Digital Blog Post #D - Chapters 6 & 10

Chapter 6 touches briefly on the rather large and steadily expanding topic of videoconferencing. Videoconferencing is perhaps one of the most powerful education-enhancing technology tools of the 21st century, given its ability to expand learning beyond the classroom, or indeed, the country. The developments that led up to the creation of videoconferencing eventually became the foundation for online school, from which many benefit today. Videoconferencing itself is now an ever more popular way of arranging the online classroom and may well be the standard in the near future. Like anything else, however, this development has its detractors, and many raise valid concerns. The Internet has given rise to many more issues and safety concerns than had to be dealt with previously. I previously discussed cyberbullying for a similar topic. In this case, it seems like access to private live feed with children opens the door to behavior that we must do our best to prevent and educate students on. Those fears, however, should not hold us back from progress, and this may well be the tool we need to reach underprivileged children in remote areas of the world without access to adequate instruction.

We've done a fairly splendid job worldwide of recognizing education as a basic human right, but it seems only very recent that we've made a concerted effort to ensure that all, without exception, have easy access to it. Chapter 10 speaks on assistive technology and its many branches, and how it can be used to extend learning to all persons, no matter their physical or mental disability. Beyond that, however, it seems assistive technology is also beneficial to students who have no technical need for it, if only in that it serves to bring awareness of those circumstances to those who might not be familiar with them. A child who sees a classmate in need of a special accommodation is exposed to the individual differences and needs of humanity, a more intangible but no less valuable lesson.

Chapter 10 also discusses a system for education, derived from the field of architecture, known as the universal design for learning. While I appreciate the idea behind this, I'm not sure that I can support it fully. I feel as though a large part of the problem with modern education is that it is too broad, and students are not given much reign in choosing what they would like to learn. While I understand the value of a general education and embrace it, I feel that, moving forward, a more individualized approach might be the better option as to bring out an individual child's full potential.

Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

MultiSense Comms. (2011, November 2). Videoconferencing in Education. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t6MD_I0t9U