Week 4 E-Learning

I only got to use the internet for educational purposes only when I reached JC level, when the school decided to use this platform on the internet called "Aspire" to post up our lecture notes, extra notes, exam answers, mock papers, and the list just goes on as far as academics is concerned.

At first things seem efficient, if we missed a few sentences we can always go back to the internet to download the notes and fill up what we've missed. And also the notes will be up there before the actual lecture, so for us we could be prepared for the lecture. At that point we thought that our school is so 'hi-tech', and the teachers started to post homework, do online quizes instead of the conventional paper and pen, marking and returning papers.

Then as time passes, I realised a growing trend. When we realise we have access to already available notes, we stop copying notes in class, which literately translate to 'i can do my self study at home', which then means wasting more time, and less effective learning. And in the end we still have to print our own notes, talk about paper and ink.

Then there was the occasional 'portal-down' issue. Sometimes out of the blue the portal is inaccessible for some reason and we'll have to go to school facing angry teachers and backing our stories of 'we couldn't log in' using class size. Then there was the lost of passwords, firewall, pop up window block, disconnection, and the list goes on again as far as internet 'accidents' are concerned.

Until the days in UB.SIM, my internet use has turned from entertainment/notes, to entertainment/notes/homework/research. Pretty much many things can be found on the internet now, since it doesn't take up a huge space like the libraries does. But then comes the problem of credibility. Since anyone can just go into Wikipedia and edit the contents of the information, how do we know who to trust and who not to?

Although not everything is as bad as it seems. Learning is enhanced with videos, slideshows, presentations, movies, all aided with digital media. How else would we know how the structure of a simple molecule differs from a macro molecule? How would we know what happens when you put a current through a complex circuit? Sure, the teacher can tell you the answer, but ultimately we still need to remember those in our heads using images, might as well save the trouble of getting confused trying to translate words into pictures, and just show them the images.

Technology is changing everyday, and new means of digital media is being introduced every now and then. Who knows, maybe one day we don't even have paper and pen anymore, no more whiteboards in class, even the projector or visualizer might be gone, replaced with something far more efficient and engaging to make our learning more fun and insightful.

Such as this, 3M digital learning board. I had the chance of using a similar board at The British Council, a language learning center which teachers used such boards to conduct lessons, eliminating the whiteboard and combining a projection screen and an interaction board. Teachers can now open up documents and write on them, at the same time scroll and nagivate around desktop.

It was great fun, using the board and a pen to write on the board, erasing with the same pen, and scrolling around, drawing, clicking...

I do hope to see more of these being used in schools where technology is greatly used, such as SIM!!