8 - Lia's Technology Adventures!

A technology advancement that I believe has the biggest promise for education is the creation of augmented realities. Augemented realities enable students to see the physical word through a computer generation that alters what you see, hear, smell and feel. An example of a really cool tool that enables one to experience this is the Oculus Rift. The Oculus Rift is a piece of technology that is strapped around the head. Once it is strapped onto the users head, the user is seemingly "transported" into a 3D landscape -- but in all reality it has been designed to produce a three-dimensional perspective that evokes that sensation. I believe that the implications for this technology is limitless. One of the educational uses that come to the forefront of my mind is how students can take far-more engaging virutal tours to areas around the word, or perhaps engage in three-dimensional reinactments of historal events. Maybe this is just me being really nerdy, but that sounds incredibly fun and far more interesting than having to listen to a lecture in class.

In my ideal, futuristic landscape, I would love to have holographs of prominent historical figures interact with my students, but I think that it is safe to assume that those types of developments are way farther down the line, A technological advancement that I definitely think would be efficient is the creation of an app that allows students to see what their peers are working on in real-time (assuming all students involved were partaking in educational activities online). I feel that this has great implications. Imagine four students are working on a group project on their ipads (provided to them by the school) and one group mate becomes curious about how far his or her other group mates have progressed with their share of the work. This app, theoretically, should enable the student to view the webpages visited, notes taken, and PowerPoint progress (assuming they had all decided to use powerpoint) in real time. This means that if, and I'm choosing random names, Stephanie became curious and checked the app, and Edguardo was currently searching for primary sources on the Library of Congress website, Stephanie should be able to see him search through the pages as he gathers information. Additionally, this app will be able to include highlighting and note-taking features to better convey thought-processes to fellow group-makes. The issue that I can foresee with this application is that it would only be efficient if it is used on technological devices that are strictly reserved for educational purposes. I highly doubt Stephanie would want to read Edguardo's facebook post about how he's craving chicken nuggets as it would not productive towards the assignment.
Unfortunately, I can not find a website with an application that is similar to this. The closest thing that I can think of is permitting other people to work on a word document with you on google drive.

In the podcast, the digital divide is defined as those who do and do not have access to a computer/the internet. I am definitely on the side of the divide that is fortunate enough to have access to both, given how I have had a computer in my home for as long as I could remember. As the podcast suggests, I anticipate the digital divide to exist within my future classroom as well. As an instructor, it will be my job to ensure that students who do not have access to a laptop or internet will, at the very least, have access to these tools in school. However, in these cases I will make an extended effort to try and provide these students with take-home laptops that can be used throughout the duration of the school year. I intend on teaching English to German students in their early high school years, and during this time frame students begin to recieve more and more assignments that require the use of a laptop (Ex: PowerPoint presentations, Papers, Classroom discussion boards, etc), and I would feel that I have become an inadequate teacher if I leave these students at such an extreme disadvantage. However, if these students simply do not have access to internet at home, the best option would be to alter our class schedule to make as much use of the computer labs as physically possible. I will also encourage the students that do not have internet access to feel free to use the computer lab whenever the feel fit (provided I speak to whomever is in charge of the lab in order to grant these students special permission first).