Recently we notice the increase in teaching techniques where we use the computer and Internet. Of course I am talking about the learning and not conducting lessons (for example: this blog is just a form of conducting and maybe only partially form of teaching, the same is our university platform Edux where we are only dealing with a form of teaching) .
Probably now everyone want the future like in the Matrix movie where you connect to your computer and send directly to the brain the knowledge that you are interested. But this method is very distant from our time;)
We also see continued growth platforms like www.lynda.com which becomes a replacement for e-books but whether it is sufficient solution? Also Dr. Google is a sufficient source of acquiring knowledge?
When I followed this topic I saw mobile application like RSS4English (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.vocab.android.rss&hl=en) where author of this application uses "revolutionary Brainglass method" which is one of many new methods.
This subject is quite interesting for me and has a great future. How do you see the future of education with a computer and internet ? How to motivate people to learn? Or maybe you know at this moment some interesting techniques which you can share with us?
You do not have to watch this movie because it is a little off-topic, but it's a very interesting.
How to motivate people to learn?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion there is no way to motivate people to learn, if one doesn't want to learn then he will not.
Unless it is done at the very early stage of development; that means during the childhood. Children are relatively easy to impress and motivate so if you teach them to like learning (and most kids like to discover things) they will continue to do so later in life.
How do you see the future of education with a computer and internet.
I think education by internet has huge potential and big future. Personally I used some of such courses on Audaci.
I agree that not the "motivation techniques" are the key but our inner knowledge hunger and a will to spend time feeding :) it.
DeleteThx Kinga and Waldemar for your opinion. Of course I agree with you about motivation (but is many things which can you motivate even if you don't want - for example bigger salary, but this is something different). Have a nice day!
Delete@Kinga can you tell me something more about Audaci ? I can't find anything on the Internet
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DeleteI agree with Kinga and Waldemar that there isn't good way for motivation if someone don't motivate by him self no wan can do :)
DeleteSalary is not a good example try to told someone who has 10 year old that he or she need to learn to have a lot of money in the future in that time they don't think about that :).
@Krzysztof - Salary is only one of many examples, please remember that we're not talking here about kids. Kinga only mentioned: "...Unless it is done at the very early stage of development...". Please read all topic and then try again to comment, thank you ;) Have a nice evening!
Delete@Jacek I'm sorry I made a mistake its Udacity.
DeleteThx, I know Udacity already, is also very nice.
DeleteI think that nowadays learning is so much more easy because of a VAST amount of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThe structure of the knowledge to master changed dramatically. You do not have to learn much facts now but rather learn where to look for specific data if you need one. Computers and Internet relieved us form remembering unnecessary things that were mandatory to know few years back.
When I recall a time when I was at school it was way different. You did not have all the materials that at your fingertips now.
An I believe it is good.
But the amount of the information with the easy way of accessing it is not sufficient for all to become well educated. You still need to put a lot of your effort.
How do you see the future of education with a computer and internet?
I think that there is no turning back :). Let’s leave the data to machines and spend our time using brain for thinking not for remembering (not to swot up on some specific topics).
How to motivate people to learn? Or maybe you know at this moment some interesting techniques which you can share with us?
It is a tough job especially in regard to your kids’ education :).
I usually try to show the beauty of acquiring new valuable knowledge.
If that does not help then I switch into frightening that without learning life will be harder and not that interesting.
Thank You for your opinion. Very accurate note about the data sharing, I mean "...look for specific data if you need one...". About "...Let’s leave the data to machines and spend our time using brain for thinking not for remembering..." - I partly agree with you because even if you programming this machines you need to know language, so firstly you need to remember syntax / rules. For example if we leave the foundations of mathematics (even simple multiplication table) to machines then we cut off our kids from logical thinking. Have a nice day!
DeleteI see that I was a little bit misunderstood. It is obvious that some part of the knowledge needs to be acquired. And I think it is worthwhile.
DeleteWhat I perceive as pointless is trying to put a lot of useless data into our brains.
How do you see the future of education with a computer and Internet?
ReplyDeletePerhaps, as opposed to most other people I suppose the Internet and computers will not influence education in the future as much as some would think. It is because now and later on the network and IT technology will have an impact only on the following:
• Easier and faster access to digitally coded information.
