Technology Resources - Week 8

         Honestly, these are real exciting times to be an educator!  If willing and ready, a present day educator can make the lessons very engaging and meaningful by including technology.  Technology has rendered its presence in no other times like now!  It is only going to get better.  Focusing on just three technologies was very hard.  There are so many great ones out there that have been introduced by my colleagues, but I finally chose three that I thought would be especially beneficial to the adult learners that I would be working with in the future.

1) NeuroRacer (http://gazzaleylab.ucsf.edu/page74.html)

Lili introduced this great memory and cognition building game.  Voice of America calls this game “a memory video game for the elderly brain” (Weaver, 2013).  The scientists from University of California, San Francisco, who created this game, purport that by playing a multi-tasking game, seniors can enjoy great neurological improvements over time.

         Players use a hand held game to race a car on a projection screen.  Then, signs begin to appear.  Some signs are important and they need to follow the lead, and some signs are not important and need to be ignored. The aim of the research is to see how well seniors can multi-task.  They found that seniors who played the game 3 times a week were able to strengthen brainpower for 6 months (gazzleylab.ucst.edu).

         This will be a great game for older seniors who want to be engaged in life-long learning but feel that they do not have the memory power to do so anymore.  I would recommend it to my older adult learners as a way to sharpen their brainpower and get prepared to continue their education.  I also see myself using this as a warm-up activity before regular class starts for older adults.  Playing this game would prepare them to stay focused and act as a “wake-up” call for the slumbering inactive brain!

2) Top Hat (http://tophat.com)

         Top hat is a student engagement and response system that is a mobile app. This was my colleague Christian's find.  This mobile app can be used by the educator to ask questions, start a conversation, launch demos and tournaments.  Students can use their mobile devices, like laptops, smartphones, ipads, ipods and other tablets to respond in real time and provide instant feedback through polls, quizzes and open-ended questions, unlike clickers that can only handle multiple choice questions. There are seven different question types that educators can use, set homework on this platform, and also use it for grading and reporting.  Top Hat is currently being used in 350 universities worldwide (Lardinois, 2013). The system also allows the educators to upload PowerPoint Presentations and also share resources, all online.

         I could use this app in class during lessons to check student understanding and engagement.  Since almost all students, including adult learners have mobile phones handy, this would be a great resource to have and prescribe to.  While educators do not have to pay, students are charged $20 per semester or $38 for five years. 

         Another way, I can use this resource with adult learners is to use this tool to set up homework and group collaboration online.  This would enable group collaboration outside of classroom.

3) Cowbird (cowbird.com) “a library of human experience”

         This wonderful story telling and story sharing website was my first mentioned by my colleague, Marie A.  Cowbird is a storytelling tool that allows users to combine photos, include audios and text to create long lasting and poignant stories.  The creators of this tool’s mission is “to build the world’s first public library of human experience, so the knowledge and wisdom we accumulate as individuals may live as a part of the commons, available for this and future generations to look for guidance” (cowbird.com).

         This is going to be a great resource in the adult education world, as oral digital story telling is going to help record the many personal experiences that adults have had in their lives.  I could use Cowbird as the platform for adult learners to narrate their journals.  Imagine what a fantastic collection of personal narratives this would be to the young relatives of the adult learner?  Recording these narratives is going to be very helpful to adult language learners in brushing up their speaking skills. 

         Cowbird sounds to be like the Oral History Project that the National Public Radio (NPR) has been carrying out for a long time, only this is better since there is also visual included.  I could combine photography and oral narratives to teach language acquisition.

         While there are many resources to excite an adult educator and learner, there are none that can complete the education as a stand alone tool!   

