References
Johnson, D., & Johnson, R. (2008). Cooperation and the use of technology. In J. M. Spector, M. D. Merrill, J. van Merrienboer, & M. Driscoll (Eds.), Handbook of research on educational communications and technology(3rd ed., pp. 1017–1044). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. Spector, J. M., Merrill, J. D., Elen, J., & Bishop, M. J. (2014). Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology.Heidelberg Dordrecht: Springer.
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References: Cook, C. W., & Sonnenberg, C. (2014). Technology And Online Education: Models For Change. Contemporary Issues in Education Research (CIER) CIER,7(3), 171. doi:10.19030/cier.v7i3.8638 Freeman, A., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Davis, A., and Hall Giesinger, C. (2017). NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2017 K–12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Social Networking TechnologiesSocial media and social networking technologies such as Facebook and Twitter are increasingly becoming more popular and important part of how people communicate and connect day to day. These technologies play a key role in making connections and communications between families, friends, colleagues, schools, churches, and other groups. Many teachers find social networking a great way to expand their learning communities and to discover resources. Our students are digital natives and they live on a social media society. One way to make learning relevant to them is to meet them where they live, which means finding social media sites that work in the classroom. Here are my favorite social media apps that I use in the classroom:
In China, most Christians meet in home churches. My family and team meet in various homes where we pray, read and share Bible passages, give testimonies, and listen to sermons. These gatherings are considered illegal but since we do it inside our homes, it is usually fine as long as we don`t let any local Chinese join our home church. Brooks (2012) suggests that by using the available mobile apps and presentations tools, the Church can easily deal with this technological change and continue to provide the needed services to its members and seekers. In China, we usually use WeChat to communicate with our church members but we are always careful with the words that we use. We use codes in sending messages through WeChat or SMS, for instance, we use “G” for God, “Pr” for pray, or “Book” for the Bible when we send messages to our friends. Aside from WeChat, our Church also use a secure company email with servers outside China so that it is much safer to send messages to the members. References: Brooks, M. (2012). Why and How To Use A Mobile App For Your Church. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from http://pastors.com/why-and-how-to-use-a-mobile-app-for-your-church/ Neo (2018). About NEO. Retrieved February 28, 2018, from https://www.neolms.com/info/about Richland. (2018). Retrieved February 28, 2018, from http://www.richland.edu/online/canvas Powtoon - https://www.powtoon.comOverview: PowToon is Web-based animation software that allows you to quickly and easily create animated presentations by manipulating pre-created objects, imported images, provided music and user created voice-overs. This presentation tool can be used for a variety of projects. It can serve as an alternative to PowerPoint since is basically an animated presentation. The user can choose to create a video from scratch or use the premade templates provided. It boasts a user-friendly interface that anyone can learn and use easily. My Personal Experience with Powtoon I love using Powtoon in my class. With Powtoon, my presentation comes alive with animations and graphics that make it more interesting to students. It is a great tool for the classroom that engages students in a fun and interesting way. Not only are students working with content, but they are also learning sequencing skill and expressing creativity. My students love using Powtoon when creating topic presentations or presenting steps in doing a task. One of the students` favorite is using Powtoon to create a presentation on how to use a certain program/app and presenting an easy step by step instructions. It is so much fun to see how creative are the students in putting together their ideas and come up with an awesome animated presentation. Prezi- https://prezi.comOverview: Prezi is a presentation software that uses motion, zoom, and spatial relationships to bring your ideas to life and make you a great presenter (Prezi, 2018). It is a web-based program that to create more of a canvas presentation instead of a sequential slide presentation. It allows you to incorporate not only text and pictures, but videos and other presentation objects. It creates very dynamic presentations and is a perfect tool for collaborative activities with students. My Personal Experience with Prezi I use Prezi a lot in my classroom presentations. Prezi allows for new kinds of visualizations and opportunities to link images to motion. One thing that I love about Prezi is that it`s completely free and web-based. With Prezi, I can access my presentations anywhere I go and my students can easily create Prezi accounts for free. In technology class, the students use Prezi in making presentation projects such as Computer History, Development of Computers , Timelines and related topics. Students like to use the collaboration feature of PreziNext which allow them to work as a team in real-time. I usually divide students in groups of three or four and they collaborate and add information to their Prezi slides simultaneously. The Church and the use of Mobile Apps
Whether we like it or not the technological revolution is changing the way we work, live and interact with people and even Churches (Brooks, 2012). With these changes, institutions need to adopt to this change, including the Church. By using the available mobile apps and presentations tools, the Church can easily deal with this technological change and continue to provide the needed services to its members and seekers. Also, it allows the Church to increase the ability to communicate with the members and seeks, for instance, broadcasting the sermons online to be watched by all the members and seekers worldwide. By using an online platform, the Church can publish calendar dates, times of church service, and venues for all outreaches and ministries. It allows all the Church members to easily track when and where they are to be. Brooks, M. (2012). Why and How To Use A Mobile App For Your Church. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from http://pastors.com/why-and-how-to-use-a-mobile-app-for-your-church/ Powtoon (2018). Create Awesome Videos & Presentations. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from https://www.powtoon.com/home/ Prezi (2018). Presenting the Next big thing in presenting. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from http://www.prezi.com/ Technology Integration in the 21st Century SchoolsTechnology has been a powerful tool in shaping and improving the school environment. However, some schools and teachers find it difficult to use technology and integrate it into their curriculum. One factor that prevents true integration of technology tools into the classroom is the lack of resources (limited technology, access, and technical support) in schools. Some schools just don`t have enough budget and cannot afford to buy technology resources for the students to use. Another barrier is lack of technology knowledge on teachers. Even when the proper resources are present, some teachers often struggle with an inadequate knowledge of using a new device, an app, or online resources. For many teachers, particularly those who did not grow up with computers or the internet, technology can be a challenge. The school leadership can also be a barrier to effective integration of technology in the classroom. When principals are unsupportive about the technology usage in the classroom, then the technology is hard to implement because they are the one holding the budget and have the power to finance different technology initiatives in school.
In 5-10 years from now, the K-12 schools will focus more in developing the curriculum to create authentic learning experiences for students. Authentic learning experiences bring students in touch with real-world problems and work situations. Horizon Report (2017) writes: “Through active partnerships with local organizations, learners can experience the future that awaits them outside school and develop essential skills that benefit them beyond the classroom”. Robotics and virtual reality programs for schools will continue to grow and develop as part of the school curriculum. As pedagogies that favor student-centered learning approaches continue to take hold across the world, tools such as VR that enable more experiential learning opportunities are increasingly valued (Horizon, 2017). Freeman, A., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Davis, A., and Hall Giesinger, C. (2017). NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2017 K–12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Ramey, K. (2013). Barriers To The Effective Use of Technology In Education. Retrieved February 01, 2018, from https://www.useoftechnology.com/barriers-effective-technology-education/ |
Author:Aldwin Lauron is currently working as Technology Integration Specialist in ISC (International Schools of China). Archives
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