• Help in presentations facilitating perception.
• Partial replacement of human mechanical memorising.
• Replacement of tedious calculations.
However, these factors are of little importance for the process of education. On the other hand they are tools for education (the same as objects such as a chalk, chalkboard, or pencil).
Important factors for the education process are:
• Careful selection of contents to learn (from the information chaos).
• Getting to the core of the issue.
• Developing abstract thinking (generalisation).
• Teaching logical thinking (induction, deduction).
Yet, these factors do not rely on computers and the Internet. On the contrary, some applications of networks and computers will be a bad influence on quality of education. For example, in network communication, teachers are at a distance from students, which will have a negative effect on communication quality.
In my opinion how to motivate people to learn?
In my opinion, the key to learning motivation is the sense of group acceptance: every person wants to be accepted, and much they do (perhaps most) is for this reason. Higher salary, degree/academic title and so on are partly a manifestation of their social standing, which ultimately is a sign of being accepted by others. Therefore, more often than not, I use positive reinforcement methods like praise as well as students activation techniques.
Thank You Sławomir for very interesting comments. So what do you think about for example coursera ? They started a program where when you finish some courses you will get a certificate from many of the best university in the world. For example : http://www.coursera.org/illinois or http://www.coursera.org/umd
DeleteI saw the Slawomir's words "I suppose the Internet and computers will not influence education in the future" far brave until I read "as much as SOME would think" :-).
DeleteI suppose that we may discuss whether delivering knowledge by the Internet is a revolution. For me it is a true but some of us may treat the Internet only as a way (medium) for delivering information. Sometimes I notice that people try to find a prepared by somebody else solution on the Internet instead of creating it. Of course I don't think about discovering the wheel second time, but simply we sometimes try to find a solution for hours when creating it takes only a few minutes.
So I think that you really may be right more than some of us would think. But, do you think that the Internet isn't able do transform our education system from economical reasons?
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ReplyDeleteIt's quite obvious to me that the Internet has become integral part of education and there's no turning back. Printed literature is all good and well but thousand page long books are rather unwieldy in today's times. Most of such stuff can be found online - either legally or not - and more convenient to use. The issue is in knowing where to search - which in itself is an extremely useful ability.
ReplyDeleteThat's not to say that I'm entirely convinced in online education being all good and without flaws. In some cases, finishing a course is a matter of Googling something and then copy/pasting the answer, without really understanding what it means. It can work on simple problems, but when dealing with actual real life situations, it's bound to fail.
To expand on that - I had the "pleasure" of helping a friend with a couple of his educational courses (simple online tests, as it turned out). I managed to finish them in the exact way mentioned above - and I did it with almost zero experience in that particular field, simply by browsing through provided materials and google. Worse, this was not some shady test designed by a random nobody, but something awarding actual government regulated points in this particular profession (I'm not sure how it's officially called, since it's not my area of expertise). Obviously, I'm not getting into details here and it was hardly a standard practice (the entire thing being more of an annoying chore rather than "education"), but I was not impressed.
Motivation is a key problem though. While the Internet offers vast amount of knowledge, it is also extremely distracting. Lack of human control, fluid deadlines, tons of things you "have" to do everyday which are in no way tied to education - all of which really get in the way and hamper your progress. It's not *that* much worse than attending live courses/school, but it is worse.
I don't have a good solution of that. There are some minor hints and tips one can pick up, but everyone has to deal with it individually.
Thank You Kamil for comment. I agree with you that motivation is extremly difficult when you have everyday full "to do" list. But maybe we are looking in wrong way? Maybe we need create a good solution for kids, and there put this motivating solutions - of course i still looking for this solutions. Nowadays we have many websites, mobile applications which offer distance learning like coursea, edx, futurelearn but this is a solution for students... but they are already thinking about how to avoid it. Some of exams (for example programming from Oracle, Zend) are very difficult and materials for this exams are modest.
DeleteStudents are pretty quick to figure out how the Internet can help with studying. Sometimes in ways the teacher would not approve of (but even then, that might just be the case of outdated teaching methods). No motivation needed there. So the question is: are students getting a better eduction, or is the Internet just a means to simplify the learning process? Are students encouraged to reflect upon what they've learned and understand the implications of it?
