Welcome to the New Age

Digital Equity 

Information Age

The moment when I realized that educational computing was my passion was when I heard a quote about the percentage of jobs that do not even exist currently. I saw it as my mission to learn about this radical transformation that was occurring in the world. This transformation is the movement from an industrial to an information society. Whether we would like to accept it or not our future worker's (today's students) must know how to use technology and information as never before. Taking part in this passion came far before I began working with inner-city middle school students. My passion for technology lies with a desire to ensure that everyone gets a fair chance to experience technology as a conduit for their own learning process. In Gwen Soloman and Nancy Allen's article "Education and Technology Equity", they talk about how technology proficiency has become an economic imperative in this day in age. Over 60% of jobs require skills with technology and jobs with technology earn almost 43% more than those that do not. 

Equity vs. Equality

Defining the difference between equity and equality is important in most aspects of education. Equity is making sure that each student has what they need to thrive. Special education comes to mind when thinking about equity. A student with special needs may need more time or one-on-one help with an area vs. another student. Giving the special education student what they need is equitable. It is not necessarily equal, but both students are getting what they need. In technology, I think the digital divide now exists when educators are given different amounts of support or professional development concerning technology. Inequalities exist in the quality not necessarily the actual technology. In Solomon's article entitled, "Digital Equity: It's Not Just About Access Anymore" she talks about the major problems are becoming the training and support of the teachers to provide technology infused education. 

Globalization 

Do We Really Need a Global Village? This week's reading was taken out of a book called The Future Does Not Compute by Steven L. Talbott. In this chapter, Talbott talks about the "Global Village" and it's impact on the rest of the world. The Global Village is the ideal of becoming one single unified virtual community i.e. the Internet world. He really tears apart and questions the foundations for the desire to make such a global vision for technology. The book was written about twenty years ago, but a lot of what Talbott speaks to has a very pertinent role in our global society. He speaks about the Global Village destroying small businesses, towns, and villages. He argues that the global village is just the colonial village reincarnated. Instead of the bringing of people together we may actually end up causing alienation. An electronic village is less visible and can be used to live out fantasies and cause people to stray from the realities of life. He claims technology is unconscious and destroys the culture of innerworlds. 

I found the reading to be very eye-opening, but I also found myself coming up with strong reactions to his claims. He leaves the chapter with the question: What if it turns out "winning" is the worst possible outcome? We are already so far along in our global village. Almost everything humanly possible can be accomplished online. Even if there are unintended consequences, there is no turning back now. Instead of complaining about the global village, what we ought to do is make sure that we are being very critical about how we are using the technology. This is in a sense Critical Theory. In Yeman's article he states that the goal of the Critical Theory is to identify or confront hidden agendas by stimulating questions. It is a global responsibility to ask questions and foster conversations about what the goal of global village is and how to guide the morality of the village. 

Distance Education 

Welcome to the New Age

On Friday, April 12, 2013, Academic Technologies at the George Washington University hosted Adrian Sannier, Senior Vice President for Product at Pearson, for a discussion on the direction of higher education within the context of emerging technologies and innovations. Will MOOCs be the death of education as we have known it or a passing fad? The event also featured GW speakers Doug Guthrie, Dean, GW School of Business, and Paul Schiff Berman, Vice Provost for Online Education and Academic Innovation. 

This video clip is only for the geek at heart, but I would strongly recommend it if you want to know what sorts of transformations are being made in higher education. As I began to watch the two hour segment for class this week I was amazed by the amount of innovation that is going on in higher education. One of the main topics, MOOCS (Massively Open Online Courses) was laid out in a more than understandable manner. MOOC's are all the rage in learning. They are the ability to teach a course to an impressive number of people all at no cost. Doug Guthrie seems to think that MOOC's are a little ridiculous for trying to successfully reach all students and provide a quality learning experience. This explosion of the MOOC has caused people to think that all online learning is a MOOC, which is far from the truth. I am currently taking part in a very successfull all online masters program at Iowa State and let me tell you, it is not massive and it certainly isn't free. 

Adrian Sannier came on stage as the key note speaker for the event. He is one of the leading innovators in distance education. He deconstructed this negative connotation of the MOOC. He said MOOCs are going to transform just like the search engine did. It may have problems or glitches, but It is not a bad thing. The MOOC is just a jumping off point for something that has started a movement. He sees MOOCS as being a coach for teaching and learning. They are a resource or model that a student or teacher can use to guide their learning. One thing that really hit me on the head during Sannier's speech was his discussion on human interaction. He brought up how people post a question on Facebook and immediately have lots of answers. It really reminded me of the interaction that we are having in our master's program. We have a Facebook group outside of class that people post questions and concerns on. Almost immediately, people respond with guidance or similar frustrations. It makes it feel a part of a group instead of alienated while learning at a distance.