This week’s topic of audio and video technologies brought some very interesting views and points to light. Our group drew various elements of importance from the assigned readings and included examples from our own personal lives that solidified these key findings.

First, Courtney stated what each member in our group felt which is “education is changing!” Courtney and I felt similar about the Richardson and Mancabelli article at first. She wrote that she, “…was a little frightened up until the article mentioned that we need to teach our students how to effectively learn online.” Courtney reminds us that teachers and knowledge are not scarce. We need to teach our students how to create their own education using these technologies. By using these technologies, we allow our students to make real world connections as exemplified in the Anthropology classroom. These students will build deeper connections to their learning which will by everlasting. Courtney also shared her own personal example of using podcasts in her classroom for lessons. Students can then access the information at their own pace and can listen to them over and over again until they are comfortable with the information. This is a great example that ties to this week’s lesson.

Cheryl stated that she learns best by watching others. She offers insight that when using audio/video, we help to “bring alive a subject.” When teaching a subject in this manner, it becomes a “powerful tool to expand the base of knowledge and increase rate of knowledge gain.” She also suggests that these tools help to facilitate motivation within the interaction they provide and that this type of motivation will eventually foster a heightened motivation to learn.

Jordan believes that the integration of audio/video provides depth and authenticity to content. He believes that it helps to make knowledge “stick” with the learner due to the increase in interaction. Jordan referenced Richardson and Mancabelli when discussing the idea that, “…it is more about how much information you can access in your personal learning network, rather than how much information you have in your brain at any one time.” He realizes that when students are following interest based learning then they will seek the resources they need to learn. He provided his own example of this when describing his interest and need to learn Spanish in his new location (Miami). He shared about the resources he is now using on the internet to help him communicate and learn Spanish for his everyday life.

In my own personal reflections, I echoed much of what my other group members have stated. I believe that when students are self-initiating their learning through an interest, they will work to seek answers to less commonly asked questions; questions that will inspire deeper thinking, a heightened engagement in learning, and a wider collaborative base when researching a similar topic. The biggest advantage that I see when using audio/video in the learning environment is an increase in the motivation of learners.

Collectively, two members of our group felt that the measure of literacy about “managing, analyzing, and synthesizing multiple streams of simultaneous information” was the most challenging. Jordan discussed the idea of needing to stay focused when learning a certain subject instead of becoming distracted by the social networks or web activities that are so ever-present. Cheryl believes that this is challenging due to the lack of hardware or software for student use. I believed that “building relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally” would be the most challenging because of the importance of teaching our students who you can trust as a reliable source.

Overall, each member provided some great reflections and insights into the topic of audio/video technologies and learning networks.

Submitted by: Marie