Link to Concept Map
At this point, I believe that I fall somewhere in the middle of the static/dynamic continuum of technology in distance education. Static technologies are those that allow learner to gather information, where dynamic technologies engage learners in demonstrating and reflecting on what they know through the active construction and understanding of knowledge (Moller, 2008). I can still see benefit to using both types of technology in a distance learning setting. I think moving more towards the dynamic end of the spectrum requires application and manipulation of learning and knowledge. Use of the more static tools may be necessary to provide the information base that learners need to perform higher-level thinking tasks with their knowledge. Instructors could require assignments that utilize the dynamic tools to have students demonstrate their learning. In my opinion, blogs, wikis, educational games, and virtual worlds are great, engaging and dynamic tools to provide students with a way of constructing and demonstrating knowledge gained through the use of more static tools.
References:
Moller, L. (2008). Static and dynamic technological tools. [Unpublished Paper].
Response to Sara
ReplyDeleteI think it is amazing how most of us are in the middle. I think this is because of how we are still learning how to incorporate many different types of technology. I know in teaching third grade it would be hard to use a blog, but educational games are used quite often.
We take these courses so we can move towards more dynamic technology. I know I have found myself out of my comfort zone many times already, but I feel I have gained great experience that has helped me move from the static to a more middle area on the continuum.
ReplyDeleteSara,
ReplyDeleteIF you could choose one dynamic tech tool to use, what would you use? How would this help you guide students to the dynamic end of the spectrum?
Erica
Erica,
ReplyDeleteIf I could choose one, I would probably use either digital games or virtual worlds, provided that they were age-appropriate to my students. I did some investigating into the ones that were mentioned in our course resources this week, and found that most of the virtual world platforms seem to be more oriented towards adult learners. But since so many of my kids like playing video games, I think this type of format would be really interesting to use with my second graders. But I would need to investigate further to find an age-appropriate format for them.