How Technology Has Changed The Way We Learn

Technology Within The Classroom

Instead of discussing this from a researched academic standpoint, I would like to give a personal view on the matter. Throughout the creation of this blog, as well as through a majority of my MA and BSc I rarely used and hard copies of things I had researched (There was one exception during my MA, but I later discovered an online version of the same book). The same has proven true for most of my colleagues through my under and post graduate degrees and the same still holds true for my students.

It is quite expected during my teaching that everything we cover will have an online version - whether this is linking to online videos or simply uploading documents to Moodle. The university still asks that students submit hard copies of every assignment they write, whilst also submitting digital versions, but I do not know of any lecturers within my school that actually looks at the hard copies (my department has even stopped requesting hard copies as we see it as a waste of paper).

The only non-technological approach I use within my teaching (activities aside) is a whiteboard. I actually prefer to use traditional whiteboards to electronic versions as I am yet to use an electronic-whiteboard that is responsive enough - I feel the technology has a long way to go before it can actually replace traditional whiteboards.

Throughout this blog I have covered other technologies and how they can be used in the classroom. It's pretty clear through a lot of the posts that, in my opinion at least, the technological versions provide superior learning since it engages learners (especially younger ones) to a higher degree.

Sanford-Brown states that "The delivery of education has changed massively, so if you are looking to go back to school, consider taking your studies online" (Sanford-Brown, 2014). This leads me on to my next point

Technology AS The Classroom

A recent addition to iOS updates is the addition of iTunes U, an educational tool that puts entire courses into the hands of every Apple user. A Google search for "iTunes U" bring up a few interesting looking links that indicate what you can find on iTunes U:

The App Store description of iTunes U states:

"iTunes U provides everything an instructor needs to bring their classroom together on iPad — build lessons with apps and your own materials, collect and grade assignments from students, discuss one-to-one or in groups, and annotate PDF assignments" (Apple App Store, 2015).
It also lists all of the options and functions available within the app:

"For Instructors:
• Plan lessons, grade assignments and stay connected — all from your iPad
• Add your own teaching materials — including documents, worksheets, web links, photos and videos
• Engage every learner by including apps, books, videos, podcasts and more from iTunes, the App Store and iBooks
• Add instructions or comments to PDFs with built-in annotation tools
• See when students have viewed their assignments, completed their work, or remind them when they are due
• Use the integrated grade book to enter grades as you go and track the progress of your entire class at a glance
• Use the single-student view to offer private and individual attention for quick check-ins or parent-teacher conferences
• Answer individual questions in one-to-one chats or start debates with the entire class using group discussions
• Keep students in the loop and prepared for class with notifications
• Teachers affiliated with qualified institutions can publish courses to the iTunes U catalogue to make them available to everyone for free.

For Students:
• See your assignments and instructor updates in one place, and tick off assignments as you complete them
• Submit your work from any Apple creativity app, dozens of third-party apps, or as annotated PDFs for private courses
• Ask instructors questions or have them review your work outside class time with one-to-one discussions
• Start or join in on group discussions with the whole class
• See your graded results for all past assignments" (Apple App Store, 2015)

I foresee this being a big game changer in the world of education, in the same way that iTunes changes the world of listening to music. As more and more universities get on board with iTunes U and upload videos of entire lessons it might being to negate the need for actual classrooms. That being said, it does rely heavily on student led learning and there is nothing like having a teacher on hand and in person to assist and guide students, but we, as teachers, will no longer have a monopoly over course-collated information.

References

Apple App Store, (2015). iTunes U on the App Store. [online] Available at: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/itunes-u/id490217893?mt=8 [Accessed 19 Nov. 2015].

Sanford-Brown, (2014). How Education Has Changed With the Rise of Technology. [online] Available at: http://www.sanfordbrown.edu/student-life/blog/december-2014/how-education-has-changed-with-the-rise-of-technology [Accessed 19 Nov. 2015].

