IDT in India

One of the countries that I am most interested in relative to IDT is India.  I found two resources that discussed various aspects of IDT in India, specifically in terms of distance education.  According to Rao (2006), 44% of the population in India is illiterate and only 7% of the population attends college.  One of the ways that the government attempted to address the educational needs of a large segment of society is to use distance education (DE).  The trend I am interested in is the uses of DE by developing countries to address the vocational and educational needs of a large and diverse population.  In India, the government invested in the “open university” concept (though some say it was imported from Western Europe).  There are 10 major open universities in India and 64 correspondence institutes that are affiliated with colleges.  The major open university that is the “flagship” institution is the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in New Delhi.   IGNOU serves over one million learners in India and almost another million in 30 other countries.  

One aspect of the trend to use open universities in developing countries is due to the economic feasibility of delivering education resources to under-served populations across large rural regions.  This is really the only mode of education that can be used to increase literacy in remote areas as well as provide vocational skills to large numbers of people who have no access to training centers. The mechanisms of providing DE in India range from correspondence materials sent through the mail to dedicated satellites that serve the broadcasting and internet needs of academia and government.  A number of DE programs use the broadcast component to deliver educational programs to student via television and FM radio. One of the issues with DE in India is that only 2% of the faculty involved in De is full-time university faculty while 91% are part-time tutors.  This translates into 13,00 unsupervised part-time individuals basically providing educational services for the entire De effort.  Unfortunately it seems that most of the people that access DE in India are males who already have a degree and are looking for a way to enhance their career possibilities.  The population who initially were supposed to be served simply cannot access the courses.  One of the most positive aspects of India’s DE system is that there are 10 other open universities that collaborate with IGNOU and these groups are spread across regions in India to serve populations who have language and cultural differences.

In an article by Alcorn, Christensen, & Kapur (2015), MOOCs were investigated as part of the DE trend in India.  MOOCs were seen to have the potential to address the educational needs of India’s various regions and geographies, and were supposed to be transformative for the higher educational system there.  Again, as shown in the previous summary, access became an issue.  Access to English, access to the internet, access to an education that could help an individual take advance of a MOOC resource—these were all obstacles for large numbers of Indians.  In addition, another of the obstacles to the possibilities of MOOCs was the uneven quality of the courses and instructors due to issues regarding regulation.  Barely 30% of those with credentials from MOOC DE were employable after graduation.  A massive lack of qualified personnel seemed to result in the current failure of the MOOC approach to provide the impact that was hoped for initially.  Some suggestions to address the gap were to deliver MOOC material to mobile phones, to customize the programs for local languages, and to build communities of students who could support each other with peer-to-peer learning.  I will be following this trend eagerly!

References

Alcorn, B., Christensen, G., & Kapur, D. (2015).  Higher education and MOOCs in India and the Global South.  Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 47(3), 42-49.

Rao, S. (2006). Distance education and the role of IT in India.  The Electronic Library, 24(2), 225-236.

IDT in Preschool Settings with English-Language Learners

·       IDT Trend in one of the various settings (choose from Business and Industry, Military Education and Training Environments, Healthcare, P-12 Education, or University Setting). Choose one that you closely identify with, or one that you would like to work in. Describe the trend, provide two resources that provide more information on this trend and explain why these readings or resources stood out to you,  

The setting that continues to be interesting to me is the early childhood education setting. There is a controversy in the field regarding the influence of screen time on young children’s development.  Its either magic or dust (depending on who you read) in terms of enriching children’s exploration of literacy and math versus dulling their creativity and social skills.  I have starting volunteering at the Charlotte Bilingual Preschool (CBP), and the teachers and director are very interested in using interactive white boards to help build vocabulary for children whose home language is not English.  With that kind of project in mind, I wanted to see what the trend is in terms of IDT and bilingual learning with this young age group.  I think that the growing population of immigrant families with young children is a very important one to focus on in terms of early enrichment so that they are ready for kindergarten and all that the educational system can offer.  And if there is a way to use technology to provide access to English language proficiency for preschoolers, I want to be as informed as I can be.

There are many issues surrounding English language learning in preschools in addition to the question technology’s contribution to outcomes.  It seems that most preschools have children with various home languages and school systems just do not have the ability to spread credentialed English as a Second Language teachers out to all of the settings in which they are needed.  Furthermore, materials that are written in various languages for the preschool population are just not readily available. Research has shown that a bilingual approach to teaching preschoolers yields the best outcomes.  Instruction should be provided in the child’s home language so that the child can acquire the concepts as well as the vocabulary.  Combining vocabulary in a “bridge” approach seems to support children in learning a second language.  With this information in mind, I sought resources that might demonstrate a role for technology in bridging two language approaches.

I found two interested resources in this area.  According to Nemeth & Simon (2013), there are a variety of ways to use digital tools to enhance dual-language learners’ (DLL) opportunities in the preschool classroom.  These authors discussed methods to use digital cameras to capture photos of familiar items to create games in various languages.  They recommended creative digital storybooks using various types of available software.  Children use their home language to narrate the story and the teacher can use Google Translate or iTranslate to capture their stories in English.  The digital stories can be emailed home or used to Skype with relatives in the classroom setting thereby enriching all of the children’s experiences.  Another easy use of technology in these settings is to videotape children’s play to see their progress and persistence in English and their home language as they bridge the two “worlds” in the world of play.  One of the most interesting aspects of this resource was the survey study these authors did to find out if preschool teachers would use these approaches in their classrooms, and the found that more than half of preschool teachers surveyed nationally already use technology to support DLLs. 