References:

Lardinois, F. 2013. Top Hat Monocle Launches Freemium Accounts for    Classes With Fewer Than 30      Students, Changes Name to ‘Top Hat’     Retrieved from: http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/09/top-hat-      monocle-launches-freemium-accounts/

Weaver, C. Voice of America. 2013. NeuroRacer: A Video Game for the Elderly Brain.  Retrieved from:          http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/article/1753452.html

Digital Citizenship, Ethics and Netiquette

            I am so excited to introduce two great resources related to Digital Citizenship, ethics and netiquette this week.  I feel that these two resources are excellent finds and a wonderful resource, especially for adult learners.

            It is mindboggling to learn that 62 million Americans do not use the Internet, or it translates to 1 in 5 American not using the Internet according to www.everyoneon.org.  This is a shame because there are 4 million jobs that can be found online.  Luckily, it is not all in vein!  Adults and seniors who have no digital literacy can now turn to the following organization to get started and cash in on the job market.

DigitalLearn.org

            DigitalLearn is an online hub for digital literacy support and learning, which has been created by the Public Library Association’s grant, made possible by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.  This service was launched in June 2013 to help libraries across the nation to provide better service to digital immigrants.  DigitalLearn has a collection of self-directed tutorials for users to increase their digital literacy.  Through this hub, trainers and community service providers can share resources, tools and best practices.  Participants can learn how to use a computer (using the mouse and a keyboard), do a basic search (learn about search engines), navigate a website and learn how to set up and use email (reply and send) for correspondences.  Each tutorial is presented as a short video presentation with short, segmented lessons that are very easy to follow.  Learners can watch these videos over and over again until they understand the concepts clearly.  After completing each tutorial, the participant can even earn a certificate.

            At DigitalLearn, even proficient users can contribute by sharing ideas and best practices or volunteering to become an online tutor.  The website will match the volunteer tutor with an organization in the volunteer’s zip code area.  All patrons can also join an online community to collaborate through interest grouping or state grouping.

Five-Minute Film Festival: Teaching Digital Citizenship

            Edutopia (www.edutopia.org) has a wonderful page devoted to digital citizenship in the form of short video clips on its video playlist, to convey the following:

1.      What is digital citizenship – a video from BeCyberWise (www.becyberwise.org) that also includes a clip of Howard Gardner (a prominent education psychologist form Harvard) and Common Sense Media’s comprehensive Digital Citizenship curriculum.

2.     Be a Digital Citizen – a quick introduction to digital citizenship and how technology affects us on a daily basis.

3.     Go Figure 2 – Online Safety Version – great conversation starter produced by the international, Family Online Safety Institute.

4.     Out of your hands – this short one-minute video very poignantly describes how a picture posted gets to the hands of a stalker in just one minute!

5.     Digital Citizenship Curriculum Training – a great resource for K-12 audience in safety, security and digital citizenship produced by Good Sense Media.

6.     TEDxUIUC – Alone Together – a Ted Talk series featuring MIT professor Sherry Turkle on how we function in this culture of connectivity.

7.     Digital Dossier – tracks “Andy’s” digital footprints from pre-birth to adulthood.  The Digital Natives Project presents this dossier.

8.     You Tube Citizenship curriculum – developed by Google and You Tube for creating tech savvy users.

9.     Invasion of the Data Snatchers: How To Protect Your Online Privacy – geared towards adults on protecting online privacy issues.

10.   Our Kids’ Connected Culture – Overview for Parents and Teachers – a video from Common Sense Media, where a girl explains issues faced on social media.

11.   Digital Citizen – talks about copyright and usage issues while exploring the topic of Digital Citizenship.

12.  Netiquette – Playing Nice on the Internet – outlines the basics of good net/online etiquette.

            I strongly believe that the two resources given above are excellent digital citizenship references for adult learners.  In order for adult learners to be successful in their learning endeavor and using technology to enhance learning, they need to have a good foundation on digital literacy and also learn the various aspects of digital citizenship. 