Blog Review - Ethan Hein: Music, Technology, Evolution

After I had picked a blog to review, my next thought was: How do you actually review a blog? So after a bit of time on google i found a blog that wrote a blog on how to review a blog... This is starting to remind me of inception.

So I first found a blog post on reviewing a blog. the blog is called Adsense Tracker (an tongue-in-cheek title) which calls itself a blog about blogging. It contains, amongst many other interesting posts, a blog about how to review a blog, which gives a handy list of what you should try and cover in your review:

(AdSense, 2007)

I've decided that i'm going to use this criteria to review Ethan Hein's blog on Music, Technology and Evolution (Hein, 2015).

Purpose

This blog is geared towards music technology and their enthusiasts. A lot of it is based around the interests of the author himself who regularly posts on new technologies and theories as well as occasionally delving deeper into previously covered topics. The blog rarely leaves it's intended purpose, almost every post is about some interesting topic and seems to be constantly reviewing different related topics. It occasionally takes more of a teaching approach than a review approach, but this seems to fit with the CV of the author.

Layout / Usability

The blog layout is very clean yet also manages to contain a lot of links. It comes across more like a website with a focus on the blog. The whole blog flows very well; the posts do not necessarily link into the next post, but the topics aren't scattered enough to make a reader feel disorientated or confused as to the topic or purpose. The links around the page are well laid out - the links at the top make sense and there is just the right information on sidebar for any peruser.

Content

All of the content is quite obviously original with many links to other pieces (such as videos, documents etc). The blog is written in a very knowledgable tone and does not come across as condescending. Rather than being either formal or informal it simply comes across as factual, akin to reading a textbook that has kept some element  of the author's voice. The layout of each post is very simple with chunks of text being well broken up with images, videos etc. This is actually done extremely well as, just as you're getting disinterested with reading you are given an image or some other media to interact with. The author's spelling and grammar are quite perfect, perhaps owing to his academic background.

Activity

The author varies between posting 2-3 posts a day for 2 weeks stretches to occasionally not posting for about 3 weeks. This is presumably because the author is to busy during certain times of the year, but it doesn't give the impression that he becomes disinterested in his blog. Dues to the shoe amount of posts in this blog it is hard to judge the comment activity. Some posts have no comments, some have just one and others have entire conversations between multiple commenters. I think it's best to say that the comment activity depends greatly on the popularity of the individual post as opposed to the blog in general. I have not seen any comments that the author has responded to, but then again I have not noticed any comments where specific questions are being asked.

Believability

the blog is very believable. As noted before, the tone of the posts come across as very knowledgeable, and the other backs up a lot of his discussion with lots of links to other articles and research. As an academic I would quite happily take the authors word on most of the statements he makes as he never seems to make any comments that are challenging unless he has support for his statement.



Using this criteria actually made reviewing the blog very simple and made me look at parts of the blog I would't have actually considered. In summary, Ethan's blog is very informative and very factual. I could only aspire to achieve a level of blogging such that Ethan Hein has reached.

References

AdSense. (2007). [Blog] How To Review A Blog. Available at: http://adsensetrack.blogspot.co.uk/2007/09/how-to-review-blog.html [Accessed 19 Nov. 2015].


Hein, E. (2015). [Blog] Music, Technology, Evolution. Available at: http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/category/technology/page/2/ [Accessed 19 Nov. 2015].

Applications Used to Support My Teaching

In the various aspects of my teaching I use a wide array of applications. Some are used during lessons whereas others are used in preparation and organisation. A list of the main applications I use is as follows:

Microsoft Word
Word has always been the staple of every academic, and I am no exception. Word gets used every lesson to create my lesson plans. I also use it to compile the majority of my handouts as well as course documents and assignment specification sheets. It is also used for most of my feedback forms (when using Moodle is not an option).

