The leader of EduTech

ITEC830 (Week 2): *New Horizon Report 2011 K-12 Edition

2011-08-31T03:01:00.000-07:00

New Horizon Report 2011 K-12 Edition was out.
You can freely download the below site or click the pdf file.
http://www.nmc.org/publications/horizon or http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2011-Horizon-Report-K12.pdf
This report is really useful to people who are interested in educational technology and want to know what hot topic is in the education with technology.

Picture with Larry Johnson

I met Larry Johnson who is the author of Horizon Report at the International m4Ed4Dev Symposium in Washington D.C.
I was honored to meet him and took a picture with him.
http://usaid.stanford.edu/

ITEC830 (Week2): New Technology

2011-08-29T02:48:00.000-07:00

Potential and side-effect of Mobile Technology

Using mobile application to review the previous own learning in a classroom

Answer 1.
     I believe Mobiles will have the greatest impact for instruction. As the Horizon Report mentions, over 75% of internet users in Japan already use a mobile as their first choice for access. Also, manufacturer Ericsson reports 80% of people accessing the internet will use with their mobiles by 2015. As these numbers show, a great number of populations are using mobiles in their lives. In addition, considering the current trend toward the consolidation of open-source mobile operating system platforms [1] and that mobile phone ownership among children has increased by 68% in the past five years [2], there could be no better time to take advantage of these affordances.
     A myriad of populations and affordances including children can support the assertion that mobile technology will give effect on instruction in the learning process. The greatest advantage of mobile technology is that everyone can use it everywhere and anytime. Moreover, the latest technology to increase battery time and improve processor of mobile devices is promoting the use of this technology among people. A lot of people are using mobile devices for various purposes such as reading a book, checking email, checking stock in real time, talking to people from the distant country and even studying. New applications which satisfy people’s various needs are coming out at every moment.
     Mobile technology can be used for various goals in the field of education. In formal education, mobile devices can be utilized as an enhancer for learning. By using mobile education application in the classroom, students are more likely to involve in their own learning. Use of own mobile devices such as smart phones makes students to be active at the learning process. Also, the introduction of mobile devices can attract students’ interest in the learning. In addition, various tools that mobile devices offer such as camera, calculator and thermometer enable students to solve problems by themselves. Lastly, use of mobile internet and short-distance wireless technology such as Bluetooth are able to promote collaboration among student in the classroom.
      As for underserved areas, mobile technology can be a good solution. In poor regions, there are no infra structures such as internet access. Therefore, computers are only expensive machines which cannot work at those areas. They need basic education but they cannot access the pool of information. At that situation, mobile technology can be a good way to educate them. Educational contents made according to contextual needs and characteristics can be loaded to mobile devices and pass out mobile devices to people in underserved areas. Only problem is to sustain power to run the mobile devices so that several solutions were offered such as using bicycle or car’s battery. Actually a lot of non-organizations are trying to use mobile devices as a tool to teach people in poor villages.
     In my perspective, mobile technology has a great potential for improving learning environment and then instruction should be changed according to this technology. Of course, other technologies mentioned in Horizon Report are really attractive. However, researched about them are in the beginning stage I think. Also, they can be embedded in mobile devices. Therefore, it is evident that mobile technology in the near future and even right now will influence in instruction a lot.
Answer 2.
     New technologies can be used for improving learning environment. On the other hand, they can be great distracters to people including young children in learning settings. For instance, many students have their own mobile phones and they use them as a communication tool. Excessive use of mobile phones often makes students to spend a lot of time for them. Students use mobile phones in order to text or chat with their friends in even in the classroom, which makes them to get distracted from learning or taking class. Mobile devices are interesting machines which attract people’s attention. For the reason, people are more likely to be addictive to use of new technology such as mobile technology. Also, people easily tend to be dependent on new technology. With new technology, people can do what they want, but if it is not, they cannot do anything. Even they do not know what to do and how to do about the designated works. For example, the introduction of cell phones made people not to memorize others’ phone numbers by offering convenient functions. Without phones, people cannot remember important numbers such as birthday, anniversary and even home phone number. To summarize, the advent and use of new technology can bring out excessiveness and addiction to people in real world.
References

[1] Shuler, C., “Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning,” New York: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, 2009.

