Virtual Classrooms

Well, this week my blog is on virtual classrooms. Since I'm actually taking 4 virtual classes currently and I have taken one in the past, I know a lot about them. One thing I didn't know, that I learned through reading the article "Africa's First Virtual Classroom" is that they are now setting up virtual classrooms in Africa and probably other places as well. Also, the virtual classroom they described in the article seemed to be a bit more high tech and advanced than the online classes you can take in high school and college.

It is so great that they are setting up classrooms like this for children in Africa, experiences like that can probably do much for any student no matter the location. And what is great to learn is that a major phone company, Motorola, is helping all of this happen! I mean, I know you hear every day that major companies are helping do things that are needed to be done or whatever but I don't really think you can believe much of that. But Motorola actually is helping the communication for these virtual classrooms.

I think, and possibly if more major companies were to get involved it could happen, that they should set up virtual classrooms everywhere for every country's school children so that they can experience learning like this. Imagine what all this could lead to!

Streaming videos

As with many other topics I have discussed, I never really considered streaming video to be a tool that could be very useful in education. This is not because I think it would not be useful, just simply due to the fact that I had never actually thought about it. I read an article that talked about streaming video and how it can be very useful to help the educational process. This article is called "Rhode Island PBS Video Streaming Program."

The article began by explaining exactly what video streaming is, how many clips and full length videos it can give students and teachers access to, and how it works. They then go on to explain the benefits of video streaming, like access to other lesson plans, guides for teachers, ability to access other lesson plans while at home, and access to over 650 high resolution photos.

I think this is very useful indeed and it's not just something to help the students, it could be a great help to the teachers as well. When a teacher is stuck not really knowing what he/she should do for a lesson, they could type in "lesson plan" in keywords for streaming videos and get some good ideas! I think that would be great so long as the teacher would not copy the plan directly in case a student in their class had already gone through that same lesson the way the teacher found it. Each teacher would need to learn to but a new edge or spin on the lessons they find.

Podcasting educationally?

I'd heard of podcasting before but I'd never really considered it being used for learning. I looked up articles on this subject and actually found podcasts on learning different languages and literacy and all sorts of educational things! It was amazing! I did eventually find a good article titled "There's Something in the Air: Podcasting in Education."

They give an example of a girl named Jenny waking up to check iTunes and seeing entertainment podcasts and educational podcasts side by side and doesn't really get surprised by this because she's so used to it. I don't use iTunes or check podcasts but I can see how someone wouldn't be surprised, technology is being used for practically everything nowadays, including education.

They talk about assignments of the students making podcasts, which I think is a great idea. What better to show that you're learning something than using technology to post it where anyone who is learning the same thing, teaching it, or interested in learning it can see. That could possibly teach people who want to learn about it but can't take a class for it or help teachers who don't know what to use for a certain class period.

I think that podcasting to show what you've learned or viewing podcasts to learn something new is definitely a way of the future and I'm sure it will be catching on in all the classrooms soon. Who knows where this could lead next? That would be an interesting journey!