Balancing edutainment
Where will iPods, MP3 players and mobile phones fit into the curriculum? Maintaining interest will become an increasingly difficult task for educators when our learning environments become filled with so many cool disruptive technologies.
Few of my my students can afford to have access these tools I have my doubts about directing that these be used or the merits of blindly providing them for use in the classroom. Whist I might question the tools, I do think we need to explore new ways and opportunities for improved access to new media. For example, we switched from using ClickView to a different media system when it was worked out that the mp4 file format used could be played most phones, iPods, taken home to play on a USB key or just downloaded by Moodle. The format did not deny access. For a similar reason, we are also exploring the purchase of Flip Video recording units for use in the classroom.
I notice that the neologistic portmanteau "Edutainment" now even has its own Wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edutainment
Engorging a curriculum with edutainment options has the down side of turning schools into just another business, competing for student interest using cute tools and flashy games.
What will become of our current role as a public education institution?
Few of my my students can afford to have access these tools I have my doubts about directing that these be used or the merits of blindly providing them for use in the classroom. Whist I might question the tools, I do think we need to explore new ways and opportunities for improved access to new media. For example, we switched from using ClickView to a different media system when it was worked out that the mp4 file format used could be played most phones, iPods, taken home to play on a USB key or just downloaded by Moodle. The format did not deny access. For a similar reason, we are also exploring the purchase of Flip Video recording units for use in the classroom.
I notice that the neologistic portmanteau "Edutainment" now even has its own Wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edutainment
Engorging a curriculum with edutainment options has the down side of turning schools into just another business, competing for student interest using cute tools and flashy games.
What will become of our current role as a public education institution?