Microsoft Outlook
All of the University staff e-mails are run through Outlook. I had previously had all of my e-mails diverted to my personal Gmail account so I could receive them on my phone, but in the interest of professionalism I installed the Outlook app on my phone so I was able to reply to students' emails direct from my university account. I am not a fan of the layout of Outlook and much prefer the way Gmail works, but I am happy to concede to using Outlook to maintain that extra level of professionalism.

Microsoft Excel
This software mainly gets used to keep my registers and to compile the grades of students before sending them off to the course director. Nothing else within my teaching requires spreadsheets (except for when handing in timesheets) but if anything occurred that required it I would go straight to Excel for it.

Microsoft PowerPoint
In my previous blog post on PowerPoint Vs Prezi I covered the various differences in the two softwares. I use PowerPoint for all of my theory presentations. I make a point to work in a complete opposite method to the death-by-powerpoint approach and will usually just display an image or a diagram as a way to reference or reinforce the point I am making.

Moodle
I use Moodle to host copies of all the handouts I make and to upload copies of the PowerPoint presentations that I use during lectures. I have recently started to use the WebLink feature to provide links to interesting and useful articles on the subjects we have discussed in class. Another use for Moodle is to host the course handbook and assessment forms whilst using the Turnitin feature to have the students submit written assignments. The Turnitin feature also allows me to annotate feedback throughout the essays and return them to the students with this feedback attached.

Avid Pro-Tools
Not strictly in the same category as the rest, but I do use this software in my teaching. This is one of the main pieces of software that I teach the students to use. It's the industry standard in Digital audio Workstations and all of the studios in the University are equipped with it. In regards to teaching, aside from showing the students how to use it, I also use it to create and edit audio files for lessons as well as taking screenshots for handouts.

OSX Finder
Not just the folder exploration software that it's commonly used as, Finder can also be used as a PDF editor. I'll often use it to take a page out of a PDF and combine it with a handbook I have created, or to sometimes put a new cover onto an old PDF.

Adobe Photoshop
I'll use this software to edit images - mostly if i need to add something or highlight something within a photograph. Similar things can be done quite easily in Word (to my surprise), but since I've had a large amount of training in Photoshop I feel i know my way around the software better and am more comfortable using it to edit images.


There are many other pieces of software that I use, most of them relate to audio editing, but it would amount to an entire blog in itself to cover all the different packages I use on a regular basis. For this reason I have left it as the ones that strictly relate to my teaching process.

The Value of Mobile Technology in Teaching and Learning

Throughout this blog I have reviewed and analysed different softwares that focus around mobile technology and how they can add to the learning of students. The one question not posed is just how much do these actually add to the experience?

Firstly, I think we should look at how applicable mobile technology is. It's all well and good to discuss how we can use new technologies but is it actually feasible to use them? In order to make use of tablets and smartphones within a classroom we must first ensure that most, if not all students have a device they can use (we can assume that there will always be a few without, but supplying more than 3-4 could prove costly). In an article by the University of Manchester (Davies, 2015) the author analyses data gained from a number of different surveys on the percentage of students that own smart devices:

Comparison of device ownership 2012-14 at the University of Northampton (Davies, 2015)

The graph implies an increase in ownership of smartphones up to 90% in 2014. This can most likely be attributed to the mobile phone market and that new smartphones are becoming cheaper all of the time and, as time passes, more smartphones are available on the second-hand market. Although this implies that 90% of students would be able to use the apps previously covered in this blog, it is quite apparent that not all smartphones are created equal. A £20 unbranded Windows mobile would not be able to run the same amount of apps as the latest model iPhone, and with Windows, IOS and Android as competing platforms, many developers have not made the apps cross-platform-compatible and so we cannot guarantee that all of the smartphones in question would be capable of launching the software.