In another article by Walsh, Cromer, & Weinel (2014), these researchers focused on using technology to provide a home-school connection with Spanish-speaking parents who themselves had low literacy levels in Spanish and English.  These researchers made bilingual DVD newsletters on a weekly basis to showcase children’s efforts at school.  The digital newsletters contained announcements, teacher demonstrations of literacy strategies, footage of children playing and learning, and messages from the teachers about how to practice some of the classroom skills at home.  I found this method of “inviting” parents into the classroom to be very powerful.  The researchers reported that parents enjoyed the DVDs and furthermore, the children enjoyed watching the DVDs with their parents while they talked about their experiences at school.  In a sense it created a way for parents and children to review the important lessons from the week.  It was even found that the children watched each DVD at least three times at home, furthering their exposure to the classroom lessons.

The trend of encouraging teachers to use various forms of technology in preschool settings with ELL and DLLs was interesting to me and I can imagine a variety of ways to build on these ideas with the CBP teachers.  Both resources emphasized the personalization of digital products, the use of digital products to connect home and school for your children, and the ease as well as the willingness shown by teachers to actually utilize these approaches were significant take-aways for me in investigating this trend of maximizing the use of technology for preschoolers who are learning English.

Resources

Nemeth, K., & Simon, G. (2013). Using technology as a teaching tool for dual language learners in preschool through grade 3.  Young Children, 68(1), 44-52.

Walsh, B., Cromer, H., & Weigel, D. (2014).  Classroom-to-home connections: Young children’s experiences with a technology-based parent involvement tool.  Early Education and Development, 25(8), 1142-1161.

Trend 3D Printing

One of the trends in instructional technology that I found very interesting is the topic of 3D printing.  This was a new topic for me, and I found its current developments and its applications fascinating.  The regenerative medical groups internationally have been achieving advancements in printing skin tissue, heart tissue, blood vessels, artificial bones, organs, and soft tissues.  As a special educator, I am particularly interested in the medical and habilitative aspects of the applications of this trend.

I think that 3D printing will impact learning and education through its habilitative applications for very young children in terms of prosthetics.  This is true through its potential to assist children with physical disabilities to avoid missing critical periods of development due to a missing limb or damaged functional motor ability.  When children can be fully and actively involved in their environment, they can experience a normal trajectory of mobility and interaction.  In addition, with the advent of bio-printing, the medical aspect of engineering tissue and organs is being built using 3D printing technologies.  This holds the possibility of repairing organs in fetuses and preterm infants and avoiding the medical consequences of damages and disorders.  Less need for early intervention will have a significant impact on the quality of life early on, avoiding secondary and tertiary disabilities.

As an instructional technologist, what do you need to do to keep up with this trend?  In the field of disabilities, I could see the need to stay abreast of the research in the area of 3D printing in order to be an advocate for families who have children who might benefit from these interventions.  I would maintain contacts with neonatologists as well as early interventioninsts who might be participating on teams that were involved in medical applications of habilitative 3D printing for infants.  I would also want to maintain my awareness of journal articles and conference strands that address this topic as it becomes more mainstreamed in early childhood special education.

Provide three resources (an article, web url and a video) that provide more information on this trend and explain why these resources stood out to you.

Cooper-White, H. (March, 2016). “How 3D Printing Could End the Deadly Shortage of Donor Organs.”  Huffpost Science.

This website author responded to questions about challenges of 3D printing relative to customized organs and discussed the latest development of a “Body on A Chip.”  One of the major challenges is how to oxygenate the new organs until they can become vascularized and integrated into the body.

https://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_harouni_a_primer_on_3d_printing?language=en

This TED talk from 2011 provides an overview of the fabrication of organs through additive manufacturing which has become an affordable possibility.  The speaker, Ms Harouni, provided examples and photos of products of 3D printing endeavors.  She sees 3D printing as significant as the next industrial revolution.

https://3dprint.com/27743/3d-printing-benefits-schools/

In this online article, "Why 3D Printing Needs To Take Off in Schools Around the 'World," the authors indicate that 3D printing has not been utilized much in schools because school administrators do not yet have the awareness of its potential.  Some of the examples that are provided as possible uses include mathematics education (helping students grasp models), earth sciences (helping students understand formations in a scaled sense), history (helping students make replicas of artifacts), and art (helping students bring their designs to life).  I would agree with the authors as the general applications of 3D printing were not imaginable to me before I was introduced to them, and the specific applications in various disciplines are really driven by individuals in those fields who have some background in the application of this sort of printing.

Design one activity using this trend that can be applied for teaching and learning.

The activity that I could apply to this trend would be in the context of including this information about 3D printing in my special education lectures to preservice and inservice teachers so that they can be aware of ways to support the children and families.  They will probably be the individuals on the front line of working with infants who may have benefited from medical and habilitative 3D prinmting.

Re-use information that you shared for your main post in the discussion forum (educreation, voki etc)

http://linoit.com/users/suzlam/canvases/Someday