References:

Edutopia, (2012).  Five Minute Film Festival : Teaching Digital Citizenship.  Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-digital-citizenship

Public Library Association, (2013). Digital Learn.  Retrieved from: http://www.digitallearn.org

Open and Distance Education

            The introduction of the Internet has revolutionized open and distance education, as we know it now.  These free (mostly) online learning environments provide a variety of educational opportunities that are student centered, defies geographical challenges and time constrains.  According to the New York Times, though many institutions provide MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) the three leading providers who have been nicknamed as “The Big Three” are Coursera, Udacity and edX (New York Times, 2012).

Coursera (www.coursera.org)

            Coursera is the brainchild of Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, both computer science professors form Stanford University.  Coursera is one of the leading providers of MOOC.  Coursera hosts on its platform, many courses form many well-known and accredited universities.  Video and web-based testing is used for content delivery.  Coursera is however a for profit organization that lets you start a course free, but after 3 weeks asks you to decide if you wan to continue in their Signature Track program that provides proof of course completion.  Participants may have to pay about $30-$100, depending on the course.  Those who sign up to continue will also have to submit a webcam photograph and a “keystroke” typing sample that determines your unique identity from the way you type. 

            Coursera has 33 university partners and offers 197 courses in 18 subjects for learners to choose form.  Online forums and study groups are available and students have meet-ups in 1,400 cities!   Most of the courses have start and end dates (New York Times, 2012).

edX (www.edX.org)

            “EdX was created for students and institutions that seek to transform themselves through cutting-edge technologies, innovative pedagogy, and rigorous courses” is the way edX introduces itself on its website (www.edX.org).  President of edX, Anant Agarwal says that their “mission is to offer the best courses from the best professors from the best universities – and quality, of course, is a key part of what we’re doing,” (Heussner, 2012).

            edX is a non profit organization that is run out of MIT, in Cambridge Massachusetts, but is governed by MIT and Harvard , and has affiliations with University of California at Berkley and University of Texas System.  edX also boasts partners outside the U.S. like, Australian National University (ANU), Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, McGill University, University of Toronto in Canada and Rice University in Texas.  While its goal is to educate 1 billion people in the next 10 years, it already has 675,000 people enrolled in its 25 courses platform, according to edX president, Anant Agarwal ( Heussner, 2013).

            While open education and distance education have seen tremendous changes in the past decades, what remains to be seen is if MOOCs are going to deliver the “ivy league quality” education to all who want to pursue it as they so boast.  The question that remains to be answered is, will these credentials form these open course platforms receive the same weightage as the courses obtained form traditional universities? 

References:

Heussner, K.M., (2013). Online education provider edX goes global, doubles number           of school partners Retrieved from: http://gigaom.com/2013/02/20/online-     education-provider-edx-goes-global-doubles-number-of-school-partners/

The New York Times, (2012). Retrieved from:             http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/the-big-three-mooc-         providers.html?ref=edlife

Games, Simulations and Virtual Environments

          Gaming has never been part of my routine or interest!  The first time I really paid any attention to online games was when it was mentioned by several of my friends when I first got into Facebook.  Then I started getting invitations form my Facebook friends to play games like Farmville and Candy Crush Saga!  I resisted the temptation easily because gaming really does not interest me in any way.  In fact when I saw people stuck to their game consoles and talking about getting to bed late because they were playing a game with somebody from somewhere bemused me and always made me wonder if it was even worth the time spent!  Tough I have not warmed up completely to playing video games (and I might never do that!) this week’s research into using video games to enhance adult education has been an informative activity.  I learned why people play, about the avatars out there and how role-playing has taken over the world of gaming by a storm.  I grew up knowing the meaning of the word “avatar” in my language to be “rebirth” and “reincarnation” but the research into video games has given me a new meaning to the word!  I was also surprised to find out that 53% of adults over 18 played video games and nearly a third of adults older than 65 played everyday compared to the younger players (Lenhart et. al., 2008).  My assumption that only the young play video games was proven wrong!  This week I would like to share two games/simulations/virtual environments that in my opinion will be wonderful for adult learners.