But let us assume that we can run the software on the phone or tablet of every student in the class. There are many ways in which the technology itself can be useful in a classroom environment. In relation to teaching languages, Joanna Norton notes that "The student can take a series of snapshots of moments in their day — for example, their alarm clock, a toothbrush, a cup of coffee, their walk to work, etc. — and describe the actions to the teacher. For example, ‘I take a shower and get dressed…’ This will often highlight aspects of language that require teacher input" (Norton, 2014). In my personal experience I encourage students to take multiple photographs during practical sessions as ways of referencing setups at a later date or if they have to return to a previous setup. This is also useful during the creation of blogs (something used for multiple assignments within my department) where the students would need to evidence things with photographs, videos and sound recordings. Having a device that can perform all of these tasks roves invaluable to a course designed in this way.

References

Davies, S. 2015. [M-Article Series] Mobile device adoption in UK Higher Education. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.elearning.eps.manchester.ac.uk/blog/2014/m-article-series-mobile-device-adoption-in-uk-he/. [Accessed 18 November 2015].

Norton, J. 2014. Teaching tips: how students can use mobiles to learn English | British Council. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/teaching-tips-how-students-can-use-mobiles-to-learn-english. [Accessed 18 November 2015].

Mobile Technology and Learning - In My Experience

Mobile Technology is a term that, to my honest surprise, contains more than just tablets and smartphones. I had originally presumed that all mobile technology were the kind of things that apple would make: iPads, iPhones, MacBooks etc. Upon doing some research I came across a publication from FutureLab which contained the following diagram:

Categories of Mobile Technologies (FutureLab, 2004)

With these extra categories in mind I saw the wider scope of what Mobile Technology consisted of. with that being said, I must admit that I have not used anything outside of category 1 within an educational context. I have used response systems, videoconferencing and electronic whiteboards in personal affairs as well as in art projects, but none in a teaching aspect.

I do, however, make regular use of my iPad during lectures. I prepare each lecture by having notes on hand to refer to, but having my lesson plan open and ready to switch to, by having Moodle open so I can update and reference files during the lecture, as well as occasionally sending out an e-mail to a student during class time. A key use I have for it is for fact checking; occasionally the class discussion will go off topic and the need to google-it arises. I also have an app that allows me to keep registers and contains all sorts of brilliant cross-referencing tools, but I'm afraid it's an app that I set up with all of the best intentions but have never actually used for its purpose.

I would like to conclude by saying that I intend to use more mobile technology within my teaching, but I feel that, for the moment at least, the technology I use is sufficient, at least in regards to my current modules.

References

FutureLab, (2004). Literature Review in Mobile Technologies and Learning. [online] Birmingham, UK: University Of Birmingham. Available at: http://www2.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/lit_reviews/Mobile_Review.pdf [Accessed 17 Nov. 2015].

Barriers To The Effective Use Of Technology In Learning

When considering content for this post my initial thought on the main barrier to the effective use of technology in learning was the struggle of getting students with learning difficulties to use the technology, but then I considered a bigger barrier that I had encountered as a student myself: Teachers.

Back in my undergraduate days I had one lecturer for a module akin to Contextual Studies that would dictate direct from his hand-written notes to a room full of students who were all forced to hand-write the notes as they were dictated. In another module I had a lecturer who was teaching us a piece of software by going through the learning this software for beginners book chapter by chapter. At times I was also taught outdated technology within an industry that is ever-evolving and to succeed you must be on the cusp of every new technological advance.

Thankfully, within that department at least (where I now work as a lecturer) things have changed to the point where the focus is entirely on new technologies: From using motion sensors that trigger sound effects in customised nano-computers; to staff and students working on integrated, cloud-based calendars that allow for constant updates to the smartphone of every department member. This all sounds quite promising, until I point out that I work in the Digital Media department. If you take a trip outside of this department you almost instantly regress back into the world of handwritten notes, paper diaries and e-mail systems that nobody ever checks. This isn't an issue that is singular to the university in question, it is one that I fear runs across the entire educational system.

