It’s like Harold traded in his purple crayon for a Sharpie marker.
Check out the full story from the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Now anybody with kids will tell you that permanent marker on the walls rarely turns out this well. In fact, it usually results in lots of scrubbing and even repainting–not to mention the raised voices and shrieks of discovery. But what happens when we look at an old tool with a fresh look? Use it in a way that usually is wrong and forbidden?
Similarly, educational technology gives us the opportunity to take a fresh look at new tools–and even retool the tools we’ve seen used in normally pedestrian, typical ways. At Penn State, we’ve seen an explosion of the online Portfolio and blogging efforts to enable students to capture their work throughout their higher ed career. Thoughts, works, essays, art, photos; the collection is only limited by what you don’t think of including. I think these are amazing opportunities to record experiences and growth as one progresses through an academic career. Blogging has certainly come a long way since it’s inception years ago.
And it doesn’t stop there. Now we talk about students using mp3 players and iPhones to access podcasts and tutorials. Who knew we would be able to, quite literally, pocket the concepts from class and replay them on our way home, or to study for an exam? When was the last time you thought “Economics and group created video assignments; of course!”. These are ideas that someone’s had, and the excitement translates into a completely new and different educational experience for the student. I think it’s really exciting to see more and more examples of these tools being incorporated in higher education in new and innovative ways.
Sometimes it just takes a fresh look.
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