ISJ April 2013: Educational and online technologies and the way we learn

Lawrence Burke

Abstract:

There’s no doubt that the iPad and its multiple applications, along with other mobile devices and online learning, could bring amazing resources into the very foundations of the educative process. Yet the global educational sector is conflicted. On the one hand it argues for building educational institutions which nurture a unique community of learners, while on the other hand it embraces technologies, some of which have the most devastating and alienating effects on communities and undermines the very concept of nurture and a duty of care in schools, colleges and universities throughout the world.

I am in the fortunate position as an educator of being able to use the very latest in educational technology, as do the students in my courses. For example, we use BbbVista, BBlearn, Quom interactive boards, iPads and their multiple applications, AppleMacs, all the Microsoft suites on the latest platforms, as well as our own mobile devices should something untoward go wrong in the high tech classroom – as it inevitably does.