Multimedia Essay #1

September 30, 2015

 

After signing up for Com 410, “Advanced Communication Studies,”  I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. I was thinking that this was my one of my final classes I would take at URI before graduation, and I just wanted something that would fill the remaining credits that I had left.  Little did I know that this class would revolve around the idea of Digital Learning and the affect it has on today’s society and students. Although it’s only Week 4 of classes, I feel like I have already grasped the concept of this topic so well, and am looking forward to how the rest of the course unveils.

 

One of the key ideas that I have taken away from this course already is realizing how many online tools there are for learning in general. Although most online tools are age specific, it is amazing to see how many programs and uses are out there for learning that I had never even known about. For example, the application that we use for our weekly virtual classes which is “Google Hangouts,” I had never even heard of prior to this class. Being able to see my classmates through webcams and have that interactive time with my Professor is such a privilege especially since it’s an online class.

 

I have come to understand other uses as well as the FlipGrid application that we also use which allows us to share our thoughts and ideas about a specific reading or video that we are required to watch. This requires us to simply turn our webcam  on with our computers and speak to the camera about what we thought was interesting or valuable which will then be accessible to our classmates. I sit back and think to myself how valuable this would have been in high school or other college courses, but again, I never even knew these tools existed.

 

Oher than just the online tools that we use for our own class, we have also had the opportunity to engage in readings and videos that discuss digital learning that occurs in other grades and in different cultures. In our book, Netsmart by Howard Rheingold, I was able to understand not only the positive ways that digital learning affects people but also the negative ways. For example, Rheingold quoted Tony Schwartz and his opinion on how taking a break from checking e-mails and being glued to your technology, and how taking a small break can actually increase productivity and concentration over long periods of time. This was a surprising fact to me, and also very relevant since I do find it interesting to learn about digital learning in elementary and student related ways, but since I am graduating college and working full time I can understand it from a workers perspective too.

 

I mentioned in our forum that I find this extremely relevant at my job. I think that in any professional career, people get carried away with being attached to their e-mail. It seems that most people spend their entire day and night checking it to make sure they don’t miss out on anything. According to Schwartz and Rheingold, taking some time away from it can actually be more beneficial than staying in tuned to it all day. This is also a fact when relating it to digital learning and students’ addictions to the tools they are using as well as social media. Excessive amounts of it are just not healthy.

 

Another important lesson I have learned while being enrolled in this course is the term “blended learning.” I discovered this term after watching the video “What is Blended Learning- from the Learning Accelerator” on YouTube. Being out of elementary school and high school, I seem to fall off the band wagon when it comes to new learning trends. Since college is so major-based and hands-on for the most part, it seems that our learning styles are pretty fitting for our age groups. I learned that now younger groups of learners are experiencing learning in an entirely different way than I did.

 

This video taught me that teachers are now taking the time to understand how their students learn, and altering the lessons they teach to fit those different categories of students’ learning. For example, whether be students who learn better visually, teachers are now gearing specific lessons using visual components or technological components. For those who like group work, teachers are now bringing group exercises into the classroom to help students who learn better that way. The classroom is now divided into groups of children learning the same lesson but through different tools and strategies that fit their learning preference. Teachers have found that using more digital and technological tools have advanced students grades and engagement in the classroom which is something that should have happened a long time ago in my eyes.

 

Although I have only provided a few examples of what I have learned so far in this class, it does not even begin to cover all that I have learned. It is so interesting to be involved in a course that is structured in a way that is digital learning, and is also entirely about the study of digital learning. The fact that we can engage in this type of learning while also actually learning about it, is just very fitting and useful.

 

It is interesting to see how far education has come with the influence of technology and picturing what is to come is very exciting. I think that we will begin to see even more of an increase in student knowledge and eagerness to learn in the upcoming years as technology advances and teachers include more of this digital learning technique in their classrooms.  I  feel like this movement has already made such a distinct mark on education that it is going to continue to flourish in years to come.

 

 

References:

 

Rheingold, H. (2012). Net smart how to thrive online. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

 

What is Blended Learning? [Television broadcast]. (2014, May 7). Lexington: Christiansen Institute.