Educational Technology

The adoption of Web 2.0 technologies is transforming the use of Educational Technology in the classroom. The personal purchase of tablets and smart phones from Apple and Google provide faculty a new medium to deliver course materials. Today's student is able to access university resources anytime, from anywhere. Today's technology allows students to work on a learning management systems, participate in a virtual classrooms or watch a lecture online. The innovative professor is able to offer course information 24/7 365 days a year.

The next era of technology to emerge is HTML5 web sites, the technology offers a university the option of creating a single web site that presents the same information to all mobile devices without having to create a unique client for each cell phone. Deploying this technology with a learning management or library system will be exciting and provide students with a rich academic resource. Imagine a text book that has interactive simulation or video rich demonstrations of a concept.

Tablets and smart phones are becoming less expensive and data plans can be purchased for twenty dollars a month. A recent add in the paper allows a student to purchase a smartphone for $1.00 with a two year commitment. Apple's announcement of the 4GS iPhone lowered the cost of a 3GS to "free" with a similar commitment. The total cost for the phone and the data plan is less than $50.00 a month, similar to the cost of only a phone two years ago.
Electronic textbook vendors are offering multiple options to keep the cost of textbooks low. Today the student has the option of monthly or semester rental, or the option to purchase a text book. A low cost tablet like the Amazon Fire offers students an attractive new option in acquiring textbooks.

Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps are available to students. A student is able to access traditional desktop applications in the "cloud" from any mobile device. Collaboration and virtual access changes the way students will work on projects. The purchase of Skype by Microsoft and the introduction of Google+ to add voice and video to enrich the collaboration experience is exciting.

The responsibility of universities today is to work with faculty to ensure they are aware of the resources available to use with their courses. A second responsibility is to work with departmental IT staff to ensure they have the skills to assist faculty implementing the technologies. The next few years will be transformational for students.