[2] Mediamark Research & Intelligence, “Kids Intelligence,” MRI report, 2010.

ITEC 830 (Week1): Exploring mobile apps for education

2011-08-27T13:32:00.000-07:00

I'm really interested in applying educational mobile apps to learning settings. The below ppt is research about educational mobile apps with iPhone. I would like to share it with peers. Enjoy that.

ITEC830 (Week1): Greetings

2011-08-21T02:40:00.000-07:00

A) I would like to learn about emerging technologies and how they can be used for the field of education. Moreover, I want to get fresh view from other classmates and develop new ideas to apply new technologies to real education environment through collaboration.
B) My previous major was electronic engineering and had worked as a software engineer for over five years at Samsung electronics. Also, I’m working as a learning media researcher and mobile application developer since 2010 with Paul Kim at Stanford University. I developed several mobile education applications with Androids and tested them over the world. For example, United States, India, Argentina, Malaysia and Rwanda. I feel my working is highly related to this course and think my practical experience will be helpful to all peers.

Week4: Educational mobile application in real world.

2011-04-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

04/20: Meet Sandy

Today class was really interesting. Sandy, who is the founder of IRYNSOFT, joined our class and gave a lot of information about real world of educational products. His application focused on individual learning after school. With VIR2GO apps, students are able to study by themselves and compensate their lack of learning. The approach that learners can download the videos from video pools and learn watching the video is very attractive. However, it seems that there are several things to be added or improved to this idea. First, this apps requires more reliable evidence or results from practical applications to the real learning settings. Next, I feel the quality of offered videos is extremely important and then building the relationship with experts is needed. Last, Sandy said his targets to buy this apps are parents. Therefore, it is required to think about the ways to grab their attractions. For example, workshops or free trials are good.

I have questions for this application. He said that he is trying to apply this idea to tablet addressing that tablets have little distractions compared to mobile phones. But, tablets can use internet. If so, there is no difference between tablets and mobiles phones. Next, if making tablets disconnect to the internet, students can't log in to Facebook and communicate with them. If so, what is benefit from using this app?

Week2: how to provide consistent power in under-served areas

2011-04-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

Today, Paul brought various educational devices that were developed and used to help people in under-served areas. I felt warm to see that a lot of people are donating their talents, time and money for those who can't have an opportunity to study. In particular, the story of "TeacherMate" attracted my attention. Frankly speaking, its appearance is not fancy and attractive to people and even children who live in high-tech society such as U.S. However, it is very effective and useful for children in under-developed world and blind people. The biggest challenge is sustainability of this approach using mobile technology. I feel global cooperation is required to run this project and therefore we should try to grab people's interests. In addition, effective ways to provide consistent power should be studied in-depth. Although the generation of power using bicycle is fresh way, I'm not sure if it is consistent in those areas. Finally, we had time to share mobile applications that we researched for the last week. Wow! there were so many new applications, and I believe some of them can be used for under-served populations someday and even soon. Thanks, everyone.

Week1: Mobile Learning Technology Design for the Underserved.

2011-03-31T13:05:00.000-07:00

It was the first day of this class. Frankly, I was extremely nervous about attending classes. There were few students who have different backgrounds such as race, personality and major. I definitely believe that these will be helpful to us understand better what we'll learn in class and experience various points of view. People are living without basic needs over the world, but we don't know that and even don't want to know the truth. However, this is time to know and think about sustainable ways to help less fortunate people in other areas. I strongly agree with Paul's view that mobile technology will be the effective way to help them learn. Only problem is to offer consistent electricity to run mobile devices. Moreover, we should focus on contextualized issues on developing educational model as Paul says. Now, I'm ready to learn everything from Paul. Thanks.