I was listening to CBC the other day and there was a session on the development of mass and personal communication. It got me to thinking about how the exponential development of technology and access to forms of communication has influenced and changed our culture, especially youth culture. It some times astonishes me at how much youth culture has changed even from when I was in school. I remember when we first got computers in our elementary school - what an exciting day for us all! I think that as technology progresses, our modes of communicating change, and the culture around the tech and how we interact with the world changes. Unfortunately I think that the systems that should progress with the culture have fallen behind a little; possibly because we are creatures of habit and more often than not are resistant to change.
What does this mean for the classroom? Well I think that we need to be active in not only staying current with the research and methods and information pertaining to our profession, but we need to actively monitor and attempt to utilize, adapt, and grow along with youth culture and alternative modes of communication. As we have discussed in class on numerous occasions now, the use of cell phones is a bit of a contentious issue in schools. Personally I look forward to utilizing cells in class (provided the school policies don't forbid or restrict this) to enhance learning. The use of educational tools like Top Hat Monocle can be used to keep students engaged, get them using their cell phones and smart phones for educational purposes and distracts them from using them for personal reasons. Something that we have seen in the past few years is that mobile computing tech is developing at an extremely fast pace and I am beginning to see a trend towards augmented realities. I have used the apps, I see people walking down streets using their phones for reality enhancement on a daily basis. Yesterday there was a post done on a blog I frequent on Googles next concept in augmented reality (post HERE (googles augmented reality goggles). If this tech continues to develop and remains affordable and accessible in the same way that cell phone and smart phone tech has as it has grown, I think that it has some wonderful potential for education. Imagine a day when you can take a class on a field trip using augmented reality - the ability to access information relating directly to what you observe and experience could, I think, cause a dramatic shift in the way we think of education.
more on augmented reality or 6th sense tech HERE
