This powerpoint illustrates my view on how technology is affecting individuals, and how changes need to be made in the education system to keep up with our rapidly advancing innovations and use them to the advantage of the teachers and students.

1. the technological
paradigm
forward is the only option
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2. in the last decade we have
experienced the
FASTEST
advancing technologies
in history...
photo credit: Official BlackBerry Images

3. smartphones,
laptops,
cell phones,
desktops,
and tablets...
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4. the use of these devices
has become viral
in education,
at home
and in the workplace
photo credit:Jeremy Brooks

5. in 2010, approximately
5-million
Canadians used use their
mobile device to access the
Internet.
(http://getclip.ca/blog/?p=52)
photo credit: Johan Larsson

6. people have become globally
connected
in a way unlike ever before
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7. distant friends and family
are available right in your
home through skype video
calls and text messaging
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8. we are now enabled to do just
about anything from
videoconferencing multiple
parties over different continents,
to finding a love interest within a
two block radius…
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9. but how is this affecting our
interpersonal relationships?
are these easy, non-confrontational yet “remote”
forms of communication distancing us?
Is the overwhelming content that can be reported
instantly from people’s phones numbing individual empathy?
photo credit: TiffanyMichelle Photography

10. No. our relationships are in fact
evolving
to change with technology
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11. our personal relations are not negatively
impacted, and many have been brought
closer together, thanks to these
technological innovations
empathy is not decreasing, it is merely refocusing to immediate family,
friends, important business contacts from more generic concerns,
perhaps due to sensory overload on broader fronts on a worldwide basis…
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12. perhaps due to the
overwhelming information
on disaster,
accidents,
and negative news
reported 24-7.
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13. Nevertheless, we’ve never been
in closer touch and proximity
with loved ones and business
interests – thereby increasing,
not decreasing empathy.
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14. growing up as a digital native, it
is sometimes hard to explain
second nature technology skills
to digital immigrants in a way
they fully understand or appreciate
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15. this fundamental divide, between traditional
learning techniques focused on individual tasks,
and multi-tasking by processing vast
amounts of information from a plurality of
sources in short periods of time, is instrumental
in creating a lack of rapport between digital
immigrants and digital natives
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16. specifically with
regards to
eLearning
technology in the classroom
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17. much debate centers on
whether encouraging the use
of devices such as
smartphones in the classroom
is beneficial or detrimental
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18. “what if the slipstream of broadband
and always-on technology that fuels
our world became the source and
organizing principle of our children’s
learning?”
Sara Corbett -
Writer for the New York Times Magazine
photo credit: ThisIsIt2

19. children are being
“turned off”
in the traditional classroom
attention spans are in seconds,
not minutes, and certainly not
hours as a result of a lack of
engagement
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20. We should accept technology as a
educational approach in schools and
make them more of an “interactive
play-based experience”
Kate Salen - Professor of Design & Technology
at Parsons the new School for Design
photo credit: Stuart Conner

21. educators need to
get on board
and embrace these new
tools andembrace
their use in schools
photo credit: Stanford EdTech

22. rather than focus on possible
negatives in using
technological advances,
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the focus needs to be on the
enhanced learning tools and
capabilities offered by these