ReplyDeleteI think the Internet can help here as well. In a way, it is a real life verification of knowledge instead of a controlled educational environment like a school. You can easily find opposing views and critiques, so the teacher no longer has a monopoly on what's true. This comes at a price though: now the student must learn how to filter information and vet sources.
The true power of the Internet comes from collaboration, the sharing of knowledge and access to other people's work. In light of this, paper books seem like a vastly inferior source of knowledge. But it depends on the particular scientific domain, we're probably skewed by our Computer Science background.
I agree with you with what you mention here. About "simplify the learning process", maybe this is a good thing ? Sometimes it's better to learn specific things than many additional unconnected things.
DeleteYes it is a good thing, as long as you don't come to the conclusion that "since it's on the Internet, I don't need to learn it". My point was that the Internet can be used for so much more than just quickly finding a specific answer.
DeleteTechnology has changed dramatically the way how we learn today. In the past everyone need to had a lot of books and learn from them. Teachers forced us to memorize every thing. They didn't learn us how to find knowledge, how to think but they learned us how to memorize every thing. Now a day we have laptops we have IPads almost everyone has access to the Internet. That's way now a day we don't need to have a lot of books we have e-books teachers learn us how to find knowledge how to connect facts, they force us to think rather then memorized. Also now a day we don't need to sit all the time in library to find some information because we can easily find it on the Internet.
ReplyDeleteHow do you see the future of education with a computer and Internet?
I think that there is still huge potential to use. In my opinion education by the Internet will grown more and more.
How to motivate people to learn? Or maybe you know at this moment some interesting techniques which you can share with us?
I think that there is only one effective technique. You have to make that subject which someone is learning will be interesting for that person. Learning something what is interesting for us is the best motivation
Thank you Krzysztof for comment. Interesting point of view about motivation. So... do you think that problem is a way of writing books, teaching materials by teachers or professors? I asked this because we have many difficult problems from mathematics, physics, chemistry which must be learned but materials is really boring and you lose concentration when you read or listen.
DeleteI think that we always should remember that finding information is only a one skill necessary to live. I often see that my daughter can find information on particular topics but she sometimes finds fakes instead of reliable information on the Internet. It shows me how important having a good basis is.
DeleteAdditionally I think that we should remember that teachers have to teach us particular things - not only how to find a library or English dictionary:-). So it seems to me that memorising still has a future. But generally I agree that skill of finding necessary information is more and more important and that it should be tough.
Yesterday I was surprised by the question of one colleague about using a kindle for learning English. He presented me what he saw: A men read an English text. When he didn't know the meaning of a word he pointed it by his finger and saw it in a tool-tip.
ReplyDeleteI think that connecting it with a program which adds unknown for words for later repeating and picks text according to a skill of a student should work fine. Maybe in the next semester we will use these method :-).
BTW: I was only person in a group who didn't know what the kindle was :-(. So I probably have to study more about current gadgets.
Thank you for your comment. When i find some free time I will try to read something more on the internet about this method which you presented here because it looks quite reasonable ;) I wrote above about RSS4English, maybe is not the same but is very similar.
DeleteI installed RSS4English but while I was trying to read an article I got the message "No articles". So I didn't explore the application recommended by you. After your answer I read about RSS4English and it really seems to be something similar to my vision.
DeleteThe most interesting thing, which I noticed, is a learning curve for RSS4English - http://www.brainglass.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/graph2.png. I would like to achieve something similar during improving my English :-).
I would like to complete my previous blog entry by answers to your questions (I didn't it yesterday because it was a bit late while I typed my entry and I didn't want to give too many materials for our teacher for correcting mistakes :-)).
I think that the Internet will change our way of studying. I can't show a strict way how it will happen but I think that it will be something similar to discovering books by Gutenberg. Knowledge is becoming more accessible for ordinal people and it is all what is really needed for changing education system.
I don't know how to motivate people to learn. I don't think that we should do it in a higher education part. For it - when somebody doesn't want to learn we shouldn't force anybody for doing it. Studying is a choice of individuals.
The picture about our and universe plans looks very funny. Apart from difficulties the lower way seems to be more interesting :-).
How to motivate people to learn?
ReplyDeleteFor me only clear view of benefits can be good motivation.
How do you see the future of education with a computer and internet?
