Technology has certainly made a difference in teaching too. With
the advent of Internet, education has been benefited in many many ways.
The alternate methods of teaching like teaching online which includes
video conferencing and providing study material online, have helped
teachers and learners to bridge the gap between them. The latest tools
of teaching like Moodle, Adobe connect , Mobile learning and blogging
and many more are even better. These tools ensure a social presence and
does not give an impression of being technical softwares operating
merely on orders given by the digital codes. These tools have made
distance education interesting and effective. Here is a brief
description of these tools of teaching.
Adobe Connect
image retrieved from http://www.pdfzone.com/c/a/Authoring/Acrobat-8/4/
Adobe connect is the most potential solution for dealing with widely dispersed students and audience. It is a software for e-learning and a virtual space for learners and teachers to meet for learning. It is an excellent tool for flexible learning and also for overcoming the barriers of distance and time and enhances productivity as well. The users can communicate effectively using the following facilities :
- Meetings rooms- 'pods'
- use whiteboard
- real time web conferencing
- clear audio conferencing
- learning modules
- desktop sharing
Mobile learning
Mlearning is another fantastic tool of
flexible learning which helps in creating a ubiquitous learning
environment that can be accessed in various contexts and situations.
Mlearning is becoming a global phenomenon. The advantages of Mlearning are as follows:
Permanency: Learners
can never lose their work unless it is purposefully deleted. In
addition, all the learning processes are recorded continuously in
everyday.
Accessibility: Learners have access to their documents, data, or videos from anywhere.
Immediacy: learners can access information immediately, and thus improves the capacity of problem solving.
Interactivity: Learners
can interact with experts, teachers, or peers in the form of
synchronous or asynchronous communication. Hence, the experts are more
reachable and the knowledge is more available.
Recently a seminar was
held in the polytechnic where Dr Thomas Cochrane narrated his
contribution to the field of mobile learning. Thomas
has managed and implemented over 35 mobile learning projects, with a
recent focus upon Android and iOS smartphones and the iPad as catalysts
to enable student-generated content and student-generated learning
contexts, bridging formal and informal learning environments.
Moodle
Moodle is an Open Source Course
Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System
(LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It has become very
popular among educators around the world as a tool for creating online
dynamic web sites for their students. To work, it needs to be installed
on a web server somewhere, either on one of your own computers or one at
a web hosting company. (http://moodle.org/about/)
Image retrieved from http://web3.eaglevale-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/moodle/
Moodle, these days is an inseparable
part of Blended learning. In fact it is that very component of education
systems these days which makes education a blended experience. The
distinctive features of Moodle are:
- It is platform to conduct fully online courses
- It is special component of flexible learning
- It enhances and reinforces face to face learning.
- Features like forms, databases and wikis act like communities of learning.
- It allows thousands of students to share same virtual learning space.
- It helps establish connection with students from all over the world
Blog
Blog is a portmanteau word made from
web+blog. Blogging became popular around 1990's when people got the
power to post personal stuff to internet. Blog is another tool of
flexible learning if used appropriately in teaching. It is like a
discussion board or information site published on world wide web.
Image retrieved from http://blogger-templates.blogspot.co.nz/2001/01/hacks-tools.html
Main features of Blog are as follows:
- It is an interactive platform for sharing ideas and opinions
- It is usually related to a specific subject and contains commentaries from the author as well as the followers.
- there are various types of blog, for instance Artblog, photoblog, videoblog, mp3blog etc.
