known or more “backgrounded” applications can provide them the tools to not only make their jobs easier in cross-cultural exchanges but to also broaden their students’ horizons. For instance, this website itself makes use of Google's translator, enabling the translation of the majority of its author's native English textual content into Spanish.
For the so-called “digital natives,” those students who have grown up totally in the embrace of digital communications and the pervasive digital imagery and devices that have saturated their lives, teachers much use every avenue and approach to engage them and hold their attention – that is, if we accept Prensky’s (2000) premise that these students, because of their constant engagement with technology through their formative years, actually have brains that are hardwired differently than their pre-digital parents.
For the so-called “digital natives,” those students who have grown up totally in the embrace of digital communications and the pervasive digital imagery and devices that have saturated their lives, teachers much use every avenue and approach to engage them and hold their attention – that is, if we accept Prensky’s (2000) premise that these students, because of their constant engagement with technology through their formative years, actually have brains that are hardwired differently than their pre-digital parents.
How this section on technological resources addresses EPS 415 core research questions relating to this project:
1. What are the educational opportunities and challenges arising from these developments?
2. How do these problems relate to activities across different areas of life – not only in formal educational institutions per se, but also in informal contexts and activities of learning?
3. Where do you think these technological and social trends are taking the field of education?
As we have seen by the UIUC’s recent joining with Coursea, the entire field of education at all levels is on a fast track to transformation. It’s not as if the bricks-and-mortar classroom is going to disappear overnight. There is too much investment in its infrastructure and continued presence, both in tangible assets and in the self-interests of the many, many people who are involved with, and dependent on, that presence for the time being. But the manner in which education is approached is what is going to be significantly affected. The networked campus, connected locally and globally, opens up vast opportunities for all different kinds of collaboration and informational transfers. As all these new technologies become integrated into the classroom, the classroom will expand far beyond the boundaries of its physical walls. This is much more than, for instance, the simple matter of replacing the slide projector with a computer-generated Powerpoint presentation - in other words, technological advances that improve on informational delivery methods by taking them to another level. What it is going on is an entire reorientation of education including delivery methods, teaching methodologies, and the blurring of the lines between physical and virtual worlds, necessitating a complete transformation in the ways not only in how we educate, but in what we think education is on a foundational basis.
1. What are the educational opportunities and challenges arising from these developments?
2. How do these problems relate to activities across different areas of life – not only in formal educational institutions per se, but also in informal contexts and activities of learning?
3. Where do you think these technological and social trends are taking the field of education?
As we have seen by the UIUC’s recent joining with Coursea, the entire field of education at all levels is on a fast track to transformation. It’s not as if the bricks-and-mortar classroom is going to disappear overnight. There is too much investment in its infrastructure and continued presence, both in tangible assets and in the self-interests of the many, many people who are involved with, and dependent on, that presence for the time being. But the manner in which education is approached is what is going to be significantly affected. The networked campus, connected locally and globally, opens up vast opportunities for all different kinds of collaboration and informational transfers. As all these new technologies become integrated into the classroom, the classroom will expand far beyond the boundaries of its physical walls. This is much more than, for instance, the simple matter of replacing the slide projector with a computer-generated Powerpoint presentation - in other words, technological advances that improve on informational delivery methods by taking them to another level. What it is going on is an entire reorientation of education including delivery methods, teaching methodologies, and the blurring of the lines between physical and virtual worlds, necessitating a complete transformation in the ways not only in how we educate, but in what we think education is on a foundational basis.