iPads and the word eLearning

While our work here at the college continues with the iPad trials, I am always interested to read and discover from the work of others in using tablet technology. Not so much with regard to the use of tablets as really this is more directly the evolutionary transition of anyone’s tech experience, but more by way of how they could be utilised in improving outcomes in a way that cannot be readily achieved using the now more traditional desktop technology. So I was encouraged to discover a net article recently entitled ‘Technology makes a difference in student achievement’ from sourcenewspapers.com, where a teacher describes how she managed to improve here class outcomes from 81 percent with 100 percent, and attributes this to the use of iPads, an interesting though somewhat specialist approach however still very much worth a read. I felt.

Is it time to drop the e from the term eLearning? and this is a discussion that has been going on for some time now and one that I came across originally back in 2007 in a blog posting from Donald Taylor. If you would like to see that posting then you can find it here and so therefore I will not attempt to repeat the salient points in  this post. More to the point for now though are two other postings namely ‘10 Tech Skills Every Student Should Have’ and ‘10 Important Skills Students need for the Future’. It does seem to me that all to often we feel the need to ensure that teachers have the necessary skills for the creation of content and its  delivery, of what for want of a better term I will call eMaterials, but what do we assume about students. If you feel you have not considered that question fully enough then please follow the two links, and you may well find as I have one or two that you may not have given due consideration to.

That's all now now, but do please stay in touch with this blog and of course feel free to comment.