Retraining Job Skills through a Video Game
1)   Pixlwise  (www.pixlwise.com)
            This is a game that is still in the development phase but seems promising.  The short video on the website explains how it is going to work and the users in the community will actually help educate each other through the interactive features, “redefining what an education experience should be, by pushing the limits of interaction and social sharing” (www.pixlwise.com).
            This game is the brainchild of Ced Funches, the visionary designer, creative director and co-founder of Pixlwise.  In his compelling blog about himself and his work, Ced Funches, writes about how his homelessness caused by the sudden loss of his job and income brought him to the idea of providing a platform to adults to retrain themselves to recreate their lives.  He writes that, “More than three million Americans lack skills that would allow them to fill existing job openings. We're trying to change that. We found that it takes vision, technology, and most importantly, empathy” (to do that).  This is his re-educate America initiative and has the vision of reducing unemployment by 2.5% through his games that help people master new skills (www.pixlwise.com).
            Using gamification elements, Pixlwise is in the process of developing a videogame platform for adults to learn.  This simpler approach built for understanding, “promotes engagement through a storyline, character association, interactive mini-games/lessons, and a dynamic content” (www.pixlwise.com).  Like many interactive video games, Pixlwise allows participants to ask question when in doubt, and also help in answering each other’s questions through close collaboration with other participants and forges the feeling of belonging to a community that cares.  This collaboration helps the participants truly master the skills.  Pixlwise promises that, “once a game is completed, the experience isn’t over – it’s just beginning!  With the continued support of the Pixlwise forum community, users are put into real world situations where they can exercise their newly developed skills to make actual dollars and cents” (www.pixlwise.com). 
            I could use Pixlwise as a training platform for my refugee and immigrant adult learners when they are ready to explore a more challenging world of work.  They can get simulations by playing the video games at this site.  They would also have the Pixlwise community support to voice their concerns to and receive advice from people who have been in the same fields or people who want to explore the same fields.  This would also be a great platform for my adult learners to practice their conversational English as if they were on the job!
            I am eagerly waiting for its launch.  Pixlwise promises to be promising!

Creating Avatars for the Virtual Worlds

2) Voki (www.voki.com)

            This is how Voki advertises itself: “Voki is a FREE service that lets you: Create customized avatars. Add voice to your Voki avatars. Post your Voki to any blog, website, or profile” (www.voki.com).  With Voki you can create any avatar and give your own voice.  Your avatar can be dressed as you like, bejeweled as you like and you can even tinker on the make-up!  You are of course in full charge of what you are going to make your Voki avatar say!

            These avatars can be created and used as an effective learning tool.  The use of the avatar will make the lessons interactive and fun at the same time.  There are also several lesson plans educators can choose from.  The website also boasts of providing instruction to enhance language skills in 25 languages.  We can create the Voki, and then listen to the same message in a different language, or many different languages!

            Voki opens up hands-on creativity for learners.  Learners can create and use the Voki to demonstrate a myriad of activities.  It also helps the learners change their identity exactly as they want to look and also record and rerecord until they are satisfied with the way they sound. 

            In an adult language literacy classroom, Voki is going to play a very important role as learners can use these avatars for role-playing.  They can record, listen and make changes as necessary.  The instructions are user-friendly and will be much appreciated in the adult learning world.  I can record instructions and make my Voki give the instructions.  I can then instruct the students to respond to me by creating a Voki avatar of their own.

            As my learners become more proficient, I can instruct them to tell their stories digitally through their various Voki characters.  Learners can collaboratively create stories or presentations using the Voki characters they build.  The things that one can do with this tool are numerous.

References:

Lenhart, A., Jones, S., Macgill, A,. (2008). Adults and Video Games. Pew Internet & American Life Project, Retrieved from:  http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/Adults-and-Video-Games.aspx

Pixlwise: www.pixlwise.com

Voki: www.voki.com