Margaret+Anne

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HARNESSING THE POWER OF TECHNOLOGY FOR THE 21ST CLASSROOM, K-12 AND BEYOND
media type="youtube" key="lbQ0sDFaPYQ" height="344" width="425"  I am a fan of enhancing my academic presentation with relevant and interesting video, audio, or other multimedia because I believe it does enhance learning. I believe the empirical evidence in this week's reading on Wikis bore out the fact that this multimedia tool can improve not only learning but test scores. I recently commented to a friend that I was somewhat disappointed in myself because I have not harnessed this powerful ability to access technology at reasonable prices; some of it is even free. I hope this course reinforces my personal mandate to not only push the boundaries of what I know for this course, but utilize technology in ways that will improve my everyday life, from accessing financial advice to nutritional and health guidance. If I can get really, get excited about what technology has to offer, I believe it is infectious. In a non-academic example, I showed a friend who is a decade older than me how to use Facebook. Well, she took to it like a fish in water (forgive the cliché) but learning how to communicate in a different forum was exciting to her...and apparently many others given the popularity of MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook. Army comrades that I was stationed with over 20 years ago, soldiers and civilians have contacted me. If not for the technology of Facebook, it is highly doubtful that I would have ever had a chance to communicate with them, unless I did it the old fashioned and expensive way of hiring a locator service, but when you want to find two or more people that can be a daunting and expensive proposition. I look forward to asking Dr. Sponder about some of the other applications that he taught us because unfortunately I can no longer access my old class with him.  As a closing note, I saw something on Comcast cable that blew me away...classes on demand. I have not investigated it fully so I cannot explain its ins and outs but am sure it is nothing like the television courses of old. I look forward to working with the Quintet to produce quality, educational material that can leap off this academic confine into a real world classroom.