EDU629: Blog 3

Emerging Learning Technologies Are Now Commonplace: From Classrooms to Offices

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When the pandemic hit the U.S. in early 2020, at first, just a single high school in the state of Washington closed for two days in February to sanitize the school after the relative of a school employee tested positive for COVID-19 (Edweek.org, 2021).

By March, almost every school across the country closed its doors requiring students everywhere to become online learners overnight. Eventually, schools shut down globally, and over 1.2 billion children in 186 countries were forced to learn from outside the classroom using digital platforms and technology tools (Li & Lalani, 2020).

I was nearing the end of an online undergraduate degree, so the thought of requiring others to adapt to a remote learning environment and use digital technology tools didn’t seem like a colossal watershed moment to me. It wasn’t until I began an M.Ed. graduate program that focused on educational technology that I learned the significant impact on teachers and students who had forever only known a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom setting until that point.

As a corporate employee (read: not a teacher of students), I learned from my educator classmates that the sudden shift to a digital classroom was more than challenging; it was frustrating. And at times, it remains so. One of their most significant concerns initially was how to deliver lessons in a way that would keep their students engaged and interested.

The problem wasn’t that there weren’t any digital learning tools to use. Education technology had existed long before the disruption of our world education, when it was forced to shift to a digital classroom. We've had video conferencing tools, online learning classes, virtual tutoring, language apps, and more for quite a while now. And from March to June 2020 in the U.S. alone, school districts accessed a whopping 1,327 (on average) different education technology tools every month (LearnPlatform, 2020).

The problem was that there was never any time for a trial-and-error acclimation period. The unfathomable moment of a worldwide quarantine threw the entire education industry into the deep sea overnight. Think of it like this: it’s like trying to build the boat while you’re also steering the wheel.

Fortunately, we’ve come a long way since then.

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TEAM COLLABORATION TOOLS

It's only because we have an abundance of digital tools that online learning is possible and successful. Still, one might argue that a good collaboration tool is the rock star of the bunch – for K-12, collegiate, and corporate world learning.

Take me, for example. During one grad course assignment, each of our three-member student team was tasked with making a two-minute instructional video on a digital tool that ultimately merged into one YouTube playlist. I chose OneNote for mine.

We used Teams to meet and plan the necessary steps for our video playlist project because of its many advantages. Teams’ screen-sharing feature allowed us to display our project plans to compare and calibrate onscreen, which enabled us to discuss project elements together, edit documents in real-time, and arrive at collaborative decisions. Seeing one another for the first time by video in an almost live setting felt more inclusive than if we had talked by phone or used an asynchronous discussion board.

There were no disadvantages when using Teams. Everyone could see the same presented document from their digital devices. The video and audio quality were perfect, and Teams didn't cut us off when we went past the originally scheduled time. Even though research shows that videoconferences are more effective if the participants already know each other (ResearchGate), our team agreed that we were productive and worked well together, even having just met for the first time. There was nothing that we would have done differently.

From a classroom perspective, a collaboration tool like Teams allows teachers to deliver live video lessons, store documents, share resources, streamline their teaching workflow, and create more robust collaboration with their students" (True Education Partnerships, 2020).

As for a business perspective, “corporate companies have now started using digital learning tools extensively to train their employees, help them upgrade their skills, and provide seamless sessions for knowledge transfer” (Marks, 2021). I can attest that this is true. I use many digital tools in my work every day, and Teams wins hands down, over and over, as the most used and my most valuable tech tool.

However, I am happy to share with you four digital tools that I was recently introduced to that will never leave my digital toolbox onward; they have become personal favorites.

CAMTASIA

Camtasia creates and records video tutorials and presentations via screencast (screen-sharing). I discovered this gem of a digital tool during my team video playlist project. It’s amazingly easy to edit (the most frequent complaint) and has a direct recording plug-in to PowerPoint.

I create how-to instructions to guide employees on technical questions in my work role. It's a tedious and time-consuming process that involves OneNote, PowerPoint, my computer's Snipping Tool, and what feels like a million screenshots. Camtasia will help me in a cinch (along with some proactive storyboarding) to create two-minute "show-and-tell" training videos that will take me considerably less time and offer learners a more aesthetically pleasing experience.

PIKTOCHART

Are you also impressed with the beautiful and illustrative infographics you see online? I was, until I found Piktochart. I was able to jump right in and begin designing my first infographic and then another. This digital wizard tells "visual stories with infographics, reports, presentations, and print" in the most intuitive (read: easiest) way. As a communications and training manager, I plan to use Picktochart in many forms across many projects.

CANVA

I had already been a fan of Canva for its ability to erase image backgrounds and create videos from slides (before I discovered Camtasia). When my grad course tasked me to create a "simple e-learning graphic" using Canva, I learned that it is a spectacular tool for visual story-telling, too. As much as possible, I plan to use Canva to create stimulating graphics for our work groups' publications, presentations, and events. The possibilities are many.

UDEMY

Udemy is "an online learning and teaching marketplace with over 183,000 courses and 40 million students" (Udemy, 2021). There are other great online mini-course providers (like LinkedIn Learning and Khan Academy), but I'm currently favoring Udemy. I am a word nerd and grammar geek, and Udemy offers many courses on writing and communication skills, increasing my value at both work and school while keeping my full-on interest. I like learning to get better at what I most enjoy (versus learning new things).

