Educational Technology Ray Schroeder, editor, OTEL - University of Illinois at Springfield

Bobby Approved (v 3.2)
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Classroom of the Future Is Virtually Anywhere - JOSEPH BERGER, New York Times
The university classroom of the future is in Janet Duck’s dining room on East Chocolate Avenue here. There is no blackboard and no lectern, and, most glaringly, no students. Dr. Duck teaches her classes in Pennsylvania State University’s master’s program in business administration by sitting for several hours each day in jeans and shag-lined slippers at her dining table, which in soccer mom fashion is cluttered with crayon sketches by her 6-year-old Elijah and shoulder pads for her 9-year-old Olivia’s Halloween costume. In this homespun setting, the spirited Dr. Duck pecks at a Toshiba laptop and posts lesson content, readings and questions for her two courses on “managing human resources” that touch on topics like performance evaluations and recruitment.

 


Comments:
Clearly there is an engaged population of students that continue to embrace technology as the leveler of the playing field. Students who need tutoring, review or those unable to write and type as fast as others can employ this to keep up, and excel. Taking it a step further, would it not be cool if embedded technologies that companies like http://www.ziizoo.com use right now to link students and tutors on-line, like video chat and whiteboards, to integrate the classroom experience more completely for those needing help? Thus the classroom becomes seamless and immediate, rather than bifurcated by location and requiring two distinct preparation phases and the extra time to deliver to students. Virtual hours could be held so students on campus can help students off campus and vice versa. Then, everyone starts learning from each other as technology allows the student to participate and understand more completely.
 
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