The changing face of education

I can still remember my grade one classroom in a small remote village on the north end of Vancouver Island, B.C. (Coal Harbour).   My family moved to this community in March from Vancouver, and I went from a large elementary school of a few hundred students to a one room school that housed grades one to three with a school population of approximately 20 students.  Over the next seven years, my elementary school building grew in size (8 class rooms) and approximately 100 students.  Our education was from books, and in class learning.  Computers were not in classrooms (that came later on in high school), and field trips were taken to the local beach to view the dead rotting carcass of a sea-lion that had washed up on the shore.

Students today have a completely different experience, as computers and technology have changed the face of education and learning both within the school and at home. 

Take for example a student learning the structure of an animal cell…no longer do we sit aimlessly staring into a book, or listening to a teacher drone on about the golgi and mitochondria.  There are now learning object repositories available to help with hands-on learning, and test the student at the end of their session.

Skype offers a classroom the opportunity to connect with another classroom (via video calls/conferencing) half way across the world.  What a great way for students to learn about: different cultures; geography; communities and lifestyles.  There is also links for video conferencing availabilities listed on 2learn.ca

Youtube and Ustream allow students and teachers to view videos on numerous topics, and also to upload videos on their local school play or investigative report for social studies.  Teachers can make podcasts that their students can view at their own conevience regarding class notes.

Teachers can communicate with students and their parents with a blog and/or twitter.  Blogs are also a great tool to run group projects and encourage the students to share their learning experiences, an interesting site for education blogs is Edublogs.

Yes… we have come a long way from that one room school-house, and I for one am very excited about what this new form of learning and teaching has to offer.