Education is a live time process and internet allows us to continue education after graduation. I think in feature people will start to work earlier and at the same time they will follow with process of education. In this area Information Technology can be really helpful. On the other hand for kids computers can make a process of education funnier. So I hope kids in future will learn thinks with joy.
How do you see the future of education with a computer and internet ?
ReplyDeleteI think that unlimited access to computers and Internet highly increases the level of education. It is no longer necessary to focus on issues that can be easily found everywhere on the Internet, like a lot of technical data, numbers, models and equations. Knowing where to find that and especially knowing what to search for and how to use those information will save a lot of time and energy that can be used for learning something more important.
How to motivate people to learn?
First of all any attempt to motivate someone to learn should be performed very early in the childhood. Kids should associate knowledge with the success. Later on there may be many motivating factors. Even something like life situation can force someone to learn, for example to learn some profession or get extra skills to be competitive on the job market. Employers should also try to motivate their employees to learn and become more qualified.
Learning and the system of education had become a very popular topic nowadays. There is a vast amount of people that are uneasy with the way the system functions and how it forces children to adapt to its framework. Also, when a student has problems with adjusting he/she is considered to have smaller potential than the ones who score perfect grades. Seldom does a teacher try to approach pupils individually and understand that they have different learning styles that suit them best. Even if they do, what can be done then? During the video we could hear a sentence that, in my opinion, perfectly describes the current classroom situation: "for half of the class the topic is too hard and the other half is bored as they find it too simple".
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the statement that improving the education system and making it more flexible and adaptive for each student is the direction to follow. Hearing about such great systems like the ones presented in the video makes me happy and I really would like to see my kinds using such tools and having fun while discovering new things. Although I feel that Poland is not a place where the "educational revolution" will happen any time soon.
I never had any problems in school/university but the video got me thinking about the numerous tests, exams and papers that I needed to pass on my way to where I am now. I can see that during that time I memorized a lot of information and understood the topics that were covered, but most of the useful problem solving techniques I learned from performing my job, as well from the studies/courses that I took outside the regular education system. So, I really feel that a change is needed.
"... Learning and the system of education had become a very popular topic nowadays ..."
DeleteYes it is getting more and more as a vital topic and I think it is good.
Schools take our kids out of our hands at the best possible time for their brains to work.
I mean the most tasty time frame of the day (let's say 9-15).
The sad thing is that huge part of this valuable and volatile asset is wasted by incompetent teachers or by the system that restricts the freedom of movement of those competent ones.
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ReplyDeleteI think learning process is the most effective when it makes joy. And, moreover, if we want to learn something, we need to do it. The internet has changed the model or learning in XXI century. This model is completely different than it was in the beginning of XX century when we had 50% blue-collar workers, 30% artisans and only 20% people had higher education. Today, most of us have to became managers for ourselves. We have to act on our own account, we have to be self-learning people and self-motivated. This is exactly what did Kinga write.
ReplyDeleteI think the Internet helps us to achieve this but on the other hand, when people are not aware of how to make usage of it, it can cause the opposite effect. If I had to predict what happen with education in the near future I would say that it starts to be commercial. Our current public system of education is obsolete. Only we can change it make this system working on our own use. Multimedia and interactive systems connected with a network are those things which will support us with learning. But I cannot predict what exact direction this system follows. I am aware that current generation is the first which is growing in the environment of electronic media. And they don’t want to return to traditional ways of learning or event don’t know that something ever exists :) So if they want to be respected they need to be good manager of their education because the world with the Internet is changing many times faster than our traditional schools...
Motivation for learning I think we do well to plan what and when we do!We can not put off until later. We can not think about other things such as about food. Stop thinking about science and we'll do something different.
ReplyDeleteDo not manage to do only things together in time and space. You have to be well prepared to learn. If we start learning about 7 pm everything you need to prepare yourself for a given hour and not prepared
in the course of learning.There are a lot of strategies leading to success.
Not all four motivations are possible to use for everyone.There is one trick that will motivate us. Motivation is a set of strategies. We must learn to manage your time and opportunities.
The greatest use of a computer for learning is based on the Internet. This is the digging of knowledge. Thanks to information in the internet you can find answers to most questions.
Thanks to the internet we can exchange your knowledge with other users. You need to use the internet wisely.