ED403 ELEARNING RESOURCES, TECHNOLOGIES & TRENDS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

This session introduced us the theoretical underpinnings of technology enabled Learning and how technology is changing the way we learn in Higher Education and the future!

Future of Learning in Higher Education

If we have to compare learning and teaching today with education 20 to 30 years ago a lot has changed, from what is taught, how it is taught and to the contexts within which learning and teaching take place. Technology which has come to play over the years has brought dramatic changes to the field of education and has tremendously changes how we teach causing a disruption to the tradition ways of teaching that we know. Not only as in the modes of delivery but also how technology has been integrated into the course content, educational resources, pedagogy, and assessment tasks.

Also if you have to think about what is happening right know and how technology has developed and evolved around learning and teaching, one can say that it'll be very much different in 10 to 30 years from now. We are in a digital age where nearly everything is done with technology and online. From shopping, marketing, business, agriculture, transportation, communication, and of course education. Hence, I would say that the traditional way of teaching would not be seen as so viable at this age. Our students, as the millennial generation are using technology and the internet on a daily basis. So it would be best to use what our students use. This is expected to enhance student engagement, collaboration and improve performance.

This course has introduced us with certain tools which I have found interesting, as part of learning i.e. Twitter and blogging in addition to the other tools that have been introduced in the last two courses such as BBB and Go-To-Meeting, etc. Something that I will definitely consider for my course next year. For my course AF208 Financial Management, Twitter would be a good platform to share with the students what is happening in the corporate world, where they can relate what they learn in the course with what is happening in the real world. Blogging is another tool which can be used for reflection on each topic/theme, as been done in this course. Of course there's more that these technologies and tools can offer as part of learning and teaching. It requires a lot of thinking and creativity and that the knowledge and skills learnt in this course will help guide us into exploring these various technologies and online tools for effective learning and teaching.

This session focused on online tools and technologies, Social Media in Higher Education, Intellectual Property and Copyright AND Open Educational Resources. I came across a lot of online tools and technologies many of which have the potential to deliver in terms of teaching and learning.

Google Drive is one of the online tools that I came across and found it very useful in learning. Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files on their servers, synchronize files across devices, and share files. In addition to a website, Google Drive offers apps with offline capabilities for Windows and macOS computers, and Androids and iOS smartphones and tablets. Google Drive encompasses Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, an office suite that permits collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, forms, and more. Files created and edited through the office suite are saved in Google Drive. Check out this link:https://www.google.com/drive/using-drive/ and explore the storage features of Google Drive.

Advantages of Google Drive:

1. Access your files everywhere
2. You can edit and make changes to the files
3. Able to access with various devices
4. Easy to search your files
5. View any types of file
6. Share your files with your friends
7. Open discussion

Weaknesses:

1. Google Drive only offers a limited number of free gigabytes of storage, if you manage big files like music or videos you can have some trouble because if you do not want to pay for the premium version, you have to constantly erase your files every time you need to put new ones on the app.
2. There is a big problem when you share a document within a group of people and that is that anyone who have access to the document can erase without any warning to the other members of the group, this can be very dangerous if you have problems in your teamwork and someone wants to sabotage the job. I don't thing this should be a problem in learning as everyone needs to learn and pass!

Check out this link https://www.google.com/drive/ to explore Google Drive.

The e-Learning trends in higher education in the area of learning analytics, BYOD and m-Learning, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, Makerspaces, e-Assessments and its implications were discussed in this session. Learner feedback, which is an important part of learning and teaching and various methods of providing feedback were also discussed.

Key eLearning Trends at USP

This particular session looked at the key elearning trends and application in higher education especially in the Pacific and how it influences the future of learning in HE.

Looking at the trend in higher education in terms of innovative learning technologies and tools, one would agree that eLearning applications/trends such as Learning analytics, BYOD and mLearning, VR and AR, Makerspaces will influence the future of higher education in PICs. In fact, these eLearning trends are showing a significant impact on learning and teaching in higher education around the world and Pacific Island countries are no exception.

BYOD is already a reality at USP where students bring their own mobile devices, tablets, laptops and PCs to update, collaborate and even complete tasks and projects. The series of mLearning projects being rolled out by USP recently not only improves educational services and student access but in a way also encourage students to bring their own devices as many of the services that were only accessible in a Desktop can now be accessed in a mobile device. This will continue to be a trend in making educational services delivery more easier and improve student access. Additionally, I believe VR and AR will be game changing and exciting bringing a version of reality into the classroom.