למידה, אינטרנט ... ומה שביניהם

It is now clear that as a result of this ubiquitous environment and the sheer volume of their interaction with it, today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors.

It appears the tide is finally turning and the uncritical acceptance of the digital natives discourse is giving way to a more nuanced perspective on digital technologies in higher education.

That's like a mini-industry centered around an idea that had a kind of fashionable appeal, but no real basis in evidence. And what of the opportunity costs? While we were fretting about whether they existed or not and what we should do about it, did we miss seeing what was really happening and the more interesting and subtle changes in society in general. And that's a shame because it's not a completely bad idea - many of us feel instinctively that our children are growing up in a different world than we were, but then we're operating in that world too.

תוויות: ילידים

Or rather, if you have suddenly stumbled upon the insight, you need to do a lot of reading about the history of technology in the classroom. Chances are there's a long line of theorists and practitioners you should read about. When it comes to the promised "revolution" of ed-tech, we've been agitating for a change a long, long time.

But just think of all of the new ways we would be able to prepare kids to answer the questions that they will be asked in their real lives if we gave them a handful of “Open Network” tests before they graduated. I mean, why wouldn’t we be doing this?

תוויות: טכנולוגיה, פני החינוך, שינוי

Digital learning is any instructional practice that is effectively using technology to strengthen the student learning experience.

למידה דיגיטאלית היא כל פעולה הוראתית שמשתמשת בטכנולוגיה כדי לחזק את חווית הלמידה של התלמיד.

I love that definition because it's simple, and it offers clarity for those politicians who would abuse teachers by proclaiming they can be replaced by technology. Not going to happen! Technology is a tool used by teachers, and without great teachers skilled in application, technology is useless for high quality education.

תוויות: דיגיטאליות, למידה

From my perspective, the announcement is an outright win for advocates of affordability and open textbooks.

Now, if video-based, multimedia-rich, interactive textbooks are only worth $14.99 to the big publishers, what are relatively static, text-based books with a few photos worth to them? Answer: The Apple event was the big publishers’ public announcement that they are ceding the traditional textbook market to OER creators and others.

The publishers have validated our argument that very inexpensive books can still be high quality by pricing their own books under $15, but they have still managed to price themselves out of the market through their protectionism (forced repurchase every year) and lock-in on the $500 iPad platform.

Sure, there are “traditional” OER textbooks available for free. But when you could have video, multimedia, simulations, and interactive assessments for $15, why would you take a traditional book (whether print or video) even if it is free?

How will our beloved OER (90% text, 9% still images, 1% video) compete against what the publishers are turning out then, especially if the prices stay in the teens?

The RIP in 2017 only happens if the field does nothing to produce diagnostic, adaptive OER that support student learning at least as well as the systems produced by big publishers.

תוויות: ספרי לימוד, iPad, OER