The first thought would be that this is an age issues - that older teachers are becoming out of touch with 21st century technologies, whereas "youth born after roughly 1980 are presumably used to parallel processing (simultaneously processing different incoming stimuli) and multitasking (completing different tasks simultaneously)"(Guo et al, 20018) due to their upbringing coinciding with the digital age. Prensky notes that:

"Today’s students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. A really big discontinuity has taken place. One might even call it a “singularity” – an event which changes things so fundamentally that there is absolutely no going back. This so-called “singularity” is the arrival and rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decades of the 20th century". (Prensky, 2001)


While there may be a link between age and technological capability, I do not feel it is a direct link, I have seen many people within my generation who show the same distain and distrust of technology. But the fact remains that the students we are teaching prefer to use these technologies and so, as 21st century teachers, we must be willing to embrace these technologies, or step aside for those who are willing.

References

Guo, et Al. (2008). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: An Analysis Of Age And ICT Competency In Teacher Education. Journal of Educational Computing Research, [online] 38(3), pp.235-254. Available at: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen_Petrina/publication/253603266_Digital_Natives_Digital_Immigrants_An_Analysis_of_Age_and_ICT_Competency_in_Teacher_Education/links/54238e820cf238c6ea6e445f.pdf [Accessed 17 Nov. 2015].

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On The Horizon, 9(5).

Ted Talk - I Listen To Colour

In Neil Harbisson's TED Talk he discusses how he used a sonic implant to allow him to hear colours.



Neil Harbisson was born with full colour blindness, meaning he only sees in greyscale.

"Harbisson's original "eyeborg" – devised a decade ago by Plymouth University cybernetics expert Adam Montandon – required him to wear headphones connected to a laptop. Subsequent operations allowed him to ditch all this, as a vibrating chip was placed first against, then inside his skull. In the process, he became the world's first cyborg artist" (The Guardian, 2014).

This device is essentially a camera that focuses on the colour of the image in real-time. The colour is then converted into sine waves that are then transmitted through a plate in the back of his head so that he can hear them. What this means is that every shade of colour gives off a different frequency and, with practice, Neil was able to distinguish the audio frequencies as different colours. Although this was rather interesting to see installed as part of someone (making Neil now refer to himself as a cyborg) it is not a new concept to me; I have already done similar things with colours and sound.

What actually interested me in this talk was how Neil had used this extra sense in a more abstract way. By learning to distinguish different sounds as colours he had, in effect, given himself Chromesthesia. The artist within him started to use this in other ways. Instead of simply using the device to distinguish colour, he started to use it to create art based on his interpretations. In the TED Talk he discussed how the faces of different people sound to him whilst comparing the sounds of different people and how some of them sound rather similar. The other way in which he uses this new sense is to use his newly-gained chromesthesia to turn famous speeches and compositions into works of art based on the colours that he hears.

Beethoven's Fur Elisa (Remarkable, 2015)

Far from simply allowing Neil to perceive day-to-day colours, the device also allows his to experience colours in a far more involved way than most as "by installing this cybernetic eye in my head I've actually transformed my own body into a musical instrument as I can play music by looking at things now" (Harbisson, 2013). He is also quoted in the video, when explaining why he is dressed the way he is, that he no longer "dresses in a way that looks good, but in a way that sounds good".

While there is nothing in this talk that I can strictly add to my teaching, I could certainly use his outlook on this technology and how he adapted it to create art to not only inspire my students but to open their minds to the artistic possibilities that can be gleaned from seemingly specifically designed technologies.

References

The Guardian. 2014. Neil Harbisson: the world's first cyborg artist. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/06/neil-harbisson-worlds-first-cyborg-artist. [Accessed 15 November 2015].
Harbisson, N. 2015. WATCH: How a Colorblind Cyborg 'Hears' Color. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-harbisson/hearing-color-cyborg-tedtalk_b_3654445.html. [Accessed 15 November 2015].

Remarkable. 2015. This colourblind artist might just be the first person ever to develop a 'sixth sense'. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.remarkably.com/colourblind-artist-might-just-first-person-ever-develop-sixth-sense/. [Accessed 15 November 2015].