I do my best to stay up on the most contemporary arguments for and against education technologies. Edsurge.com, wired, qz.com, edweek, tech.ed.gov, and youtube are all great resources. Here is a great video by a youtuber, Veritasium, giving us a new take on the edtech antidote, "'This' will be the fix to our ed system." Facinating scientific fact rules in this video, well worth the time.
Happy New Year! 2015 is going to be great!
Many technologies have promised to revolutionize education, but so far none has. With that in mind, what could revolutionize education?
In summary, moving pictures, radio, television, video disks and now, tablets with HTML 5, have all claimed to revolutionize education. I believe that bureaucracy moves too slowly for innovations technology may bring, but this video touches on the human element and makes some compelling statements.
I was particularly struck by the animated heart cartoon in comparison to static pictures with text. Obviously, watching the animation was powerful more easily understood than the pictures, right? Veritasium masterfully debunks this obvious assumption and I thank him for it. He claims that there are no significant differences between the two for learning. Sure, the animation is easy to follow but having to decipher the text and pictures causes the learner to spend more time with the material. So when it comes down to it learning is about the same.
Any superfluous information needs to be cut out of learning. For example, Veritasium shows how on-screen text competes with live motion video and hinders comprehension. Similarly, he shows how pictures with audio is more effective than auditory learning.
Teachers as sole delivers of information are obsolete. Teachers are sherpas, essential guides, leading us up the mountain of learning. We've almost forgotten this fact. Before we're finished marveling at the new tech that will revolutionize learning, let's make sure they're with us.