LEARNING APPROACHES

The forced adoption of technology-driven instruction was one of the many provisions required for a distance learning classroom (alongside resilient commitment and flexibility from educators and learners). Educators scrambled to adopt new ways to teach their students (while also learning the digital tools themselves). Businesses dashed to incorporate collaboration tools in their daily work.

A critical highlight that stands out for me is remembering that there is no single best strategy when delivering classroom learning or business training.

It's essential to find the right tool for the student because people have different learning styles, preferences, and behaviors.

For example, we know that there are different types of learners. People who learn what they see are "visual" learners. Those who learn by doing are "kinesthetic" learners. Some people learn better from what they hear, and these are "auditory" learners. (McGuire, 2021). This knowledge makes it easier to identify the right digital tech tool for the student.

Another important highlight to consider is that there are several ways to “hold” a classroom and many ways to “deliver” the content.

Below are some ways to hold a classroom:

• In-person - traditional four-wall classroom

• Blended/Hybrid - accessing digital materials in a traditional classroom

• Flipped - reading + activity work occurs outside the traditional classroom

• e-learning - accessing digital materials online using any digital device

• m-learning - accessing digital materials via a mobile device

And here are a few ideas for delivering content:

VIDEOS

I recently talked about the common benefits of using video as a learning tool and how it can benefit all environments, including a professional workplace and educational settings of all ages.

MOBILE

Mobile learning allows people to access courses "anytime, anywhere, via their mobile devices, even "from their home, while commuting, or during break" (Brown, 2021).

VIRTUAL REALITY (VR)

VR is an emerging digital training tool positioned to make world better by offering simulated real-life, visceral experiences designed to educate and provoke feelings (like empathy). VR can expose people to things they never knew.

INFOGRAPHICS

The brain processes visual content 60,000 times faster than text (Shelley, 2019). This makes graphics a real winner for conveying complex information simply and concisely.

These learning approaches don’t only benefit a K-12 or collegiate learning environment—they offer opportunities inside the corporate world, too.

Let’s look at a couple of real-life examples.

• By his own initiative, my colleague, George, who works in our Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) group, creates and posts 2 to 3-minute videos taken with his cell phone to teach about different safety topics. This week, we showed one of these videos during our monthly town hall event. One innovative way George can leverage digital learning tools is to repurpose his videos into a YouTube "safety training" playlist. We can then post the link inside our Teams collaborative tool and use it as training material. I can also teach George how to use Camtasia to record and edit from his desktop computer, taking the quality up a few notches.
  

• VR would be a precious asset to our EHS group because it allows people to interact with "simulations of real-world objects that wouldn't be feasible in real life" (Marr, 2017). For example, in our EHS annual compliance learning course, we use a Doodly video for one segment that talks about "warehouse hazards." VR training could educate warehouse employees—by taking them on a "tour" of a warehouse surrounded by hazards while keeping them away from actual harm. Because, of course, we can't real-life demonstrate a four-story storage rack about to fall over or a fork-truck driving off the loading dock.

An age-old Chinese proverb teaches us, “Tell me, and I'll forget. Show me, and I'll remember. Involve me, and I'll understand.”

Modern digital technology tools now give us many ways to educate and become educated – whether demonstrating from the front of a classroom or webcam, illustrating in a video tutorial, or enjoying an immersive VR experience.

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References

Brown, D. (2021, October 20). Importance of Mobile Learning. Retrieved from https://www.edapp.com/blog/importance-of-mobile-learning

Edweek.org. (2021, March 23). A Year of COVID-19: What It Looked Like for Schools. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/leadership/a-year-of-covid-19-what-it-looked-like-for-schools/2021/03

LearnPlatform. (2020, June 25). Breadth of Education Technology Explodes in 2020, especially post-COVID. Retrieved from https://learnplatform.com/news/top-40-edtech-tools-in-america-2020

Li, C., & Lalani, F. (2020, April 29). The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning

Marks, M. (2021, May 12). The Future Of Effective Digital Learning And Its Role In The Education System. eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/the-future-of-effective-digital-learning-and-its-role-in-the-education-system

Marr, B. (2017, July 31). The Amazing Ways Companies Use Virtual Reality For Business Success. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2017/07/31/the-amazing-ways-companies-use-virtual-reality-for-business-success/?sh=476602541bae

ResearchGate. (2012, June 26). Video Conferencing and its Application in Distance Learning. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251237239_VIDEO_CONFERENCING_AND_ITS_APPLICATION_IN_DISTANCE_LEARNING

Shelley, R. (2019, August 7). Are Infographics Still Effective? Inbound Marketing Agency | SEO FIRM | SMA Marketing. https://www.smamarketing.net/blog/are-infographics-still-effective

True Education Partnership. (2020, May 11). 6 Tips for Engaging Lessons with Microsoft Teams. Retrieved from https://www.trueeducationpartnerships.com/schools/tips-for-engaging-lessons-with-microsoft-teams

Udemy. (2021, February 2. We share knowledge with the world. Retrieved from https://about.udemy.com

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